Kong encouraged kissing in front of the Huynh Thuy Le Ancient House, where the movie, The Lover, was filmed in Sa Dec, Vietnam in 1992. We had no trouble cooperating!

As I continue to improve a little each day after spending more time resting and less time bending and walking, I’m anxious to get out to take photos.  Traveling on the bumpy road from the house in the less-than-stellar rental car is an athletic event in itself, requiring me to hang on for dear life even if my stability weren’t at risk.

There are numerous open air type markets and shops along the highway.  I was having a hard time in the rain taking good photos with the window open.  Thus, the rear view mirror was in the photos.

It has nothing to do with Tom’s driving skills. He’s as careful as he can be driving the old car on the rough roads. Once we reach the main highway the roads improve tremendously although seeing out the scratchy windows is its own challenge. 

We feel badly that we’ve yet to post many local photos hoping that today, after posting, if there’s a little sunshine, we just might give it a try and make an effort to find our way to the beach to take some photos to share.

A church or temple along the highway.

In the interim, we only have a few photos from our last trip, our on a rainy day that hardly meet the standards of what we prefer to post. Surely, our long term readers understand the dilemma and for those of our newer readers, please bear with us…better, is yet to come.

Finally, I’m beginning to feel hopeful that this injury is temporary. Given another month of recovering and I expect to be as good as I was before the occurrence around June 1st in Bali. No words can describe how excited I am to return to my “old self” being able to do the simplest of tasks without Tom’s help. 

Watch out!  There’s a tire in the road!

Oh, don’t get me wrong. He’s been amazing, never once complaining about waiting on me; pouring my coffee, iced tea, setting my computer on my lap atop the stack of pillows I use to keep the screen at eye level and so much more. I’ve appreciated every bit of assistance saying thank you each and every time. 

Not once in these past two months since the injury has he been “overly grumpy” regarding my situation. That’s not to say he doesn’t do a minute or two of “overly grumpy” for some other often peculiar reason, having absolutely nothing to do with me. 

Yikes! The less-than-stellar rental car’s windshield wipes don’t work well.

I must admit I haven’t been my usual “overly bubbly” self during these months of pain and discomfort.  Despite my optimism, it did kick in when Tom was having angst when he was unable to find a gas station while worrying about running out of gas. 

Ms O.B., kicked in with cheerful encouragement and optimism while he fussed while driving in the rain, terrified of running out of gas and barely able to see out the windows of the less-than-stellar rental car. Some things never change. For him, grumpiness seems to revolve around driving, traffic and transportation.

Lots of tuk-tuks and motorbikes were on the highway in the rain.

Kong suggested we’d find a “happy room” (restroom) down this passageway between the house and the building next door.

In the interim, as we wind down the final few photos from the Vietnam and Cambodia cruise/tour, we’re particularly excited to share today’s story about a movie we watched during the cruise.

Interesting design in the 121 year old Huynh Thuy Le Ancient House house in Sa Dec. See here for more details.

There was a meeting/video room on the lowest level in the Viking Mekong  where the cruise staff held meetings, cocktail parties on rainy days, evenings and conducted a variety of lectures and seminars, most of which we attended.

Each room contained original furnishings.

The seating was relatively comfortable with rows of similarly heavily padded sofas and chairs grouped together. I was able to sit for extended periods amid a bit of squirming and repositioning once I maneuvered down the steep stairway.

We were offered hot tea and a rest while inside the house.

With no elevators on the boat we had a series of three stairways, some steeper than others, to navigate during the cruise which never kept us from attending any activities on other levels, such as the two levels up to the sundeck where the nightly cocktail party was held. Our cabin was located on the same level as the dining hall and disembarking ramp which proved helpful with my injury.

View of the street and the river from inside the house.

We’d read some online reviews for this cruise/tour where a few passengers complained about the stairs aboard the ship. During the cruise, we came to the conclusion that this cruise/tour may not be ideal for those with mobility issues which was my case due to the injury. 

Ornate ceiling and lighting fixture design.

We had no other place to be during this period and had no choice but to continue on. Had we a permanent residence we may have decided to forego the cruise and stayed “home” to recuperate, perhaps losing the entire cruise fare. But, that’s wasn’t us. The small ship and three hotels were our “home” during that 17 day period.

Over a period of several days, Kong mentioned a movie he suggested we watch that was to be held after dinner on July 18th at 8:45 pm the following day we’d be visiting the location in Sea Dec, Vietnam where the movie had been filmed and was the basis of the story. 

Elaborate Buddhist shrine in the house.

This concept, particularly appealed to us when we usually make an attempt to watch a movie made in a country in which we’re living at a particular time such as when we watched (as an example) such films as “Casablanca” while living in Morocco in 2014 and “The Descendants” while living in Kauai, Hawaii in 2015.  (Please click links as included here).

Watching a highly acclaimed Academy Award nominated movie made in Vietnam was especially appealing when we’d be able to experience the actual location where the movie was made in Sa Dec, Vietnam the following day. Watching the movie which was inspired by a true story at the location of the house, made the tour all the more exciting. 

Bedroom in the house with some updating. The house is used as a B &B for certain events explaining the flat screen TV.

Kong had warned the passengers that the movie, The Lover, was “racy” with explicit sex scenes. None of that phased us a bit. We’ve always enjoyed a well done sexy movie and this would be no exception.

By 8:45 pm, we made our way down the steps to the meeting room on the lowest level of the ship. After yet another big meal, I wondered if we’d be able to stay awake for the two hour movie but as it turned out, neither of us dozed for a moment during the movie. 

Artistic design on dining table.

However, the “packed house” dwindled down throughout the movie to a total of eight of us by the end. As passengers exited as the scenes became racier, we heard some grumbling over the movie being “too explicit,” “too racy for public viewing” as many couples got up to leave during the viewing. We looked at each other giggling as the room almost completed cleared out.  This made for interesting conversation the next day.

Table décor in main living room, most likely a modern day addition.

The movie, beautifully filmed in 1992, included excellent acting by its equally beautiful and exceptional Asian actors, cinematography (for which it won awards), an appealing musical score and an interesting story line. Yes, it was racy which may have been daring for Vietnam at the time but the sexy scenes were done tastefully.

The next day, we embarked on an action packed tour as we’ve described in past posts with photos, a portion of the tour to Sa Dec included the tour of the historical aristocratic home for which the story, The Lover, was inspired.

A popular tourist attraction, Huynh Thuy Le Ancient House  is easily visible from the main road in Sa Dec.

Visiting the historic aristocratic house left us feeling happy we’d watched the movie in it entirety the previous evening. Enjoy today’s photos from that visit.  We’ll be back with more tomorrow!

Have a restful and pleasant weekend!

Photo from one year ago today, July 30, 2015:

Many of the restaurants in Port Douglas, Australia (Queensland) are huge and elaborate attracting the most finicky of diners and tourists. For more details, please click here.