Sick of it

Hello July 14th. I haven't seen you in an entire year. I've only seen 46 of you until today. I think that makes you pretty rare and a special find.
I have not written since we arrived in Nha Trang?! I think I know why. Because I arrived and had one good day, then I was sick as a dog for 6 days. I left the room maybe twice. Some kind of stomach bug. It was nasty, and I will spare you my descriptive writing about it. I will just say that dehydration was a serious concern, and I was very happy I wasn't throwing up too. It was the worst.
Yesterday was my first day out and I felt so alive! So free! It was like I woke up from a deep sleep. I had to look up what day of the month it was. What day of the week it was. But I tell you what, those days of sickness were full of inspiration. It was the animated influence of a sick woman. During that time I figured a lot of things out, though, seriously.

We flew in and the sun set as we drove to the Airbnb room, it was about an hour. We drove along the coast with a short beach on one side and lots of malls and shops on the other. The room was interesting. It was in a tall skinny building which is common in Vietnam, except this one doesn't have others surrounding it. There is almost always a we, but I will talk as me. (Thank the Good Lord above that there was no we getting sick, just me) I received a key to the elevator, since it stops at my room and opens into the hallway between the bedroom and the living room. This place has many big windows and amazing views. The living room has enough open floor space for one couple to slow dance. It has a desk, 3 chairs, a coffee table, and if you step carefully you can get to a corner of the room with a sink and tiny counter space. And ants. The itty bitty kind. They were constant, but by now I am so used to them. Plus, I watched the latest Ant Man and the Wasp movie, so I have respect for how amazing they are. They stuck mostly to their path to the garbage, and taking out the garbage means going downstairs and down the street, so I wasn't going to win this battle. The bedroom has a window that looks across a narrow street to a university. There is an old one on that side, and a new one on the other side. An education sandwich.
Three special things about this place. One is that off of the bedroom there is a tiny closet with windows for the outer walls. It's designed for hanging laundry to dry, I guess. I opened the door and there was just enough space for a coat rack. The door opens into this room, so it uses up half the available space. When I first looked, there were many thoughts running through my head about the design and function. My best guess is laundry. One other feature to this stay is the stairs to the roof. It's like going up a turret in a castle, a small curved staircase all in white. The view up there is phenomenal. The trick to be up there when the heat isn't completely oppressive. And to never lean over the railing. It's less than waist high and being born with a head (then growing some famously womanly parts on my torso) makes me top heavy, I was always careful walking around up there. 5th floor and a short wall around it, there is a bit of vertigo effect: but worth it. The last thing isn't a good kind of special. The living room has no air conditioning. So I stay positive, right? At least there is cool air in the bedroom. There are 2 big windows in the living area and a big fan. It's almost bearable half of the time. I'm glad I had some hot weather conditioning in Costa Rica.
So there are ants here, geckos like the sink area, it helps that there are built in holes in the wall for them to run in and out of. Like miniature windows with no panes. And did I mention the cockroaches?? I killed the biggest cockroach I've ever seen in my life. I quickly learned that the trick is to kill it without all of it's guts and glory being left in a huge splatter all over the place. This thing was as big as... the bottom half of my thumb. Is that a good comparison? I don't know, I tried. I wish he was the last one I had to send to heaven, but there were more. For something so small they sure seemed terribly big. Travel changes perception. For example I now see how incredibly short a week is, and how very long a month is. And how my whole world can change in a day. Or at least my place in it.

My new favorite color is any green produced by the South China Sea. This is a view from the roof top. This water changes so many colors from one side to the other, from one hour to the other.
It's fascinating. This isn't the full view to the right, but it's a good shot. On the left is the Vinpearl island, and you can't see it, but the space between the island and the land on the right is where the cable cars go across.

This is another view from the balcony, showing a fraction of the view. I need to master the panoramic shot. It's such a narrow street, it comes to a dead end so there isn't much traffic. Those blue things pop up on the side of the street every day, they are short chairs with tiny tables for the university students to eat. The restaurants are super skeptical. Sure, you can eat street food cheap here, but especially after getting sick (I can only guess the culprit was an orange) I wasn't taking any chances. See that ramshackle building on the right, between 2 other buildings, surrounded by green? That's one of the kitchens. Would you save a dime to eat there? More power to you. I would not.

I adore the balcony. It's very peaceful up there. There are 22 islands off the coast of Nha Trang, and it's all very scenic.

That is our building, it looks bigger than it really is. I tried for the black and white shot, but maybe I should rethink it.

One last shot that is a favorite of mine. So many colors of blue. So serene. In a blasting hot kind of way that melts metal and fries my brain from the inside out. But makes my eyes say: Ohhhhh!