February 11, 2017

The weather caught us out today. We were expecting overcast skies with some rain. As we left the guest house we could see some blue skies, but the majority of it was grey and overcast. Then the sun came out and we had not put any sun cream on, out came the new arm-covers and we were good to go. We had a few little showers, which had us stopping and putting on the jackets and 2 minutes later we were taking them off. We had no significant rain until we got to the hotel and then within five minutes of us settling into the room the heavens opened and it poured.

We had decided to stick to the A1 again today, and do the shorter distance of 88 kms instead of 105 kms. As you can see by the completed kilometres something went wrong, more about that later.

We had a great tail wind and were really motoring, the scenery was lovely and for the most part (until we came into Quy Nhon) the traffic was reasonable.

Or maybe I am just getting used to the lunacy that is Vietnamese drivers.

Quy Nhon is a big City and is sprawled out over about 10 kms. We were “Welcomed” to the city and proceeded to check Garmin for the route to the hotel. For some unknown reason Garmin decided to take us away from the hotel and continue out of the City on the A1. We came across a beautiful Pagoda and we stopped to take photos, then I mentioned to Ralf that I was concerned we were leaving the City. We checked Maps.Me and yes we had cycled 7 kms in the wrong direction. We turned around and headed back into the wind and back into town – hence the additional 11 kms.

We found the hotel and settled in, Ralf’s arm is very swollen and he can hardly use it at all. He cannot gear down, today after the first little hill when he managed to drop the gear into his second chain ring, but couldn’t move it up again. Time for a rethink on the route.

We are going to try and take the train to Saigon from here, the only problem is getting the bikes on the same train we would be taking. Always have the same problems with trains and bikes.

I suggested to Ralf that we could take the sleeper bus. His response was he would rather ride with a broken wrist than take the bus. They are the craziest drivers on the road. I have never seen one of them use his brakes. They just hurtle along using their horn to get other vehicles out of their way. I think their road test consists of: put your foot to the metal and see how many things you can avoid, do not use your brakes, only use your horn.

Towards the end of the ride I was getting a little annoyed with the scooter drivers again, I almost pushed one of them of her scooter she came so close to me. In their eyes “I lost face” however, I did not lose my life by moving into traffic coming up behind me. Because this stupid “bi$%ch did not even glance to her left as she came out of the intersection.

We may be in Saigon tomorrow night or the next night, we will see. If we can get on the train, we will have a few days rest in Saigon to give the arm/wrist some rest, then carry on.