Trip Report - Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia - 2019

cschaaf

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Here is our trip report from out ABD Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia trip.

On this trip were me, my wife, and my parents. The was our first ABD. My wife and I had done one Viking trip (China – also with my parents) two years ago. My parents have done a lot of Viking trips, but no ABDs.

I was the one that picked this trip – I have wanted to see Vietnam for a long time. I looked at a bunch of different operators and settled on ABD. I really don’t even remember exactly why I chose ABD. The main thing I wanted to do in Vietnam was Ha Long Bay, and ABD doesn’t even do that! I also wanted to see Hue – another place ABD doesn’t go. But I think I was happy with everything else ABD was doing – including Laos and Angkor, so I chose that one.

We talked about doing some post trip days in Thailand, but I finally decided that I needed to see Ha Long Bay or I would regret it. Then I learned about Ninh Binh and couldn’t decide between the two, so we added days for both. I am so glad we did – they both stand out as one of my favorite things we did all trip.

Pre-Trip Day 1 (7/3) –

The original plan was to stay one night in Hanoi before an early morning departure to do a Ha Long Bay cruise with Indochina Junk Junk. They were to pick us up early that next morning (7/4), take us to the cruise, then after the cruise take us to Ninh Binh for a late arrival there. The following day we’d tour Ninh Binh (using Tommy’s Service), stay another night, then have Tommy transfer us back to the La Siesta Trendy in Hanoi. We’d have an afternoon in Hanoi, stay the night at the La Siesta, then fly out early the next morning.

My wife and I had a connection in Tokyo and my parents had the same connection there, so we met them in the airport there.

We arrived in Hanoi around 10PM and had arranged a shuttle to the La Siesta Trendy hotel. It was a nice boutique hotel with amazing staff. While checking in, they told me that they got a message from the cruise company we were using for a Ha Long Bay cruise the following day.

Well, the message from Indochina Junk was that, due to a typhoon, all cruises were cancelled on 7/4. The desk staff told me to check my email for additional details. Once we got the WiFi password I checked and Indochina Junk said the cruise was cancelled, but they would be happy to reschedule us for the 5th. The 5th was our day to be in Ninh Binh, so that wasn’t ideal. Our first thought was to just cancel Ha Long and work with the hotel (or Tommy) to help us transfer to Ninh Binh to keep that part of the trip.

We made it to our rooms. We had booked the smaller, interior rooms. We figured we’d only be in the rooms for a few hours, so a window wasn’t necessary. The hotel upgraded both rooms to larger rooms with windows. The rooms were small, but still plenty of room for two people. The staff was so friendly!
 
Ah, man! Nature does what she wants to, and doesn't care about our plans! Eager to find out what you ended up doing!

Sayhello
 
Pre-Trip Day 2 –

I didn’t sleep much that night both due to the travel and time change as well as trying to figure out how to rearrange our days to fit Ha Long in the plan and it paid off and I finally came up with an idea. Before breakfast, I emailed Indochina Junk and asked if we could do the cruise on the afternoon of the 6th (that was originally intended to be free time in Hanoi). The emailed back (rather quickly, too!) and said that would work for them.

Then I emailed Tommy to see if: A. he could help us transfer to Ninh Binh today and B. if he could transfer us to Ha Long Bay the morning of the 6th. He also emailed back super-fast with the details around how he could help. I emailed Indochina Junk back and said to book the 6th, then Tommy to book the transfers.

For breakfast, they had a small, but nice buffet breakfast set up. There were also items you could order from the menu. I headed up to breakfast by myself and the lady at the podium somehow knew my room number already. This happened over and over at this hotel. Everyone seemed to know who you were even if you hadn’t dealt with them directly before.

Our plan was always to leave our large suitcases at the La Siesta Trendy and take our backpacks and day bags with us to Ha Long and Ninh Binh. I had contacted the hotel ahead of time and they said they could do that for us. We shuffled around luggage and had the hotel store our large bags.

Tommy’s transfer wouldn’t happen until the afternoon, so we had a free morning in Hanoi. We had a few options of things to do, but most were outdoors and it was raining. We decided to go to Hoa Lo Prison figuring it was mostly indoors. This was scheduled as an optional activity on the ABD portion of the trip. We figured that if we did it now, we could use the time during the ADB to do something else.

I had Grab on my phone, so we ordered a car to take us to Hoa Lo. It was quick, easy, and cheap. We toured the prison and kept dry. The prison was interesting and sobering. Very difficult to wrap your head around all that happened there – and it’s right in the middle of a neighborhood.

After walking through, we were trying to figure out where to go next. I couldn’t find any WiFi and my dad’s phone had cell signal, but he wasn’t able to search for some reason. We decided to head back to the hotel so that I could find a cell phone store and pick up a local SIM card. We had to take a taxi back since we couldn’t order a Grab. It was about 4x as expensive as the Grab. The driver was very nice, though, and pointed out a few sights as we went past.

Back at the hotel, I asked the front desk for directions to the closest cell shop and said I needed a SIM card. The desk agent said he would get a SIM delivered to the hotel. We hung out in the lobby area for a few minutes, and the desk agent called me over and said he had the SIM. HE asked for my phone and installed the SIM for me, then made sure it worked properly. Amazing level of service that was totally unexpected.

Later, I asked the front desk where I could exchange some large bills for smaller ones. The guy said he could do it for me. I handed over the large bills and he pulled out his wallet to exchange them! I said he didn’t have to do that, but he insisted.

Now that we could order a Gab from anywhere we had cell signal, we decided to head out for lunch and went to Bún Chả Hương Liên – also known as Obama Bun Cha. It’s the place where President Obama and Anthony Bourdain went to eat. Bun Cha is the dish that they are famous for – and it was really good. My wife said it was her favorite food of the trip. I really liked it, but it was a bit too sweet for my tastes. I ate it all, but by the end I had kind of had enough.

It was still raining and we figured we should just head back to the hotel and wait for our transfer. My wife noticed a small coffee shop around the corner from the hotel and she wanted to try some egg coffee. It was a nice little place with a large open front where we could sit and watch the street. My wife got an egg coffee and my parents and I, none of us drink coffee, got some fruit juices. My wife LOVED the egg coffee and said she would get more during the trip.

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It started raining harder and we had to run back to the hotel. We got there about 10 minutes before our transfer was scheduled and the staff said the van was already there. They had him drive around the block as the street was very narrow and didn’t want him blocking it while they waited for us to return.

The driver pulled back around and the hotel staff loaded our backpacks and day bags and off we went for Ninh Binh. We arrived at our hotel, the Ninh Binh Hidden Charm hotel, and checked in. The hotel was very nice and the staff here was also amazing. That continues through our whole trip. We kind of expected it at the ABD hotels – considering their star levels, but even the lower cost hotels we stayed at on our own were amazing.

Tommy asked for us to let him know when we arrived, so I messaged him. He said everything looked good for the next day – it would be hot, but no rain. He also said he would be our tour guide for the day.

Here is the view from our room
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From our hotel, it was a short walk down to the Tam Coc boat launch. We walked down there and looked around a bit. A young girl came up and asked if she could practice her English with us. She asked us question after question and would get answers from all four of us. Her English was very good. I half expected there to be some scam where she asked us for money or something, but that never happened. At one point, she pointed and showed us that her mother was a few feet away. We waived to her and told her how impressed we were with her daughter. The mother is a teacher and really wants her daughter to do well in English.

We walked back towards the hotel and stopped at a wood-fired pizza place. Their pizza was pretty good – better than I expected, really. While we were walking to the restaurant, we looked in a few of the shops. At one point, the little girl and her mother drove past on their scooter. The girl yelled to us and waived.
 


Wow! The service at your first hotel just sounds amazing! I never think to ask the hotel folks to take care of stuff like that, and it's always a thrill when they offer! :)

So glad you were able to re-work your schedule! Looking forward to hearing more about your pre-days!

Sayhello
 
Wow! The service at your first hotel just sounds amazing! I never think to ask the hotel folks to take care of stuff like that, and it's always a thrill when they offer! :)

So glad you were able to re-work your schedule! Looking forward to hearing more about your pre-days!

Sayhello
Thank you for following along! I need to check out your China report to see how your mainland days compared to the Viking version.

The hotel staff really was awesome. We didn't expect anything near the level of service we got - especially for how little the rooms cost. I intentionally picked a lower cost hotel because our plan was so packed, we'd only really be there to sleep. Turns out, I think their lower price is only because they are a little out of the way - which was totally fine for us: Grabs are super cheap and out of the way = less street noise! ;)

We didn't really need hotel staff much at the other places we went, but when we did, we always had fantastic service everywhere. We expected that at the places ABD went... not so much at the places we did on our own ;)

I was so happy that we found a solution to keep both Ha Long and Ninh Binh on our schedule! It was a stressful few hours trying to figure it all out. I was even happier once we checked in for the ABD - then scheduling issues were someone else's problem! ;)
 


Thanks for posting a trip report. This destination is at the top of our list for 2021 ABD vacation booking. I can't wait to hear details on the trip.
 
Pre-Trip Day 3 –



The next morning, I was up early, so I walked back down to the boat launch to take some pictures. It was beautiful in the morning. I watched the early boat drivers (? Rowers?) show up and prepare for the day.

This was the scene out the back of the hotel.
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And the Tam Coc boat launch area - I loved it here in the morning. It was so quiet and peaceful.

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After breakfast, we met Tommy in the lobby and got in our van. First, he took us down some little dirt roads to ‘a local swimming pool’ where we saw a small group of water buffalo hanging out in a small pond.
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Next was the Trang An boats. Tommy gout our tickets then made sure we were in the right line. He said he’d give us a few minutes, then call me and I could hand my phone to the rower. We chose Route 2 – it seemed to fit best into the time that we had. You told the person helping you board and they relayed that to the rower.

When we got on board, Tommy called and told me that he could see us. I looked around and found him on the shore. He told me to hand the phone to the rower. The rower was not at all interested in taking my phone. I pointed to Tommy and he still wouldn’t take it. Tommy eventually just yelled to him. No idea what they were discussing.

I had read that the seats were hard so we grabbed some pool towels from the hotel to sit on. We were so glad we had those. We also brought umbrellas for shade, another great decision. It was busy, but not too crowded. As a group, we decided that we didn’t want to get out of the boat at any of the stops. It was challenging enough to get in them once, we didn’t want to do it multiple times.

At the first stop, we just waived to the rower and pointed to keep going, so he did. Right before the second stop, another boat pulled up next to us and there was a Vietnamese American lady on that struck up a conversation. Our rower said something to her and she asked us if we wanted to stop at the next stop and we said no, that we didn’t want to stop at any of them and she relayed the message. She also told us our rower was 80!

A few times, a boat with locals would pull up next to us and ask us where we were from.

At the third stop, we found out that it’s kind of break time for the rowers. Just around the corner from the drop-off, there is a shaded area in the river (lake?) where they were all pulled over and some were snacking. We felt bad that we didn’t get off. We tried to signal our rower that it was okay if he wanted a break, but he kept going. My wife and I also ‘helped’ paddle for much of the ride. Not sure how much help we really were, though.

Here are a few pictures

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... Continued in next post
 

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Continuing Day 3

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When we got back to the dock, Tommy was there waiting for us and helped us out of the boat. He walked us back to the van, then we went to Bich Dong Pagoda. We were lucky that we were there when the lotus were in bloom. Tommy showed us around and took us to the top of the temple area. He also bought us some lotus flowers and pods so that we could eat the seeds. He also collected some little seed pods that exploded when they came into contact with water. He put a few in my wife’s hand, then poured a bit of water on and they all popped.

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Tommy took us to a local homestay for lunch. It was a little place with 2 tables next to a little courtyard garden. They brought out a lot of dishes for us to try family style. The food kept coming and coming. All of it was very good.

While at lunch, I checked my email and Indochina Junk Junk had sent another email. It started with, “There is a small issue…” and I immediately expected that our cruise was cancelled. The email went on to say that they made a mistake when they booked our cruise for the 6th. They tried to re-book us for the original boat we were supposed to be on but that boat was doing another route that day and was unavailable. It was a 20-person boat. Instead, they said, they would offer us a private, one-cabin boat at no additional charge. So, our Ha Long cruise was still on!

It was getting hotter so Tommy took us back to the hotel to rest for a few hours, then came back to pick us up to take us to Hang Mua so we could hike to the top. It was a long, hot hike but the view from the top was worth it.

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We ended our time with Tommy and he took us back to the hotel. We looked online for a good place for dinner and found a banh mi place that had great reviews. We used Google maps and found the place and went in. The menu looked a bit different from what we saw. My wife was looking forward to their peanut butter and tofu banh mi so she ordered the one listed as ‘peanut butter’. When it came out, it only had peanut butter – no tofu, no veggies. The other banh mi we ordered were fine, but not great. As we left the place, I looked down the street and saw the place we were supposed to go right next door! We only needed to walk 5 more feet and we would have been in the right place.
 
Pre-Trip Day 4 –

The next morning, Tommy’s driver picked us up to take us to Ha Long Bay. It was about a 4-hour drive. He got us to the cruise terminal in plenty of time.

The road through Ha Long was lined with hotel after hotel. Each block would have 6 or 8 hotels right next to each other, like a strip mall. It was crazy! It had to be 1 – 2 miles of pretty much nothing but hotels.

The cruise terminal was jam packed with people.

When it was time to board our boat, we walked past the crowds to the dock and to a small tender. It was a little tough getting on – the tender was much shorter than the ones for the larger ships and it was a large step down from the dock – maybe 3 feet or so. The crew was very helpful.

We road out to our junk – and it was very small and very nice. It was a little crowded for four people, but still worked out fine. I specifically chose Indochina Junk Junk because their routes are through Bai Tu Long Bay and not Ha Long Bay. The bays are right next to each other – as you leave the port area, if you head left, you go to Bai Tu Long Bay. If you head right, you go to Ha Long Bay. As we sailed out, we could see a steady line of junks headed to Ha Long. It looked like a white, dotted line. On our side of the bay, there was hardly anyone else.

They served us a large lunch – about 7 or 8 different dishes, family style. Everything was very good.

The cruise was beautiful. Pictures can’t really do it justice. The karsts seemed to go on forever – there were layers and layers of them on the horizon.

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There was a planned stop at a beach, but the staff said we could skip that if we’d rather do more scenic sailing. We opted for the sailing. The only issue with the boat was that there was limited shade. It’s a tough thing to complain about, but the cruise could have been a bit shorter.

We made it back to the terminal and Indochina Junk had a van ready to take us back to Hanoi. The drives said we could take the local roads or the toll road. The toll road would cost around $15 but would save us at least an hour. We chose the toll road.

We got back to the street that the La Siesta Trendy was on and it looked like a completely different street. It was the weekend and it seemed like the whole city came out to celebrate. We checked back into the La Siesta and picked up the luggage that we had left. We decided to eat dinner at the hotel. Everything we had was good. The service was a bit too 'hover-y' for me, but they were very nice.
 
Pre-Trip Day 5/Day 1 of ABD –

We had early morning flights to HCMC. My wife and I were on a Vietnam Airlines flight; my parents were on a VietJet flight that was to leave about 10 minutes before ours. The hotel staff went out of their way to make sure we had breakfast. The night before, the front desk had told us to go to the restaurant before we left and asked for boxed breakfasts, so we did that. As we were loading in the car to head to the airport, they brought us more boxed breakfasts.

Since we were on different airlines, we got off at different terminals. The Vietnam Airlines terminal was first. My wife and I went in and the check-in line was pretty long. When you got to a certain point, and employee asked you when your flight was. If you were short on time, they would open the rope and let you go through to the front. We had some time, so we continued through the normal line.

When we got to the desk, the agent started checking us in, then said that he was able to get us on an earlier flight that was leaving in 20 minutes. I asked if we would have enough time to make it and he said we would. I asked if our bags would make it and he said yes. Then he said, “The flight is boarding right now, you need to go.” He told us we didn’t have priority access through security, but to tell the agents to let us in that line anyway.

We ran over to the security area and the ‘normal’ lines were long. There was no one in the priority line. We walked up, the lady looked at our tickets and passports and let us right through. Then we ran to the gate. It was so close, we almost ran past it. We handed over our tickets and were let through. We ran down the steps to the waiting bus. After about a minute, the bus started to pull away. We thought we had barely made it, but as we pulled away, more people came down the steps.

We landed in HCMC about 2 hours before we were supposed to get there, so we knew there wouldn’t be anyone from ABD waiting for us. I looked in the ABD book for a number to call and it was in international number. My SIM didn’t have any international minutes, so we found a cell phone store and bought some minutes for $5. I called the number listed and waited on hold… for a while. Finally, someone answered and I explained the situation – we were put on an early flight, etc. I had to explain it a few times then the lady said she would put me on hold while she tried to contact someone. I waited on hold again for a long time and finally, my minutes expired, and the call was disconnected. Now we had no idea if someone would be looking for us or not.

Disney really needs a better way to contact them in these cases. They should have a text option as most travelers would probably have access to WiFi but not necessarily have international call minutes. This probably isn’t a common occurrence, though. I’d guess 99% of the people are arriving on an international flight and the chances of getting a last minute change to an earlier flight is about zero for those folks.

After a few minutes, we decided to see if we could just take a Grab. When I entered our destination, it quoted something like $7. We discussed more, then decided to book it. I went outside to see what pillar we were near and then re-entered the Grab info – this time it said there was a special deal and I got the ride for the equivalent of 7 cents!

ABD had us staying at the Park Hyatt Saigon. There was a lot of construction near the lobby, but the hotel was still very nice. They often had free drinks in the elevator lobbies on our floor. Fresh coconuts one day. Wine mixers another time. Fruit juices, etc.

We checked in and went to our room and I went to find the ABD desk to tell them we arrived and about the issue we had – I didn’t want anyone to think that all 4 of us had made it early then there would be no one to pick up my parents. I met our guides, Henry and Drew. When I explained the situation, Drew immediately said they would reimburse me for the Grab. I said it was 7 cents so it was fine lol. While I was talking to them, the driver called and had picked up my parents.

After my parents got in, we walked to a restaurant for lunch. I don’t remember the name. The service was extremely slow. We had to ask several times for someone to take our order. When we looked at Google, it said the average person spent 2 hours there… they weren’t kidding. We saw locals come in and immediately get served. The food we had was fine.

We went to see Notre Dame and the Post Office.
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After that, we walked around the area and through a giant mall. Got some gelato, then headed back to the hotel. My wife and I went down to the pool for a while. It was a very nice pool area.

Later, we went to Ben Thanh Market then tried to find a banh mi cart for dinner. We never did find the place we intended to go but we ended up at Skewers restaurant – a Mediterranean place. Service was pretty slow here, too but not nearly as bad as lunch. The food was very good and plentiful – I don’t think any of us came close to finishing.
 
Wow! Everything looks so beautiful! So green & lush!

I imagine people arriving early *is* pretty rare! Late - probably a lot, but not early! :)

Oh, and what is an egg coffee??

And you had Drew! He was one of the Adventure Guides on my Iceland ABD. What a sweet guy!

Looking forward to more of your report!

Sayhello
 
Wow! Everything looks so beautiful! So green & lush!

I imagine people arriving early *is* pretty rare! Late - probably a lot, but not early! :)

And you had Drew! He was one of the Adventure Guides on my Iceland ABD. What a sweet guy!

Looking forward to more of your report!

Sayhello
LOL yes, after we got over the stress of running to catch the flight, we weren't complaining about 2 extra hours in HCMC!

Drew was awesome! It was a one-off trip for him. I forget where he was before this trip, but he went right to Iceland after this trip was over. He, like I am sure is true for all of the ABD guides, had the perfect personality for the job. He was fun and energetic (I was a bit worried that he'd be OVER energetic when I first met him, but quickly learned that he could turn it up and dial it back as needed) and was very patient with both adults and children. Adept at problem solving and always ready with sunscreen, bug spray, or cooling mist!
 
Day 2 of ABD –

First full day of the ABD trip. We ate breakfast at the hotel buffet. I had a few things from the buffet then ordered a bowl of pho. Halfway through the pho, I started feeling sick. I kept feeling worse and worse until finally, I had to run to the bathroom. After a few minutes, I went back to the table, sat there for a bit, then ran back to the bathroom.

I thought I felt somewhat better and it was time to go meet the rest of the ABD group and kick off the trip. We went up to the meeting area, I made my nametag, then ran to find the bathroom again. This time, throwing up. Over and over. I went and found my wife and told her I wasn’t going on the excursion that day, then went up to the room where I threw up over and over again. My guess was that it was from the greens served with the pho.

My wife came up to check on me before they left and said Henry was sending up some ginger tea for me. The room had a smart TV so I figured I’d just stream Netflix all day. I tried to launch the smart apps and they were locked out. No big deal, I thought – I had my laptop and an HDMI cable with me. I’ll just hook that up and stream through my laptop. Nope, the HDMI inputs were also disabled.

Around lunch, I was feeling a bit better and hungry. I decided to take a walk around the block. I looked for the banh mi cart again and it wasn’t there – I wasn’t going to eat there, just wanted to see if it was only open during the day. I looked in a Circle K for some ginger ale, but they didn’t have any. The tea had never shown up – but that could have been because I had the Do Not Disturb light on in the room. I found a little shop where I bought a baguette and took that back to the room to eat. Got sick again after eating that, then slept most of the afternoon.

When the group returned from the Mekong, someone had given me some Cipro and Henry hand delivered some ginger tea bags. He felt I should try to go to dinner, but I stayed behind. My wife ordered me some room service bread and she brought a small jar of peanut butter with her – she thought there might be times she didn’t like what was being served. So, I ate some bread and peanut butter for dinner and took the Cipro.

If you came to this trip report looking for a recap of the Mekong Delta cruise, I’m sorry, I don’t have much for you 😉. I know they did some rice popping, watched some coconut candy being made, tried snake wine, and did the river cruise.
 
Day 3 of ABD –

I felt better the next morning. Not great, but better – wasn’t throwing up, anyway. I grabbed a few slices of bread for breakfast. We had a flight scheduled for the afternoon, so I was glad I was feeling better. It would have been more difficult to skip the excursions today because the group was not returning to the hotel.

The first stop was the War Remnants Museum. It was interesting and a lot like the Hoa Lo Prison – very sobering. I think ABD gave us just about the perfect amount of time there, not too much and not too little.

Then it was on to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Also very interesting. There was a short tunnel to start with. I can get pretty claustrophobic, but I thought I’d try this one. It wasn’t very long and it was a straight shot. I got in the line to wait my turn. I made it down 2 or 3 steps, then changed my mind. I was so worried about the people in front of me not moving as fast as I would have wanted them to go. I still get the claustrophobic feeling just typing this lol

Now we headed to the airport to fly to Danang. On the way, we stopped at an amazing place for lunch. There were little covered decks over a river. Another family-style meal with very good food. By this point, I was really hungry and feeling pretty good, so I went for it. I suffered no ill effects so that was great news.

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After lunch, we flew to Danang then drove to the hotel in Hoi An – the Sunrise Premium Resort. It’s an open air hotel. Dinner was paid for by ABD, but we got to choose from two restaurants in the hotel – Eastern or Western. We chose Eastern. Henry and Drew told us the best plan was to check in to the hotel then immediately go to the restaurant we chose and order our meals. Then go to our rooms and get settled. They said the food would take at least 45 minutes. We followed that plan and it worked out pretty well.

I wanted some local food so I ordered the bahn xeo for an appetizer and cao lao for my entrée. Both were delicious. After dinner, we walked down through the pool area to the beach. It was an amazing setting. The two pools were beautiful and we hoped we’d have a chance to use them.

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Oi! So sorry you got sick on the first day!! It's really rough being sick when you're not in your own home. I'm glad it only lasted one day, and you were able to start enjoying your ABD.

Sayhello
 

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