Epic Road Trip (I): BBCT to Tuy Hoa: The village road, No Phap & Bob's Cafe American

6:00
If THIS is any indication of the things to come then this trip WILL be EPIC, LOL.

The RIGHT way to start the day ;-)

9:20

When there STILL is no one in the kitchen area (new sleep records for the owner and staff?) I blow a fuse and head over to Ocean Beach for a G&T.

Anie gets to see the picture of herself at T's christening, points at herself, and shouts "Khong dep!".  But no, it's not just women that hate unflattering pictures of themselves, I know enough men who'd do the same..... The problem with that? 10 years later, they'll wish they still looked as good as in the supposedly ugly picture!

10:00
STILL no one around?   Then I realize it is Sunday and ALL of them are at Church.... 
OK, back to Bobby's for breakfast and another G&T, LOL.

10:45
STILL no one here....

There must be some kind of way out of here ... ;-)

11:00
Oh, since Mathias agreed to be baptized again last week, I guess he doesn't have a choice either but to attend Church....  Life is supposed to be about choices, not things one is forced to do!

My choice is to have yet ANOTHER G&T (I'm pissed off and PISSED ;-) to give the hotel a last chance to make even just ONE employee available.  
Since I have my passport already, I can leave even if no one materializes.






But NO, they are back just after noon.  M shows me where the family's village is and Ti/n calls Phap but Phap is busy today.  Too bad, maybe on the way back.

ON Y VA !

After buying two bottles of wine from my trusty wine store in Song Cau, I decide to take the long route today, since I'm not meeting anyone and consequently am master of my own time.   

HOW about riding along all those fishing boats and following that road along the ocean contour ?

 OK... NOT such a great idea.... no road comfort to be expected HERE..... but I keep going, of course ;-)

 It gets even more enchanting when I ride through the actual village, but I don't stop to take pictures.... another time, when they have finished the concrete road. Let's just say there were young girls on pink bicycles and free-roaming fat pigs along the way ;-)

A few daring traffic maneuvers where my side road joins the highway and I'm back on the standard route...

Instead of a water pump....

 GPS on the phone is a fabulous thing.   I find the turn-off to the village where most of the staff & family of my hotel live.

taking the country road to get away from highway travel

I make it to the hotel in Tuy Hoa a while later


15:30
Traveling makes hungry.   Bob's Cafe American (WHY didn't he call it Cafe Americain?)  

is just around the corner so I walk over there. 

Along the way:

I so WANT these doors !

Fish & chips for 60,000 VND.   Now that ain't a bad price at all and that's what I ate the last time I came here and I couldn't finish the huge amount of fish.  

Looking back in time from 2026....this was their FIRST location with a wooden deck on the first floor and cats that were waiting for leftover fish.... I remember seeing an OLD white guy...Bob presumably...... Later the wooden deck was gone and the restaurant had moved down the block and was now called "Pizza Bob"..... I guess Bob died.....and now it's much further away....However still the same good Fish&Chips, Pizza, and chicken wings ;-)


a ~20 year old German couple, recently unemployed decided to stay a few months in SE-Asia..... I can tell they're HOOKED, LOL.

Coopmart for groceries and wine

The SONY can't capture the full moon
Good thing I'm getting my LUMIX repaired ;-)

Already when booking my hotel, I had noticed that it was on Le Duan Boulevard.  LE DUAN? I thought..... I KNOW that name ;-)

Watch the Vietnam War documentary on Netflix if you're interested, but consider that while Ho Chi Minh started the revolution in Vietnam, he died before the end of the American War and there would probably STILL be two Vietnams if it hadn't been for Party General Secretary Le Duan!