Day 16 - Singing in the rain

So we were at our lovely resort on the Lake. Peter & I hired an Ethnic minority tribe boat, hollowed out from a tree, and paddled around the lake for an hour, while Lukas lost track of time in an Internet café and got a little lost on the way back in the dark. Later we met a group of Germans who were staying the night. They'd asked the resort to do a full-show for them which we watched with them - a large fire, some history of the ethnic tribes, dancing, beating of drums, that kind of thing. Was quite entertaining if not a little forced. At the end the dancing girls grabbed us and showed us the steps to their dance. The German folks were friendly, were visiting a friend who lives here, and lives in Nah Trang - our next destination - so we might meet up with them again there...

We continued to drink throughout the evening, and it seems one of the girls who worked there (and was dancing that evening) took a shine to me. When I went to get some more beers, her friend serving me tried expressing her friends crush, which came out as, “She [point] loves you!”. Flattered of course I waved, smiled. Later we got pretty drunk, and decided to make a go for it with these attractive girls, but when it came to the part of flirting where conversation starts, communication wasn't possible, as they spoke no English. Giving up on that idea we crashed out, and prepared the next morning to set off again on our journey to Nha Trang.

Saying good morning to the young elephant outside our cottage at the lovely resort we just left and are longing for again right now...
 

After we'd been to breakfast, we returned to the room to finish packing, and discovered a love letter on my pillow. The sweet thing has written me a note: Hi Jon. I love you very much [insert self manga-style portrait] xxx. The lovely girl!!! [insert Vietnamese name]. Not really knowing what to do, after packing she found me, and a talked at her for a minute (don't think she could understand a word I was saying), and pecked her on the cheek. She was pretty shy, but appreciative (I think/hope). She was an attractive little thing, but very young (maybe 18). The boys were pretty jealous ;)

So with my love affair behind us, we hit the road and headed east to the coast.

About 50km down the road, the weather turned, and it started to rain. It got heavier, and windier, until it got so unpleasant we had to stop in this Internet café where I'm writing now. Hopefully we can make it all the way today (we're just over halfway I think), but if not, we'll be stopping somewhere en-route overnight until this weather improves. It's pretty unusual for it to rain here this time of year, and it make us grind to a halt, so I hope it doesn't last. Looking outside now it's calmed down a bit.

Updated visual-journey progress - to our final destination that I hope we reach today.

I hear it's raining in the UK - flooding part of the country, so this is our comeuppance for missing it I guess, and bragging of our soaring temperatures :) Next time I blog I hope we'll be back on the beach sunning ourselves, and snorkelling in the crystal clear waters...

3 hours later....

Well, we went back on the road, and the weather was actually worse if anything. It was raining harder, and the wind was just as strong. It really was pretty damn unpleasant.

Weather system we're facing – doesn't look good, might last for days :(


We decided that we had to stop at the next opportunity and rest for the afternoon – waiting our the rain, and hoping it would stop overnight so we can continue tomorrow. About 90mins down the road we came across a small town and started asking around for a hotel, which we eventually found. It's a little grim to say the least, but it's a bed, and if we drink enough we'll forget the state of the place and sleep through till what will hopefully be a dry morning. Although looking at the forecasts online, this might last till Sunday – we're in the middle of a tropical depression – so we might just have to put our wet clothes back on, drive there slowly, and get the books out... :-/

Not much to do here, so hoped back online to kill some time, find somewhere to eat and drink, and hopefully we'll be back on the move again tomorrow. Touch wood.

Sign of our boredom, and the state of our lovely abode for the night