This morning we were woken up 6.00am-ish by notifications coming through to our phones about Preston LXRP works on Cramer Street tomorrow (Tuesday). Hmmn, perhaps we should unsubscribe from the level crossing removal project notifications while we are on holidays? Not to worry, since I was awake I decided that I WOULD wash my hair this morning!! Besides which we needed to make sure we breakfasted earlier this morning with our excursion for today occurring before lunch. The sampans arrived before 8.30am to whisk us across the river to a fish farm where we learnt about rearing the fish. It is a long process, taking about about nine months to grow the fish to marketable size. It sure is smelly though. The pong of the fish and rice food that they make up for them onsite ... read more

Yay, this morning I felt well enough to venture down to the dining room for a very light breakfast. Would I be feeling sufficiently recovered anyway or is it the drugs?! Whichever, I am glad. Back in our room after breakfast we finalized our packing and then headed downstairs to check out about 10.10am expecting to be met my our Pandaw tour operator between 10.30-11.00am. We arrived at the front desk to find that the Pandaw staff had already set themselves up in the foyer. James greeted us all and saw us onto the coach when it arrived - at closer to 11.00am - and then handed us over to our Vietnamese guides, Mac and Giang, which he told us means ‘River’ in Vietnamese. After not seeing any men urinating in public thus far, today was ... read more

We were due to be picked up at 7.00am for our big day trip today. I set an alarm for 5.15am so that we could be in the dining room at 6.00am when it opened for breakfast. As is always the case when one has an early alarm set, I was awake at 4.45am! After laying in bed for a few minutes debating with myself the pros and cons of trying to get another half an hour of sleep I decided to bite the bullet and head into the shower. We were in and out of the dining room by 6.30am which left time for us to clean our teeth and be back downstairs to meet our tour guide for the day at 7.00am. Nam was already there when we arrived in the foyer and took ... read more

I woke up about 4.30am local time (8.30am Melbourne), but managed to go back to sleep until 6.30am. Figured that wasn’t too bad for trying to get the body clock aligned with local time? Fortunately Bernie noticed this morning that Telstra had charged my phone with a $10.00 day pass. Oh no, we don’t want that to be happening at all. We have purchased e-sims so that we don’t need to be paying $$ for international roaming with Telstra. Grrr, tried to turn it off from my phone, but it would not allow us to do so and gave a free number to ring to have it sorted out. After a bit of mucking about and waiting for a call-back via the app I spoke with an operator who has turned roaming off. Hopefully that will ... read more

Last night when Bernie was cleaning his teeth the smoke alarm in our room went PEEP, PEEP and then stopped. Then, just as we were settling in to go to sleep, the smoke alarm went PEEP, PEEP and then stopped. Hmmn, it probably means that the battery needs replacing? However, the ceiling was too high to be able to disable the alarm to ensure a good night’s sleep so we settled in regardless. Fortunately, we didn’t hear anything more from the smoke alarm until 6.20am this morning which was sort of about time to get moving for the big drive home anyway. After a shower and a quick breakfast, we packed the car for the final time and checked out. Shannon, our tour guide from last night, was in the reception area and said that the ... read more