Phan Rang

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We slept in a little later than we wanted too. The day started off with another flat tire on my bike. Tris walked it over to the shop and we got a new tire put on. Instead of leaving Mui Ne bright and early, we got out at noon.

We had breakfast at a lovely vegetarian healthy breakfast place, packed up our stuff and hit the road. We saw the white sand dunes from afar. We didn't go far enough yesterday. We pulled over 40 km's in for a quick drink and bum break. Everyone in the restaurant stared at us as if they've never seen a whitie before. On our way we drove right into a huge rain cloud. It started pouring so much that we had to pull over. WIth not many choices we found a little building with a lady sitting outside the front. She didn't show much expression about us being there so we don't know if we were bothering her. I smiled and started making faces at the kids inside, then she cracked a smile. She has a little store inside and sold us some poncho's. They were really crappy and ripped before we even got them on. The rain slowly stopped and we continued on. Fifty metres down the road it was completey dry. We've driven by probably 6 cops now since we started the motorcycle trip. They don't seem bothered by us at all. It is illegal for a foreigner to own a bike in Vietnam. To drive we have to have a Vietnamese lisence (which clearly we don't, heck I don't even have a lisence at home). An international drivers lisence won't suffice. The police are corrupt here and if you do get pulled over you just give them $5 or $10 and off you go. (So we hear!) People are really friendly. Truckers honk their horns at us and wave, bikes pull up beside us to practise their english, "Hello, What is your name?, Where you go?, Where you from?".

We arrived in Phan Rang after asking for directions a few times. We found a hotel right over the bridge down from the market. A $12 room get us a large bed, chairs, fridge, tv, aircon, huge bathroom with a proper shower stall and a balcony over looking the street. After showering we headed out for a bite to eat. Harder then it sounds in a town that doesn't cater to tourists. We walked down and found some food stalls. I got a Lemonada (like a 7 Up) and Tris ordered a soup. Its hard ordering when you don't know what your getting. We didn't touch the huge chunk of what we think was pig, nor some of the other weird meats. Tris put a white ball in his mouth that popped when he bit it. We think it was a quail egg. On our way back to the hotel we picked up some snacks (m&m's, coconut cake, crackers and pineapple). Tomorrow we drive another 119 kms to Nha Trang.

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