So at 5:30 I just give up. Just in time to smile at the morning sky.
During the bus ride I get an e-mail from the Alotrip travel agency I used to book my ticket. They inform me that my flight has been rescheduled from 11:10 to noon. Darn, if they only would have sent me this e-mail half an hour earlier!
Here is another nice touch: I print my boarding pass at a kiosk. Fast, NO line-up, and less complicated than at YVR.
I am back.
Back in Vietnam.
Shit-eating grin for the duration.
....
More than 2.5 hours until boarding. YAWN!
The security check is much too quick. NO line-up at all. Still more than 2.5 hours until lift-off.
I HATE airports!
I curl up on a waiting bench and nap for almost one hour! I wake up at 11:30 with my face bearing the impression of my backpack only to find out that the flight NOW is scheduled for 12:50, yet another 50 minutes later than the already late time ! I HATE AIRPORTS !
12:20
I wake up with the other side of my face bearing a backpack-imprint as well. OH PLEASE, don't let them delay the flight AGAIN ! The fact that I vividly remember a dream of being in a plane crash doesn't help my mood.
No more official delays. It's raining when they hoard us into the shuttle buses.
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| Planes load MUCH FASTER if you have 2 ramps |
We have landed, the plane is still moving slightly and the seat-belt sign is STILL ON. EVERYONE is on their feet, has already removed their luggage from the bins, and is lining up in the aisle to get out. My initial thought was to re-adjust my estimate of the average Viet intelligence. But then Vietnamese have a VERY hard time standing in line at a counter as well. It's just NOT done! And maybe not being as well trained and obeying as the average Western traveler is a good thing?
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| The new Quy Nhon airport buses are built in Germany ! |
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| Bus air-conditioning parts by air-mail from Germany |
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| Even arrivals now come out of the NEW terminal building ! |
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| 50,000 VND for a 45 minute bus ride (watch for the VN or VJ bus at Phu Cat Airport) |
I walk through Quy Nhon and my smile gets even more shit-eating. I feel at home here. Things make sense. But when I get closer to my hotel, I notice that the streets are starting to be lined with parked CARS. OH NO!
16:30
This has become a LONG day thanks to VietJet, but then they're well known for their timing issues. It's time to walk to Coopmart to refill provisions ;-)
17:30
There is Hotel Man's wife. He points me out, she starts waving and hand-shaking. I say "Toi vui gap lai banh", she smiles and says "An com chu'a?". Thanks to Thi Lan I know EXACTLY what that means. And I remember the sad faces whenever I turned down a dinner invitation with the family.
Did I mention already that I feel at home here? LOL
18:00
Time to be a GOOD GUEST !
I'm early or rather they are late. But when she puts the freshly cooked rice on the table, I feel hunger ROAR! This woman knows how to cook !
I sleep like a log by 20:00
Might as well finishing watching Der Wixxer on Netflix and do some more laundry.
I will be arriving at Bai Bien Cua Toi one day early, i.e. I don't have a room booked there. Mot ngay som ! But I've been checking Booking.com repeatedly and it looks like I won't have to sleep on the beach because they still have enough vacancy. Let's see whether that surprise backfires or not .....
5:45
Let's see if the front door is open or whether I'm barred from walking to the beach. OPEN !
When I take these pictures at high zoom (can't really take a close-up of old ladies returning from swimming), I am tempted to look away when they pass me. But one of them is WAVING at me.
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| This beach will be DESERTED by 7:30 LOL |
It's 6:20. I would have missed all this if I had slept until 7:00 !!!
Coop.mart opens at 8:00 and I'm there to get some more essentials. (Wine&Cheese)
I'm on the road by 8:45, fill up the scooter tank (gas gauge does NOT work at all, neither does the speedometer), but two rain ponchos and 2 bungies to strap the backpack. A total of 60K VND. I paid more for ONE over-engineered bungie in Germany!
Unfortunately I'm not the only one who has noticed. The number of brand-new HUGE holiday condo developments just North of Life's a Beach is mind-numbing and depressing. This is turning into Benidorm !
Lesson? NEVER HESITATE to go that EXTRA mile. The rewards are so much more memorable than the extra bit of effort.
27 more km ....
I hope someone is home, lol.
The surprise is on my side. Neither of the owners is there. I'm going to be here with the Vietnamese staff, only one of which speaks a bit of rudimentary English.
I think I'm going to learn some Vietnamese in the coming weeks !
It's not a matter of choice.
I HAVE TO !!!
OMG, a kid stands at my door and says in PERFECT English "Can I come in?". He must be from Hong Kong. But Hongkongese don't go to Vietnam!
His name is Khang. He is Vietnamese. He's 11 years old. HE speaks the BEST English I have EVER heard a Vietnamese speak.
I'm shocked how my swimming muscles have vanished in just 9 weeks. And how a new-grown gut extends over the swim-trunk elastic. Ah well, all that's going to change quickly ;-)
OMG, Khang is back. He not only speaks excellent English, but he is SOOO OLD beyond his years. And with kids like that, he is permanently BORED. Guess I'm his fountain of knowledge for the day. But then I feel like a nap after a while, so I bring him back to his mother.
I dream of George. He is calling me but I forgot the unlock code of my cell phone and can neither answer nor call back. HELL!
When I wake up, I read an e-mail from the hotel owner. His mother died yesterday.
I hear a strange noise from outside, and see a deluge when I look outside. And I mean DELUGE !
Listening to this actually makes it BETTER
(Too many people I know have died but I still have to LIVE)
Khang again at my door. He's an extremely smart kid but also a high-maintenance one. I can understand why his mother stays in his room and must admit that my lazy side will not be disappointed when they leave tomorrow.
WTF? SLAP SLAP, BAD German !
But then it's fun to head to the waterline, ask him AGAIN "Are you SURE you can SWIM?", and to demonstrate to him apparently for the first time EVER, the Dead-Man float. He tries it and his head submerges !!! I'm glad when his mother shoes up to take over responsibility ...
I work on my blog a bit and HE'S BACK. OMG, I'm his confidence person. He is growing up alone with his mother, who separated from his dad during the first year of his life. Now if that does not sound strangely FAMILIAR. Must NOT fuck up here, maybe I can give him better advice than I got from my surroundings when I was his age and in his situation. Actually, there is pretty much NO chance of giving him worse advice than the one I got at his age ;-(
17:30
This is SO strange. I'm going to be all by myself here at Paradise Beach. Since there are pretty much NO guests here, the staff leave EARLY. We talk about soccer and they almost kill themselves laughing when I tell them that "Toi rat vui khi Duc thua som" (I am glad the German soccer team lost early). Only after looking at the Google translate app text output, do I realize that I actually know most of the words and could have said "Toi rat vui Duc cut-throat-guesture som" without the app.
And that is Fucking Amazing!
It's pitch-dark at 18:30? Price one pays for living in the Tropics ;-)
18:45
I fall asleep.
19:00 There is a KNOCK on MY DOOR!!! WTF?
It's the 11-year old again, LOL.
I play the male role-model to the fatherless-kid for an hour (A role-model, I ????) and we actually have a good talk but I send him back to his mother at 20:00.
Back to sleep.
Of course, I'm back awake at 22:00 (just jet-lag, no knocks on the door this time)
My last cigarette of the day on the terrace. It's PITCH DARK with only a few tiny lights of a few very distant fishing boats visible. It's also DEAD QUIET with the ONLY audible sound being that of that of gentle waves spending their energy on the beach.
It's good to be back home ;-)
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