November 29,

When I awoke today, and I felt so much better. No cold, no GI issues, and no – well minimal, now-normal back. Yeah!! Jeff was good too! What blessings – they keep coming, because, there was also some blue sky and sunshine at sunrise time!!!

We got around and had our Javas and went to breakfast – it was finally a repeat of what we had our first day. So it's like a six day rotation. I had a sunny side egg, and cheese sandwich, then a bit of noodles, a mango salad, banana, and a small donut-type muffin. Jeff had cereal, beef stir-fry with a sunny side egg, banana, and a green tea muffin.

We went back to our room, which had just been cleaned by the house-keeping staff (the floor was still streaky-damp wet). So we gingerly entered the room… to behold cloud socked in sky. UGGH!! It was like 50%, might rain, might not. So we watched some You tube. It never did rain, but you don't know and our record here was not in favor of no rain. We also found out my order of Sauvé Hairspray should arrive today, so we had to wait around. This is one item I have been having trouble getting – non-aerosol hairspray for women. I can find hairspray for men but it is scented with a masculine smell – not desirable to me. It is crazy things like this that seem kind of common, but unable to get. Anyway, I could spend a whole blog on these types of items.  It's just a different culture, different ways.  As the saying goes – same, same but different… only it is more – different, different but the same?!

Around one-ish we ate a light lunch of our “last ofs” -crackers, salami, and blue cheese. Finally, around two-ish my package arrived, and Jeff went down to pay and receive it. Yippee-skippee! Around three-ish we went up and did some treadmill workout, but no sauna, as it had not been turned on. 🙁 But it was good to move about. Looking out from the tenth floor was still to cloud covered sky, but still no rain. We were elated about this. After our workout we went back down to our room and cooled off then showered and went out for dinner.

We opted to walk. The evenings are so pleasant here – when it is not raining. We walked the route to dinner and soaked up the ambiance of Da Nang. When the weather is clear like this we could see coming back here, easy-peasy, for three months at a time. We like the vibe and size of the town. With it being the third largest city in Vietnam, you seem to be able to access most things, but it is small enough still that it is not congested, like Saigon or Hanoi. But of course, this is without the rain!

Anyway, Jeff had found a fish place for our last night here… unbelievably we move on tomorrow. We arrived around 1730 at Pink Salt Restaurant. As soon as we entered we were asked if we had a reservation… well no. But Jeff said, “Do we need one?” The hostess looked about and found us a table right up front. Obviously, they were not overly busy – they had just opened at 1700 for the evening mealtime. As soon as we were seated – I had my chair pulled out, mind you – I knew it was a different caliber of a place – dare I say, Swanky!! 🤭 LOL! Joking aside, we ordered. We were served our drinks: me a glass of white Australian Chardonnay wine, Jeff a Belgian Blonde Ale beer. Next was an appetizer of Smoked Salmon Bruschetta- crispy toasted with sliver of salmon covered with a mix of greens, a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette and a caper topper. Great start! Then came Fish & Chips – piping hot strips of great breaded filets on a flourish bed of wispy noodle-type crisps with steaming steak fries and two sauces – one ketchup, other a mayo-yogurt cucumber (sweeter than a tzatziki, and not a tartar sauce). Last was the best (best for last, right). It was listed as Cream Butter Fish and the picture showed fillets in a cream reduction-type sauce with onions and/or mushrooms. What was delivered was way different! It was a display of presentation! A plate of Pan-seared fish filets on a bed of chili-style sauce, with drizzle of pesto oil and topped with dallop of cream of wasabi sauce, then with artistic dallops on the edge of the plate of three more sauces: a creamed sweet potato; a creamed, spicy beet; and a creamed pesto. Ooh La La, Tres Magnifique!! 💃🏻🤌🏻😘  My mouth was alive with flavors! I loved every minute of that meal! This was my best meal in a really long time, truly! Last night was amazing because it was Thanksgiving dinner in Vietnam! But this was next level for me. It seemed to pass – too quickly, but we did get a free dessert because Jeff completed a Google review of it. We each had a great vanilla ice cream with fresh mango and dragon fruit sauce. Wowza, WOWZA, WOWZA!!!  We paid. The bill was 1,063,100 Dong ($41.94). Jeff gave 1,300,000 Dong ($51.29), as again great service. With that, we left, thinking we had signaled finished. We were relishing and got maybe twenty feet when we were chased down by our waitress with change. We acknowledged her and demonstrated it was not mistake. She bowed to us in gratitude – no, no thank you! We walked back, very much enjoying our dinner, our night, our life. What a major blessing these past two – well, one and a half days have been!!! Thanks be to our great God!!!!