A swim and Ride this morning

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Got my early morning wake-up call from Nguyen Cock-a-Doodle-Do!!! Contacts in, drink of water, shorts and singlet on and it's off to join the stream of vehicles heading toward Cua Dai beach. I arrive at my special swimming beach and there are some Vietnamese taking their morning swim/bath. I do my stuff for 45-minutes - then I decide to go for a little extra bicycle ride through one of the little hamlets nearby. This one stretches all the way down to the fishing boat port and the wharf from where all the Cam Island boats depart (about 2km). Most hamlets consist of one main street - usually only about 3m wide - and off of this run little alleyways that are barely 2m wide. It's along these little alleyways that you find the "residential" part of the hamlet. How they got construction material for these houses must have been a challenge - as there is no way that a decent sized truck of vehicle would get down an alley. I guess that's where Vietnamese ingenuity comes in and they use the little 2-wheel carts that carry everything and anything.

I cycle past house frontages that double as little shops, offer coffee, some even selling noodles and "banh mi" - the "national bread roll" sandwich of Vietnam. Some larger home frontages cater to the hamlet mothers and kindies - and it's not uncommon to see small groups of 10-20 Mothers/kids sitting on their little red plastic stools and having their coffee and feeding their toddler. Once the session is over, the front yard is cleaned up, stools and tables are stacked away - and everyone prepares for the heat of the day. Why all the little stools and tables in VN are coloured red I do not know. There must have been a very good stool and salesman travelling around VN at one stage. With my larger size - I have broken a couple of these little stools. Now when I go to my favourite local places - they always bring out a larger plastic chair. I always joke about the 100kg chair!! On the cycle through you see the everyday happenings of hamlet life. People sweeping their houses/porches, little food stalls, the mini-marts, men doing repairs to fencing and gates, and of course the motorbike repair shops. Every hamlet has a handful of these to take care of breakdowns (rare), oil change, tyre change, air for the tires. There's always a woodworking shop or two, sometimes 3 or 4. With so many new houses and homestays being built - these workshops are flat out making various pieces from stair banisters to furniture to cabinets, door and window frames and more. I love the smell of the timber when I cycle past these places.

At the end of the hamlet I get to the little fishing port (the fish smell tells you when you are about 100m from it). There's an array of sea-going fishing boats as well as smaller river boats and the basket (tung) boat. Across a narrow motorcycle/foot bridge and you end up at the wharf where there's a large fleet of "fast" boats and "slow" boats that take the stream of Chinese, Korean and Western tourists to Cham Island, located about 14kms offshore. The fast boats(35minutes) cost around $10 one way - whereas the slow boat ($1.50). Whilst at the port - I had the chance to closely look at the fast boats. While they may have good engines - the boats themselves are in various states of dubious quality. I have decided I do not need to take a fast boat to Cham Island. Certainly Kathie would not take one.!!! I cycle around the little wharf area looking at the plethora of souvenier shops selling the usual tourist stuff as well as cold drinks and ice cream.

I cycle back toward Cua Dai beach via the main road which passes several derelict resort developments. I understand during and after the massive high tides from a typhoon 3 years ago - many of the foreshore buildings ended up in the sea. Developers must have lost a lot of money to abandon the rest of the project. There are 3 abandoned developments - and it's easy to see that some squatters have moved in and set up home - probably in what was earmarked to be a seaview or deluxe room or suite. I cycle back past Sunrise Premium Resort, Golden Sands, Victoria Beach and the still-to-be-completed Koi resort and i am back in Cua Dai beach. As I cycle past the local market - there is not so much traffic as many stallholders have sold out or packed up to go home and escape the looming high temperatures. Another 8 minutes and I am back at my homestsay - ready for a nice cool shower, breakfast and to think about what I will do for the rest of the day.

The afternoon is spent motorbiking around Hoi An - looking for electrical stores that might have something like the Nutra-Bullit - but all I find is the usual blender-type devices. We may have to do with one of these to make our smoothies. We can probably use it to make salsa - which I have not had for sometime now. A stop at my favourite restaurant for a cold beer and a club sandwich completes the afternoon. Time to go back to homestay for another shower and check emails and FB. Around 6.30-ish I wander the 15 metres from homestay to friends restaurant for a nice dish of crispy calamari and some banana leaf salad. A couple of cold La Rues to wash it all down - and it's back to the coolness of my room. Another shower and look for the remote to see what's on the telly

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