Hoi An to Sa Huynh to Quy Nhon....Post 7

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We both woke in Hoi An feeling better than we thought possible after a great nights sleep...The evening before we had eaten at a French/Vietnamese restaurant "Cafe des Amis" where the food was fantastic (no menu you just get what your given), and the soundtrack of French "Chansons" by the likes of Gresseur and Jaques Brel (three different versions of Port of Amsterdam in less than 2 hours), wonderful if slightly surreal, given the restaurants location on Hoi Ans lantern hung water-front. The owner, Mr Kim, who according to his card has "cooked at many exhibitions in Europe!" is inordinatley proud of his visitors book which he whips out as soon as you sit..A read through the glowing reports in virtually all and any languages you can think of was fun while we waited for the first of a few gin and tonics to arrive.....
Apart from its historic old town, great food and fantastic location only a short way from Cui Dai beach, Hoi An had something even better to offer....A Minsk mechanic!!!!!!......When we bought the bike from Cuongs in Hanoi we had been given a photocopied information sheet on keeping the bike running, helpful tips etc. and on the last page addresses for Minsk savvy mechanics in a few of the major stopping places North to South.....And lo and behold, there was one listed right here in Hoi An.
After breakfast we spent an hour tracking down the address and after going the wrong way down virtually all of Hoi Ans back streets eventually rolled up outside the right place...A quick phonecall by his wife had Mr Cuong (Yes! Another brother!!) there in 10 minutes and with only slightest bit of language shenanigins we soon had the problem diagnosed and a promise that we could collect the bike after lunch with all repairs done!...........
A few hours sat on the sun deck at the hotel (tough but we had to do it!) and then a stroll around the town
filled in the time just right...True to his word Mr Cuong "3" had the bike ready when we turned up at 1.30..New clutch plates/replaced offside spring/new rear light/gears all fully adjusted/most of the bends and distortion sorted...... and all for just over 10$ US!!
Celebrated with a spin to Cui Dai beach where we crashed (just us, not the bike) on the sand for an hour or so before heading to a small vegetarian restaurant on the river where, I kid you not, we had a late lunch of bubble and squeak and Tofu chicken ( Tofu that looks and tastes like chicken).. Delicious.
It was too late to head further South so without any regrets we decided to have a second night at Thien Thanh....Another great meal at a place called Tam Tam in the evening and a decent bottle of French wine for not too much cash rounded off a really great relaxing day....After yesterday we thought we deserved it...Plans are to wake early and head down to Sa Huynh for another afternoon on the sand...
Next morning loaded the bike nice and early and after a few photos of the staff giggling in our helmets were about to leave when an american guy introduced himself, interested in where we had come from and where we were heading. Randy, For it was he, had a book shop/exchange just over the waterfront and we followed him over there to pick up a copy of an atlas of Vietnam that he had...The map we were using only showed the major tourist towns and we were getting lost more than once a day so we reckoned it had to be a good move. The vietnamese communist government is still very old school about many things, maps being a prime example. Only very basic tourist maps are available to buy even for locals and this particular atlas which is printed in Germany and very "Black Market" we had heard about but never managed to track down....At 12$ US it seemed a little pricey but could be a major help...Only time will tell!

Left Hoi An at 9.15 and headed South towards Sa Huynh which according to everything we had read was the only town with any acommodation between here and Quy Nhon 300 Kms away...The roads in Vietnam are busy on a weekend so we were prepared for heavy traffic but only an hour into the trip we hit a long line of trucks and buses stretching ahead of us at a total standstill....We got on the footpath/shoulder along with every other bike and carried on for about 3kms to close to the head of the queue where we realised that a bridge was being repaired and the traffic was being stopped in one direction at time...Back in the UK this would, as you all know, be for about 3 mins in either direction...Here in Vietnam even after the 20 odd minutes to get to the head of the stationary traffic we still waited in a sea of bikes and choking fumes for another 40 minutes before a lone power mad vietnamese with a flag waved the waiting Southbound throng forward....The start of a Grand Prix had nothing on this!!!!! Bikes and cars and trucks and buses all jockeying for position on a bridge which looked like it could collapse at any moment...Bedlam!!
While we had been waiting on the grid a vietnamese guy with four of his family on his 50cc Honda had wheedled his way alongside us, keen to practice his english, and had explained this was the anniversary of the first King of Vietnam and the always mad roads were even busier than usual with holiday traffic. He worked for a US chemicals company but was hoping to start his own business doing motorbike tours for foreign tourists...He told me my few words of vietnamese were good but that (and at this point he dropped his voice nodding back at Rhianydd on the back of the bike) I should get myself a vietnamese girlfriend if I wanted to get better quickly!!! Hand on heart I admit with all of the thousands of gorgeous vietnamese girls around you at every turn only someone as blissfully happily married as I am would not be tempted.. but, this was the first time that I had considered the linguistic implications....Maybe I should broach the subject with Rhianydd. I know she'd be happy if my language skills improved!
A long hard ride later We took a sharp right in the road and drifted into what must have been Sa Huynh. Like most of the other towns we had passed through it was completely unmarked but being the first town where the highway directly lay along the coast we were feeling pretty confident...The Sa Huynh Hotel turned up exactly where it should have been, on a beautiful stretch of pale coral sand with palm trees hanging right over the waters edge...Sounds pretty idyllic Yes? Well,.....the beach was exactly that, but, and it was a big but, the hotel was not right up there with it!!!! One of the great things about this trip has been the contrasts seen along the way...beautiful lush mountain scenery to barren coastal dunes, messy and frenetic cities to quiet village backwaters and now, for the first time, the contrast between fantastic little boutique hotels like the Thien Thanh in Hoi An to the grim reality of the Norman Bates Motel Sa Huynh....The rust stains dripping down from the metal window frames, ( every pane cracked), looked like dried blood...The bath looked like it had seen ritual slaughter and the frame suspending the archaic mosquito nets looked like more than one bloated cadaver had swung there in the tepid downdraught from the choking aircon...Even the dank emerald green satin curtains (with matching swags) suggested you had stumbled into the lair of some noisome demon...........Oh dearie dearie me!
With over 180 kms to the nearest hotel what are you going to do?....We off loaded the bike, headed back into town, found an internet point, and while the deaf mute who ran the shop stroked my arm in very unnerving way, (honestly, it happened I'm not joking!) found a phone number for a hotel we wanted to contact in Doc Lech ,2 days away...and then......We got pissed! But not too pissed to actually take the bike into the room with us when we finally bedded down for the night!!! I got the impression even the bike was scared!!!!
We woke surprisingly restored with all of our bits in tact!
An Australian lad appeared from the room next to us just before we left. He had been through Thailand,Cambodia, Laos and now Nam by mountain bike (which had spent the night in the room with him...great minds etc.), with plans to go through the southern part of china then Malaysia and finally Singapore..He was doing an avaerage of 150 kms a day and made me feel like a part timer.....Hard core traveller !! Respect!
2 hours out of Sa Huynh we rode through clouds and clouds of brilliant white butterflies, rising from the waterlogged fields at the side of the highway...We were just thinking how beautiful they looked when the first one hit me at Mach 5, full in the face.....Had never realised quite how hard a butterfly could be!
Got to Quy Nhon mid afternoon and headed for the Saigon Quy Nhon. Timed our arrival immediately before some local dignatory with a police escort...Never seen 2 busboys unload a bike so quickly in my life!!
Nice hotel, (thank you Lord!)..Zombie cocktails on roof terrace at sunset, overlooking the beach where an old american jeep appears stranded on the sand at low tide.
We're over Half way to Ho Chi Minh city!!!!!! Rock and Roll!!

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