When I turn 46, I say "No more nonsense": April 2018

Sunday 29 April 2018

While I was gone (IV) ..... and back to there for a change ....

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAAAAAAAAM !

It tastes worse than it looks !

No need to be awake for the morning walk

Time to leave ;-(

.... 882 kms further North:

I've NEVER driven over this bridge before .....

SOHO: Small office hotel office

After being confronted with the monstrosity above,

I'm glad to find some beauty on the ground ...

... and remnants of Real Vietnam (TM) just across the street ....

PLEASE! Do NOT let the Vietnamese see THIS.
They will NEVER treat any Westerners with ANY respect ever again.
Dumb tourists, LOL

Tuesday 24 April 2018

Bai Bien Cua Toi (VIII)... Work, Stress & Annoyance in Paradise

I wake up at 3:47.
Good!
I call Grandma at 4:00 (13:00 in Vancouver). The phone call is a nice one. But it involves Sadness in the back of my head. 99-year-olds just won't be around for that much longer. It seems that I STILL haven't wrapped my head around the Buddhist "Don't get attached to things & people because they are not permanent". I was born on the wrong continent !

Being up this early, I get to see the early colours of the sky at 5:00. Viets are already swimming in the ocean!

11:00
Enough work !

The ocean is filled & covered with small plastic bags & small yellow plastic bits today. 3 minutes and I have collected a bag full. Why am I almost the only one doing this? It's not as if that crap is going away on its own. Lethargic humans !

More garbage collecting.

Some tourists actually pick up some trash from the waterline and then throw it on a pile in the middle of the beach. Ready for the wind gusts to distribute again !

I've asked Mathias to print out some Word files 2 hours ago. I still don't have them and he's gone missing again. Without them I can't continue my work. And the deadline is looming.

GRRRRR !

Heidi, the May manager has arrived. The wind is ferocious but Binh still asks me not to sit so close to her because my cigarette smoke is supposedly bothering her. Two days ago she sat in wind-still conditions with the chain smoking village officials she was schmusing.

Yup, you have issues, but it is NOT my cigarette smoke, LOL.

Go pray, girl !

Binh is severely stretching my patience. Asking her where Quang is and when he will return elicits responses that would be considered extremely rude anywhere else. WTF?

I've asked Mathias THREE times now to print out some files to me. He's always adamant about how he wants to attract digital nomads into his hotel for long term stays. The first response I get is that he is low toner and how EXPENSIVE the toner is. When he returns at dinner time, he claims that he didn't have any time to print out the files for me. Oh, PLEASE. Get REAL !

Binh is all smiles when she asks me whether I want to eat lobster tomorrow. She didn't expect me to ask her in return how much that would cost me. Her smile fades. When I ask her an unrelated question later, she doesn't even acknowledge me.

No wonder that quite a few people who stayed here felt like customers and not like guest.

Some people's kids.....