Hey everybody -
Some time has passed since my last dispatch and some of you have wondered if I had "disappeared"!? Rest assured - I have not.
Aside from the days I spent planning my Indonesian itinerary - I have spent most of my time hanging with friends here - primarily Linh's family (primarily her father bc she is back in school) and Hoang (and his friends) the motorbike driver.
Great news about Linh's internship paper (for which I provided minimal English editorial assistance) - she got the highest grade in her class! She was so worried about her grade. I hope to be able to celebrate her grade with her and her family this evening.
Vinh (Linh's father) works from 3PM to 3AM 6 days a week. He gets a 2+ hour dinner break each day - normally between 5PM and 7PM. During the past week, he has picked me up to spend this time together, sometimes with his family, eating and drinking coffee. Yesterday he picked me up early and had a surprise for me!
He treated me (and himself) to an elaborate 3-hr massage. It was quite an involved affair: 1) sauna; 2) hot feet soak (heated stones in ankle deep water - soak feet while sitting on benches); 3) steam bath; 4) soak in hot tub; 5) cold shower; 6) face massage; 7) cold green tea and fruit while sitting in massage chairs and; 8) topped off with a 1 hour full body massage by very attractive and friendly masseuses = total time just over 3 hours. I have had several of the classic 1-2 hour massages here - but they were nothing as involved as this experience. Total costs was about $22 each including tips. I picked up the tip tab for both of us - which represented only a small portion of the total costs - maybe 15%. Anyway - it was a terrific experience and I am very grateful for his generosity and thoughtfullness.
That's about it from this side of the world. I hope all is going well with you folks!
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