Sunburn bloody sunburn

I am back in Saigon now. Really did a whole lot of nothing yesterday afternoon. Chatted online to Rory for a bit which was cool though the internet cafe was stiflingly hot. Wandered back to the bungalow for the second shower of the day and had a lie down. Man, it was hot in the bungalow so imagine how gipped I felt when I finally left it a couple of hours later to discover the wonderful breeze on the beach. Dammit! Have read both of my books now and reread one of them already. Mission for tonight is to buy a new book.

Went out for dinner and accidentally ended up at the same place that I had eaten at the night before. It was cheap but uninspiring food. When I got back to the beach I bumped into Clodagh and Fergal from the dune trip in the morning. We chatted and drank a few beers and I left with an invitation to come and stay when I get to Sydney. Nice work.

Today I went back to the beach to spend my last few hours in Mui Ne finishing my book (for the second time, why you guys are wondering where I get the time to update from I do not know. What do you think that I do all day? Read. Sleep. Eat. Shower. Blog. And not always in that order).

Was horrified to discover, as I was waiting for the bus, that I got sunburnt. Now, normally I accept the burn as my due for being the kind of eijit that sits out in the sun unprotected. But today I swear that I didn't once come out from under the umbrella. Large umbrella which left me in the shade all day. But did nothing to protect me from the wind. So one arm, both legs and half of my face are bright red, no wonder the people on the bus looked scared when I got on- I didn't see the full damage until I got back to Saigon. Dammit! And it gets worse, I was bitten to death by mossies last night and used a spray today to take the itching away. A spray which dripped down my leg. And protected every bit it touched from the sun leading to some interesting sunburn patterns. I have high hopes of it going down by tomorrow!

Ah well, booked into a hotel and was taken up to the room- on the seventh floor! I think that it was all a trick to get me to stay there as they offered to show me the room, knowing that I would have to take it in order to have a little sit down to recover from the stairs. My backpack was brought up by an electric winch, lucky devil!

Speaking of my backpack, it had freaked me out earlier. When I was getting on the bus at Mui Ne it was taken off me and I didn't actually see it going into the luggage compartment. When I got to Saigon there was no sign of it. I was being crowded by people offering tours, books and really cheap hotel rooms but was too busy panicking to take them up. Just as I was really beginning to lose it I spotted the bag and ran over. I knew that something was wrong when it was so light. And the wrong colour. But it did explain why, minutes later, a girl turned up to give me back my pack which she had taken for a little walk. I like to think that as she put it on her back she had a moment of 'bugger this pack has got heavy'. And, judging on the size of her boyfriend's pack, she has been sneaking all her stuff into it which is why hers was so light.

Tomorrow I am going to allow myself to do a little shopping before getting on the plane at 1am to good old Hanguk. If I have time (ie. can't think of anything else to do) you may even see some photos here tomorrow.