Relaxing by the Pool

So while Phil suffered all day in bed trying to recover from food poisoning, Lisa and Harper went about enjoying themselves at the pool and on the beach.

Harper was having a great time with his snorkelling around the little island in the pool and pretending to be the king of the island.  Lisa meanwhile got stuck into her Tim Winton book, 'The Turning'.  Gradually the day brightened up and we saw the first sunshine since we arrived in Vietnam. As the haze lifted and the sea settled a little, the charm of this little cove on Cat Ba was revealed.  The wifi also worked a charm in the resort which was a great relief after the flaky experience at the Intercon in Hanoi.  The food wasn't much chop but we had probably been spoiled by now.

Harper especially loved the beach where he did more snorkelling, lots of body surfing and rock collecting.  He went for hours before collapsing in a big heap early evening.

It was great to have some down time after a pretty frantic start to the holiday and although it was a two person party, the slow pace gave Phil time to recover without being a drag on all.

One great breakthrough for the day came in solving our malaria tablet problem for Harper.  A quick search of the Internet revealed a cure involving crushing the powder in melted chocolate (several other remedies hadn't worked and this was our last roll of the dice).  So we managed to procure some Dove chocolate and, using utensils in our room, crushed the tablet into powder. Meanwhile using the extreme hot water in our room we melted the chocolate in a glass and the mixed in the powder.  Voila - a melty chocolaty ball that disguised the quinine taste.  Harper was elated because by this time he was convinced that mum and dad were sending him to his death amongst the malaria infested jungles of Sapa.  Another day's venture done.