Mot, Hai, Ba, Yo!

Trip Start Sep 14, 2009

Trip End Sep 13, 2010

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Where I stayed

Anh Vy Hotel

Flag of Vietnam Quy Nhon, Vietnam
Monday, March 8, 2010

Our journey to Quy Nhon introduced us to a new mode of transport, the local minibus. For 5 hours we traveled with the sea to our right and the mountains to our left on a bursting at the seems minivan full of Vietnamese people picked up from anywhere and everywhere along the way. At one point it must have been at least two to a seat. It wasn't so bad though, I was sat next to a bloke who could speak English and he helped me decipher the tricky food descriptions in the roadside cafes as we passed. Very helpful when you've only eaten noodle soup for three weeks.

We arrived at the bus stand in Quy Nhon and began our search for a hotel. We walked onto the road near the beach and tried a Lonely Planet place overlooking the sea. It turned out to be quite nice, a third floor room with balcony and unobstructed views out to the ocean. We settled in and strolled up to the town. As we did we saw many stalls selling flowers at the side of the road and were told it was Ladies Day, a Vietnamese holiday where all the men go out and buy the ladies flowers

Quy Nhon

. The roads were very quiet and the locals out weighed the foreigners for a change.

The next day we rode some bikes to the next beach south of the town, situated on the edge of a hospitals grounds. When we arrived we were the only people around and enjoyed the tranquil sounds of the waves crashing on the beach. However, it didn't last long as some of the hospitals patients decided to join us and engage in a sign language chat which went on a bit too long. We shared some watermelon and made our excuses when it looked like rain and went back to the town.

That night we had our first taste of Bia Hoi, the locally brewed lager that came in a big plastic pitcher with a bucket of ice and cost around 15p. Sat on our nursery chairs, we drank the beer, which turned out a bit stronger than the bottles we'd been guzzling, and ate beef noodles on the pavement near a busy roundabout. Probably the busiest setting for dinner so far. For such a quiet town, the streets came alive in the evening with vendors selling everything from snails to cheeky flashing devils horns.

We spent the next few days ambling around on the hotels bikes and enjoying the quiet roads that were relatively traffic free. Unfortunately we didn't have time to stay longer and enjoy the slow pace of life.

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