the long and dreary way back .... SGN - TPE - YVR

I sleep for ever..... until 6:00

the melancholy sets in again..... anything and everything I will be doing today will be useless..... it will not lead me to where I want to be and it will not be what I want to do...... but it must be done..... but it also sharpens my resolve that it's time to live MY life .....

.... consequently I am SLOW progressing through today's tasks...after all they don't lead where I want to go ....  I have got used to instant gratification..... and a 6-week project seems overly long ...

10:00
My new swim trunks have been delivered to the sewing machine guy for shortening..... he did such a brilliant job on my backpack.... I'll bring everything here from now on!

11:00
toi say va toi muon an.... but my sandals have been washed and are drying (they are staying here)... Huyen still has my batteries & toothpaste (will she NEVER learn ?), the nail place across from GS1 refused to service my finger & toe nails (WTF?)....

12:00
I pick up my shortened shorts.... 45k VND again.... less than $2!...

.... and right next door, I eat my last bun cha for a while... toi muon khoc!

14:30
Time to bite the bullet...... toi di

The 109 bus takes forever to leave its driver-rest position....

... but we finally leave at 15:05..... a bit late but I get to the airport by 15:55... still two hours until lift-off..
.... there is an e-mail from Huyen....... she took a picture of me and morphed it...

I think....

...I prefer my natural look!

17:00
It's a beer & a muffin at the airport...... it's 3 am PST .... and I'll only get out of YVR airport by 8 pm PST..... that's going to be a fucking LOOONG day!

17:15
time to board .... I'm leaving Viet Nam..... SHIT!

The nice check-in guy wasn't lying....

I'm getting the middle bulkhead seat in the premium economy section......

... and that means leg room!

3 hours to TPE

22:30 Taiwan time....  half an hour until the official boarding time ....

Oh HO!  Middle side seat at the emergency exit..... EVEN MORE LEG ROOM!

11 hours to YVR

I manage to sleep through most of the flight...nice ....I don't even watch a movie .... 

I already have LOW HOPES every time I return here....but this time I was being still overly optimistic:  The usual being herded like cattle through the LOOONG line-up to immigration by women with bitter voices ..... 

"Keep Moving!  Keep Moving!" they keep shouting.  When I mention to one of them that we are human beings and NOT cattle, she just gives me a blank stare..... 

It takes me ONE WHOLE HOUR to get from the plane door to the front door of the airport for my first cigarette in a long time ...... LOUSY airport performance....but then YVR was just awarded with a prize as the airport with the BEST SERVICE service in all of North America again...... 

Oh c'mon people, it's REALLY time to take the RED pill and wake from your delusions!

21:00  ..... I waddle over to White Spot .... a glass of wine and a small bite would be nice.... OMG prices are INSANE here...... 

....the service quality is OLD .... and after 4 weeks of eating in a place where food actually has TASTE, the chicken here tastes like cardboard again..

...I should have just hopped in a taxi and eaten at Denny's.

And WHY does YVR WiFi NOT work ????






21:30
The food and wine cheered me up a little...... I am in no rush to get to my motel in North Van..... first I have to smoke and then I see the HUGE line-up for taxis....

... oh SCREW THIS !.... I might as well take the Skytrain !

I take the Skytrain and fortunately, there is an empty taxi already waiting at the City Centre Station.

WHY does my cell phone not send text messages ??? 

Doesn't ANYTHING work around here?


22:45
I'm finally in my hotel...... let's see if Eda is working tonight ... ;-)

She is and cheers me up!

Midnight: Time to sleep ...

1:30 am..... and here is the downside of having slept for 6 hours in the plane ;-)