July 9th, 2016
Sunday July 10th
The real question is, what to do on our last full day in PP. Of course we start the day by grabbing breakfast in the morning. We meet up with Ritchie, Vanna and Alice in the breakfast room and after we eat up, we decided to join on them on their walk over to their new apartment they are now renting. Ritchie had not yet seen it either. Vanna’s sister will primarily be staying there with her husband and daughter, and Vanna and Alice will stay there when they are in town one week a month or so. We would call this apartment, bachelor style, but it has a private bath and a balcony, so they are pleased for the $130 a month it costs.
Then we went back to our room and chilled out for a few minutes before heading to lunch with Ritchie and Landon. We walked down to the riverside and decided to eat at a small place facing the river called Cadillac’s. I ordered pizz and Troy had a burger. It was mediocre, but not awful, so made do. Honestly what should I expect for $6?
Saw this sign on the table, warning heeded. I’ll beware of false monks! Landon looks so serious.
Regardless, we enjoyed our meal for the most part due to the exceptional company . There was a little boy without trousers, on running amuck, on the sidewalk next to us, he kept coming over and messing around behind out chairs etc.
His mother was on a mat on the sidewalk next to us, and at one point laid down and nursed the toddler right there in the sidewalk. Not uncommon here, we don’t pay it too much attention. But when the little boy squatted down and pooped right on the sidewalk, we did perk up to see what would happen then. No worries, they cleaned it up, but I guess this is how they deal with toilet training here. Just skip the diapers.
Ritchie had to catch a bus back to Ho Cho Min city at 2:15pm, so we whisked him back to hotel and said a sad good bye. Saying good bye to people here is hard because we know it will be a long time before we see them again. Vietnam is definitely on our list of places to go here is SE Asia and maybe we will just HAVE to make that work next year despite what the weather does…
We spent a little time in the hotel regrouping then at 5 headed over to Vanna’s for the house warming party. They actually got possession of the apartment yesterday, but it was an unlucky day to move in, so they waited until today. The party would have family and friends, food drink and fun just like a housewarming party at home would. These are the things we love to experience when traveling. Real moments. Now all that being said, we were unsure what would be on the menu (there was talk of a pig head-which we aren’t opposed to, after all we roast a whole pig yearly back home). We did have plans to meet Landon and Sam for supper and drinks at 6:15pm.
We stopped at the mini mart and picked up a flat (24cans) of beer for $13 and headed over to the party!
Oh my goodness, what a loving warm welcome we received. We were the only white folks and other then Vanna, her sister and hubby, the only English speaking people there, but we could not have felt more welcome and invited. There are so many ways to communicate other than spoken language. Troy had some clams and rice and I had some rice.
We hung out for an hour or so, played with the baby, (she is SO CUTE!!!) and then made our goodbyes.
Supper with Landon and Sam was lovely, we started out at La Croissante for supper, I had a burger, that ended up being a knife and fork meal and Troy had a calzone. Tasty enough meal, ironically it was happy hour and my mango shake was $1.50 and the bottle of water was $4. Hahahahahahaha
Then we went back to Le Moon to enjoy the view, the breeze, the drinks and especially the company. Saying good bye to Landon is always hard, we were stalling……
