Well our intrepid explorers are well on their way to Saigon. We are currently stopped off in a seaside city by the name of Quy Nhon, about 350kms south of Hoi An and about 650kms north of Saigon. The train ride here was pretty straight forward by Davis-Hacon standards. We were the only westerners in the carriage, which elicited a number of stares throughout the journey. Actually while we are on the business of staring, it appears to be the norm for Vietnamese folks, or maybe we are becoming a little more sensitive about the whole staring business. We have been greeted by many `hello's' from the children since we arrived in Quy Nhon, we were struck a little by this until last night when we happened upon a shop with a heap of Vietnamese with scooters hanging around outside. It transpired that they were waiting for their children to finish up at the English School. Which makes more sense of being followed along the sea front by a mother and daughter duo this evening. We are obviously used to people coming up to us and begging/touting etc. and we generally ignore them, on this occasion the scooter almost ran us down and then proceeded to follow us for a while. Of course our 'we are going to kick some butt' guard was up at this point, when the daughter got off the bike and walked up to us. She proceeded to ask if she could talk to us to practice her English... as it transpired it was all on the up and up and we had a wee chat for about 10 minutes. Moments like these that more than make up for some of the rubbish we deal with from time to time... Christopher is still regretful for saying that they were hookers.
Quy Nhon is off the `open tour' north-south trail so not many westerners stop here, yay, but that means it is a little more challenging on the food/getting around front, the latter makes for some interesting experiences. Our hotel is clean and relatively comfortable for 15 NZD a night (the mattresses have seen better days though). It was the ghost hotel on arrival though, as nobody appeared for 15 minutes to show us a room. The management speak about as much English as we speak Vietnamese, hand gestures and smiles have got us through so far.
We managed to rent the smallest and worst pair of bikes we have seen on this trip, we guessed that they were the hotel owner's kids's bikes, that they had outgrown ten years ago. Cycling about the town was a little concerning, as unlike Hoi An, locals aren't as accustomed to Western cyclists and our completely different understanding of road rules. We headed straight to the supermarket! Yes, Quy Nhon has a supermarket, the first we had seen since Singapore, and an oasis in a country where there appears to be a completely different price for foreigners for almost everything. On arrival at the supermarket we stopped at the entrance with our bikes, attempting to work out which of the scooter/cycle parks we should go for, when out of nowhere psycho-vietnamese-guy-speeding-on-a-scooter-on-the-pavement-idiot came out of nowhere and almost hit Nicola. A few sharp words and looks later (by both parties), we were on our way with everything intact, just! We had to check our bags before entering the supermarket, but it was nice to find goods with a price on them for once! We stocked up on some breakfast items and a few snacks for our hotel (it has a fridge no less).
We cycled about the town and thought about heading to one of the beaches to the south but the rains came and put an end to that idea. We did manage to find a Kiwi cafe, run by a NZ expat (actually by Vietnamese staff that work for her). It was a nice find with some ok information about the area but we were disappointed that somewhere with a name such as that failed to deliver flat white's. If truth be told Vietnamese coffee is very good and v. strong! But still we haven't had a flat white in two months... we hope you understand.
The weather cooperated on our second day in Quy Nhon... the skies were clear... it was a go for beach, I repeat a go for beach! Now we only needed to get there. The one we had in mind was 19kms south, and frankly using the bikes of the previous days excitement was not an option. There was only one sensible option, we were going to have to rent a scooter... Christopher was concerned as the last time he was on two wheels he almost killed himself on the roads/tracks of the Davis Ranch, he didn't want to be the cause of the early demise of the Number 1 Davis daughter... the hotel manager seemed all smiles as we road off down the road, swerving from side to side. A couple of u-turns later and we were on the open road. Let's just say if crossing the road in Vietnam is scary, riding a scooter is a 100 times worse. Christopher looks even older than he did, check out the pics for the grey hairs he is now sporting. Nicola hung on for dear life and tried not to wriggle around too much, we undertook big buses and trucks, were overtaken by bikes carrying an entire small family, and we tooted our way through junctions like locals... oh and the beach was nice.
Bai Bau beach was about 19kms south of here. It is a relatively small beach in a lovely sheltered bay, clear of rubbish, unlike the municipal beach in Quy Nhon and quiet. We shared the place with a couple of families and groups of young Vietnamese. We were the only foreigners in the place and the source of much interest as we stripped down to get some sun. As in many other places in SE Asia, locals do their utmost to stay out of the sun, or at least not to get a tan, in stark contrast to us. We have been unable to find any face moisturiser that didn't have some kind of whitening agent in it (hence why Nicola is pulling a Michael Jackson with her face several shades lighter than the rest of her).
We survived the return journey (through rush hour traffic no less) and we did see a sense of relief in the hotel managers face when he saw his `new machine' back home!
Finally the Groper tale... we popped out for dinner last night and headed to a recommended sea food spot on the sea front. As there are a huge number of fishing boats in the bay we thought it a good bet. Christopher ordered some squid and some spring rolls as the prices were listed and Nicola opted for the Groper (the price was per kilo but there was no amount in Dong/Dollar). Well the spring rolls and squid arrived without problem, and then there was some commotion. The waiter brought over a hot plate, set fire to what we are sure was a petrol soaked block of something (pah to health and safety) and put up a little metal guard to keep off the breeze. What were we going to get? Well the waitress then appeared with a full groper on a dish with a little garnish, we almost wet ourselves, wondering what on earth to do with it. There were some rice disk things, more garnish, a bowl of water and some chilli-soy sauce. We looked at each other and obviously the staff sensed our bewilderment and promptly showed us what to do, the rice disks were to go in the water and then to be filled with fish and some garnish, rolled and dipped in the chilli-soy. It was an amazing feast and quite the spectacle... oh and the bill, well it came and we found that we had blown a day and a halves food budget on one meal, but as they say, the experience was priceless!
11-12 hours on a train tomorrow and we should be in Saigon, along with the big storm system we have been following on CNN.
