Road Trip Therapy Time (V): A Sun dance & the Scoot South Stopped by Sun burn (Quang Ngai to Vunam)

4:30
I still have not decided how far I will ride today....  Ideally I'd only cover something like 50 or 60 km and discover another village, but the idea of getting RAINED on tomorrow really doesn't sit well with me.....

5:00
There is SOMETHING happening out there !

 As soon as the sun rises over the lowest cloud, I find myself dancing in my room again.

LOL. I NEVER EVER do this!   Talk about a room with COSMIC Feng Shui !

OK, so maybe it was a bit too early to start on the wine, LOL.

But there is an underlying theme....
I mumbled these words to many Vietnamese people who inquired why I was HERE:  
"Toi khong vui o Duc va toi khong vui o Ca Na Da".

(Google Translate says that this means:

I am not happy in Germany 

and I am not happy in Canada)

BUT.... for some STRANGE reason..... 
even all by myself in this remote town, where I don't know a soul....

I AM HAPPY in Vietnam.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, LOL.

7:15
I've secured my breakfast coupon at the front desk and it's time for an sang ;-)

Pho Bo:  So fucking simple and so fucking amazing.  WHY is Pho in the West always overloaded with unnecessary and detrimental additions?

 Oh, they've varied their other buffet dishes.   Adventure Breakfast !

Again, my brain receives HAPPY signals from taste buds that I didn't even know I had !

I am the only Westerner in this hotel.  But there is this instrumental tune playing in the breakfast room.  No one knows it but everyone has heard it.  It's driving me mad trying to find out what it is, LOL.  Alas I don't.   
But the next one is obvious: Instrumental of Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel.  
WHY are these songs playing HERE?   At the time when these songs were big hits in the West, the US military was busy dropping liquid fire on little girls and raping and slaughtering 100s of women, old men, and babies less than 30 km from here.  (And PLEASE, don't even consider for a second the notion that they're behaving any better today!)

A quick ride to Coopmart at 8:00 secures me 2 bottles of Chilean white and 3 demibouteilles of Vang Dalat......  Can't be too careful..... supplies might not be available en route ! 

I haven't booked a hotel yet for this evening.  WHY?  Simply because I don't know how far I will ride.   Maybe sitting in the saddle for 4 hours will do unpleasant things to my back.  Or to my butt.  Or maybe after one hour I will suffer from tiredness that will endanger my life.  But then,  I could even ride all the way home today...... we'll see !

9:30

I'm screaming & bouncing down a freshly paved smooth road coming down from a mountain pass with about 80 km/h.   
KaRRAKRaKKRRRAArK ....
It sounds like I'm being passed by a John Deer tractor doing 100 km/h.  
 I check my mirrors and turn my head...... NO tractor ?
And it isn't a noise source along the road because it keeps going !
KaRRAKRaKKRRRAArK ....
It must be ME !
There is a gas station...... brake and slow down into the parking lot.....
The noise, now much gentler, is DEFINITELY coming from BELOW ME !

That SOMETHING that is supposed to hold UP the main stand ....
.... it ain't there anymore .... LOL

I look at the gas station.... yeah, maybe someone could help me there...... I look at the little tire shack on the side with a big truck getting its tires changed.   A little guy sees me looking around and waves me over.

Time for a little side-note.  

In North America, TRUCKERS (drivers of 18 wheeler trucks) are usually middle aged, FAT, and not too pleasant to look at.

So you can imagine my constant surprise when I am passing big trucks, look up at the driver and see a young, lithe, and cute guy instead !






Back to the present: 
The guy who waves me over, has a look at the dragging main stand, vanishes into the periphery and comes back with an old tossed-out cable strand, and pulls out one cable.

Two minutes later he smiles and me and gives me the thumbs up. 

OMG, I LOVE this country so much !

When I try to pay him, he shakes his head and walks back to his truck.   
NOPE, this was not someone working in the tire shop, this was the TRUCKER, LOL

Thank You, Karma !
Less than 5 minutes after I first noticed that there is a problem, I am rolling down the highway again !

Reunification Express !

By 11:00 tiredness is not an issue and my butt is fine too.
But I notice that the tan on my arms and knees looks darker than normal......

YES, this is where your LEMON GRASS comes from ;-)

500 meters down the road....
WTF?!?

Another 500 meters down the road....... I almost expected something like this ..

OK, this ends the hallucinogenic colour portion of this trip.....

 by 12:00 I realize that that darkness is actually redness accentuated by my blue-toned glasses.   I change into a long-sleeved T-shirt.  That SUBSTANTIALLY cuts down the distance that I will be able to travel today !

 by 12:30, I keep pulling the sleeves down, trying to cover my glowing hands.

 12:45
A nice cold Heineken at Bai Bien De Gi again.....  

 I book my Vunam bungalow again.  

 16 km to go.  I can't wait to slap & slop Nivea onto my arms and legs, LOL.

Almost there.   
SHIT!  WHAT is that?    A water buffalo roadblock !

the kid on the bike is the Cowboy.  NO, I'm NOT kidding!

Passing these long-horned beasts does not look easy.   A cunning plan is forming.   Cell phone video of yet another daring stunt:

NICE !

14:30

16:00
I should at least walk to the beach while I'm here.....

They're draining the FROG lands !

the day is almost done ...

 On the way to the beach I walk along the area they are still landscaping..... No, landscaping isn't quite the right word... think Bulldozers pushing sand around!

 But this in itself brutal action created a thing of beauty:

 I'm done walking around the man-made shallows and try to climb up the embankment back to the road, slipping and sliding, and trying to pull myself up by holding on to the palm tree.

I must have greasy or sweaty fingers because I can hear my cell phone camera going off continuously.    And again.... the unintentional shots ain't bad, LOL.

 Finally, I'm up there (Shit, I'm OLD)..... nice view given that it's all man-made.

Dubai?

17:00 
Time to walk to get some food ....

Since I already KNOW that they don't have any wine here, I just take my own bottle to dinner. 


The waitress grins when I point at it and say "ruou trang!" 


And here is that MARGARITA GLASS again, LOL.   


Wine out of a Margarita glass...... first time for every thing ;-)



A long overdue e-mail to M&P is finally composed and entrusted to the ether.  I can't wait to drink G&T with them in March, even if it's out of Margarita glasses.












The grinning waitress doesn't speak a single word of English, LOL.

But when the food comes, I proudly realize that my limited Vietnamese and hand-waving were enough to order mi voi rau voi hai san (noodles & veggies & seafood), BUT a smaller portion than last time, AND that I would like muc, bach tuoc, KHONG tom (squid, octopus, NO shrimp).   

FINALLY, a properly sized portion.  And WTF is wrong with me?  I eat ALL the broccoli; it actually tastes good .....?!?