4:53AM. I had gotten there 15 minutes earlier, as the lady was setting up. When you get up before 3AM, you're always the first customer anywhere.

When I told the Vietnamese motorbike taxi man I was going to the sticks, he warned me against it. The food will be awful, he said, and there are all types of losers, fuckups and desperate drug addicts who will suddenly notice a "rich foreigner" in their midst. "If you don't see me in two days, I'm done," I replied.