Bai Bien Cua Toi (I) The holiday mix: Exploring & Vegging out:

I'm up at 2:00.   Jet lag at its finest ;-(

It would be a nuisance if I was staying anywhere else.    With friends or family, I'd be trying my best to stay inaudible.   In  Vancouver I'd be dreading to go out for a smoke both because of the cold and the noises the wooden walkways and doors make.   Even in a room without balcony I'd feel awkward walking out through the lobby to have a cigarette, if that even was possible (Vietnamese hotel lobbies are the sleeping quarters of the staff and the front doors are locked).

But here, I just step onto my terrace, enjoy the caress of the 24 degree night air and the sound of the waves expending their energy on the sandy shore not more than 50 meters away, and I look up and am amazed at the vast number of stars in the sky above.

I call Grandma at 4:00.   She's still in bed at 14:00.  

5:30
I get an e-mail from Thi Lan.   She is going to Fuerteventura in late October and offers me a room in her rented beachfront cottage.   
OMG.  Pour fuel onto the fire, why don't you?

Oh, why the hell NOT ????

I've never been to the Canary Islands.  It's going to be UGLY in Vancouver at that time.   Yippee! I have another trip to plan ;-)

5:45
OMG, it's already bright outside.  I quickly down a coffee and half a cigarette and start walking ;-)

One swim before breakfast.  Might as well go swimming again after breakfast ;-)

OK, time for an outing.  I only have 3 cigarettes left...

This time I decide to ride to the nearest town along the back roads....

Don't you just LOVE signs that only point in one direction?  I turn RIGHT ...

through there .... and over those hills ...

 But what goes up, must come down ;-)

By the time I get to Song Cau, I'm too lazy to go to the bank but I buy smokes & lots of different cookies ;-)  
I buy the cigarettes at my regular store.  One carton (10 packs) of White Horse for 198,000 VND. That's CAD$ 10.95 or US$ 8.71.  In Vancouver, one can't even buy a single pack of the very cheapest cat-shit-taste cigarettes for that amount.  

Calling my Pseudo-Uncle to congratulate him to his birthday is semi-successful:  I talk to my pseudo-aunt for a while.


At 15:45, the sun no longer scorches, and a stiff breeze lets the water appear warmer than the dry land.  

The 4th swim of the day ;-)

The water is DIVINE.  Paradise found ;-)

I'm sending more e-mails to friends.   I was unable to do so in Vancouver.  WTF?


Dinner brings mixed news:

The good news:   Quang points at me and exclaims ao dep, which by now I know what it means.    And he's right.  I finally found another lavender-coloured shirt, which works quite well with my tanned skin tone ;-)   The conversion to building land has been completed and I owe him ten million (LOL) Dong for that.

The less good news: My Beach is changing rapidly.  The HUGE property next door, which sold for 20,000 Euros 3 years ago, for 120,000 Euros 1 year ago, is now for sale for 450,000 Euro.  This development is also affecting Elke in Germany, who was hoping to buy a property in this village but didn't quite meet her payment obligations.  The seller stepped back from the deal and her dream of living here just burst like a soap bubble.