Back in The Matrix .... Day 1-4 ...... in Jet-Lag Limbo

THU, DAY 1, 48 sleeps until I get to go home.

Yup.... I get up at 1:30 am...... too much sleep in that plane yesterday....

4:00
NO, there is no possibility of sleep.  I've just pulled a bag of trail mix out of the vending machine using my credit card...... gone are the days of smiling people receiving wads on Dong notes ;-(  And gone are the days when the $2 that I paid for the trail mix could have paid for an amazing bowl of bun cha....

Caught in LIMBO AGAIN.... I read that it takes 8-10 MONTHS to process a Beibehaltungsgenehmigung......


4:45
The hotel WiFi DIES......  but comes back half an hour later....


6:15
I HATE JET-LAG, LOL

My back is still-out-of-whack as I notice when I see a crooked hunch-back staring back at me in the bathroom mirror.    I'm NOT having a good time right now ;-(



8:30
My car rental place should be open now.....

I keep talking to Joana for half an hour...... She is from Southern Albania and wants her Grandchildren NOT to grow up the Canadian way...... she tells me stories how she collected the chicken's eggs every morning as a kid, learned how to milk goats from her grandfather, etc etc...... I know exactly what she means..

9:00
Mystery waitress at Denny's is happy to see me again.... and it is reflected in the size of my '5oz' glass of wine, LOL.  Watching the glacial speed that images upload to my blog fills me with amazement and dread!  They call THIS the first world????

14:00
OMG, I just slept for 4 hours...


14:45
A visit with Grandma....

It's frustrating...there is still no understanding of other people there..... ba toi van la mot nguoi phu nu ich ky .... 

Since my hotel doesn't have laundry facilities for guests.... I run my laundry through Grandma's washer & drier ...

When I try to hop on one of the e-bikes, I discover to MY HORROR that the little controllers are NOT working.... Oh, what NOW? 

17:00
And I get STUCK IN TRAFFIC trying to get back to my hotel !

20:00
I just slept another 3 hours ..... I hope I can get some sleep tonight ....

I'm worried about my bikes..... what if I can't revive the controllers?   Buy new ones?  I even check a local company and almost convince myself to buy a brand-new bike if I can't fix the old ones ...... I am THAT DESPERATE to finally ride a bicycle again....

21:30
I'm back at Denny's ..... too much eating .... I NEED my bicycles to be operational again ....


22:45
I stop at the liquor store and the gas station for wine & salty pretzels..... what leaves the BIG impression is NOT the high prices.... but the unhappy & unfriendly demeanor of the people behind the service desks...... there is NO JOY in this city ..... I CAN NOT wait to be in the land of SMILES again ....

I waste time watching Netflix.... the thing one does when one doesn't have a REAL life ..... I realize this and I hate the fact that I'm doing it ....

In the News:   I once considered traveling to Brunei, the Muslim state situated in the North of Indonesia.... now I read that this country wants to introduce the DEATH PENALTY for people engaging in gay sex.......  I'd rather spend my money elsewhere !  The number of moral NO-GO zones around this planet seems to increase..... Hungary, Russia, the USA, Myanmar, Australia... and now Brunei ! Dark Ages 2.0 is coming.  This world is heading in the WRONG direction!  

FRI, Day 2, 47 sleeps until I get to go home.
3:30  way too early to be wide awake but to be expected after all that napping yesterday ....

I'm not only sick of constantly waiting but I also want to know whether I can rescue the bikes so I drive to Grandma's house at 10 am....

the bike's alive
laundry

I'm too tired to ride the bike today... I don't want to end up in a ditch!

and I wake up at 4 pm, that's 6:00 in Saigon ...

I should have slept more..... I just feel useless.... the cold weather is not helping....


I drag myself to Denny's, hoping that some food will revive me.... but it's no use ...I'm back asleep by 8 pm

.... and I sleep until midnight, after which I only toss and turn ...... too many worries in my head..... and they are not about things I have to do for myself but the things I have to do for others...

SAT, Day 3, 46 sleeps until I get to go home.
so I finally give up and get up at 4:00

Denny's at 7:30 ..... NO, I can't get any wine at this hour (STUPID country!) but I am HUNGRY and I hope that food will somehow battle my fatigue.

Oh, they have something new.... A Greek Vegetarian omelette ! Not bad actually, but the portion is way too big for me.

8:15
It's time to renew my room...... I don't want to be forced to stay at Grandma's..... that would be undeserved torture !

9:00
There it is again.....One constantly has to watch one's back or one will be taken advantage of:
 I go to the front desk to ask to extend my stay by 2 weeks....... $1700, the clerk says....... WTF?   I mention that I could get it cheaper on Booking.com and he goes down to $1350.....  I go back to my room and I book the same rooms for the same time period using Booking.com for $1160.   And NOW the hotel has to pay commission to Booking.com.  WHAT is WRONG with these people ?

Back to Denny's, LOL, I need a drink to digest this bullshit!

9:52
The bus is actually punctual !   Up the hill to Grandma, liberate the bike & the saddle bags, and back down to the hotel......  I'm wearing a H'Mong hat and gloves and it's still COLD !


But at least the battle of the bulge has commenced ;-)

11:00
I've been up for ever .... should I nap .... and miss the warm hours of the day?

NO!

yes, there is another incentive ...

my pelvic bone is no longer used to supporting my weight on a bicycle saddle.... I haven't ridden this bike since .....WHEN was that?   FUCK... September 15.... 6.5 months !   No wonder the hip gold grew unhindered !

Sunday, Day 4, 45 sleeps until I get to go home.
5:00

I didn't sleep enough and have to catch up on that later ....

Maybe that lack of sleep is good for something...... there is an article about the movie The Matrix, which came out 20 years ago ..... and I watched it on the first night ;-)

And the article rings a bell in a very strange way........ You know that annoying feeling when your gut or subconscious keeps telling you that something is WRONG!     I get that feeling every time I come back to The West.

No, we are obviously NOT living in a dream world that was created to use our bodies to generate power for The Machines......

.... but it becomes more obvious every single time I return to The West........ Yes, you people ARE living in a DREAM WORLD ....... Vancouver is the 3rd most livable city on the planet ?   YVR is North America's best airport ?   Vancouver is a fabulous place?

Am I ever GRATEFUL that someone or something somewhere offered me the blue pill and a chance to see of the world outside the Matrix.   Coming back here, it is overly obvious that Vancouverites are still busy popping their red pills !  But that's understandable.   Because waking up would mean that they would have to do something about their lives ;-)

9:30
I finally drag myself over to Denny's ..... and I'm not the only one not in top shape.....the staff is overworked, distracted, stressed......  WHY is this normal in The West ?

Tomorrow is the day when the serious work will commence..... fixing Grandma's basement.  So today I have a tiny bit of leeway and can run some smaller errands that need doing .... buying screws for the other bike's fender at Obsession bikes .... looking for new shorts .... finally providing a long overdue signature to the pharmacy where Jessica picks up Grandma's pills on my credit card ....buying an apple strudel for Grandma ..... not too bad, at least two out of those four errands are for me .....


I ordered my dish with the so-called Hearty Sausage (think Bratwurst).  When it arrives, there is no Bratwurst but two of those typical tiny Denny's sausages that look and taste like SHIT. 

Only after I try to re-order the Bratwurst, does Kenny tell me that they no longer have it... WTF?   You couldn't tell me that when I ordered it?   I would have ordered something else had I known that.

4:30 pm
It's time to leave this room before I turn into a vegetable again!  Temperatures have hit today's high of 13 degrees (In Hanoi they would call this a vicious cold spell!), which is bearable in the sun but still COLD in the shade, especially on a bicycle.
I don't have the least bit of craving for the food available at Denny's or my Viet place, so I'll give a new place a try....
alas, the Sushi is a bit bland, so no loss that I haven't been here before.

1:00
An e-mail from Lisa:  The usual suspects want to build a ROAD over my property, even though I have told them numerous times in no uncertain terms that I do not want one..... seems they waited until I was gone to try to get what they want after all.

Monday, Day 5.

4:00 

Enough sleep?  I remember that today is April Fool's Day....