Retreat... Return ....Resistance.....Regret ......BBCT - Quy Nhon - HCMC

5:00
I feel better today..... because I know that I have a HOME (and I don't mean a HOUSE) that I will be returning to ;-)

Oh, YEAH !

Faulty SONY coulour rendition:  the sun is the same coulour as its reflection on the water !

8:15
Swim

9:00
It's time to return my scooter to Muoi ...... This was 'my' scooter for the last 11 weeks, almost 3 months ! .....  a bad sign of things to come ... toi khong vui!

11:30
I am SO TIRED and I SO do NOT want to leave..... but then I don't want to stay HERE either, LOL.

WHY am I so CRANKY ?   Just because a feeling of obligation is forcing me to do things I REALLY don't want to do during the next 6 weeks?

B: don't drink so much... I blow up a little...
I'll so miss Tin but I have to get over this crush ... so maybe 7 weeks are good for that ;-)

400k for the taxi to Quy Nhon.... not too expensive but not what M told me it would cost.  But then I expected that....








Dong is bickering with his architect..... his old house is GONE but they haven't started construction on the new house yet.... are they still sleeping in the garage ?








I just decided to  SLEEP MORE when I hear the jackhammer outside ;-(





15:15
It's time to shake off whatever this is ....  and to go to Coopmart to top up the phone minutes and to buy provisions...

17:30
Dong asked me for soup at 17:30, but apparently they ate already (?)... so this soup is just for me...ho da an roi

Dong's wife showing off her muscles and mussels ;-)

sup com hai san

3:30
enough sleep? 

At least I'm up early enough to call Grandma..... first thing she tells me today is that she is doing not well ..... NOT another issue I wanted to deal with today..... I have enough of those already .... but then she is 100 years old....and she won't live forever .... something I will have to get used to soon.

8:00 
Still 1.5 hours until the departure of my taxi....... I HATE those long useless waiting periods when traveling by plane or train..... Give me a scooter or bicycle any day ..... NOT a second wasted on those trips

Two years ago this street ONLY consisted of those lovely colourful 2-storey buildings ! Look at it NOW !

9:30
Dong has ordered me another 250k ride to the airport.... Cam on nhieu, ban!

Vietnam is changing SO quickly.... the houses I love to look at are disappearing like mushrooms in a drought.......  the houses on both sides of this watchmaker are already gone ...

And how I am going to miss the GREEN of the fields..... here with a flock of women working....

Check-in at the airport is SUPER FAST and I have time again to have a beer outside the terminal ;-) 

Phu Cat Airport WiFi has issues today.... unusual for a Vietnamese airport....

11:50

The #152 ticket collector is already waving at people when I exit the terminal building.... I quickly light a cigarette and wave back.... he sees me and I get my 5000 Dong ride again.....

The usual routine:  I buy 12 Winston & 2 bottles of white wine, before digging in my backpack for the room key that I have now taken with me TWICE, lol.

5 flights of stairs..... and I'm back in my home away from home away from home ;-)

Bai Bien Cua Toi (XIII).... Latter days ... the Dark Side? .... and a sad good-bye with Cai Luong

5:00
physically and mentally groggy..... yesterday was rough on me ....

8:30
Feeling a little better but it still feels as if "My Room" is no longer HOME after yesterday's altercation.  Memories of my landwitch of 2012 keep surfacing ....

But B is gracious when I walk over to the kitchen area..... everything is OK..... at least on the superficial level ...... chapeau !...


HOWEVER...... WHAT is happening to Tin? Could he be slithering over to the Dark Side, just like the terribly handsome son of Han Solo in the Star Wars fairy-tale?  

There is a German saying that says "He who whispers lies"... 

So what am I to make of Tin & B WHISPERING to each other when I sit with them at the kitchen table?  

My head suggests that I'm just having a paranoid morning, but my gut feeling says otherwise.  But after all..... my Vietnamese must be improving, LOL.

10:15
... and I haven't been swimming yet ?

10:45:
Breakfast in Sweden .... the first solid food since yesterday's breakfast ...   having some food in my stomach does not actually change my perception of what has happened in the last 24 hours.... a good sign that my gut feeling is well calibrated ;-)

I finally settle my bar tab: $83 for 2 weeks of G&Ts & egg baguettes alone and with friends. That seems expensive for here but is a pittance compared to what I would have paid in Canada...

14:30

Under instructions not to approach the construction site, I take pictures at maximum zoom from the hotel's beach ...  they have STARTED !

18:00

It's time to head over for dinner at Quang's house.

nice view !

Quang is a happy man today, grinning from ear to ear.   Amazing how this man can radiate happiness!

Halfway through the AMAZING dinner, he tells me this is a Good-Bye dinner and that he feels like he is loosing a member of the family..... LOL, I knew I found the right people ... and I tell him  "Toi se khoc!"

The son and his cute shadow, LOL

There is a wave out of the crowd.... it's Bobby's bartender....  this truly is village life...

Quang drags us into a tiny alley off the beach..... a public gathering place?  Is THAT a public Vietnamese theatre performance?    

I could have sat on the sandy concrete floor for hours watching this....

... but Quang & Lisa motion me to leave.

A sugar cane juice (with orange and lime) on the beach and then it's time to go... I'm dead tired.... then there is a poke into my shoulder and the BIG grin of Quang's older brother... "let's go drink" he says according to Lisa's translation..... NOT today!

Bai Bien Cua Toi (XI & XII ): departing friends, a money brick, blah & the blow up

5:00
Oooooh.  Is that a HANGOVER I feel?  Yup.....

The fact that I only have 3 days left here does little to improve my already sluggish mood ...

As if to emphasize the tragedy of my approaching departure, the bay puts on a spectacular sunrise, LOL.

7:00
P&M are coming out of the ocean.... P&I agree: one of our worst fears is to be "NORMAL" lOl.

7:45

10:00
P&M are leaving...... which is HORRIBLE ;-)..... the last few days were a BLAST..... constant smiles, adventures, laughter, the feeling of belonging..... but they are off toward new adventures and I know that I will see them again soonish.....  but that does not alter the fact that as of now this place is no longer the same....

11:00
I walk to the kitchen area and I instantly regret having told M about the thirsty plants.... I wanted to help the running of his hotel.... but he uses it as ammunition against his employees....  which is the last thing I wanted to happen.  As always in life, there comes the time when one's conscience does no longer allows one NOT to choose sides.... 

12:00
It's a little bit dead in Sweden as well...

toi thich ot !

13:15
Time to start my Money Run ....  Q wants hai tram trieu Dong to be able to start with construction.... 

As usual, the bank employee recognizes me..... she first counts out the 200 Million in 200k bills ...it's a HUGE brick and the 200k notes are even brick-coloured..... when she points at some 500k notes, I can only say "Toi thich!" and she changes the whole amount to those, which makes the whole affair more bearable and more importantly more portable 

During the usual ice-cream stop at A-Stop ...

I can't wait to get rid of those notes..... off with it to the intended user!

15:00
The beach is swamped with plastic again..... since I'm the only one cleaning it (as usual).... I clean Bobby's beach instead of the one of my hotel ;-)

18:00
and I would have slept longer had it not been for my alarm clock!
and I'm groggy ... will food help?

the bowl of heavenly goodness under a tarp ;-)

Back in the common area of my hotel, the other young man (Quan) who works here sits right in front of me and says "toi muon hoc noi tieng anh".  

OH NO.   HOW does one TEACH someone English who knows NONE?  I show him Duolingo on his phone and tell him to use it EVERY DAY to get the basic vocabulary .... and I will TRY to speak English with him every day from now on .... which of course will at least TRIPLE the length of time required for any conversation.....

He is mesmerized AGAIN by my watch .... 
understandable since this combo of old coin-silver Hopi watch ends with a 1960s Helbros is one of my favourites as well ;-)





















22:00 I'm still feeling a bit blah.... I still haven't caught up on sleep and I'm missing people with spark.  Good thing Tin is coming back tomorrow!

4:45
I waste a good portion of my remaining telephone minutes by calling Grandma.  In an insulting and guilt-tripping voice she tells me that I had given her the information that I would be in Vancouver today.  And NO, it is IMPOSSIBLE that she erred on that subject, it must have been I who LIED to her......  some things never change.

NOT a nice way to start the day.  And that would be a problem if I was in a place that did not offer compensation..... but fortunately I am somewhere with a dawn and sunrise that make everything better ;-)

5:30

In the news.....  Most Canadians now want their pet cats & dogs to eat a VEGAN diet ...... I am at a loss for words ..... is it Late-Roman period decadence?  .... or just a wish to distance oneself from NORMAL as far as possible ..... or just plain STOOPID?   All I can say is: Get a grip and get a life..... and most importantly ... maybe it's time to touch base with REALITY ?
Hint:  Living your life in an imagined reality that is very different from existing reality is NOT good for your mental health... 

8:15
No reply from Lisa yet ..... another one of these SLOW days ....

8:45

Tin is back!   I am so happy to see him, lOl.   As for dirty-old-man-thoughts:  His Fahrgestell looks even better than I remember, lOl. 

11:00 a last trip to Quang to check my layout.....
.....and I have to Eat Yummy mussels and drink some of the Jack Daniels he is hiding behind his couch chair...

But I have to say NO to the lunch invitation ....























13:00 the picture changes COMPLETELY when I walk to my lot and start measuring the corner points of the foundaton plate......M is there.... and he tells me that the FOUR stones I am using to mark the corner points are HIS STONES and that I should use Quang's stones...  WHAT THE FUCK????
It gets much worse and I call Quang & Lisa to come to my rescue..... I am ready to bang my head against a palm tree....   B calls Quang and he arrives as pissed off as I have never ever seen him before..... M is still hanging around and making comments until I tell him bluntly ..... "You better go over there or this will get worse.  We are neighbours...there is NO POINT in getting huffy-puffy". 

 Thankfully he follows my advice......

16:45

There is an e-mail from Lisa..... Drinks @ Bobby's in 5 minutes...... God, I love seeing Quang SMILE again ... 2 G&T on an empty stomach leave me speaking in tongues.... but I still realize that I have found my patchwork family, LOL.

19:00