Vietnam: Part Two (Mui Ne to Nha Trang)

In the coastal town of Mui Ne we stayed at a cool hostel right by the ocean. The hostel was big and had a full service bar/restaurant, a pool, tons of lounge space, a pool table, a ping-pong table, and board games. It was definitely a nice spot to recover for a couple of days. The town itself wasn't too spectacular (in our books) but felt like a peaceful retreat after Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the accommodations for tourists/backpackers were actually situated a little bit outside of the village itself, so you're kind of stuck at your place unless you rent a scooter (or own one, like we do now). We were able to dip into the village for a day. It was mostly a normal, small Vietnamese village centered around the fishing culture. The coast in the area was lined with hundreds of tiny fishing boats, most of them the "basket" type. Basket fishing boats are round, almost baby-pool-like boats that the Vietnamese people invented as a way to avoid taxes from the French occupiers in colonial times (boats were taxed, but "baskets" were not!). There were wet markets everywhere selling fresh catches throughout the day.

While in town, Kyle's bike stopped working one more time. This time, knowing it was more serious and that we had a free day, we really pushed the repair shop to inspect the bike. It took almost three hours, and every single wire connection was stripped, cleaned, and reconnected. Finally, the bike was running as good as new (and better than when we bought it!). With the bike in order, we decided that a coffee was earned. We stopped at a little coffee shop where they didn't speak English, and pointed to a couple of random things on the menu. Nicole ended up with a cold coffee with a big scoop of ice cream in it, and Kyle ended up with a coffee that was still in mid-brew when it was served. In Vietnam they have special tin cups with perforations on the bottom that sit on top of your glass, and as you socialize your coffee slowly drips into the glass below, which is often filled with ice and condensed milk. On the way home we stopped to grab some fruit for lunch and ended up with pineapple, which is easy to get back home, and mango and dragon-fruit, which are not.

After a few hostel Saigons (in our opinion, Vietnam's best beer) and a delicious pho dinner (Nicole ordered a braised beef pho that was amazing), we packed up to be ready for an early morning out of the city. On our way out of town we stopped at the red sand dunes for some photos, and called our mom's for Mother's Day, and were a little sad that we couldn't tell them in person. After that, we were back on the road inland on the way to Da Lat. The road to Da Lat was beautiful. It started out with winding, flat roads knifing through rolling sand dunes. After awhile, the road started going up through hilly farms full of rice, dragonfruit, and lakes full of ducks. We stopped to let the bikes rest at a pass with a coffee shop and a great view. The final stretch was really steep and passed through pine forests on brand new asphalt. It felt like riding though a national park back home. While the drive didn't have much traffic most of the way, once we got into Da Lat it was back to the craziness again. We were starving when we got in, and ended up at another restaurant where no English was spoken, but we ended up with another full spread for DIY spring rolls.

In Da Lat we stayed at a "homestay." While the term was originally meant for an open room in a house with a family, often with breakfast and a family-style dinner included, it is now used for more hostel-like accommodations, although they are still often run by a family living on the same property. At this one we felt like we were the only people staying there and, sure enough, when we went to their "nightly happy hour" the receptionist had to unlock the door, turn the lights on at the bar, and personally served us each drink and patiently waited for us to be done to close down again. Da Lat itself was a cool place, and one that was highly recommended by other travelers we had met in Vietnam. We spent an afternoon riding around the country-side to explore coffee farms (for an overpriced, weird Instagram playground, where the irrigation system rained on you as you drank your coffee), waterfalls (although they were all "closed"), and pagodas (finally a winner, with an awesome giant statue and a fat, happy Buddha shrine). Kyle also found a nice local spot for a haircut while Nicole looked around for a new camera battery (we bought a $12 knock off go-pro in Malaysia and the Battery wasn’t quite holding a charge).

Our real fun in Da Lat, though, was in experiencing the night market. This market is well known throughout the country, and local people make trips from Ho Chi Minh just to hang out at it. We went both nights and tried all of the amazing food, including Vietnamese pizza (fried rice paper with eggs, veggies, cut up sausages, and chili drizzle), grilled sweet potatoes, grilled eggs (eggs, still in shell, with a hole in them to scramble them then heated on the grill), grilled shish meats, strawberry cups, com tam ("broken rice") and many other things. We also bought just a little too much from the clothing stands. They have stands with both knock-off designer goods, and real, but used, thrift racks. We each needed a riding jacket in case of a bad spill, and a rain jacket...in case of rain. What we probably didn't need was 10 total jackets, but at an average cost of $4 each it just sort of happened. At the same location as the night market they also have a daytime market with more goods, and another great food scene.

The following morning, after a run around the lake in the center of the city, we headed there for a breakfast soup with noodles and egg. We also found a great spot in Da Lat for egg coffee, another Vietnamese specialty. Egg coffee is cup of strong black coffee topped with a thick foam of beaten eggs mixed with coconut syrup. The foam on top is so thick that you need a spoon to get to the coffee below. It is usually served with the mug sitting on a candle or in a bowl of boiling water, so that the egg stays the right consistency as you consume it. They were weird, but we loved them. That night we went back, again, to the night market. This time, the police were there shutting down some of the street food and vendors, but 5 minutes after the police left it was right back to where it left off, street performers and all (we saw a guy practicing saxophone by the lake on our run that morning that was now playing to a big crowd at night).

Other things we did in Da Lat: we visited 100 Roofs Cafe (a bar with a multi-level maze inside), the "French Quarter" which, honestly, didn't have much to see, and several more trips to the markets. After a jam-packed two days, we were ready to be off to the next spot. Our next major stopping point wasn't until further into the journey, so at this point we were stringing together a few driving days and single night stays in each town. While this wasn't our original plan, we had heard some good things about spots in the north and decided to save some extra time for that area, plus give ourselves a buffer for any more breakdowns. After Da Lat was Nha Trang. We started the morning with one last amazing breakfast (braised pork belly with eggs and rice) at the Da Lat central market, then we were off.

The ride in to Nha Trang was actually our shortest of the entire trip at 134 km. It was pretty simple, too, as we wove on good highways out of the mountains and down into the city. The first stretch was full of amazing views, with the morning clouds hanging low in the mountains and waterfalls cascading down the cliff-faces. We stopped many times for pictures, especially when we we got to ridges looking down into deep river ravines and wide open valley plains. We stopped for coffee in a tiny little town that already had a group of old men at a table drinking morning beers. While we drank our coffee, we played with a little puppy, and a duck family huddled under Kyle's bike exhaust for warmth! While there, we also had decided on names for the bikes (we gave it a couple of days of ownership/riding to really get to know them). Kyle named his Sabrina, as she was a teenager (2007 model) and was starting to turn into a little witch. Nicole named hers Nash for all of the "beep beep"ing that we were doing (see the previous post on honking rules, and the song "Little Nash Rambler" for context). As soon as we christened them, the names stuck like glue.

On the last 20km into Nha Trang, we rode a wide-open 6 lane highway where you could see the high-rises of the city all the way in. We stayed at a small but cute hotel where they upgraded us to the top floor suite with an ocean view, which was nice if even only for one night. As we were both craving some western-style food a bit, we ate at an expat-owned fish 'n chips place around the corner. The food was great, but the combination of western décor, old white tourists, and lack of chopsticks made us sort of regret not finding a Vietnamese lunch place. In Nha Trang we visited the Po Nagar temple complex and walked the beach....and Kyle had another issue with Sabrina. Luckily, this one wasn't mechanical: it was just a flat tire. Unfortunately, it was evening when we found out and he spent an hour riding around the city looking for a mechanic shop (which, he knows, was not smart to do on a flat). Finally, when he made it back, the hotel called a repair man to come and for 170,000 VND ($7), the tube was replaced. With that completed, we went to bed to get ready for a long ride north in the morning.

Before we took off, Nicole went for a sunrise run on the beach. What she expected to be a nice, peaceful, and secluded jaunt was actually a madhouse full of people. All along the beach there were people exercising, and hundreds of people swimming in the water. While we had a suspicion that the Vietnamese were early risers, this absolutely put the stamp on it. Every time we were up and moving at sunrise (5:30 am), many other people were already well into their day. Compared to some of the other places we had been (where coffee shops wouldn't even open until 10:00am), it was refreshing! Next stop: Qui Nhon!