I was wondering when I’d see the first one of these signs.
The toilets are fitted with the delightfully named “bum guns”, but … I’m going to let you Google that for yourself. And I think you should. It’s educational.
The presence of one of these things in the bathroom tells a story about respecting the sign, I feel.
I slept in a bit, because I could, and because it was a long day yesterday.
My morning walk around the block turned into breakfast, the choice of location in no way influenced by the sign on the wall.
My way of exploring a place is to just wander around, and in the interests of not getting hopelessly lost, following a left hand rule as you start isn’t the worst approach.
After breakfast, I took a wander to the end of the ‘promenade’ & back. There’s so much construction going on all around; If Hanoi smelled of Vehicle Exhaust & Bun Cha, Cat Ba smells of Fish & Cement.
Someone at the hostel last night said that the place probably won’t be recognisable in a few years, and I think he’s right. From the look of it they’re reclaiming a chunk of harbour, so that promenade will be just another street.
After a bit of time back at the hostel I walked in the other direction, and found myself on a loop path around the coast, which was a very pleasant way to spend the time.
Back at the hostel I had two things to do; book a bus out of Cambodia, and apply for a visa to enter Cambodia.
First one was easy.
Second one was going OK until the form refused to accept any Cambodian address I gave it for my location in the country. Refreshing the page & trying again just led to a timeout.
There was a long moment of “Oh No, Not Again”, but I dragged it back from thoughts of giving up fairly quickly.
Playing a hunch, I switched off the VPN, and that sorted it. Still not the greatest form to use, but I’ve given them all the information I can give. Now I just wait.
In a moment of “let’s see, shall we?” I had a pizza for dinner from one of the promenade places.
It was … OK. Base was very good, but I’ve come to expect that of bread & bread adjacent products here, but the toppings, aside from cheese & sauce, were hot dog & corn. Not bad, but not exactly a culinary masterpiece.
Still, I got to sit at a table by a non-packed road, enjoy an average meal with a beer, and soak up how this was so much more quiet than Hanoi.
And for comedy value, two British guys at the next table were sorting out their Fantasy Football trades.