The Beach V: to Tuy Hoa

4 am
Another piece of the going-native-project puzzle just fell into place.  Funding of my Vietnamese bank account is now possible.  EXCITING ;-)

5:00

I see and hear them arriving every morning at 4:30.
They use flashlights to navigate the pitch-dark beach.

6:00
I'm a bit worried because Grandma is sounding more her age of 99 on the phone this morning.


10:00
M prints out a letter for me to sign and scans it so I can send it back.  It's nice to have a hotel with all the equipment necessary for this.  I still remember Phnom Penh, where I had to go ask at the Foreign Correspondents Club for the same.  While M is printing and scanning, I change the flat tire on his car.  Quid pro Quo ! 

11:00
The weather forecast called for cloudy skies but the sun is OUT.  So I postpone my planned early departure for later in the day.  No point in getting fried on the road again.

Only 2 days later do I realize that while I was napping and sleeping, I really should have made a phone call to Canada to confirm my scanned letter. 

13:30  
Time to take off !

It's a more leisurely day, so I stop in a few spots to take pictures of the landscape along the road that leads from the main highway to 'my' village.

Since it is right en route, I might as well stop at the Banh Mi stand in Song Cau.  But today she doesn't make me a Banh Mi Cha Lua but some kind of 'special' with everything.  Not bad, but I prefer the Cha Lua variety !

I miss the entrance to the highway again and scoot up a steep hill.   At the very top, the side of the road offers a good spot to eat my Banh Mi and to get a good look over the bay of Song Cau.

on y va !

In Vietnam, one is never too far from the ocean ...

... or the mountains.

15:30
I've reached Tuy Hoa, which is a BIG CITY, the first I've seen on this trip in Vietnam since Sai Gon, because Quy Nhon does not really fit that description.

And all of a sudden there is this SURREAL change of perspective.  How often have I hung at the window of the Reunification Express when it crawled its way through a city, its path protected from hoards of motorcyclists by the lowered railroad-crossing boom barrier.   That is a view very familiar to my mind. FLASH !   and I'm on the OTHER SIDE of that picture.  All of a sudden, I'm a constituent of the waiting scooter mass, watching the red-and-blue train cruise by.   The instant change of perspective is exhilarating!  How many more of my mental images have the potential of being flipped inside-out?

What unfolds when the gate guardian opens one side of the gate can only be described as pandemonium.  Let's put it this way:  He has trouble crossing the road to open the other side of the gate, LOL.

The hotel is brand new, has a WRAP-AROUND balcony (but only windows on one side ?), a fridge, a/c, table and chairs, and costs US$ 11 per night.   Do I want to return to the Land of over-consumption and overpricing?  Hell NO.

Let's explore the city a bit.
  Bob's Cafe American?   Now what does that remind me of? 

Play it again, Bob?  NO, not quite right, but close ;-)

However, neither Bogart or Bergman are not present.  No Nazis in flashy uniforms, and no flowers or pianos in the establishment.

The place is a 2-level wooden shack that is abundantly frequented by Viet teenagers who greet each other with Hi or Hello.  I remember being a teenager in Germany where noting was 'cooler' than drinking one's beer at MacDonald's.  But I also remember when the first KFC opened in Cologne (this must have been around 1980). Even back then KFC food tasted so bad that this poor student threw it in the garbage.

Fortunately, the Viet kids here don't have to put up with crappy food to feel like James Dean.

The fish is HUGE and very tasty. It's Real Fish (TM) 

Total for a BIG portion of F&C and one beer: VND 70k = CAD$ 3.87

I can live with that.


I walk home through almost deserted quiet streets.

Good Night, Viet Nam !