Entering the Friendly Zone (I) .... SGN - UIH

get up at 3:00

call grandma at 4.  Sounds good but insists her nurse is not there

6:50
Menage a trois:     a willing sparrow female is being humped by a fluttering male.  Once is not enough, but after the 3rd mounting he is replaced by an intruder.  Whose chick is it going to be???

7:00
I've finished the 2nd bottle.  Let's go look for my passport ;-)  I've got to fly again !!

The receptionist actually wants me to show the receipt to prove that I've already paid.  NOT classy, LOL.
I walk by my regular hotel.  The receptionist fury is not working right now; her female colleague does not wave, but the cutie who I showed the lunar eclipse to 6 weeks ago and whom I woke 10 days ago waves back furiously.

Maybe it's the waving, maybe the warm temperature, or maybe that at this hour almost no tourists are on the street, but my usual grin and stride are back when I march around the few corners to the bus stop.

The bus arrives just after me at the bus stop.  A western woman with a HUGE backpack gets charged 10k Dong for the trip.  Yes, that luggage is going to take up a second seat.

 Boarding pass is quick & easy, so is security.  40 minutes to wait until boarding time.

Busy Airport

Shying away from bringing up one's children seems to have spread to Asia.  A maybe 5-year old does NOT wear his seat-belt neither during take-off or landing, and keeps kicking the tray table.  After the stewardess forces him to put it up for take-off, he switches to kicking his mother.  She thinks that NOT reprimanding her son a single time and being or pretending to be asleep during the entire flight makes things easier for her, but she has another thing coming.

The Vietnamese Airlines bus is waiting as usual and I pay my 50k fee for the 40 minute ride into Quy Nhon.

BEAR HUG, I sit down with him for tea and cigarettes and then he asks to take me to lunch.  I'm not actually hungry and also too tired for a lunch conversation, so I say NO, at the same time feeling like a lousy guest.  MUST make it up tonight with a bottle of wine ;-)

sink laundry, shower (that feels GOOD; I wonder why airplane or airport air always leaves me feeling FILTHY !

Coop.mart
1 pair of shorts (34 seems to be the largest available waist size in Vietnam), shaving blades, Nivea lotion, instant coffee, sweet bread, Gouda cheese, 2 bottles of Chilean wine, a cork screw, a sharp kitchen knife, yogurt.  Less than US$ 31.
I'm happy to be back where prices still make sense ;-)

The sweet&sour spicy chicken at the restaurant around the corner is APPALLING tonight.  It's fridge-cold and has not been re-heated properly ;-(  I leave most of it on the plate.  No point complaining today; I'm still too tired.  

On the other hand, the 4 pieces of chicken AND one beer (also cold) come to 32k VND, US$ 1.40 ;-)

The moment I get back to the hotel, Dad (this is what his permanent Canadian guests call him), tells me that I will have dinner at his house now.   NO, there is NO way of wiggling out of this without being a bad guest !