Hoi An

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Now I can relax a little knowing we have a roof over our head(s) from 04 Aug until 17 Oct. I will spend my next days visiting friends, watching what i eat and drink because of the diabetes 2 - and relax a little. It's hard to control the diabetes because the Vietnamese use so much sugar (particularly cane sugar) in their food. Even salads get a dose of sugar in the various dressing - so you always have to ask them not to use sugar. And then there's the coffee. Fresh milk was always a problem in VN - so they make white coffee using condensed milk. Ask for a white coffee and you get a cup that has about 1cm of condensed milk sitting at the bottom. Ugghhhh - there's a high glucose reading just looking at it. I can have a couple of beers a day without the carbs causing much of a jump in the sugar reading - and without have to have extra insulin.

Now - I needed to arrange for rental moto. I visited Mrs Ha nearby. She has coffee shop-cum tour booking office-cum-motobike rental. I rented from her last time - AU$65 for 30 days - when usual daily rental is $4-5/day. She gets a lot of business from expats - so she offers damn good price. Now she has offered me 75 days rental for 3million VN dong (the local currency) - or about $180 or $2.40 per day!!! What a deal. And it would be the same moto I had last time - so I know all it's little quirks. I tell her I will be back tomorrow to get the bike. I spend the remainder of the day bicycling around the area (need the exercise) - visiting friends and favourite eating places. I decide to get a haircut from the local hairdresser. She lives with her husband and 2year-old daughter in a shack in the hamlet - and the front part of the shack doubles as a "salon" where local women (and I guess a few men) come for haircut, wash shampoo. I decide to support a local business - and enquire as to the price of a haircut. $3 is the price. OK I say. Let's go. I am thinking just a trim on the top and around the side and back. In broken English she asks me in a "number 3" is OK. I assumed that the #3 would be good for the top - and that she would use clippers and scissors for the back and sides. Nope - do not assume Trevor. She used the #3 from the back up and over the top. F@#*%$K - too late now - she'll just have to do it all with the #3. At least I got a nice face and head massage after. Now - my hair wasn't even that short when I was in Vietnam during the war!!!!!!!! Oh well. At least it will have time to grow a little before I see Kathie on 12 August. I hope it will grow!!!!

Again, some eats and drinks at friends Minh's place before checking in with Kathie on FB Messenger. What a nice tool that is. No more e-mails, telephone calls - just click on Messenger, hit the video button - and there she is. I wasn't prepared for her reaction to my new coiff (or lack of). It will grow I kept on telling her!!!!

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