The day started out bright and clear, all trace of the heavy rain the previous night was gone, leaving the sky a cloudless blue. There was a strong wind blowing which was a cross-tailwind as I set off. The days profile was allegedly downhill as I was to finish at a lower elevation than where I started.
The ride started out swimmingly with a nice downhill roll to get things going and while I was a little sore from the las two days, as I got the legs turning over I started to feel better. There was a nagging doubt in my mind however as I still recalled how much elevation was still left over from the profile I didn’t finish the day before. My fears were soon realised as every little descent had an ascent on the other end of it, some of them significantly greater than that which I’d come down. There was a nagging doubt in my mind however as I still recalled how much elevation was still left over for the profile I didn’t finish the day before. To add insult to injury, the wind had swung towards the South and was now a cross-headwind.
I had been mulling over what I was to do today as far as destinations went as I was going to come up short of my planned ride destination of Nha Trang in 4 days time as I still had almost 500 km when I set out this morning. The wind ended up being my undoing, or perhaps my saviour. I made the decision to stop at Kon Tum and try to get a bus to Nha Trang and save myself some torment. This was supposed to be a holiday after all.
I’d arrived at a little before 11 am and went looking for the bus station. The bus to Nha Trang was an overnight affair which didn’t leave until 6 pm so I had some time to kill. I got a room for a few hours so I could shower, then went and got myself a hair cut. This was quite entertaining as I didn’t speak a word of Vietnamese and the Hairdresser not one of English. A pantomime ensued and I somehow ended up getting the full treatment. I paid some pretty stupid prices for haircuts before today, but I’ve never received anything like this. Hair and beard trim, shave, eyebrows trimmed, manicure, pedicure and some exploratory surgery into my ear canals. The price you ask? 100,000 VD or just under A$6.00!
The bus timetable was either a work of fiction or just very loosely interpreted. I’d arrived just after 5pm to get The Dr. loaded safely on the bus and was sat waiting for nearly an hour next to the wrong bus while the right bus was still on its way. The Staff at the bus depot were very patient with all my questions, which they didn’t understand, and my pointing and gesticulating, which they mostly did, and eventually put The Dr. safely onboard in his own stowage, which was just as well because his fare was more than my own.
At 6:30 we at last set off onto the night on a “sleeper coach” which an entirely new thing to me. Three rows, two isles and double rows with the seats fully reclining and your feet tucked into a sort of cubbyhole. 
Outwardly this sounds like it should be a relaxing way to travel and ordinarily you’d be right, however the bus drivers love of honking his horn meant this was far from relaxing. Couple that with there not really being anywhere to put anything save the cubbyhole at your feet and the almost constant smoking by either the Driver or his assistant and it’s safe to say I didn’t get much rest. This proved evident when we entered Nha Trang I was keeping an eye on where we were and when they finally remembered to let me off, I got up and left my phone where you see it in the photo above.
The bus had trundled off into the night before I realised my error And it dawned on me I had no way to contact them to let them know. Thoroughly pissed at my stupidity I set off in search of my hotel. An hour later despite having been to the correct address three times and being put on a bum steer twice I finally managed to check in. The problem being that the hotel was called Lotus Village and the actual place is called something else entirely. The night clerk, it was just after 5 am, spoke just enough English to check me in but not enough to help with phone dilemma, so I headed upstairs for a shower and to wait till I might find someone who could.
Andrew & The Dr. 