24th May - Nha Trang to Qui Nhon

Set off from Nha Trang at around 9:30 heading along a quiet coast road for a few miles before joining back with Highway 1. It was a pretty uneventful but pleasant journey mostly following the coast. Around half way I noticed a lovely looking stretch of empty beach so pulled over and had a bit of lunch that I'd brought with me.

I noticed today that a lot of the lorries here look the one in the movie Duel so I decided that would be todays fantasy chase. The terrain had become quite hilly and I was thudering up and down the switch back hill roads at ever increasing speeds attempting to out run the murderous lorry. I ran out of fuel at the top of a hill and had to coast down each descent hoping that I had built up enough momentum in order to reach the top of the next ascent. Eventually I realised that there was no way I could continue this madness so I steered towards the nearest cliff edge, jumping clear at the last moment leaving my motorbike and the persuing lorry hurtling over the edge towards their certain destruction.

OK, so none of this actually happened; apart from running out of fuel and having to coast down the side of a mountain road to find fuel. Fortunately, after coasting down the hill and not finding a petrol station straight away, I noticed that when I looked in the tank I could see there was still a little bit of petrol. It occurred to me that there must be a reserve so after fiddling about with the unmarked fuel tap I was on my way again to find a petrol station.

Once fuelled up it wasn't far to Qui Nhon which is a fairly large beach town. I drove along the beach front looking for somewhere cheap and cheerful and found Barbara's Kiwi Backpacker hostel with dorm beds for $3 so checked in and had a well earned beer followed by a well needed shower.

I'd been fancying fish and chips for the past few days and noticed they had it on the menu so treated myself to it. It was nice, catfish fillets, but nothing like home.

Later I had a wander into town to get my bearings. The streets and parks are completely covered in small plastic chairs and tables and it seems everyone goes out to these street stall type bars instead of the sleazy tourist bars of the type Nha Trang is filled with. It was really nice and had something of a street party atmosphere. After a while wandering I decided I might as well join in and found a tiny plastic table and chair of my own and ordered a beer. I asked how much it would be and it came to 15,000 dong or about $0.75 which seemed OK. Little did I realise that for 15,000 dong I wouldn't be getting one beer but an entire pitcher to myself, it arrived along with a bucket of ice, and I settled into drinking. Turns out I'd found a Bia Hoi place, something I'd read but forgotten about. Bia Hoi is brewed fresh everyday without preservatives.

I could see a group of lads on another table daring each other to come and speak to me, eventually one did and we had the usual basic english introductory conversation before he said goodbye and returned to his table followed shortly after by another and another, etc.

After I'd finally finished my beer and convinced the waiter I didn't want anymore I continued wandering the streets until I came across a fairground set up in the midle of a roundabout with more chairs and tables set up around the edge. As I was wandering around it I heard someone shouting me to join them and I sat down with a group of four vietnamese guys with a very basic understanding of English. They plied me with beer and various different food, including dried fish and some crazy spicy vegetable thing before we said goodbye and I wandered off rather drunk and a bit lost.

After taking a few random turns I found myself back on the road to my hotel and started walking back towards it. On the way a moto rider pulled up next to me and offered to give me a ride back to my hotel. I politely declined but he wouldn't take no for an answer and started to follow me. After a while he started on the "Massage? Boom Boom? Smoke?" routine that has annoyed me in every town in Vietnam so far. I really thought I'd be able to avoid it here but obviously not. This continued for a good few minutes until he started tapping me on the shoulder. Drunk and annoyed as I was this really got to me and after telling him in no uncertain terms that I'd had enough, he still continued to badger me. It took a hard shove to convince him that I wasn't interested and he eventually got on his bike and left.


Today's journey

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