The Ghost Nomad Chronicles

Daily logs and insights from years on the road

May 25

Another guy snoring below and noisy in morn. Rise 9:40. More site fixes in dorm with free coffee. 9:30 take breakfast fruit with vegan pasta. Start new tool visa timer. 10:40 walk to smoothie spot yesterday no worker, eat com ga 35k. Checkout Dom hostel 11:50 tip 30k deposit, nice spot but flimsy lockers. Walk to tennis cafe only 2km bus already there said 20min. Find small Chinese temple pray and Wim Hof breating. Bus leave early 12:45, best sleeper so far only 2 rows with toilet in back. Bus moving slow pickup more people 1hr to get to Da Nang nap good. Driver gave me shit for washing hands in aisle. Nap more. Arrive Hue Camel station 4:25. Walk south to bridge grab pork noodles only 25k. Walk across bridge to old town. Check in Amona hostel easy 103k on card, free water but crappy lockers again. 5:30 twilight walk around city find bus next door to Phong Nha 250k, walk along river across bridge, market, imperial palace, cross other bridge, fresh OJ 20k. Find Kha hostel in pedestrian street best lockers only 90k nice girl too. Mango smoothie on hostel street 20k. Work bit on new timer tool. 8pm walk across bridge rice spot 50k . Find tall multi level hostel across river for 100k including breakfast and water.

May 26

Quiet dorm rest ok. Rise 8:50 dorm empty. Make cold instacafe with free water. Work on visa timer too got API working. 10:30 drop laundry nearby 50k, visit Kha again. Smoothie 20k, local com ga 50k. Visa tool just about finished. Checkout Amona 11:50 decent stay good rest. Real short walk to Kha hostel. Pay 124k with breakfast, same as Hoi An. Stash stuff in metal locker, flimsy door. Keep working on visa tool no progress API locator stopped working. Walk around NM sugarcane juice, Vincom mall nada, banh mi on corner 20k good but plastic board. Check in Kha 2:30 bed9 got bottom locker double lock still bit flimsy. Setup other APIs location autocomplete working again. 4pm walk across bridge try fish soup 27k. Grab laundry 50k. Work more on timer API busted again. Shower rest not sleepy. 7pm walk out for food grab corner 20k banh mi again solid. Try to walk to other side of imperial city but rain started, turn around grab pho 35k, rain hard walk back. Work on visa clock - input local time instead of city API time zone, try to setup email notifications using Formspree. Rain stopped go out for food again at 9:40. Seafood noodles mantis and crab 45k, banh mi next door 28k BBQ pork solid. Try to setup email notifications for visa clock fail.

May 27

Dorm quiet sleep better. Rise 9:35. TSX and Questt ATH. Pay another night at Kha 92k on HT visa pin still same in mail. Espresso and pho hostel breakfast. Call HT fail. Eat dragonfruit and pho decent for 30k. Keep working on email notifications, use Brevo, download Brave browser. 12:30 go out for smoothie 20k, corner 20k banh mi spot closed, walk to chain spot from yesterday 25k pork banh mi. Continue work on clock email form not working. MB bank withdraw 5M hope last time cost 279 CAD. Grab local chicken rice 50k NG. Keep working on form no results. Netlify 'site settings' = project configuration, confusion. Create new toml and js files break deploy command, delete project folder, revert back to zip from last night, luckily restore site. 6:30 walk across river to imperial area, calisthenics area, muscle up 3x5 better than in Da Nang, front lever pull FLPU 3x7 easy. Inverted raise 7. Walk around imperial wall, mango juice 22k, banh mi 15k, small spot fried rice with drums 35k solid. Walk all the way around wall inside moat nice no bikes. Local guy Michael very persistent follow me to hostel try to let me see girls and sell weed. 'I never lie' wtf. Flip flops from Arg broke. Build fitness sprinting page way simpler than delayed email JS functions.

May 28

Sleep ok quiet dorm. Rise 9:35. Extend 1 night with nice girl 93k visa. Small tweaks to homepage, edit sprint page, GPT says pages need preview image. 12pm smoothie regular spot. Walk across imperial bridge to Dong Ba market buy new flip flop 100k fake Adidas size 10 stronger thong part not plastic. National pagoda, cheap com ga street food 20k. Walk back sweaty. Shower nap hard. 4:20 corner spot get 2 banh mis another cane juice. Create preview images for fitness, destinations and tools pages, try Google Sheets API for email schedule fail again. Compress webp images. 8pm walk across original bridge get Mai's fish soup again 25k including 4 quail eggs solid. Walk to end of boardwalk over 2km one way. Generate fitness background image, link pages.

May 29

Sleep good real satisfied with Kha hostel so far. Rise 9:50 pay 1 night more 92k card. Make more minor site tweaks, fix logos, add metadata. Try to add menu to tools messed up pissed again. 12pm regular smoothie, walk across initial bridge first noodle spot pork noodles + muscle rice 35k both. Buy ticket to Phong Nha at Queen Cafe tomorrow 3pm. Keep working on site in dorm, hostel quiet, got nice tool background. Quick leg workout in dorm - bounce squats 2x100. Tuck jump squats from ATG 3x6. Pistols hops by stairs 3x5. Advanced cossacks. 5/10 too easy. 3:30 walk across bridge again fish place not ready, cane juice, try another soup spot - pork pho 25k + rice soup 12k nice people. Hostel keep working on site, stuck on background for expense tracker annoyed. 6pm grab another banh mi. Fix everything seems ok, start Atitlan page. 7:30 grab another smoothie, walk to Chochong market closing, Batrieu big street find local rice wrap spot get 40k menu huge, got charged 80k faranged or maybe got 2 portions. Work on Atitlan page.

May 30

Sleep good again. Rise 9:10. Generate sitemap.xml, combine fitness pages 1-3. 10:40 smoothie, outdoor com ga spot 30k. Checkout Kha hostel 11:50am very nice stay tip nice girl 50k. Chill in hostel til 2pm to work on site. Grab lunch at KFC 53k. Queen Cafe bus on time at 3pm. Nap couple times on bus. 5:30 rest stop in remote area, pork tofu rice 50k. Arrive Phong Nha 7:40pm pitch dark, Central Backpacker hostel wants 200k for dorm. Walk in to Hahaland pay 76k on card including breakfast woman kinda rude. Walk along main street view few hostels nothing good, walk all the way to Cherish guesthouse bad lockers no water. Grab pho on way back 50k food prices higher than Hue. Find bus to Ninh Binh 300k same price and bus to Hanoi. Mosquitos outside no place to sit in dorm, bed early. Guy checked in top bunk 11:30pm.

May 31

Sleep ok rise 8:40 for breakfast roof popping from sun. Make regular instacafe outside take breakfast banana with garlic bread. Bug swarm outside, ask for desk in dorm said no. Walk east look for Homie Home fail. Grab pork pancake wrap next door 60k ok. Checkout Hahaland 11:40 bad hostel but has free water. Book Hideaway homestay 70k deal Agoda. Check in Hideaway way nicer dorm on floor 2 just no water. Grab table and chair from terrace, mild work in dorm with AC, chair not comfortable. Shower nap hard. 4:30 grab food sunny and hot, shanty town, pho 50k small. Winmart no snack unlike Dalat. Decide to leave tomorrow. Hostel pay guy for half day 40 negotiated checkout tomorrow 7:30pm. Fix text color on fitness pages. 7p chat w son over 1hr on terace private, went to dc, goin to korea for summer, no probs luckily, asks about airlines, jetbridge in NA no windows, goin to bluejays game.. questrade 8 wcp 9.5put exex'd against, transfer another 3k from itrade to qtrade... 830 get din, local chk comga board said 40k menu says 60k, similar to fav dalat place but smaller forgot earpick+clippers, walk around dock, mango smoothie 25k gud, buy water, comga place closed go back tmr hostel buy tik to hanoi for tmr 8pm 280k cheapest so far. find cheaper tik on 12go 232k online feel stupid now 2 mistakes in rapid succession. start on workout generator