Day 22

12 May 2013

Dieu Tri (near Quy Nhon)

Flying down a mountain.

Distance and speed have a very different meaning in Vietnam. First of all Speed. I have already spoken about the city traffic. Now for the country. Traffic still travels around 40-60 km per hour. The main reason is that the roads are hardly ever smooth but full of bumps and lumps. Travelling on a 110 cc bike seems small but in fact is already bigger than the norm. Most of the day it is me who is passing the trucks and busses and every scooter rider in sight. Doing this put me in a dangerous position as people move across without checking mirrors or turning their head, this means for me, it is "full on" at all times. The 450 km I covered today took me 9 hours of riding giving me an average of 50 km per hour. To reach today location has taken me 11.5 hours.

I started early and left by 7.15 am for a magnificent start along the red sand dunes of Mui Ne. The road hugs the coast most of the way. Later the dunes make way for rocky outcrops and mountain full of large boulders. The area north of Mui Ne towards Nha Trang is truly beautiful with tropical plants cascading down the rocky outcrops into the valley below. The train line follows the coastline cutting through the mountain by means of long tunnels. Mid morning I battled uphill only to let go on the other side just to see what the bike was capable of. Suddenly I lost all power and had freewheel down the mountain into a village. Where there is a village there is a “Honda “shop. The word Honda is displayed everywhere. Interestingly it has nothing to do with Honda as a brand. What is happening here is the same as in, for example the UK, where someone would say: “I am going to Hover the carpet.” Meaning “vacuum” the carpet. Hover is a brand and not an action of cleaning. The same goes in Australia where older people may say that they have a cold beer in their Frigidaire. They may in fact have another brand but use the name Frigidaire for refrigerator. In Vietnam the name Honda is synonymous with scooter.

Anyway some kids pointed me in the right direction. When I arrived at the liitle workplace in front of a house, I tried to explain what had happened, I had my own theories but the mechanic started to check the electrics. I thought I just watch, wait and see. Surprisingly he found the problem in a few minutes. A burn out coil. Perhaps it had generated too much power when I hit 90kmh or it was a coincidence. 15 minutes later I was back on the road. The damage was just $5.00

I had some “moments“ today, several in fact. The bike does not have a good set of brakes. It would be impossible to lock up a wheel or get the tires squealing. With my weight and the weight of the back pack there needs to be a lot of anticipating to be done, all day long. At one stage a sheep ran onto the road, kept moving and then stopped suddenly, I was close and headed straight for it. A second before impact it jumped away and my heart jumped a few beats. Trucks pass each other on blind corners at regular intervals this resulted in a few near misses telling me that I should still go slower than am already travelling.

On one of the mountain passes met a small motorcycle tour group riding Honda 50cc Sports bikes. One guy had even a girl on the back, I wonder how they are struggling going up on the passes.

I met a crazy guy from China on an overloaded pushbike. He had twice as much stuff, as I had. He commented on the heat. Well today was ok now I am travelling north. Good luck to him in Saigon and Thailand. Because of my ongoing issue with my broken tooth I looked at the possibility of doing a bit by overnight train. On arrival at a small town next to Quy Nhon , I made enquiries about the train to Hue. Ok not a problem for you and the bike I was told. I purchased the ticket and was asked to go to the freight office as they would issue the bike ticket. The girl at the ticket office had told me that the bike could go on the same train which would leave at 11.25 pm. Then at the freight office I was advised me that: “Yes , they bike would be able to go but on tomorrow's train.” Well that did not suit me because I need to keep going. I went back for a refund. The lady cancelled the ticket and paid me back the money less ten percent cancellation fee. “What are you doing”, I asked. “That is the cancellation fee sir” she replied—Sorry Wrong answer. This was her error and not mine. With the help of an older lady who who spoke good English told her that she had made a mistake and not me, and that I wanted to discuss this with her boss. She relented and gave me a full refund. Back at the freight office I asked about accommodation close by. One of the workers grabbed his bike and said “follow me” and brought me to a nice place to stay. Nice country Vietnam