The ups and downs of Vietnam

Only a few days since I last wrote an entry but so much has happened, good and bad.

We travelled south from Hoi An to a little town just off the tourist trail. In Vietnam it can be so easy to stop off at the major tourist towns and skip the rest. The lack of English speakers, accomodation options and locals not knowing what to do with you makes it just a little bit harder then the weel worn tourist trail where you are taken form your hotel to the bus to the next town and so on without ever having to worry about a thing. Quoy Nhon isn't really that different from the other more touristy places but was an adventure in ways not to approach things.

The bus dropped us off in a little town 15km out of Quoy Nhon, we had booked accomodation and told them wwe would be arriving around midnight, but our bus driver was the most cautious driver in Vietnam- where most drivers will happily overtake on hairpin bends or crests on the road oput driver would not even overtake on a longstraight narrow road with no cars approaching for kilometeres. I didn't really mind though as I had taken a valium and was sleeping away the trip. When I awaoke at around 1 am, Steve was fuming at the unVietnam driving style of our incompetent driver. I really don't know what was more annoying the slow driver or Steve's complaining- Sorry Steve.

So the bus dumps us and a pair of moto drivers start swarming offering us lifts to Barbabras Backpackers (a terribly run place with incompetent and unfrindly staff). When asked how much they gladly showed us two 100,000 bills and motioned that this would be the fare, an extortionate sum. But stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way of knowing which way to go we were stuck with these tricky little moto drivers. I got angry yelling that it was too much, way too much and we started marching down the dark street with them following and laughing, Steve telling me to calm down and that we would just sit and wait and maybe the prive would drop. They, however, knew we had no choice and were gleefully planning on what they were going to spend their illearned money on. I must admit I did not keep my cool, constantly having people try to overcharge for everything can be testing at times but I also know that Vietnam is a poor country with the average wage around US$2-$7 a day. But this was highway robbery. Finally the price halved and we were off to Barbaras (avoid this place, our booking was taken when there were no rooms free and we were pushed into a stinky nearly windowless room at the rear of the place where one of the staff was sleeping, she was aroused so we could sleep there for the night- where was our seaview?).

Quoy Nhon town is actually not that beautiful, it's main beach is used more practically for fishing and there are old fishing boats and nets strewn along the beach. The beach is also littered with rubbish. First impresions were not good.

But the beaches around the area had good write ups in the lonely planet, so we rented (overpriced- thanks Barbara) motorbikes and set off to explore the area. Riding motorbikes is always fun, cruising along the streets with all the other bike riders, it's a lifestyle here. We followed the ols coast road up a headland then turned down onto a dirt track that eventually lead us to a Leper hospital set up along the beach. It is really clean and tidy and all the famnilies live in a little villas, veryimpressive. Along the beach which was scattered with Fir Trees and coconut palms we met a family who rented hammocks strung up under the shade of these trees.  The beach stretched out in front and was completely empty. Everytime I jumped in the sea the little girl would jump in too and we would splash about trying to communicate and body surfing the small waves. Even her mother joined us in the water. It was a really beautiful place and redeemed all the bad experiences we had had in Quoy Nhon so far.

Later in the afternoon we headed urther around the coast to another little beach and ate prawns and chicken local style (i.e. the menu was in Vietnamese and there was much confusion when I attempted to order a fish hotpot, with the waiter bringing his English phrase book over and pointing out he only had goldfish to offer me). Chicken it was. It was getting dark as we headed back to the hotel (Not Barbaras) and we discovered my headlight was out of order as was Steves taillight (Thanks Barabara) so the journey back along the highway and into town was hazardous with me taking a wrong turn in town and nearly getting totally lost, luckily Steve found me before I got completely lost on the busy night streets of Quoy Nhon. 

Next stop Nha Trang.