December 26,

Today we awoke to more cloud cover, but patches of blue sky peeked through. We set about having our Javas and breakfast of Muesli, yogurt, and milk… while watching the Chiefs highlights! Yippee!! We were house bound due to getting a delivery. We had ordered a new band for my fitness tracker, as the old one was splitting up and not wearable. As we were waiting, we could hear a gong ringing. There seems to be a funeral perhaps(?) going on down our street. A tent structure coming out into the road some has been set up in front of a house. There are chairs set up and there is also a lot of incense with a dozen people around a make shift altar.

Around 1200, we set out to 3 Ngon Da Lat for lunch. It is really close, in case my package comes. We have eaten here before, and liked it. I had the same dish – Sizzling Beefsteak, 5 ingredients, which I made into a Banh Mi sandwich. Jeff had something new – Spicy Beef Noodles – offering eight levels of spice from 0 to 7. Jeff chose level four. It was just right for us wimpy foreigners! 🤣😂  We enjoyed our meals. We split a water. When we finished – we paid 140,000 Dong ($5.50) – and went back to our place, since it looked to start raining any minute. It was time for a siesta anyway.

Around 1500, my package, the fit bit band, arrived. We set out for a walkabout the lake, because we had those beautiful blue patches peeking through again! It was a nice walk. We went to the grocery store; back to our place and unloaded. Then back out at the local stalls at the other end of our street for eggs & homemade yogurt.

Supper was a soft-boiled egg in a croissant, a Greek salad, and a wedge of a cheesecake-like pastry made with sweetened mung beans(?). It was a great dinner. Then watched You tube.

     December 27,

We awoke to wet road this morning. The front had finally unloaded some rain and the weather app seems to call for rain much of the day. 😒 We readied and had our Javas and breakfast of French toast and some of our Russian salami. Then we watched some You tube while waiting for the temperature to warm a bit.

Around 1000, we set out to get a massage💆🏻‍♀️. As we were heading there it started spitting rain. So we ducked into Lim Coffee House. I had an Iced Salt Coffee, Jeff had an Iced Chocolate Milk Tea. We got in the cafe just in time – it rained pretty good! We watched it pouring as we were sipping our drinks. When the rain finished, we were done as well. We paid 55,000 Dong ($2.16).

Now we walked the rest of the way to the massage place, An Lac. We went in and the lady gave us tea and established what massage we wanted. After about 10 minutes we were escorted back to a locker/changing room. We had a pair of shorts and a tube top for me. Once changed we were given a bottle of water and a cool towel; then directed to a steam sauna. We sat and Jeff’s bench broke! The lady was outside, so I opened the door and showed her. We just changed benches. Anyway, there was a basin of tepid water for each of us to soak our feet in. We sat and sweated for what seemed an eternity, but was probably only 10 minutes. It felt good, though. The steam had a eucalyptus smell. So our sinuses opened as well. We came out hot and dripping sweat, even though we had been toweling off the whole time. Now, we were directed to the dry sauna. We sat and dried out, but still hot. After another 10 minutes, we were taken to the changing room for new outfits and robes. Once we were changed we went upstairs to the massage benches. Here the magic happened. 60 minutes of massage and pummeling💆🏻‍♀️💆🏻‍♂️… It felt great – so alive!💃🏻🕺🏻  Then we were toweled off and taken back to the changing room. We put on our own clothes; tipped the ladies who massaged us; and paid at the main desk. It cost us 500,000 Dong total ($19.65) for the 60 minute massage. We tipped each lady 100,000 Dong ($3.93). We both felt great after. They did not manipulate like at the Thai massages. We think this will be better.

Anyway, we now left and walked to Pho Thin for lunch. We had a small spit of rain on the way, but no issues. At the restaurant, we both had a serving of Pho… so good! When we finished, we paid 100,000 Dong ($3.93) and started walking to the lake. We wanted to do a lap for steps, but it started spitting again, so we just went back to our place. Thwarted again!

I blogged and Jeff read; we watched some You tube. Supper will be something light as we hunker in out of the rainy/drizzly weather.