When I turn 46, I say "No more nonsense": Life's a Beach. Day 1. no, No, NO, do NOT argue: That's what it's called !

My first day without work.

I wake up and notice that it's BRIGHT outside.

Where's my watch?

6 am???? I slept for 9 or hours ! I slept through the SUNRISE !!!

No worries, there will be more sunrises. (Will there ever be ;-)

After a couple of cold water instant coffees and checking my e-mails, it is time to go for a beach walk and a swim.

But paradise is a temporary state. No, I'm not talking about the mind's perception. I'm talking about development.

Down the beach there are several resorts already completed and MANY MORE under construction. Some blend in to the natural landscape while others stick out like sore thumbs.

Quy Nhon

Yes, The Times they are a changin'.....

OMG, this place is absolutely gorgeous. I feel indebted to the people who discovered it and built the charming backpacker's hostel & the 2 'villas'. They've made it so easy for me. I just hop onto Booking.com et voila, I have a room in paradise !

I keep walking ....

OMG. It just can't get any better than this, LOL. Time to turn around ...

... and find a sport for a swim ....

Back at the 'villa'. Some red wine. Shower. Sink laundry. Breakfast?

9:15 I order Pho Ga for breakfast.

This is taking a looong time. Please don't tell me that they're in the process of plucking a chicken just for my morning noodle soup, LOL.
At least this is giving me time to explore the lower picture bar on Google Maps for worthwhile excursion destinations in the area.

10:00
I've checked at the bar and am informed by Steve, the owner, who had to listen to one of the employees speak English to him, after the employee talked in Viet to the employee that had presumably taken my order, that they don't have Pho on the menu. Blame it on the backpacking crowd for not having the quintessential Vietnamese breakfast dish on the menu.

Of course, when the replacement order of noodle soup with beef and mint arrives, it is INDISTINGUISHABLE from pho, LOL

Noon.
Why don't I go for a swim?
But not in the not-as-clean water right here at the hostel, but out there at the sandy point sticking out into the ocean!

When I have reached my favourite spot .....

"No Swim Here"

Can I walk here? Nod
But NOT swim? Nod
Why?

Xin, who do you work for? He points at my hostel. (complete BS, of course)

True wisdom ;-)

There is that advice by that old wise grinning monk.

Study the rules well, so you know which ones you can break.

I ask Bao at the hostel whether Walky-Talky man really works for the hostel. Nope.
He's a security guard for the fancy resort and he's probably just trying to impress his employees by keeping riff-raff backpackers away, so I don't wish him ill.

Plus, as I tell Bao, at some point Walky-Talky man would tire of running after me anyway, LOL. I can wear him out !

The next white wine is accompanied by a Banh Mi Ga (Bread Chicken). While I sip that wine, I finally figure out something about the Viet language and why I had been offered Vodka in my earliest attempts to buy wine.
This could be due because Viet seems to be a categorizing language. They probably need this because so many words have many meanings With its various accents on the a, vang alone can mean film/scum or wine or deserted or All Right and various others. trang can mean white or moon, LOL

ruou: Liquor
vang: wine
trang: white

So when a Vietnamese person hears a bastardization of ruou vang trang out of my mouth, this goes on: Oh, does he want liquor? What liquor? Hmm, he just said that he wants scum liquor. But he probably means wine liquor. What kind of wine liquor? Liquor Wine Moon???? Oh, I get it! He wants white wine !
Why didn't this foreigner say that to begin with?

I write a blog post in the cafe, and when I order a white wine from the Australian owner Steve, I can Bao echo me loudly in the kitchen ruou vang trang. Snotty endearing little bastard, LOL.

I want to have this view for all my waking up moments ;-)

6 pm
Time for a coffee. And for the second time, they bring one of those proper Viet brewing things where you have to wait for 10 minutes for the hot water to slowly drip through the aluminum coffee filter.
YUMMY !

Quick shower,and hop on the scooter.

OMG it's getting dark, LOL

Riding Vietnamese roads on a scooter that wants to use every tiny unevenness in the road to perform a sharp right or left turn is bad enough during the day. At night, which it VERY quickly becomes in the tropics, it is an ADVENTURE. Trucks overtaking trucks and using both lanes. But it becomes quickly worse when I reach the city.
Yes, it is a joy to join the seemingly effortless flow of scooters coming and going from all directions. But what about those going the WRONG way just by the curb? Naturally, there are scooters coming and crossing from all directions. Add to that the two in front of me, one without lights, the three behind me with their headlights blinding me via my one poorly adjustable rear-view mirror, the bus already staccato-honking to advertise its presence and I start feeling a bit tense. That's when I see by way of a dim reflection of aluminum the Banh Mi lady pushing her cart right in the centre of the street. WHOAAAAA !