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.