Author: Rosencrantz O'Dowd

The blessed day came today, and I’m now a plaster-free zone.

A week or so earlier than schedule, too! An x-ray at the hospital prompted a smile from the doctor – the ankle was 70% healed, he says.

Henry’s Vietnamese, and my best attempt at a winsome look must’ve turned the tables, and he gave the green light.

This means I’ll be able to have a normal shower, without all the palaver of keeping the leg dry, and I’ll be able to go swimming.

Things are looking up for my final month here in the Socialist Republic.

In a rare case of accidentally following official advice, I got encouraging ‘news’ today from the NZ Govt. website, safetravel.

An email pointed NZers toward the flights I’d already booked and paid for.

Which is all very promising, and is starting to look like – barring foobars on my part – I will indeed manage to get back to the Land of the Long White Cloud next month.

Following is the guts of it, Trev;

Kia Ora New Zealanders

For those of you who are wishing to return to New Zealand, Singapore Airlines have announced that they are now operating from both HCMC and Ha Noi with flights via Singapore to Auckland. New Zealand has restrictions on the number of passengers that can travel into Auckland, therefore seat availability on each flight is limited.

For departure from HCMC, the best connection would be on the following flights:

HCMC to Singapore:

SQ177 on every Sunday, departing HCMC at 12.30pm local time, and arriving Singapore on the same day at 3.30pm local time.

Singapore to Auckland:

SQ285 on every Sunday, departing Singapore at 6.40pm local time, and arriving Auckland on the next day at 8.15am local time (9.15am from 27 September 2020 due to daylight saving time).

In other return news, today I booked tickets from Nha Trang to Saigon for September 19, the day before I leave Vietnam. In a turnout for the books, I successfully managed to use credit from the cancelled April flight to pay for 90% of this new plane trip.

Whoop whoop! Seems I might finally be getting a tenuous handle on this travelling business…

From 8,000 km away, I can see the frown from certain elderly people ( ahem ).

But that aside, I’ve ploughed bravely on ahead anyway and splurged on a new _vaping kit, all in the interests of entrenching habits, you understand. Thar she blows below, on the right.

The old cheap kit was a serious stress, what with replacing the mouthpiece every few days, and forever refilling the damned thing.

One would think I would just give up smoking, and I will …. but not yet. There’s no such thing as Government-subsidised nicotine patches here in the ‘developing world’, so the only option is to attempt to import them, and for a pretty ransom.

This new kit actually packs a kick, so that a chap knows he has been smoking. Too many hoofs on the trot ( sorry ), and there are consequences.

It has good reviews, and is mine for a mere 500,000 VND, or ~= NZD 33.

Cost

If it was just about cost I’d just take up smoking again, with cigarettes here for 10,000 VND ( ~= NZDE 0.60 ) per pack. The rest of the cost back home is tax.

But I’ve not had a cigarette for several weeks, because they just trash me. I feel like dogfood.

So for now it’s the lesser of two evils, and promising myself that I’ll give up again in the relative ease of home.

Above is the mid-afternoon scene from my balcony in Van Kiep St, Nha Trang. The natives have been sheltering from the heat, and are now beginning to stir…

The title is taken from the TV series Brideshead Revisited, an old favourite, from an early episode when all was hunkydory.

My ( very rough ) translation is “in Eden, me too”. Others disagree.

It’s looking like sun may have set on opportunities to return to New Zealand, so I’m hedging my bets by starting a long game.

By which I mean entrenching habits which will serve me well if my stay here continues to extend.

One of those is night-time reading, a soporific habit I’ve  let lapse since Thailand. Hence the book on the left,~3.30 NZD at a local store.

I first read it back in 1976 or such-like. Then,in my 20s, I revisited Jack London ( 1876 – 1916 ), when John Barleycorn rang a few bells.

But I digress again. It’s one of a few positive habits I;’m reintroducing. Another is the morning walk ( now hobble ), 10 minutes to the local fresh market and back. I’ve bought some cheap knick-knacks to hang clothes on to make online teaching easier, and ‘fixed’ ( propped it up with a chair ) the broken desk in the apartment.

All this and a couple of other unmnetionables after jamming up Embassy inboxes and pestering airlines offices to take me home. Please.

But for now, and at least the next month, it’s off the cards, due to airline schedules and cancellations, flight restrictions, etc, etc, The logistics would make yer head spin.

And, just as I write this, I check my email, to read this below, from the long-suffering and saintly NZ official in the Embassy in Hanoi.

I have been advised that there may be a flight on Korean Air departing later this month around 31 August, its not confirmed as yet so I will keep you posted on that. It’s likely to be around USD 2,000.
Also there may be a possibility that VN Airlines will put another flight on late this month which will go through Sydney if this is the case it may be at this time Air NZ has resumed flights from Australia, I will keep you posted of any confirmed flights.

In a move which is either or both stupid or brave, I’m back on a bike.

I got the gyp with being confined to barracks, apart from Grab, and the ankle is feeling comfortable enough to stress it a little. After three days of minor outings, it’s holding up ok.

The biggest worry is the effed-up entrance-way here into the apartment, a narrow ramp with a nice wee drop on either side. Just so it’s interesting for the spectators, it slopes at maybe 30 degrees, so a little speed is needed for the ascent.

Then there’s the narrow door-way, only slightly wider than the ramp, which means that any miscalculation will involve a steel wall.

The buttock-clenching ritual need only happen once a day, but that’s enough, thanks. A small mercy is that a mishap might be less disastrous since the ankle is still plastered and protected.

The first day, I tried to skirt around it, by walking up the thin band of steps beside the ramp, with throttle / brakes on. That worked well enough when I had two ankles, but not this time. A neighbour took pity on me when I got stuck 90% of the way up, and hove to.

Since that clearly didn’t work, I’m girding the loins and riding the gauntlet daily.