Hoi An felt really short and it would have been nice to spend time there in daylight, but we had to make it down to Nha Trang in just 2 more days. Today was just going to be more highway riding unfortunately. But what made today an adventure wasnt the road, but a string of events that lead up to my changing the way I thought about travel forever.
It was around midday, somewhere about 1/3 of the way to Quy Nhon, when Al, Me and Martin stop because we noticed noone was behind us. We ended up backtracking a few kms we find Guy towing Quynh on Guy's bike! I couldnt help but chuckle to myself at first. After a group stop, Quynh's plan of action was to let Guy take his bike and have us all trek forward and find the hotel in Quy Nhon by ourselves some 200km ahead while he got the bike repaired with the help of a flatbed and a local mechanic. Quynh assured us it was fairly easy to get to, and he gave Claude the hotel address. Al, Martin, Real, Claude, Guy and I regroup and move forward. It was actually fun to go without a guide for once since now it was fun challenge to make decisions ourselves. We made stops and had lunch using pidgin english and limited Vietnamese.. the locals had fun trying to talk to us as we did trying to get our words across. Just about one of the funniest things to watch was Martin trying to ask for milk for his coffee. He made motions of milking a cow and just about all the staff belly laughed as they got him his order. At this point, Im realizing that having a guide is a nice safety net, but riding with a group of friends with no help in a country halfway around the globe is priceless.
On the road again, I had a hard time keeping up since everyone felt like they could open up the throttle and ride like as if we were back in North America. I had jsut about the hardest time keeping up with my bike. The guys did slow down for me periodically and when they did I just threw my hands up in the air and pointed at my bike. So we ended up playing this game of speed off, wait for me, I catch up, speed off.. It was annoying, but what the hell. When traffic thickens up, and they speed off Im muttering the entire time because god knows how hard it is to catch up to them in traffic. Real was nice though, since he kept with me. When the traffic cleared they were nowhere in sight.. I motion a WTF gesture to Real and keep the throttle WOT while keeping an eye out for them. 20 minutes pass. No group. Keep going.. 30 mins. Noone. I had a sinking feeling we were lost. Some 100+km to goto Quy Nhon and we were lost.. This was not good. We stop and I thought about it for a minute. "Lets just go and find Quy Nhon ourselves, fuck it". They know where to go, and we at least have phone numbers incase we need directions to the hotel. An hour goes by of riding and I decide to stop and ask some locals. I ask a cafe owner "Quy Nhon?" He points to keep going while he speaks to us in Vietnamese. I tell Real, "guess we'll keep going, maybe we'll find signs at a junction". 15 mins later I stop and ask another local. "Quy Nhon?" No english and don't know. Ride 10 more mins, stop. "Quy Nhon?" No english and points to keep going. Even though I'm visibly starting to feel a bit desperate, I notice Real was a man of few words and this entire trip, he always acted relaxed and happy, almost in an aloof way. And even now he's relaxed. Despite me being kind of frustrated, his calmness rubbed off on me. As we keep riding, I spot a blue sign that said "<--- Quy Nhon 30km" Woo yeah! Big sigh of relief, and I see the intersection up ahead. I point to the sign and gesture to make a left. Real follows. At this point I figure what the hell, we'll just keep doing this till we get there, and later we'll try to call Quynh for the hotel address. As Im riding, Im thinking to myself, this really is not as bad as it seems. Im sure if I called friends and family back home and told them I was lost in Vietnam they would flip out. But just about every single soul Ive met along the way has been so kind and cooperative that I just had no worries anymore, even with the language barrier. The town we were riding through was populated and it kept on getting more dense. Real and I were just 2 lost fish in a giant school of scooters. This has to be Quy Nhon or at least a neighboring city. There was a man who appeared to own a TV shop having a smoke break outside. I stop and go through the motions again. "Ummmm.. (hands up in air) Quy Nhon? (point left, point right, hands up in air)" I motion. "Quy Nhon?" he replies. "(nod) yes! Quy Nhon! (point in all directions)", I ask again. "What are you looking for in Quy Nhon? Youre in Quy Nhon! Do you speak English?" he replies. I look at a smiling Real with a sort of 'well fuck!' look on my face. "yes, were looking for a hotel in Quy Nhon!" He proceeds to tell me there are a ton of em around here, but he figures he knows Im looking for a touristy part of town. "Go 2 blocks and make a right at the church. There's a beach front with a strip of hotels. That maybe what youre looking for." he instructs me. I thank him graciously and Real and I move out. I let him lead this time and sure enough we were in town. This HAS to be it. I see palm trees on the beach, people jogging, buildings, hotels, cars, taxis, this place looks like Miami. Now we had to find out what hotel we were supposed to be at. We cruise the strip up and down looking for parked motorcycles.. no dice. Then we look for any hotel named "Hotel Quy Nhon" since I vaguely remember Quynh saying those words. We find one of 3 hotels with "hotel quy nhon" in part of the name, so I figure why not ask them if we could use their phone. Real gives me a card with Quynh's number on it and I go in and ask the receptionists if I can make a phone call.. 20000 dong and Im patched through. Thankfully he picks up since there was the chance he was riding and wouldnt be able to hear his phone going off. He seemed kind of puzzled and started speaking to me in Vietnamese, even though I kept on reiterating that it was Adrian and I needed to know what the address was. I tell the receptionist our story and I give her the phone. After she hangs up, she tells me that Quynh is on his way, and yes this was the hotel we were looking for.
Thats right! yep! THIS WAS THE HOTEL. I felt like dancing in the lobby. Boy was I relieved. I share the news with Real, and he was glad too. Now the only thing we could do was wait and hope that the guys knew to just move forward and meet us here. I knew back there that the risky thing to have done was play the whole, 'lets go back and look for them game'. We had no idea where we got seperated, and we risked putting around missing each other while it got dark. So Real and I waited for about 30 mins before... Lo and behold! A convoy of what looked like rejected auditioners from the set of MAD MAX, it was them rolling in! Man, what a party it was! Hugs around, and just a collective sigh of relief. We had tons to talk about that night. So we do our thing by checking in, washing up and walking about before meeting up at 8pm in the lobby.
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