We woke up commendably early and had our last breakfast at Arcadia, followed by some sunbathing and the last swim before checking out. It was rather cloudy so it seemed the timing for our stay had been really good. We had been promised a discount for the issues we had with our room during the stay and were offered 10% which seemed a bit cheap. After some discussion with the customer oriented manager we got 20% – and she mentioned she was OK with this since we had been very kind to point out flaws or potential areas of improvement. We were never aggressive or rude, but helped her to improve her place, or as Jenny herself stated “Thank you for being very detail-oriented” – few people can say that without the sarcasm dripping but she managed and perhaps she truly was thankful.

Always fine tuning our buffers we cut down the buffer this time – the taxi left 70 minutes before the plane would depart, and once again we went through security went like a breeze. Mona managed to somehow find more jewelry at the airport – amazing skillz indeed. We were rather hungry when we landed since no food had been served on the flight so after getting to Sophia Hotel in Saigon we headed out for something quick to eat for a late lunch. We then darted back to the hotel to change to slightly better clothing in order to watch the sunset from the Caravelli rooftop bar. It was beautiful, but in the rush to make it I had left the memory cards for the camera in the previous shorts – well well. The bartenders made Mona a delightful ice cream drink but my Old Fashioned wasn’t really made the old fashioned way.

We strolled back to our hotel and took a walk in our neighborhood, we off course lived in the Japanese area and I managed to find a convenient store that sold me Pocari Sweat and Gun Gun Yurt (Yoghurt/water drink made by Calpis – brought back fond memories). We topped that off with finding a spa that gave one hour foot massages for 8 USD, awesome. The massage was closer to 90 minutes including the tea and was really nice. The night was concluded by reading about how the Swedish authorities created a shell company when assisting Saudia Arabia building a missile factory – seemed legit.

After the now familiar breakfast we planned to do some slacking while the sun was out and sky was blue and then visit a pearl farm nearby when the weather would get worse. Sad but true the sky kept being blue with no sign of of rain, but around lunch we got a cab and visited the pearl farm/shop anyway. Needless to say one of us just happened to find some adorable jewelry. We went back and had lunch before returning to the slacking positions – still sunny.

We enjoyed the Mandatory drinks in the sunset at the beach, and after some dinner considerations we decided it was OK to visit

Ganesh a third time since we at least had not been there any two consecutive days. Said and done, it was really good as usual and the service as well. The Indian manager runs the place with an iron fist but it does make a difference and service is one of those things that’s very hard to learn if you haven’t been privileged to experience it for yourself.

When we got back we took the opportunity of the dark to do some nightly skinny dipping, no rain yet during the whole day and a few minutes later we went to bed after another pretty OK day.

I thought it would be interesting to document our very serious swims and how we solve the world’s problems while enjoying mangos so fresh they melt in your mouth so here you see me performing what’s commonly known as “Retarded Front Flip” from the shore. As we used up the last of the old sunblock we thought it would be a good investment to go for water resistant SPF 30 this time. They also sold some SPF 82 which I haven’t seen before but what could possibly be hurtful with a little healthy UV radiation?

After another lunch at the beach I called to Sweden to finally order the dishwasher – perhaps the most anticipated purchase this decade. We felt that drinks in the sunset was a rather pleasant tradition and made sure to celebrate the Happy Hour once again. The weather forecast mentioned chance of rain tomorrow so we thought now would be a good time to remind the reception that we lacked a TV. We were given the last TV which would be installed while we went for dinner. Right behind come a somewhat agitated Chinese girl who was traveling alone and lacked a TV as well – there are obviously still a few kinks with this new hotel that needs to be sorted out.

We had Dinner at Mondo, a Swedish run Spanish Tapas restaurant. They were unfortunately out of Halloumi but had other dishes such as the mandatory dates in bacon. Dates in bacon however turned out to be figs in bacon, not quite as tasty. The staff were very apologetic of the mixup and the waiter explained that none of these fruits were common in Vietnam, in fact she had never tasted any of them – which we of course remedied then and there. We were offered the proper dish but we were satisfied with three tapas to share – the appetite takes a toll in the heat it seems.