Road Trip Therapy Time (I): Waves, Warmth & Wheelchairs..(BBCT to Quy Nhon to Vunam)

5:00
P&M are waiting for tales and vistas of daring adventures.  
Time to deliver ;-)

early dawn with moon

oh,it's SO NICE to finally see that glow again ;-)

 Rush hour on the village street at 6:05   Children cycling to school; adults going to or coming from the village market.

I still have NO CLUE WHAT they actually DO with all those bags FULL of sea snails LOL.

How about this for a pineapple?   

Stem still attached.  THIS ONE did NOT travel half-way around the world in a shipping crate from Hawaii or Central America !  About 60 cents or double the price of a boiled-egg Banh Mi ;-)

NO, NOT a Vietnamese Bivak...
...but the bag into which I put the collected garbage

Things get a tiny bit more complicated when B & Muoi ask for Tung whether I would take him to Quy Nhon when I ride there.  Ideally I'd ride by myself, but HOW could I say NO?  

11:00

How could I NOT go for a quick swim?

WHAT is WRONG with my old cell phone?  There is a LIGHT shining out of the speaker !  

Time to boot up my Canadian service cell phone because I need Google Maps even if the the old phone dies.   
Battery 1%?
Oh Shite!


Charge! Charge! Charge !  TODAY I NEED Google Maps!

Tung knows Quy Nhon well.  I scoot down the ocean promenade and at some point he starts nudging me through narrow and narrower streets and alleys, to be dropped off right in front of his Massage School. 

I drop by my usual hotel to pay for the last 18 days of scooter rental.  The price went up?  Looks like Chau instead will be in business next time ;-)   But chatting with theMr. Hotel is as much fun as always.   He wants to know where I am going today.    When I show him on the laptop, I suddenly realize that I have been hurtling towards tonight's abode, but that I actually haven't reserved a room.    Click, click, DONE !

Factory in Dune sand

Then there is another woman with a loaded scooter on its side at the curb.   She lifts some of the load so I can flip her scooter back on the wheels. Then I help her lift that yoke loaded with STUFF back onto the rear seat. I can barely lift my half.  And that is only about 1/6th of what is still scattered over the pavement. That scooter must be loaded WAY OVER the manufacturer's specified load limit.   I'm already thinking of what my back will feel like tomorrow, but then two men scoot to a stop and I am relieved of my road-saviour role ;-)

GIANT HOTELS a la Cuba.  SO SAD !

Another DREAM HOUSE

Bottle & distant Buddha

Not that I would even CONSIDER climbing up there AGAIN....
....the gates are CLOSED when I ride by at 16:00

surf's UP

NO! REALLY!  This is Vietnam and NOT Le Bretagne in France!  

I see it when I ride past it sitting on the opposite side of the road.   I SHOULD take a picture of that...... I stop, make a U-turn, speed back, and stop behind it.

I scoot forward to take another picture from the front.   I realize that the road is a 'high' road and that all the houses are all lower by about a meter down the grassy embankment down the left in the picture below.
JUST after I take the picture, I REALIZE that the USER of this chair left in on the road because he can't get to his house with it.  He must have hobbled,crawled, slid down the embankment.  The owner LIVES RIGHT HERE.  
OMG, ..... HOW EMBARRASSING thinks the Western mind while my eyes wander to the houses down the embankment. 

They are met by the eyes of an about 50 year old man sitting without a shirt on his behind in the narrow door of the tiny house down the slope, his tanned lean upper body bent forward.  He looks like the broken man he is.  And he is looking straight at the foreigner taking pictures of his wheelchair, with a facial expression that says NOTHING.
YOU probably KNOW what I'm feeling, LOL.  Many people would twist the throttle and get themselves out of this situation as rapidly as possible.  
But NO!
I wave Hello to him....   THERE is THAT smile...   
I point at his wheelchair and give him the thumbs up.  He GRINS widely & nods.
I wave good bye to him and slowly roll away.  
I can't even remember whether he waves back, because my mind is swamped by yet another one of those "Vietnam is Therapy" moments.

My cell says I'm close.....there is a gravel road ...  and a HUGE SIGN.

OMG.... How much STAFF does this place employ..... 50?..... and there are only EIGHT of those little huts built so far.....  and I am the ONLY GUEST !

Home for the night

Oh LOOK..... it's my FAVOURITE flower/tree !

It's strange..... where ever there is Plumeria....

....I feel at ease....

Time for a walk ....

OooH YEAH, that's how I like my beach....
endless & empty ;-)

Home Sweet Home for the night

 No, they are NOT seagulls.  

These are those strange white Mini-Herons always seen in rice fields ;-)

17:30
I am the ONLY guest in this HUGE resort and it occurs to me that the staff will stay late until I have eaten something.  And I'm also HUNGRY.  So I go over to the towering central building early in the evening.  It's all dark, but as soon as I look into one window and someone sees me, an unseen machinery springs into action!

To drink? Ruou trang, of course.

The waitress brings a bottle of Aquafina water with an empty Mimosa glass.
WHAT THE F....?
I stare at it, point at it, and say "nuoc" (water).  She NODS and says "ruou trang".  LOL, It's the Da Nang thing again!   But it isn't my Vietnamese that is at fault.  She has never seen wine before.  So I show her the Quy Nhon WINE bottle picture on the laptop screen.  OOOOHHHH.   She runs back to the bar and starts rummaging through a fridge.  When I see her lifting a bottle of Malibu to the counter, I go over there..... Vodka.... Cointreau.... NO GIN.... NO WINE.... and this fridge isn't even cold. 
Since I also just passed another fridge with BEER, I say: Xin, mot bia ! to put her out of her misery!
She looks relieved and brings me a cold bottle of Bia Quy Nhon

My seafood noodles arrive.  Vegetables, Squid, Octopus, Prawns on noodles. 

 All HOT & FRESH and with a SPICY sauce.  OMG.  

THIS is why Viet food is famuous ;-)

21:00
I'm smoking in front of my hut in just my underwear.  Hell, I'm the ONLY guest in this resort and the staff must have gone home by now.  OMG, it's like tenting in the wilderness, only my 'tent' has air-conditioning & WiFi and there are NO BEARS around here ;-)
Anyhoo, there I am sitting almost naked in the dark under an endless sky sparkling with stars and ALL I can hear is the distant thunder of crashing waves and the squawking of a gazillion of FROGS in the lagoon in front of me.....
.... and the weirdest thing about those frog noises:

It sounds like Australian aborigines playing didgeridoos .... 

I think I'll sleep very well, lOl...