Bai Bien Cua Toi (III): Taking care of business

3:30.  A bit early but I slept all of yesterday afternoon.

I have time to send a bitchy e-mail to the eDreams booking site (how DARE they endanger my trip to Fuerteventura) and exchange a few e-mails with Thi Lan.   She is the perfect travel companion for Malaga & Granada.  While I'm good at finding the sites and their relevance, she is excellent with the practical things, like booking tickets in advance.  That trip will be a blast ;-)

5:15  Let there be light ...

 At 5:30 it's light enough to start walking ..

Breakfast is followed by yet another nap

Waking up seems extremely difficult.  

There is only one things that helps against that ....

I head towards Song Cau and stop at one of the little stores.  I need a cigarette lighter.  As another denial of some tourists' stories about being ripped off:  I accidentally rip off the Viet vendor.  He gives me the lighter and says something like "ban".  I say " ban.  Three" and give him 3000 VND. He takes it and I leave.  30 seconds later I FINALLY realize that 3 is 'ba' and 'bon' actually means FOUR.   I turn around and hand him the rest of the money.  Even with the extra 1000 Dong, I got my lighter for 22 Canadian cents.  Try THAT in the 'civilized' world, LOL

  Barely back on the scooter, I struggle to get my camera out while riding ......  NOT so easy because the right hand has to stay on the throttle ....

What is so exciting? 

Something about the guys on the scooter in front of me ......

Would it kill them to carry the ladder sideways along the length of the scooter? (Hitting a power line with the upright ladder might. Is aluminum conducting?

His grip on the ladder is even made more complicated by holding on to the spirit level ;-)
























I reach Song Cau without further complications.  I withdraw some money for my agent and for the upcoming travels.   I am relieved that February's wire transfer has arrived.   I still have that ominous feeling whenever I think about the unreal subject matter of unreal money, in particular in Vietnam.   I should stop that, I guess ....

Having secured some cash and a bottle of wine, I decide to explore some fields next to the highway that I've been wondering about many times ..

  This road looks like it might lead somewhere ...

Where?  I have no idea... ideally it will connect to other roads that will lead back to the highway....

Alas, what I thought was a connected network of roads is actually individual roads reaching out to individual hamlets.  After a few encounters with old men tending single cows and old women going about their business, I give up and head back to the highway.  And when I say old, I'm not referring to the age thing.  What I mean is that these people are OLD enough to have lost children to US bombing in the war and might not be too happy to see a Western face cruising through their finally peaceful neighbourhood.

I'm back at the hotel and it's only 11:00. 

 That's 3 swims before noon AND riding into town, LOL

13:00

15:00
I help Muoi's husband & Phap to put up a sun-blocking tarp.  Binh is the General that gives directions in a sharpish tone.  She reminds me of my grandmother in that respect.

16:00
Quang has managed the conversion process of the land to building land and managed to get the price down to 10 Million Dong.  I am wary of what amount to pay him to both express my gratitude and to NOT appear like a person not understanding the value of money.  I should have asked my Viet-customs-consultant first !!!!   But 13.7 Million seem to do the trick quite well: Quang is buying a bottle of wine.

17:00

 This is the time (the ONLY time) that the Viet youth flocks to the beach

18:00

Dinner is a mixed experience.   The Viets eat Jelly-fish salad.  I have had that before and it definitely deserves the label "Acquired Taste".  Imagine chewing on transparent pieces of chewy rubber.  I rather munch on grilled fish with rice & vegetable matter.

19:00 

All that swimming is taking its toll (or is it all that wine?)