December 18,

We awoke to another blue sky day! Two days in a row! Yippee! We got around and had our Javas, then breakfast of Muesli, yogurt and milk. We then walked to the print shop for a new label printing, then on to the Shopee place and handed in the return package. Just walked around enjoying sunshine 😎🌞!! I feel like I can’t get enough but we know better. We may actually have to put on suntan lotion! What a concept!! We found some hotels with great views and will have to check them out for potential stays in the future.

Back at our place we had a light lunch, last of the watermelon salad, cucumber, yellow pepper, and crackers. Then we did our resistance bands. We have been bad and are getting back into a routine with them. I can not remember the last time we have done them! Then, I blogged & Jeff read. We spent some more time planning.

Late afternoon or early evening, we were getting hungry. The place we wanted to go was closed today, so… right near it was a Popeye’s. Jeff remembered this because it is right nearby where the hotel we stayed at in our previous stay here! That sounded great so we went there. We split a four piece of chicken and large fries with sprite drinks. The chicken is semi spicy and a bit different taste from the not quite the same spices, but it is good! Supper costs us 167,000 Dong ($6.56). Now we walked back a long way back to our place, going through the night market. We got our steps in! Yay!!

Back at our place, Jeff took our refillable 20 liter (5.28 gallons) – now empty – water bottle, and exchanged it for a new, full one. The original one cost 60,000 Dong ($2.36), but since he brought back the old bottle the new one was only 20,000 Dong ($0.80 – yes that’s 80 cents).

Rest of the evening was me writing this blog as Jeff read. We also listened to music – nice, relaxing evening.

     December 19,

Today was more– “blue sky smiling on me” 🎵🎶!! Yeah 👏🏻! We did experience a pretty cool night last night (upper 50’s), so definitely we were glad to see sun and good weather. We got up & about, having our Javas and breakfast of Muesli, yogurt, and milk. But still hungry we had a slice of bread with melted, shredded cheese – left over from our chili. We also did a load of laundry.

Now we set out for a walkabout around the lake. We did the crazy crossing at the round- about, to get to the lakeside path. It is like a scary dance – we just walk and the traffic flows around us. Safely, we arrived and began our couple mile trek. We both realize we are sore from our resistance bands workout yesterday. It has been too long. I actually did not sleep well. I awoke at 0200 – sore, but stubbornly did not take any Ibuprofen till 0500!! Sad, sad I know!

Anyway, the lake-side trek was nice. It was so sunny and coolish due to the wind. We passed by more new signage put up from just yesterday. We saw many workers putting out new flower pots… because more flowers is never bad! 😂🤣!! At one spot we passed though a display that was there yesterday, but today we noticed the orchids. The coloring was a bit to crazy… it did not seem real!! And closer inspection, revealed they were spray painted. Interesting and well stunning. Further on we saw the Japanese like gates had flowers on them now as well. As we got closer the shopping center we saw a banner advertising a ‘Da Lat “Spring”(?) Concert’ on the 21st. Do they consider this spring time? Humm? Questions?? Anyway, we looked it up and the concert is free, having four different performers! One is an UK iconic singer from the 80’s, Samantha Fox. I recognized the name – but when I played a song of hers, I did not remember it… but it is free, so we’ll check it out.

At the shopping center mall, we stopped and inspected the stage area set-up for this concert, it seems completed. Then we went into the mall – the grocery store for a small list of stuff. With our newly acquired stuff – we walked back – just taking in the rest of the flowers and getting Vitamin D. At the end of lake, we crossed to the roundabout, but we stopped in the center and got more pictures of the topiary musicians. They are just fun!

Back at our place we unloaded and cooled off. Once that was accomplished we went back out for lunch. We went to a Bahn Mi shop – Bahn Mi Xoi Co Ha. We had seen it yesterday and wanted to check it out. It is just across the street from us, along the canal side. We arrived. The lady said, “Xin chao,” which means hello. I found the picture of the chicken bahn mi (Bahn Mi Ga) and pointed to it. The lady spoke fairly decent language, “One chicken bread.” I nodded and Jeff started to find his picture to point to but she said “BBQ crispy pork and bread?” (Bahn Mi Thit Heo Nuong Gion, maybe – she never said the name in Vietnamese). He nodded. Then she said, “To go or here.” We said here and she pointed to the little people chairs and tables. We sat – with our knees taller than the table – and waited. When the food arrived, we took a photo and dug in. UMMM… so good! The man behind the counter – maybe her son – asked and took our picture. We also had a small bottle of water that we split. The bill was 60,000 Dong ($2.36)! It is still shocking to me – the prices!

We went back to our place a vegged out. I blogged some and Jeff read some. Then we went out once more. It was very cool now.  We were exploring our options for a Christmas dinner. We found it, then we went to supper at Pho Thin, a branch of the one we were at in Hanoi. It was great, and only cost 70,000 Dong ($2.75) for the “small” – Ha-ha – bowl, and the “regular” bowl.

Finished, we went back enjoying a late colored sunset sky. We watched a movie then bed.