First time in a while that I could wake up when I felt like it.
Had breakfast, then a swim, then a massage. This is the life.
Our hotel/lodge, while very pretty, is pretty crap mostly. I'm glad with the choice and like it here, but by Vietnamese standards, they are very expensive. Then... they give you a tiny piece of sunlight clothing soap and a spec of shampoo to use, and that's it. Two sad old towels, no hand towel or floor mat. No fridge. Hard mattress and pillows, suspected bed bugs... First hotel to not bring water on the second day. For breakfast I chose eggs. I got a spec of juice, the weakest coffee that Vietnam has ever seen (its always super strong), 2 eggs and a baguette. That is it. Not even a wedge of butter. If you could get them to understand you wanted some (everywhere else people have had adequate English) they would charge for it.
Did I mention that they forgot to fetch us (no apology) and forgot our booking? They got the wrong massage. Well, now they said they couldn't hire us the bike we'd asked about. Even though there were about 5 at the gate, they said no. No explanation why not. So odd.
We were told to try just down the road. Roy wanted to take his photo but it would have been too obvious. He was an Austrian man who we think married a Vietnamese...He was grossly overweight, very tanned and wearing just the tiniest speedo. People were having lunch in his restaurant while viewing his crack. It was funny. He was nice. He implied the bike hire was the domain of a Vietnamese man, so between us we negotiated them down to the same price as the hotel was charging for a half day, and Roy and I set off.
First stop was lunch at Chez Carole.
I had garlic bread, we shared a tom yum soup and Roy had barbecue squid. And a few beers.
Taking rubbish out the sea
Our hotel/lodge, while very pretty, is pretty crap mostly. I'm glad with the choice and like it here, but by Vietnamese standards, they are very expensive. Then... they give you a tiny piece of sunlight clothing soap and a spec of shampoo to use, and that's it. Two sad old towels, no hand towel or floor mat. No fridge. Hard mattress and pillows, suspected bed bugs... First hotel to not bring water on the second day. For breakfast I chose eggs. I got a spec of juice, the weakest coffee that Vietnam has ever seen (its always super strong), 2 eggs and a baguette. That is it. Not even a wedge of butter. If you could get them to understand you wanted some (everywhere else people have had adequate English) they would charge for it.
Did I mention that they forgot to fetch us (no apology) and forgot our booking? They got the wrong massage. Well, now they said they couldn't hire us the bike we'd asked about. Even though there were about 5 at the gate, they said no. No explanation why not. So odd.
We were told to try just down the road. Roy wanted to take his photo but it would have been too obvious. He was an Austrian man who we think married a Vietnamese...He was grossly overweight, very tanned and wearing just the tiniest speedo. People were having lunch in his restaurant while viewing his crack. It was funny. He was nice. He implied the bike hire was the domain of a Vietnamese man, so between us we negotiated them down to the same price as the hotel was charging for a half day, and Roy and I set off.
First stop was lunch at Chez Carole.
We drove through a lovely jungle and stopped for a short walk where we meet some Danish people who took our photo.
Next stop was a fishing village.
On our way home we bought a bottle of gin and some tonics. After a swim in the dark we sat on the deck chairs enjoying our drinks (travel mugs came in handy again).
Until the rain.
At first it was ok. The deck chairs were under a wood and thatch umbrella, but soon it got so bad that I was smacked by a flying palm leaf. I would need to make a dash for the restaurant.
No gutter...eurgh...soaking wet. Such heavy rain! We are all huddled under cover.
Thunder and lightning. In fact it raining so hard it's leaking.
There was no hiding we fed the dogs.
Had an unpleasant fight with the hotel settling our bill. We'd checked we could pay with credit card but now they said the massage had to be cash and we didn't have. They expected us to get up at 6 the next morning so we could get a taxi to an atm to pay them cash before we left. They wouldn't give our passports back! Roy was ready to force his way into their office and take it while I was talking to the stingy female owner on the phone. She eventually capitulated and let us pay it all by card.
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