STORM COMING.......KALMAEGI..... November 6th, 2025.....I am VERY LUCKY to be alive...

This is what my garden looked like yesterday...... no idea whether it will still exist tomorrow

 

 

Walking through here I can SMELL the sweet Frangipani/Plumeria flowers....

I have been tracking movements in the Philippine Sea for days.  HOPING that the typhoons will change course.

  No such luck...... Kalmaegi is heading straight towards me.....

 

and now the fucker has almost arrived here.....

 

It is 13:45 pm...... I moved into my 2nd floor room about in the hotel next door30 minutes ago...... the village electricity died 5 minutes ago ..... and I still have 5 hours to wait until the real storm gets here......  I might have to walk through a typhoon to re-charge my phone or my laptop...... not pleasant thoughts ......

Needless to say:  the wind is howling and the rain comes down in sheets.....

 

 14:30

I'm trying to have a nap and the WiFi hotspot on my phone dies....... PLEASE not today......but rebooting the phone helps ;-) 

Kalmaegi is still hurtling towards me....about 150 km away with winds of 215 km/h ...let's call it an adventure or a life-changing experience ;-)

 

it looks like it will make landfall just north of Quy Nhon, 60km north of me ....

The hotel staff neglected to clean the drain hole on the room's balcony.  Result: water 10 cm deep on the balcony.  And exposed to the wind coming from the North......Hell. I'm not smoking HERE. 

I am a considerate guest. I don't smoke in the room (STUPID ME)...I go out of the room into the hallway and even open a window to smoke. 

a push-button door lock

STUPID ME.  I left the room door open and a wind gust slams it shut. No worries, it's a push-button lock and I didn't push the button.......But the slamming door made the button LOCK on its own.....

I can NOT get into my room.  The door is LOCKED.  (Later, the manager makes the excuse that the hotel uses cheap low-quality locks......FUCK YOU.....fucking buy better locks!)

I'm stuck in the hallway in my boxer shorts....my phone and computer are inside the inaccessible room so I can't even call or email anyone for help .....a typhoon is howling outside...... 

It's not cold, so any NORMAL human being would have just gone to sleep on the hallway floor.....NOT me.....because I DO NOT have any wine or cigarettes  (toi la toi ;-)

5 minutes of thinking..... and I stumble downstairs and outside into the Maelstrom (in my underwear ;-).....

Being a smart human being, I had one of the side sliding windows closed but unlatched (i.e. one can slide it open).  Only problem:  the window sill is 2 meters above the ground....I'm too OLD to jump that high...... Karma helps again.....there is a hotel chair that was blown off one of the hotel balconies in the sand only 10 meters away from me......I grab it (in my underwear), step onto it and actually manage to open the window and fall chest-forward into my house.  THANK YOU KARMA !   

First things first....Wine and cigarettes!.....then I notice....climbing in through the window was unnecessary.....my wooden sliding balcony door has literally been unhinged by the storm....I could have just walked through there...... 

For a while, I sit in front of the LEFT floor-to-ceiling window (furthest from the unhinged door) and watch the Maelstrom outside........ Not much to see...it's all GREY and WET.....

And then it happens.....out of nowhere....a 1 meter high ocean wave appears on my terrace.....and knocks the middle window out of its frame....... The 1.5 m x 2.5 m window and the heavy wooden desk inside the room (including a laptop computer etc etc) go FLYING into the room..... this happens ONE METER to my right.....If I had sat behind the middle window I would have been lucky to make it to a hospital...... and I just stare in disbelief and think "HOLY SHIT.....I better move to the room in the back NOW"

 

Having escaped unharmed from the front room, I sit on the bed in the back room with my feet on the ground, drinking wine and smoking....by now even the back room has 5 cm of ocean water on the floor.....it doesn't matter, the water is warm.  There is so much sand in the room already, I don't bother with an ashtray, I just flick the cigarette butts into the water. I keep the back room door open....UNTIL...

there is a LOUD BANH (the left window).....and an ocean wave carries my BOAT  down the corridor past the open door.....SHIT.... it's time to CLOSE that door.....the noise keeps being loud....water keeps burbling up from under the door..... at some time I pass out on the bed.......

 

As I find out later:

The storm changed course..... 

The eye of a category 5 typhoon went RIGHT OVER my house 

since hurricanes and typhoons rotate counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere and they travel eastward....

this means: at first 200 km/h wind from the North, then a bit of calm (the eye of the storm), and then 200km/h wind from the South..... OUCH .....you have to live through it to understand it.....

 

  

The morning after:

I have no more front windows. Nor a door.  A 5 cm thick layer of wet sand is covering almost every square inch of the floor inside the house.

To get to my balcony I have to climb over the boat and walk around the toppled work desk and try not to step onto the windows on the floor.

the DEAD duck symbolizes it perfectly....these trees used to have their roots covered by an extra meter of sand

 

the bear's sad look says it all

 

 

the remnants of Binh's wall of shame and two dying stuffed toys ;-)

  

 

When I get outside, it is SUNNY and CALM (the irony!). I drag a chair outside and drink wine..... nothing else to do right now....I am lucky to be alive..... My garden (I spent a lot of work on it over the years and was proud of it) is GONE...... Instead of 3 tall trees, I now have 2 trees with fewer branches.  Binh's brick wall (with metal rod reinforcements) was blown down by the rear eye wall of the typhoon.

30 minutes later, a visibly worried Quang walks towards me.  He is very relieved to see that the foreigner is still alive. I tell him in Vietnamese "It is not easy to kill me".

  

Yes....this sucks badly..... but make no mistake about it.....I was lucky !..... 2 whole provinces and a third of my neighbours lost the roof over their heads, literally !

not my village

 

not my village

 

But, back to my house.....I have no door, no windows, no electricity, no water to flush the toilet for 3 months.... If one uses the toilet, one has to take a bucket and get ocean water to flush the toilet..... At first an adventure....but it gets VERY tiring VERY quickly.... 

 

Thanks to an amazing Quang...... as of February my house has been completely repaired....... Thank you Quang....You are a TRUE friend and hopefully earned a lot of Karma Points..... 

the new door gets installed ;-)

  

 

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2025 .....TET TRUNG THU is back ;-)

It's a full moon in the 8th lunar month ...... celebrated all around East/South-East Asia !

That means it's Tet Trung Thu

......almost as important as Tet itself .... Think of it as the Asian equivalent of Thanksgiving......but much more fun......because we have LION DANCES...... 

And Yes....it's also supposed to bring Good Luck for the next year ;-)

While Nhat is on the village road directing the performing troupe, I walk over to Choi's.....His Zalo is deactivated !???? .....I tell Hoa that the troupe will be arriving at 14:15.

But none of the Choi family shows up....!???

At least a lot of neighbours are attracted by the drumming !

I was napping while Nhat put the 500k Lucky Money and after the performance is done, I fall asleep again..... wtf?

16:00

I reheat 1/3 of Monkey Mother food.....don't feel like eating but I have to....

Choi whistles from his nhauing place and waves me over.....we fix the Zalo issue with the help of the most gorgeous skinny guy with the most yummy chest.....They feed me grilled halibut (way too salty) with a chili dipping sauce (way too spicy ;-)

But I have a sinus cold and feel crappy, so I leave soon....need to lay down again.

There is more dragon dance drumming behind my house.. It's the mother of Nhat's wife who hired them..... I'm slightly envious because her spectator crowd is larger than mine was.....LOL....but I'm just starting to get the hang of it..... Now I've had lion dances in my house for Tet Trung Thu

for every one of the last FOUR years ;-)

A manicure & a pedicure & a foot and leg massage.....and Quiche Lorraine ....and tired Phap

Day 22 in Sai gon:

A 9:00 AM morning march..... buy 2 Hotdogs at 7/11 & Turmeric at the weird Viet supermarket....

11:15 The cute Xe Om drives me to Vinh Dong hotel.....success at the bank machine.... then he drives me to Ben Than Market......  

first I'm going for that pedicure..... and they might as well give me a manicure while they're at it....they also rub all that old skin of my lower thighs...and whittle away on the hard skin of my soles...... 2 women working for 60 minutes ....290k (11 USD) .....the price is not important.....what is most important and priceless is that we chat and laugh in Vietnamese the whole time.....

after 45 minutes, I crave a cigarette..... and I'm getting hungry..... Cocotte Restaurant and its Quiche Lorraine is only 20 meters away......

When I finally rise from my seat, I tell them "OMG, I have NEW feet"

I walk over to Cocotte Restaurant......and I am in AWE watching the STRANGE behaviour of the foreign tourists, be they European, Indian, or East Asian....

They even bring me a tiny fish-egg tomato appetizer.  YUMMY

The Quiche arrives....

.. and even though I should have learned my lesson the last time, I finish it......4 eggs, 5 eggs ?  WAY too much.... 

13:30

finally back in my hotel room ....I rode with the same Xe Om as last time......

Phap will be here in just over 4 hours....I am SO FULL and I need a nap!

nap

19:20 .....he wrote that he will be here at 18:00.....so I text to him "6 in the MORNING?"

No answer, of course. 

Ah well.....I really should know him by now.....that's not ill-intended....that's just Phap...... back in Canada they call it Indian Time ;-)

I go online and buy myself a plane ticket to Sai Gon for November 12.... just before the Cambodia visa run.....CAD 49  ;-)

19:30

He shows up.....He is DEAD tired after working for 12 hours and spending 2 hours in traffic..... I thank him, but tell him not to come back tomorrow (even though I secretly hope he will) .......but he NEEDS rest !  He really gets into the Korean Comedy I was watching....

Bon Appetit, Your Majesty

He leaves at 22:00 ......3 hours in traffic to spend 2.5 hours with me..... OMFG..... I ask him whether he needs money and he says NO...... I love him SO MUCH

doze off and wake up again

23:30 

SaiGon Days.......Quiche Lorraine ....

Last week my ancient motorcycle guy drove me to a place that supposedly sells Quiche Lorraine

A fancy French chocolate store.....but NOPE....the store stopped selling it last month.....

Because the young ignorant Viet kids rather spend LOTS of MONEY on overpriced chocolate in fancy display cases than eat good food.  Their loss....Kulturbanausen !

But an internet search revealed a 'French Restaurant' just behind Ben Thanh Market (THE tourist market in SaiGon) that has Quiche Lorraine on their menu...... I was skeptical.... how good could it be ????

But everything came together....I was hungry.....my 75 year old motorcycle taxi driver was sitting at his corner......why not ????   After all, it is the Year of the Snake !

I overpay him (as usual) for the ride there..... he's willing to drive AGAINST traffic in a one-way street ;-)

And I find the restaurant !   

I have never been in this neighbourhood...and it's FULL of IGNORANT Western tourists....  Most of which eat WAY overpriced Vietnamese baguettes in the restaurant next door.

I order my Quiche Lorraine (In Vietnamese, of course), fix the wobbling table with tooth picks, and await things to come....

The food arrives:

It LOOKS good.....but what does it taste like ????

The first bite:  OMFG......FLUFFY....LIGHT....full of FLAVOUR...... I am glad I came here.... 

The DOWNside of this.....I finish the whole meal and I can't walk anymore....I am SO FULL.....Thankfully, there is another Xe Om (motorcycle taxi driver) at Ben Thanh Market that drives me back home, where I instantly fall into a comatose sleep.

Another UPside:.....the alley connecting the restaurant to the road has TWO Nail/Pedicure/etc places that are happily serving Westerners with ugly feet...

In my remaining 10 days in SaiGon I will have my feet prettied up and my callouses shaved off ;-)

Just over 11 years of being a WIDOWER .....and as of today: Five amazing Years of LOVE..... and life goes on ......

It's been just slightly more than 11 years now, since this BIG love of mine FUCKING DIED at the age of fucking 32.

shit....I was living with a movie star .....

and FUCK....living with a much younger man, I NEVER expected to be a WIDOWER AT 48 years of age........ 

 

..... but life goes on .....

And it's been exactly 5 frigging years ago as of TODAY .....

when I unbuttoned this unbelievably kind and beautiful man's beautiful shirt (and she still thinks I was taking a picture of her ....Yeah right  ;-)

 the day.....June 12, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

then he produced a beloved son .... 

.... and life goes on ...... 

 

..... I will meet him again in 3 days ..... and we will be HAPPY together.....

 

..and life goes on ......

 

......and I'm just thinking ........WHAT THE FUCK is going on ??? ......

and life goes on ...... 

 

..... and maybe that's the whole point of life.......

...... you gotta LIVE it  ;-)

Stranger than fiction (LA today)

 

4 pictures.....can you tell which one is from a Star Wars movie, which one from a fan convention, and which ones are the present reality in the US?  I am no longer able to tell the difference ...

Today is the DAY.....April 30th......Reunification Day

 'What day?' you may ask.....

 

a day of National Pride ....

....and National JOY !

these parade pictures are just the REHEARSAL......they've been practicing for 1 YEAR ....

Today, to the day, 50 years ago, the last American stuck his tail between his legs and escaped on a helicopter.

tails between their legs

when the Vietnamese People's Army finally took Sai Gon (now Ho Chi Minh City).  As is normal for Americans, they left all the Vietnamese who worked for the Americans behind.  And after losing 3 millions of people in that bloody war, the North Vietnamese were not too endeared with the southern Viets who had collaborated with the US. 

A northern tank breaking through the presidential palace gates

Unfortunately, Uncle Ho (the Vietnamese cherish Ho Chi Minh... and call him Uncle)

did not live long enough to see the day when Sai Gon was liberated and the country was reunited.....he died in 1969.  

 

But his political 2nd in command, Le Duan

Ho Chi Minh & Le Duan

 

and many amazing army generals like Giap (He who shot the French to tiny pieces in Dien Bien Phu in 1954)

made sure that the job got finished...

 

It was KIDS who won that war  

.. and Viet Nam has been FREE since April 30th 1975.

all these kids are OLD men now .....

I flew to HCMC just for this occasion (and of course, to snuggle with Phap ;-) .....and I'm having tears of JOY in my eyes.  It's hard to describe....I FINALLY have found my HOME..... I truly truly LOVE this country.

But Reunification Day is still 2 days away ....

My first trip outside the hotel is to buy food and wine (OMG, my street changed so much in the last 6 weeks; there is a 7/11 now and the Red Bar changed into a restaurant).  

The second trip is to the wet-market....no nice flowers, but I get 4 limes and 3 hand-held Vietnamese Flags..... I waste no time using chopsticks and zap-strap them to the balcony railing.

One hour later, I see the old man across the street talking to his wife (they NEVER talk) and looking at me. I nod my head in deference....he waves and I wave back....then he points at my flags and gives me the Thumbs UP..... it's the little things that can make such a huge difference. Then, the HOT presumably gay guy in the apartment next over looks at me and gives me a heart-melting smile.  WTF???

 

Afternoon relaxing in Year of the Snake underwear ;-)

 

Phap texts....he'll be here at 20:00

Ok....earlier than expected.....but he will also leave earlier than expected ....no fireworks with him on 30.4. .....ah well..... he only stays for 1.5 hours....but it's magical... and he will be back tomorrow evening after working for 12 hours.

An early morning trip to the local wet-market...

... and the early bird gets the gladiolas ;-)

 

14:00  I have that yearning again......Jaegerschnitzel 

8:00 Phap calls from the Thu Duc Metro station.....the line-up to get into the Metro is AT LEAST one hour long

 9:15 pm he arrives ;-)

30.4.2025

I see people walking towards the parade grounds at 3:30 am, later I read that people went there last night to secure a great viewing spot.

By 6am there is a constant flow of pedestrians and full taxis heading that way.....

Pandemonium at  10 am.....   Gridlock in the streets......an overwhelming stream of people heading to the municipal bus depot across the road....but there are no buses....they are all stuck in traffic.....whenever a bus arrives people RUN towards it to secure a spot..... And this keeps going for HOURS.... only 3 hours later have the last people finally found a bus to take them home in the outlying districts 

Yes, there are soldiers marching in the middle of the madness

 

Look closely....still marching soldiers in the mayhem.          I am SO HAPPY that we did not go in person ;-)

Two hours later.....I have an epiphany....there should be a video of the parade on the Vietnamese News website.....there is......and it's a YouTube video .....3.5 hours long, including more than one hour of pristine Parade footage .....Phap and I are tied to the screen for over an hour and we both cry tears of joy (if you watch this video, start at 2h 19min)....because what these >10,000 soldiers are doing is ART....it's kind of like when you see a PERFECTLY choreographed ballet performance of Swan Lake ...it's just magical.

 May 1, 2025

May Day.....Except in North America, this day is to celebrate the workers of this world. 

Afternoon..... a streak of bad luck...the bank machine is out of cash....CircleK is out of Dim Sum...AGAIN....AND  Parkhaus is closed for the day.....but it works out well...I walk back to the hotel looking at the ground in front of my feet and I hear clapping....My Xe Om's friend is sitting with him there and they wave at me....My Xe Om looks old and tired and sick.....I take the elevator to my room but don't enter and take the elevator back down.....That Xe Om has to work to be able to eat.....so I ask him to take me to Highland Coffee and back...and as usual I overpay.... I have cheesecake

and he has food money..... All good.