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Published: February 17th 2013
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I sure hope I’ll be able to cut and paste this onto the website, as there seems to be no useable wifi at the domestic airport!
Yesterday (Saturday), Beth being free, we decided to not do very much at all. Waited for her on the corner of De Tham, usual place, and spotted Peter, American living in the Philippines, who’d been on the delta tour with his wife a few days earlier. He joined me for a chat, and said that he’d been out for a walk very early, 6am, and that the bar was still in full-swing then, and that several young local ladies had asked if he wanted to go home with them. Not a noticeable phenomenon in the daytime. As we chatted, a sunglasses seller came up and despite having bought several pairs the day before, Peter negotiated admirably and bought 5 pairs for £4. That seemed quite a lot to me, though none of them looked like they’d last the day. Maybe the quantity he bought made him look like a professional sunglasses buyer, but before any time at all others were circling like hyenas, waiting for their turn. He bought another 5, including 3 identical pairs.
Why so many? I’ll give them away, he said. So he had to go back to the hotel and dump them, came back 5 mins later – his wife was less than impressed and had asked the same question as me. It was fun watching him.
Then Beth joined us from having her breakfast in the An An 2, and we had another iced coffee. Have drunk my bodyweight in condensed milk already- added if you ask for milk. Yum! We wandered off to look at the local market at the bottom left corner of the park to the north – fish flopping about still alive, and various pig items beautifully arranged – ears and the like. Then we got a taxi a long way (£6) to District 2 on the other side of the river to one of her favourite places on the river called The Deck. Hard to find, but we had one of their cards with a handy map on the back. They are open all day (just as well, as it turned out), v expensive by Vietnamese standards and we started with (more) coffee at 11. Luckily we both have a very high boredom threshold. 1
½ hrs spent watching greenery float past and commenting on the rubbish caught in it (flipflops, coconuts, plastic spoons etc). Then we had lunch, more watching, the occasional boat and a lady in a sampan collecting said rubbish for selling. Delicious white wine sangria. At 2 (been there 3 hours) we adjourned to the lovely garden at the back, comfy sofas, trees, water features, and spent the next 3 hours reading and trying not to look like we were napping until happy hour at 5. Trying to be helpful, I offered to take a photo of a young local couple together. The only young couple with not a word of English. The guy didn’t look too happy. The girl cottoned on and using her google translater offered to take one of us. OK. Thanks. Then to our horror she turned into a female version of David Bailey. We had to go behind the water feature, in front of it, sit down, stand up, on the sofa, all while she snapped away on her ipad. We were smiling and hissing at each other at the same time. She will email them to me, apparently. Then she sat with us, opened one
and proceeded to edit it cropping, changing the contrast, you name it, it was all happening. We were by this time saying, never going on holiday with you again, attracting the wrong sort etc Finally it was over (after she made her boyfriend take a few of her with us), and we knocked back our cocktails and they left. Not so. Reappeared a nanosecond later with (rubbish) translator. Am I on Facebook? Then tried to search for me, which didn’t work as I’m hidden. Couldn’t log on as my password didn’t work on her keypad. Finally wrote down her name and said (nose growing longer) I would add her. More shoulders starting to shake. Beth does deadpan very well, luckily!
It passed the next hour though, so we went in for dinner at 6 (greenery had turned round and was floating in the opposite direction with the tide, but it was too dark to see if we could spot the same items on their return journey) and left at 8. Guinness World Record attempt at the longest time spent in a restaurant. The staff probably thought they’d arrive in the morning and find we’d slept on the sofas overnight. Back
to Bui Vien, packed, left a bag with Beth of stuff I don’t need for the next 5 days and got a cab to the airport. He did use the meter, lulling me into a sense of false security and as I wasn’t paying enough attention he took the scenic route and it was 25% more, at d200,000. So if you’re reading this for information (sorry there isn’t much!!) you need to make a straight ahead gesture when you get in and say ‘airport highway’ - it is basically one straight road all the way here, or should be. Decided not to let the extra £1.80 ruin my emotional health, even though when I arrived I paid d131,000.
AirMekong to Phu Quoc, 45 mins, £70 return. 5 days of beach. Free pickup and am now at Seastar Resort. Sorry, bbgrlz – didn’t even give you my itinerary – crap mother, huh!
Love to all, especially Hannah and FLLs 2!
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