A day at the beach (BBCT VII) and a night in Quy Nhon

5:15
It's still dark outside, with only fishing boats dotting the horizon with their lights.

5 minutes later I hear a downpour hitting the window front of my room. More mu'a today, I guess ...

5:45
Time to call Grandma.....  It's pouring in Vancouver too, but at a slightly lower temperature ;-).  Grandma is doing well but she hasn't had breakfast yet at almost 3 pm, so it's a good thing the most fabulous Nurse Next Door is there.

8:00
10:30
another cigarette on the terrace.  Now I feel it.  
The sun is HOT. My skin is happy ;-)

12:00
HOW can anyone sleep SO MUCH ???

17:00
I haven't eaten anything solid all day.   Pineapple & yogurt for breakfast, a few cookies for lunch...... I NEED a decent meal for dinner.   Time to ride for some Pho Bo again!

When I come back to the yard, Quang is hacking away on some meat on the counter.  I look over his shoulder..... and he vocalizes "Quack Quack".  To which I only say "con vit!".   I guess my Vietnamese lessons are progressing faster than he anticipated, LOL.




More German guests arrive.... and as usual the conversation just revolves around German topics..... YAWN!

19:30

5:00
9 more hours of sleep?  LOL....

walking on clouds ;-)

10:00
I've paid for my room and settled a 1.5 year old translation bill.... 
...small presents keep friendship alive ;-)

Muoi is there and as usual is cheeriness personified. 

Her outfit is pure 1960s London. Then she waves at me with a huge fish on her hand. How could I resist taking a photo of her ;-)

10:30
Binh does it again.   I will find nice woman for you, so you can have children .....
Apparently she PRAYS for that every evening.  Even after I tell loudly "TOI LA BE DE !"  she just gives me that I-know-better-smile that I unfortunately know so well from my mother.

NOT the look I was going for....

I'm back at Life's a Beach.  Bao o dau?  I don't ask it but I really notice that Tao is there but not Bao ;-)  He is one of those people who cheers you up instantly !

In the news:  His mouth is already Open. Now if Trump would only spread his legs a tiny little more, he would perfect his Sex Doll look.

But what an ugly sex doll, LOL.
















Back to reality at Life's a Beach:  Here is Wy! 
And he says Hello Chris!
It's amazing; I stayed here for 5 nights 1.5 years ago but everyone still remembers my name.  

I feel like Norm at Cheers ;-)

13:00
Time to hit the road again ;-(  Still 12 km to Quy Nhon....

13:30
There is my hotel.  Khach San Thien Hai or The Sea Sky Hotel.   I get the key to room 701, the penthouse room, but when I make my way there, I find that other people's belongings are still present in the room.

Other people's stuff in 'my' room, LOL

And here is already the hotel employee scurrying up the stairs behind me.  Change of plan: Room 601 instead.
Room 601 then, with two balconies, two beds,

and a 270 degree view mainly the beach but also the city.  NICE.
What is not so nice is that there is someone with a jackhammer renovating room 501 right below me, LOL.

  So much for my afternoon nap?  I hope the man will go home early ;-)

15:00  I slept well with a jackhammer under my bed ;-)

But enough of that noise.  Time to visit the Main store of Vietnamobile in Binh Dinh Province.  
I find it quickly.  But it's CLOSED.
Entering the cell phone store right next door, I am informed that Vietnamobile will be open again on MONDAY (it's Friday today, LOL)

I have more luck at Coopmart.  Wine, bread, coffee, tea (with two glasses for free ;-), cheese.

Unfortunately, they ONLY seem to have 3-in-1 instant coffee this time.






When I come back to my room, it is boiling hot inside and I can't get the A/C to work !?!
Also, where is the promised water kettle?  
Down to reception again.   Once the construction man locates the receptionist (squatting on the floor behind the reception desk, studying her cell phone), he gets her to turn on the A/C breaker for my room, which is right behind her.  And I get a kettle.   Problem solved ;-)

16:30
The power driller in the room below me is still at work ;-(

16:45
I had to bite the bullet.  NOTHING is free in this world. not even Google.
Yes, Blogger is free, but Google keeps count of the amount of disk space that the pictures take up.   So with 14.89 GB of the free 15.00 GB I have come dangerously close to running out of space.   So now I'm paying $2/month for a much larger disk space allowance of 100 GB. 

The guy below me is still DRILLING at 17:05.   OK, that's it. I'm out of here.  Another reason for wanting to come to Quy Nhon, was that I want to buy a flower for Mr. Hotel-Man's wife, to say Thank You for the many times they have invited me for dinner.
Zu & I bought an orchid almost exactly a year ago at a store on the way to the train station.  But will I find it again?
Mr. Map Brain does it:

 Prices seem to have gone up quite a bit since one year ago, but I find a nice clay-potted orchid in a metal hanger.   Now I just have to get that to Mr. Hotel.

Mrs. Hotel recognizes me on the scooter when I'm still half a block away.  And YES, she does LOVE her orchid.   It's the least I could do after these people have invited me for dinner so often.  Of course I can't leave before I uong tra with Mr. Hotel.   He offers me help in finding my cellphone refill vouchers and also points out Viber and Zalo for cheap phone calls.

That's why I took a picture of his cell phone screen ;-)

18:00
Back in my room.  Could the construction noise REALLY finally have subsided ?  
YES, FINALLY it's QUIET ;-)

Quy Nhon has changed in the 2 years that I have been coming here.... starting to look a little bit more like Da Nang these days ;-(

5:00 
enough sleep ;-)

There is that eerie moment when all the city lights switch off in view of the coming dawn.

Except for that GIANT TV at the square right in front of me.  It's showing something......

.... and what it is showing is a WESTERN morning EXERCISE show, LOL.   Stranger than Fiction!

But the Viets seem to ignore the TV show.   
They either FACE the ocean during their morning calisthenics or they are IN the ocean ;-)

8:00
Enough sloth! 
I must force myself to shave, shower, and get out there to buy wine & cell phone time.

On the way to the elevator, I realize WHY there was so much noise yesterday.  They are taking out the FLOOR TILES in the room below me.   In the West, people would probably chose to just put another layer of new tiles over the old ones, but here they do it 'properly', LOL.


















I try the cell phone store in the mall.   And YES, they sell phone refills for ALL the carriers.  Good thing I speak rudimentary tieng Viet, because the very nice woman working there doesn't speak ANY English.  Success.  My phone gets topped up with 300,000 VND to bring it up close to the apparent maximum of 500K.

Some more wine from Coopmart and I happily discover that the space under my seat (usually intended for helmets) can hold at least FOUR bottles of wine ;-).

9:00:  The beach is deserted again !

The man with the power drill starts up again at 9:30. 

Time to leave.
Pack, pay, and head to The Giodidong again.  Alas, NO lens-cleaning pen and no batteries for Tim's fire truck either ;-(
I make one last attempt at the little store next to the no longer existing Kiwi Connection.   
They remember me but when I show them the battery also shake their head.
Then they start giving me directions (In Vietnamese!) to where I could buy them.  
LOL. WHAT are the chances of me finding the store they describe?
But I don't want to appear like a loser, both to them, myself, and to Tim, so I follow their directions as good as I can.  

I actually do find the bloody store!
10 button cells for 40k VND.  Almost as cheap as ordering them from China 5 years ago.

OK, time to head back to My Beach.....