10 Sep - Quy Nhon to Sa Huynh

We visited Nha Trang 20 years ago, but too be honest, until we left there wasn’t a single thing about the town we stayed in this time that I recognised ago.  Today, Nha Trang is a full of high rise hotel buildings and neon lights.  The main tourists are Russian and Chinese and they are flown in directly on charter flights – Russia and China being the only destinations that are apparently available for people flying in to Nha Trang International Airport.

As the bus took us out of Nha Trang, the crossed a bridge that had a harbour on the inside of it, and above the harbour was an old ruined temple.  We had visited the temple 20 years ago, and it sticks in my memory because the harbour in those days was jam packed with fishing boats and the market place outside the temple ruins had lots of beggars who had lost various limbs or body parts as a result of land mines.  Today, there is far fewer fishing boats – I suspect Nha Trang is too expensive for most of the fishermen – and we really seen very few beggars on our travels this time around.

All is all, over the 20 years since we first visited Vietnam, the transformation is remarkable.  In those days, children would run up to you and grab your hand a drag you off to visit their mothers stall.  It sounds cute, but it was really desperate and you got the feeling that people were absolutely on the breadline.  These days things are much better and the children are more likely to be in smart school uniforms, or just being inquisitive about our bikes.  I was given a friendly reminder of how much better things were the other day, when we were riding along, and we past a group of school girls on their e-bikes – chatting and texting as they “rode” along.  None of them were pedalling, whereas here were all of us pedalling away sweltering in the heat and humidity.

Most of the roads we ride are back roads, and as we ride past people’s houses the children call out hello, and wave at us.  The other day, Martin, one of our group, brought out some temporary tattoos that he’d bought from NZ – silver ferns, buzzy bee, “New Zealand” etc, and was applying the tattoos to all the children’s arms, which they all loved.  We also get food at each stop, so we usually give the kids some of the lollies, which they all share amongst themselves – It makes for a fun break.

These young kids stopped for a look while I was taking a photo 

And these ones joined our group when we stopped for a break - tattoos and sweets please

The first day we started riding, the soles of my mountain bike shoes started coming adrift, at the heel.  We repaired the shoes as best we could with some strapping tape that Ian had.  The worked very well until yesterday, when the whole sole of one shoe came adrift, with almost disastrous consequences.  I was coming to a stop, and when I tried to twist of the pedals, nothing happened, as the cleat was staying in the same place, and my foot was turning with the rest of the shoe.  The usual result of this is you just come crashing to earth, which is what I was doing. Unfortunately, I was parking beside a building and when I put my hand out, it pushed into a window, which fortunately didn’t break.  My shoes have now been repaired with what is called Elephant glue in these parts, are held together with cable ties and are looking very much the worse for wear.

Strapping tape, elephant glue and cable ties - let's hope they go the distance

 Today was a rare day, where we left from the hotel, and got to ride through the town, which is always fun, with all the locals on their pushbikes, scooters, cars, 4WD, buses and trucks, not to mention the odd bit of wild life – pigs, chickens and ducks, and this is in the middle of a city of 3-400,000 people.

Once we were out of town however, we were soon got onto quiet back roads and we cycling through small villages, with their local markets and farms.  This is real subsistence living, with the meat and fish in the markets not getting the benefit of even ice to keep them cold.  The flies of course had made a bee line to anything that looked even remotely fresh.  Took this great photos of two guys drilling on top of a rock in a quarry.  The second photo shows how high the rock was they were standing on – I couldn’t see any evidence of them being tied on, and as for edge protection – forget it.

It made my heart race just to look at it.

The rest of the ride was a nice combination of coastal views and rural scenes.  The first part of the ride was a nice series of undulations, which we always a nice gradient, and gave the benefit of a rest of the down hills.  Once we hit the flat, the road surface took a significant turn for the worse, and it was here that a full suspension bike would have come into its own, as by the end of the ride my lower back was in dire need of a rest.

Evan, Bev and Lorraine

Dale and David

The feet are back. :-)