Great recommendation and soggy plans

 Wednesday November 15th


Dinner was really really good. A slight walk in the rain, but the raincoat I bought for my trip to the Amazon jungle and never used has finally earned it’s purchase. After I got home from Peru I put it into a freezer bag and vacuum sealed it for the next 3 years. The Egyptians couldn’t have done a better job preserving their mummies. It did do a good job getting me to the restaurant but it was only 3 or four blocks. The only thing I found troublesome with it was that the hood really blocked my peripheral vision and crossing the street here, as I hope I have made clear is death defying under the best of circumstances .

The restaurant is in this giant open on two sides barn like building. Rows and rows of communal tables, with, real chairs. Well not chairs, but stools at chair height which is good enough for me at this point. Any meal the doesn’t have me looking an my dinner through my knees is luxurious seating as far as I’m concerned . The patrons we a mixture of, say … 40% tourists and 60% locals. If the locals eat there you know the food is authentic and good. If the tourist have found it, you know that you don’t need to worry about your tum-tum the next morning.

The menu was home computer printed and slipped into plastic sleeves like you might use for a grade school scrap book. I looked at the offerings and none of it looked familiar to me. Pho and Bahn Minh I’d recognize. Anything else is just letters even with an English description below. The hostess walked by and I said “What do you recommend?” - She “Oh, so many things! But first time try this.” And pointed to a tasting menu of six or so things for six bucks. Sounds good to me.

The plates came and kept coming. Three of the same item on each plate. A huge bowl on Not Pho and a whole garden of rabbit food. There were deep fried cylinders of meat wrapped with rice and a dipping sauce. Spring rolls and their dipping sauce. Little dishes the size of a Silver Dollar the had a rice batter poured into it and then steamed and topped with crunchy stuff. Kufta on a lemongrass stalk that you put in a rice paper wrapper added some of the rabbit food and I never understood if it should have been dipper or added to the thick soup. There were a thing or two I forgot, but let me tell you they were all good and tasty. I’d be happy to have them again anytime. But with better instructions on the Kufta.

Back to the hotel and no major accidents and only one near miss by a crotch rocket. Some Showtime on the iPad and you know the rest.

Morning comes or at least I think it’s morning it is so dark out I’m not totally believing the clock. The rain is coming down so hard that I can not see the buildings two blocks away. This is what I picture a monsoon to be, and had never expected to encounter this late in the year. I put the pillow over my head and hid.  “F” me ! The thought of dealing with a bus to Hoi An in this soup for 3 or more hours was not going to work for me today. I’ll spend the money on a private car and driver, slip in under this hotel’s portico and slip out under the next hotel’s portico a couple hours later.

So no hurry, I own the clock today, instead of the other way around. A nice shower, some of Starbuck’s best powdered caffeine. An elevator stroll down to breakfast, some novel reading over eggs and toast. Then down to the front desk. I know I could track down a private car on the iPhone but today is my slovenly day and I’ll put it off on someone else. Unless the price is too dear, of course.

The lobby is filled with the usual mob of Boomers and their luggage piled by the door waiting for their

Big Grey Dog to whisk them off to their next pre packaged excursion. There seem to be a few more than one most mornings at most hotels, but this is a very large hotel after all. The nice woman at reception tells me there are no busses today. I don’t care about no busses anyway, what about getting me a private car to Hoi An. Then she explains very slowly like to a child, no there are no vehicles of any type going to Hoi An today. Uhh.. isn’t this Vietnam where they are used to rain? I mean they even have a season named “the rainy season”. Surely they don’t shut down the whole summer. Maybe the rain will let up later and these wet weather wimps will get me to Hoi An. Check out time is noon, I got lot’s of time.

Back at the room, I do make a WhatsApp query to yesterday’s driver and he informs me that me and the road to Hoi An are the same “F”’ed. I thank him and start digging deeper. Between 12 and 24 inches of rain has fallen in the area. Some of the reservoirs had to open their gates to reduce pressure causing others down stream to do the same, flooding and washing out the road in some places. It’s the worst since ‘19 or something.

Maybe a late check out.

Three pm, I guess I’m canceling Hoi An and getting another day of Hue hospitality.

There is a break in the rain so at least I can do is stick my head out of my bunker and see what the world is like outside . The streets on each side of my hotel are flooded with near knee deep water in places. The restaurant I ate at last night is so water logged that not enough staff came to work to open. The bellman (Mr. Van Duc) got home last night at one am after working until 11. He was due back at work at 7am so had to leave home at 5am through thigh high water. The river is at the top of it’s backs plus three inches. It is a mess.

More Netflix, novel and staring out the window. Mr. Van Duc says he can get me a driver to Da Nang tomorrow. I hope he’s right. Different hotel rain watching would be nice.

Papaya's and dead kings

 Tuesday November 14th

Inside the old citadel is a French, Vietnamese restaurant that got good reviews, especially their green papaya salad. I could use some upscale dining . So I pull out my phone and open the Grab App, Vietnam’s answer to Uber. I plug in my destination and within a minute of two a car is heading my way.

I’m not sure the driver knows where he is going, but his app has a map and he follows it like a rat in a maze.

At the restaurant I get a table at the second floor veranda. It is raining a little but there is no heart in it. The restaurant is full of tour groups. Long tables with ten or twelve people at them loudly enjoying their fellow travelers company. I am glad I am on the veranda because it is just ‘deuces’ and the ruckus is left in a different part of the restaurant.It’s a little warm, if I was walking I’d probably be perspiring. The couple next to me is sharing the Green Papaya salad and it really smells and looks great. I order it and some Sea Bass. Great presentation and even a short tutorial on how to eat it. Take a shrimp cracker and place a small portion of the salad on it and munch away. It is really good! Sweet with some garlic mixed in, maybe a hint of fish sauce. It was as good as the reviews. This is the first Papaya I’ve ever had and a great introduction to this magical fruit.

It starts to rain harder and blowing in on the patrons closest to the outside, so the management lowers the roll up bamboo curtains to keep us dry and contented. This raises the temperature and I begin to perspire. I take a sip of water and it goes down the wrong hole and I start coughing. I try to wash it away with another sip and it just gets worse. I am really starting to sweat now.  It’s like the world’s most intense hot flash, except it doesn’t subside. Something is wrong, maybe ‘s Montezuma, does Covid come on this quickly? Sweat is pouring off me. I’m coughing and don’t want my neighbors to think I’m a virus distribution center. I get up and move toward the stairs I make it about 10 feet before I either have to sit down or fall down. Something is wrong in Hue.

The hostess comes over and turns a fan on high and aims it at me. I sit there for 10 or fifteen minutes and finally quit coughing and being a nuclear heat generator. Then the Sea Bass comes out of the kitchen. I tell the hostess that I’ll be departing and to please give me the check. She says she won’t charge me for the Sea Bass, and I tell her, I ordered it it’s up to me to pay for it. She isn’t having any of this so I am forced to accept her largesse.

I hop in the first taxi that rolls by and back at the hotel shuffle up to my room and crash on the bed. I’m not 100% but certainly better than I was at the restaurant.  I start Google’ing the symptoms and find out I am going through menopause. Ya, Google, decades ago. I dig deeper and it finally hits me I was having a allergic reaction , and the coughing was not the wrong hole it was Anaphylaxis. Unless I’m suddenly allergic to shrimp, I think it was the papaya the caused that reaction.

I was wiped out and lights out at 8:30pm.

A fitful night’s sleep and I still didn’t feel rested. I forced myself to get some breakfast and then back to the room to lay on the bed, but Hue was one of those must see cities for me this trip. Did a search and found a company that fit what I needed. A driver and some local knowledge.

At 10am, Hai arrives and off we go. First to the Citadel and then to a pagoda and finally two dead king’s final resting place.  Everywhere we went has slippery tiles to walk on, so I tiptoed the entire day. It was a weather mess of a day. Never anytime that rain wasn’t falling. Some of the time it was a simple mist and some of the time it was a full on downpour. I stumbled through the day not my usual traveling Tigger. It wasn’t until after 2pm that I started to get some pep in my step.

I am tired of being wet, but don’t want to dine of Pringles from the minibar or eat in the hotel’s restaurant. Hai recommended a restaurant that TripAdvisor also liked that is a 10 minute walk. Think I’ll do a very un-Western Washington thing and take an umbrella, and refrain from Papaya.

 

HUE, Hue, hue ........

 Monday the 13th of November

Went back to the room and watched an hour on the iPad and ran out of gas around 9pm. The previous night’s escapade and having to climb a mountain both ways kind of made 9pm a good time to sleep.

I did okay until around my usual hour, 3:30am then was wide awake. I was worried, I hadn’t seen Montezuma in a long time and was starting to wonder if I should find those pills for “when you are feeling sluggish “. If so, how do I get this across to a pharmacist when Google translate can’t get me a beer?

A quick shower and some stuffin’ of stuff into bags and and sitting and zipping them shut and it was time for breakfast. I haven’t had French Toast in forever, that and some bacon and coffee and life was back on track, in all ways.

I was all set to bitch to TripAdvisor about the slovenly service at this hotel. I mean I paid for two nights and the cleaning staff didn’t touch my room while I was out spelunking. I mean, can you even think it? I had to sleep on the same sheets two, count them two sleeps!! That isn’t even mentioning the towel situation. As she reviewed the bill which was just a hint over $100 for two nights, taxi 20 miles to and from from the cave, two very substantial breakfasts, one dinner and  five hour bus ride, I noticed the she had not charged me for an additional night, but a $20’ish ‘Early check-in’. Well that sure as heck ruined my complaining, darn her!

8:30 am taxi to (I forgot to add that in the above) to the bus pick-up location. My taxi was a pick-up, and got me there for the 9am bus to Hue’. This bus was another of those sleeper type buses but quite a bit more Spartan then the previous ones. It’s okay it’s only 4 or 5 hours. We stopped immediately for driver breakfast for 30 minutes and two more 15 minute pee and cigarette breaks that’s how come it takes so many hours to go so few miles here. That and the roads are worse that Washington’s backroads and filled with motorcycles and pedestrians going any which way down the AH-1. I’m not sure if the AH stood for Ass Hole or Auto Highway or what, but it was just a city street 30% of the time .

Around the 4+’ish hour mark we stop at what can only be described as a semi-truck tire shop and the people wrangler walks through the bus with Google translate text on his phone “Free taxi ride to Hue train station”. I am going to the city center, not some far flung train station in Hue. Still it's better to check. I point to HUE on my map app and he says “I love fried chicken”, or something and waves his hand. So I stay put. We skirt the city but map app shows we are heading straight to the airport. Not my preferred destination, but workable I guess. I Google how many Ho's to get to the city via bus and taxi and it and my budget are comfortable with the results.

The next time I check the app the airport is long in the rear view mirror. And HUE is becoming Hue on the app. I show the app to the baggage boy and he finds the people wrangler and they all surround the driver and everyone is talking about “loving chicken dinner’ or something, all the while Hue is becoming hue on the app. Chicken dinner is getting talked about and Hue is getting smaller and small in both the rear view mirror and the app. I try to explain how it’s my fault for being a dope and dump me out and I’ll find a taxi. All they hear is how much I love turkey dinner. And on we go. Chicken dinner, turkey dinner. At an opening in the center guardrail on a major north south highway the bus turns around and he puts the spurs to it. Pedal to the metal time. By this time I’ve given up on dumping my out and I’ll find a taxi. WE are screaming down the road and lights flashing and horn honking at every big bus we pass. After the fourth one it’s pretty obvious none of them are going to stop. Then the littlest public bus is sitting on the shoulder of the road either picking up or dropping off someone and my bus driver makes like a Highway Patrol stop and blocks the Little Bus That Could.

At this particular moment the skies open and an actual torrential downpour hits. I am not joking that my shower at home has less flow and pressure than this 50 foot scramble from one bus to another. The people wrangler stuffs a wad of bills ($2 ??) into the new driver’s hand, the baggage boy tosses my luggage on the Li’l bus and run back to their appointed rounds.

What the heck? Back home would have either ejected me at the first sound of the word “Taxi’ or said “I’ll let you off at the next pee spot”. I am still amazed, I might have to mentally apologize to Ms. Plastic Fantastic’s friend on the boat in Halong bay. I at least felt some shame over this.

On the city bus there are now eight of us and it is totally the after school bus. Six student types and one mature woman, me and the driver. hue, becomes Hue and eventually HUE on the app. But G’ translate is worthless for any concept other than ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’ so I sit quietly and try to not dampen my neighbors when  shake my head. After a bit we stop at a gas station to fill up. I espy a taxi or two and tell the driver I am changing from one mode of transport to another. I think he might have been grateful to get rid of me, because he didn’t stop me for a second.

I ask the taxi driver how much to my hotel. He looks at my app and me and I can see the gears turning “Hmm.. little bus .. hmm if she was on a motor scooter $3, if she was on a big bus $5, but little bus … hmm .. I’ll ask for $4 and let her get me down to $3.50” …. 100,000 Vietnam Dongs ! — sounded good to me so $4 it is, except he is a country (suburb) boy and needs me and App to get him to the hotel. We do alright only 1 wrong turn and I am at my hotel, I think. If not at least we are close. He let’s me out at an alley next to my ‘probably’ hotel and is gone. Thinking “I sure soaked that rich bitch for $.50!”

It was the correct hotel and check in couldn’t have gone smoother. I had booked a ‘city view’ but asked the clerk how much it would cost to upgrade to a ‘River view’, she said they had already upgraded me. What? The room is spectacular for the price and even is a corner room with windows on two walls on the 12th floor. I don’t know what possessed them but I am grateful.

I’ve spent and hour and a vodka tonic writing this. It’s now 5:20pm, might have to rustle up some grub, French Toast and bacon only goes so far, and today it’s run a marathon.

It's bigger on the inside

 Sunday November 12

The bus ride wasn’t as horrid as I had expected. The Bozo in the bunk next to mine had gone to sleep playing some Hindi music loudly. I wasn’t sure what etiquette was so let it go. Another passenger said “Can you please turn the music down?” To a response of ZZzzzz… She raised her voice, a man added his and still the music played on. They flapped his curtains, same response. I could see this wasn’t going to work and it was going to be the ride from whatever Hell is called in Hinduism. I reached over and tickled his fingers and he woke up. Then the gang started pointing and making turn the music down motions. He complied, but seemed a hint perplexed. Maybe he was just sleep confused.

I nodded off for a while until my neck got a crick in it. I woke up to the woman in front of me having a very animated conversation. It’s funny how you can sit next to two people talking and completely tune it out. The moment a cell phone conversation starts and you can’t hear both sides that one side is all you can hear. I think she yammered the whole trip.

My berth was long enough, but not quite a full 180 degree flat bed, more like 160 degrees. Sleeping on my back is not my ideal position, so I tossed and turned as I fumed about Ms. Jabberwocky. Eventually after 12:30am I finally really when to sleep.

Sometime in the night I woke as we pulled into a rest station for potty and snacks. I need neither so settled back into slumber. When my curtain was ripped open and the bus wrangler said something to me. I replied “Phong Nha” and he waved his hand. I settled back and shut the curtains  and he flung them open and said “Phong Nha”. My phone said 2:30am, not the 7am the woman at the hotel told me. About half the bus seemed confused to, but I rolled out onto the floor and grabbed my pack and got off the bus. Yup, we were at our destination confused and sleep addled.

My initial plan was arrive at 7am, find the hotel I had reserved drop my luggage and go play until check in time. Well that plan sure went to Cleveland in a hurry. Finally it is just me and two Vietnamese women. “Motor bike ride?” — “Taxi??” —— “No, no taxi now”. Well it is that or actually sleeping on the street. Okay

She loaded my heavy case between her legs, had me put a back pack on each shoulder and away we went. We were the only thing moving in the town, even the dogs were quiet. She dropped me off at a very, very dark hotel. There is one 25 watt light over the doorway. Well at least they have some chairs I can settle into a couple of them until the morning comes. A stirring alerts me to something and a man emerges from a zippered cocoon of a hammock . He mutters something at me and I mumble something back. He gets out a key and goes inside and brings a blurry eyed young woman. I explain my situation and she says there is a room available and I can have it, for the nightly price. Fine, do it, please.

So now I am paying for three sleeping locations for one night. The one in Tan Coc, because I went after the 11am check out. The bus that delivered but still owed me 4.5 hours of sleep and now this hotel. I am not complaining very much here, just stating the irony of how this worked out.

I probably went to sleep around 4 and woke up near 7am. Maybe 5 and a half hours of sleep, could be worse.

I thought the cave I had come to visit was right in town, turns out it is over 20 miles away. There goes the idea of walking or biking to the cave. So a car is secured for the journey.

The driver is good, and we get there safely. He parks and says go that’a way. I pay the fee and then ask why I might need a ride in an electric buggy. The cave is 2 km from the ticket booth. Might as well save those steps for something else, so ride I did.

The cart dropped me off at a stairway, but knowing that the height of steps is not consistent here and all too frequently very slippery, I turned right and headed for the paved ramp up. The steps said 500m, the ramp didn’t give a distance. The ramp went up and up and up some more, toss in the switchbacks and I wouldn’t be surprised that it doubled the 500m of the stairs. Again I was sweating and wanting to lay down when I finally finished the climb.

I gulped down a 1/2 liter of water and then onto the cave. Little hole with wooden steps and suddenly high above the cave floor and words fail me to describe how huge it is and how awesome (I was indeed awe struck) it was. Huge, and colorful thanks to the strategically place lights.

Was it worth the challenge to get here? Most certainly .

I stayed for about an hour and a half before turning around and climbing back up and out of the cave, into a light rain shower. I didn’t bring my hat, since I didn’t anticipate much need for sun protection inside a cave. The rain was not factored in to my grand plan. It was a warm rain, and if I get wet, I get wet, there is no way around it. Guess what ? The walk back was easier the the walk up and I was a little wet, but not too bad, especially considering how hard it's been known to rain in Vietnam and the rest of the tropics.

Back at the hotel I made travel arrangements to go to Hue tomorrow at 9am. A supposedly 4 to 5 hour ride. I’ll start my stopwatch when I board.

--- Sorry about the odd picture placement, I can't get the App to accept that these last two pictures will fit side by side

My limousine is a bus

 Saturday November 11th

Phong Nha has a world class cave I’d like to see there is one small problem, distance. It lies almost exactly half way between here and Da Nang. So what to do? Go back to Hanoi and catch the first plane to Da Nang and 8 to 10 hours up. Or hire an expensive taxi ride? Forget the whole thing? The busses only make the run at night, and overnight on a bus just causes me get shivers. The hotel lady promised me a sleeper limousine so I gave her some Uncle Ho’s and set it up. Pick up at hotel at 6pm for ride to bus terminal and arrive at 7am. Sounds possible, but I am not expecting what she promised.

Today was supposed to be some history sort of things in a private car. We cruised to the first location. Not what I was hoping for . A Buddhist pagoda that was made in 2011. I know everyone here is young but 2011 is no way ancient to my way of thinking. The entrance fee included a hop on hop off electric cart and to expect to spend an hour on the grounds before going to the stupa where for an additional charge you could get an elevator to the top. It was kind of a religious Disneyland. I decided to pass on the once in a lifetime experience.

Back towards town was some real history for the 900’s. A king’s residence that was interesting. It might

have been more immersive if it was not the starting line for the Tam Coc marathon and I think everyone from the three surrounding countries decided to participate . It was a mass of people in thank tops with numbers and sponsors imprinted on them. Next there were the school children from the English class. What is your favorite color? What animal do you like the best? What is your name? How old are you? The children all had a small sheet of paper with 5 or six questions they written on it, and space for them to write the response . So I knew my reply needed to be one word. There were too many of them, I felt badly leaving but I would have been there for an hour.

I did the history tour thing and then found my taxi driver for a return trip to the hotel. At the hotel I paid him the correct amount and tossed in a 100 Ho's ($4) tip. He walked in behind me and talked with the owner. I assume to pay her the hotel’s commission. I went to a/c, and later to lunch since dinner was questionable with a 6pm departure. I went to a different restaurant and had a full lunch including a Coke Lite for about $4.

Back at the hotel the owner started saying something about money that I didn’t grasp. Then she handed me a 100 and I understood. The taxi driver didn’t understand what a tip was and had returned the amount I had over paid him. Then with the help of Google Translate I explained the concept of a tip to the owner. She took the 100 and Venmo’ed it (or the equivalent) to him.

6pm came and along came my ride. A motor scooter of course. No way Jose’. Not with two backpacks and a 35 pound main bag plus me on a scooter. A car came and took me back to my favorite restaurant to wait.

Now on a bus, called a limousine but its still a bus. Full of the unwashed masses all with telephones and no headphones. This is going to be a long night.

Row row row, yer boat

 Friday 10 November

Dear Jetlag, 5am is too early to start, let’s wait until at least 7, please.
 
Went down to a breakfast of champions. 3 kinds of fruit. Four pieces of Wonderbread, 2 crepes an egg over almost hard, honey and coffee. I didn’t know In was expected to row the boats I came to see, or else why would I need even half that for breakfast?

Then the walk into Tam Coc proper. I had walked it in the dark twice and I really prefer it in the day time. There is something about a tree covered street at night that changes to primordial once the light of day wanes.

There must be twenty choices of places to eat on just one side of the road, between my hotel and the center of town. I picked one at random and ordered a coffee . I mentioned 3rd largest producer of coffee … well I guess a good analogy is just because you are a rancher, it doesn’t mean you are a chef. The regular way coffee is prepared here is, a tablespoon of grounds is placed in a small aluminum cup with holes in the bottom. This is placed over a small glass and hot water is poured over in. The same principle as Mr. Coffee or Keureg and they make passable coffee . This coffee was actually pretty good, real strong hints of chocolate flavor in the brew.

Then off to ride a boat. There a zillion little aluminum skiffs on the waterside in the center of town. Each

designed for 2 to as many as 4 and a rower. The price is fixed at about $10 per person, but if you want to solo you need to buy two tickets.

I was soon clad in armor of a lifejacket safely against the posibility of sinking, whether I could swim or not. The woman rower sat on a chair at the rear (aft) of the boat and started out pushing the oars forward the get us moving. Once we got a small wake going, she leaned back and replaced her hands on the oars with her feet. Somehow she was able to bring the oars back after the power stroke using her insoles. I watched all the other boats that were using this technique and still am clueless as to how they do it, but it is universally the way they do it. It’s not only efficient but leaves the rower’s hands free to fish, eat or scratch.

The water was dead flat and we slowly went along through Lilly pads and under arched bridges. In a few minutes the canyon walls started to close and steepen. This place is sometimes in the tourist brochures as fresh water Ha Long Bay. I can see why. The limestone karst rises sharply with fiords of water in between. Both this location and Ha Long bay were used as backdrops for a King Kong movie and it sure does look remote and Jurassic to me.

The first cave was longer than either of the caves visited in Ha Long bay. It was a real cave, so much that if it hadn’t been lighted would have been totally dark most of the time. The ceiling was low and the rower came as close as she could to beaning the passengers. I think it is a game they play with themselves to see if they can make the tourist’s duck. Kind like that grade school taunt ‘ha, ha. Made you flinch’. I refused to give her the satisfaction, but had to fight the urge a couple times.

Then back into sunshine and more flat water, Lilies and karst and then another cave and a turn around for the same trip but in reverse. It sun was in my face and high in the sky so I put my iPhone camera away. Have you ever rented a horse, and you clop clop slowly along until you turn around, and suddenly the horse is alive prancing and high strutting? Lady rowers are the same way, except close to the stable the horse doesn’t ask for a tip. For a non tipping country they sure aren’t shy to ask when you can perform a

service for them.

By now it was closing in on mid-day so I thought I’d stop for a nosh. I went back to the same cafe and ordered a cucumber and tomato salad . It was very tasty and Soy, sugar and oil - with just a squeeze of lemon - dressing. I think I’m going to add it to my summertime menu.

Back at the hotel we swapped rooms for the one I had reserved on hotels.com. Exactly the same, without the dog or and the truck noise with a supposedly better view, but it was still trees. The room was a little better decorated, but nothing I can really point out.

I turned on the a/c and flopped on the bed to try and quit sweating.

Early evening back the same kilometer to town past the same massage come hithers, papayas to buy, and restaurants promising the best fare in town at the best prices. To that same old same restaurant as earlier . This time for spring rolls and honey chicken and a beer . Great dinner. I tipped the same as lunch, about a dollar and the owner gave me a hug when I left.

Some You-tube and some Apple TV and good night 10pm

Bills on paper, bills on birds

 Thursday Nov 9th

By now I had the boat’s routine kind of figured out, you weren’t going to find the never empty coffee pot until 7am and then it disappeared after brunch. So I just hung out in the room a bit longer than the day before.

A few good byes to other passengers over breakfast. More hovering (in a good way) by Helen my ‘Butler’. An offer for more kayaking in the morning, but the kayak’s seats are wet and it took my jeans shorts 2 days to dry after the first time. Mostly I just enjoyed the serenity of just being on the water with impeccable service.

Until about 9:45. During the cruise I had 3 alcoholic drinks, and bought a glass of wine for my wonderful German cigarette machine. Averaging about $10 a drink, so $40 all said. More U.S. prices than Vietnam prices, but they do have you at a bit of “It’s the only game in town”-itus. I handed over my piece of plastic to the purser/barman and he jammed it into his hand held machine pushed some buttons and my phone chimed with a text from the bank “$37.65 has just been charged to your piece of plastic”. Cool ! Well not cool. His machine never got the confirmation and the bank’s text was not a regular text but one of those that is temporary. Once read it goes someplace else into the ether of broken bytes. Okay, I’ll pull up the credit card account page on my iPad. Easy, except all my backing passwords are locked safely at home on my Windows machine, not in the iOS ecosystem. I tried to reset the password, but with 2 factor authentication they could not send a text to my normal phone since I am using a Vietnam sim and my T-Mobile sim would not connect to their cell towers. Soon enough I did get an email from Plastic Card Company “Your account has been locked!”. On one hand I really appreciate the security protection the are providing, on the other … well there is that barman.

I could have given him the 400k Ho Chi Minh’s and told him to reverse the charge once he got to a decent signal. But I had lost my patience with them I had paid a premium price to ride their tub and they were going to cheap out on 4 lousy drinks and basically call me a liar, because their system was faulty. I didn’t raise my voice, but said “Call the police if you want. I paid and if your machine is faulty it is not my responsibility. I am not running the card again and not giving you cash.”. —— so have I every told you about Vietnamese jails? ——not really. We both came to the understanding that this could get ugly in front of other passengers and I didn’t care. Poor Helen was about to have kittens, she had spent the last 3 day kissing my ass and it was ending on this note? I knew she was in a totally different part of the system and this was out of her hands. When I get home and get the account unlocked, if the charge isn’t posted, I’ll reach out to the company and fix it. — The lucky thing is that that particular credit card, I had brought along only to use as charges for the cruise. Thanks to some Diety it wasn’t like my Amex or bank debit card.

One thing the tourism trade here has learned is the online reviews matter and they aren’t shy about asking for a good one. Even down to asking that they individually be mentioned in the positive review. Helen really did deserve her accolades. Tim, well he did do his job, and did get my ride to Tam Coc arranged so I’ll give him a mention.

On leaving the boat I was given a tote bag, but everyone at one time or another was given the same brown sack with the tote bag inside. Helen did come over and hand me a 500 VND bill (about $.02) as ‘Lucky money’. I don’t completely understand the lucky money concept, but I do sometimes put a penny in my shoe when traveling. Maybe it’s the same thing. Anyway it was a sweet personal touch from a very hard working woman and I appreciated it.

Luggage packed, board the tender and soon on dry land. A bit of a cluster **** everyone going to different modes of travel, by different companies, but it all got worked out. I was really torn about the their to accept Heidi and Jergen’s invitation to ride with them, but the potential of a four or five hour ride making small and probably large talk really scared me. I was afraid, by the end of the ride they would hate me, so I in the end did decline their more than generous offer and take the bus. Thank you again Heidi and Juergen for the generosity.

The bus was a bus. A nice bus, but in the end just a regular plush seat tour bus. I am glad I didn’t have to lay on the floor or climb up to my seat. The driver drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on his cell phone, his other on the horn all the while picking at his cuticles.

There seemed to be to be three types of honks. 1. I am here. 2. Move it! 3. Get the $%^&* out of the #$%ing way you fatherless dog. We got to hear all of them several times over the next 4 hours.

We arrived at Tam Coc and the bus went to each hotel and dropped off people. Mine was a hint past the main of the town, but the town is a mess. Restaurants, massage parlors and the occasional family run convenience store. All wanting you to drop in. The place I am at is a little quieter, but a 10 minute walk to town.


I had booked the room for 3 nights through Hotels.com. I gave the owner my passport which she photographed and handed back to me. I said I had reservations, but though her heart is big her English is small. As well all know, my Vietnamese is Google translate, so not so good. She tells me that I can only stay 2 nights because they are fully booked, and would have to get a less than ideal room. Fine! I’m tired, we’ll work it out tomorrow. to which she started packing my bags onto her moped and said hop on and she’d take me to a nice homestay. I totally balked at that and said give me the two nights. Well I’d have to stay in a ‘Family room” which would cost additional. Fine, fine, fine, give me a room. The room overlooks the highway and the neighbor’s dog even barks in it’s sleeping but it does have a door that locks, a bed and a toilet.

Dinner hour was approaching,so I walked into town an hour later and 3/4 of the way there she pulls up to me on her scooter and shows me that she had my reservation all the time from Hotels.com, and thought I was just a walk in. Uhhh… That’s one of the reasons I handed you my passport when I walked in, I thought. Besides having it emblazoned on my day pack in nearly 3 inch letters and a giant yellow plastic tag on my other day pack. Oh, well, tomorrow, tomorrow it will get sorted out.

Dinner was food. Chicken Pho and Chicken fried rice and a beer. Both servings full servings as a meal in themselves so I over ordered. The total bill under $5. I’ll order smarter tomorrow.

Back at the room, an Apple TV episode and lights out at 10. The trucks quit driving outside and the dog went to bed.