Taking the bus...... an adventure in its own right ....Quy Nhon to Bai Bien Cua Toi

Good thing I walk over to where I imagine my bus stop to be at 8:00, two departures before the one I'm intending to take.

Because my bus does NOT leave from there!    Only T8 & T12 stop here.

Now WHERE the hell does T11 leave from????
That Map is not so very helpful for a non local.

Big C? The supermarket? I know where that is, but that means I have to take a taxi across town just to get to the bus.....






OK, good thing I have enough time to rethink today's travel agenda.   On the way back i manage to score an ugly but very yummy banh mi trung chien.... and 20 meters further I run into the Newfie English teacher couple again.... They're having breakfast at the house of the lovely Vietnamese Hippie Woman.....  I hope they at least teach her English in return.....

8:30
Even after walking and eating, I still feel like I'm coming down with a flu.   NOT what I imagined my Viet time to be like.

I keep waking up to my set alarm but then killing and resetting the alarm to a new time and rolling over.

NO, NO, sleep MORE !

11:15
I feel so worn-out that I even go down to ask Mr Hotel whether I can stay another night in my room.  Booking.com lists another room as open, but apparently people reserved my room in particular ;-(

OK, time to bite the bullet. I'm going!

And here are the Germans, who reserved my room in particular.   They're trying to make Mr. Hotel feel guilty that their (my) room is not ready yet.   "OK, you said it was ready now.  But we will suffer unjustly and keep walking around for ANOTHER 2 hours until you FINALLY have our room ready".  I can't help but take the wind out of their sales by telling them that it's all my fault because I slept too long, but that after all check-in time is not until 14:00.  And it's only 11:45 now!  Bloody complainer nation!

I find a taxi at Coopmart and it takes me to Big C for 35,000 VND.

Now WHERE the hell is that bus stop ?..... 
There is a guy on a motorbike.  I ask him where the bus stop is.  At first he wants to take me on the back of his bike.  Khong, toi se nga, I decline. Then: WAY OVER THERE he points.... at the long-distance bus depot.... he seems sure.... so I walk over there.  Of course, the woman at the bus depot sends me back to Big C.
By now rivers of sweat run down my body.  

12:00
FINALLY, this should be it.

But I keep doubting that is indeed the right spot until an older Vietnamese woman shows up with her  bucket and bag.  That looks like a distance traveler so I should be at the right spot.

I looked up the bus schedule on my cell phone and the bus is supposed to arrive at 12.45. All of a sudden, there is that same motorbike guy again pointing at the back seat of his bike and indicating that my bus won't arrive until 14:00.  

Nice try, but I'm disheartened to see that Marrakesh habits have already invaded Vietnam.   I show him the 12:45 number on my cell phone and he backs off.

13:00
FINALLY, there is the bus, 15 minutes behind schedule.... A white guy riding in this bus is a bit of an abnormality.   So no surprise, the ticket vendor asks me whether I want to go to Bai Xep. After all Where Else could a white person possibly want to go ?!!
Khong Khong, Deo Nai!

9000 VND?   You got to be kidding! Good price!
My pronunciation must have been off because he motions me to leave the bus MUCH too early. I show him on Google Maps where I want to get off and he apologetically charges me another 15,000 VND.    US$ 1 in total for a 1 hour bus ride..... I can't really complain!

At my Kiosk bus stop there already is a young Viet guy hanging out hoping for people who want a lift on the back of the scooter to overcome the last 5 km.

And I'm BACK!   Back HOME!

There is Tham !    Smiles & hugs ;-)

And there is Chau.......The same reception and he already brought over his motorbike, which I'm renting while I'm here.   Then he starts explaining how to start it, LOL, the bloody thing doesn't even have a key but a remote-control fob, and I have to follow 4 operational steps in sequence before the thing starts up. 

It is UTTERLY CONFUSING at first but after two days I will have gotten the hang of it.

There is Muoi..... I love that woman !
Her baby is due in one month so it might just be a Tet baby !

And there Bai Bien Cua Toi ;-)

the water feels MUCH colder than 2 months ago

I don't have enough cigarettes and munchies for the night, so I start the scooter monstrosity and drive to the store.  Normally I would have walked the reasonably short distance but some roads are covered in up to 25 cm of water, with no way to get through with dry feet, except if these feet are on a scooter.

19:30
Still feeling weak, I call it a day...