Quy Nhon to Bai Bien Cua Toi ...... Take the long way home !

HERE IS THE MUSIC to accompany this post ;-)

I wake up at midnight again.  When I try to have a cigarette on the balcony, my lighter reveals that it is DEAD.  OMG.  NO toaster in the room and NO way to light a cigarette.  I rush down to the lobby, but the connecting door is already LOCKED.  Hotel Man is already asleep.    OH NOOOOOO !

The following six hours without a cigarette are worse than the 12 hours I spent on that plane from Vancouver to Taipei. My electronic cigarette barely gets me through it and I'm happy to fall asleep again.  Talk about being addicted addiction.  I swear to myself to carry a spare lighter from now on.

6:00   I've showered and I finally can justify waking Hotel Man.   Alas, he is awake already.  My first move is to lunge for the cigarette lighter on the lobby table and light a REAL cigarette.   Et voila, the anxiety is replaced by a nicotine rush ;-)

To the beach I walk ....

this town is changing TOO QUICKLY !

Back at the hotel at 6:45, I dip into the wine again and finally have the peace of mind to start answering the 4 e-mails I got overnight.  NONE from Vancouver; ALL from people I have met in Vietnam over the past few trips.

Reading the news is depressing:  A semi-famous lawyer doused himself in gasoline, ignited a spark, and died in the flames.   To protest this planet being ruined at an alarming rate by the use of fossil fuels.   I am shocked.  NOT because of what he did.  But because I know he is right in his assumption and because I am convinced that your average car-loving idiot won't even take notice of his sacrifice.    Once you circumnavigated the globe, you realize how tiny our planet really is.   And it can't handle any more of what we're doing to it.  Is anything going to change?   Not likely ;-(

A quick trip to Coopmart for provisions, then I leave my hotel at 9:15.  When I get to Life's a Beach, I decline a glass of wine for the first time EVER ! 

At least I still can feel when I've had enough and have the sense to use that feeling to make the right decision ;-)

Today I'm riding a different route.   Something more scenic ;-)

I had dinner over there only 3 weeks ago ;-)

And then I'm HOME ;-)  And when a 3 year old recognizes you and brings you a wine glass it is pretty much impossible to decline the offer, LOL.

I manage to sneak in a 2-hour nap before dinner time.  

When I groggily step out of my room, I see all my favourite faces again. Quang, Muoi, Phap.  

But jet lag still catches up with me at 20:30 ;-(