I supposed to write about this whole trip when I was traveling and kept it be updating but I found out Wordpress is blocked in Vietnam (don't ask me why because it's just it, no explanation to public), so now let myself back to those days and draw the trip on.
First day: Saigon - Nha Trang (August 28th, 2012)
Morning:
I'm an expert at sleeping over time. That bad habit has been causing me so many troubles and I can't still figure out anyway to fix it yet. And no surprising when I slept over again on the travel day. I woke up at 9am and realized how late I would arrive to Nha Trang. Saigon - Nha Trang is in the distance of 450km, and yes, I could take a break in Mui Ne (Phan Thiet) or Ninh Chu (Phan Rang). Both places are nice with amazing beaches but I have been N-times in Mui Ne and I didn't really want to waste one day time as money to just relaxing. Ninh Chu would be a nice place for stop over as well but the accommodation services aren't well there, not many choices of hotels and not very exciting city; moreover, I stopped there once on the same road to Nha Trang and just don't want to make the same thing. Okay, too much of explanation, need to go straight the content of trip.
So, I left house at 9:30am (luckily I packed my things nite before) and whispered to myself that I wouldn't be allowed to stop anywhere for long break, have to keep everything on schedule because I was already late. That wasn't a busy traffic day as still far from National Holidays. I was enjoying driving all the way until I got Bien Hoa city (Dong Nai)... 2 police mans jumped to front of my motobike with a stick when I was driving (I wish I could have killed them sometimes), and guess what? They caught me because of my scooter's driving mirrors.
"They're unappropriated in term of using", policemans tried to convince me.
For god's sake, I have never taught about what kind of driving mirror is appropriate and inappropriate.
They said to me that my convex lense driving mirrors aren't in use for traffic, "then why the government put the convex mirror on the mountain pass roads?", I asked.
"...that's just the rule, if you have any further question, we're afraid we have to keep your motobike and driving license in 30 days, or you can just pay for fine and go", they calmly said.
"Oh right, I'll pay", I knew this conversation wouldn't be on my side and the better way is using money to solve problem. I still had a long trip to finish, so I said good-bye to 100,000vnd (approx. 5$) and went on. Again, I talked to myself "It's the ghost month *, losing 100,00vnd is still lucky enough".
Afternoon:
Because of being late already, I decided skipping lunch and just drove. Got Phan Thiet around 1pm then Phan Rang around 4pm. Stopped 2 times on the way, each time around 20mins for the rain. The weather was kind of suck also, raining and sunny switching all the way. I got wet and being dried without notification.
Best part of this driving is the way between Phan Rang and Nha Trang. It was about 5pm when I was driving on the road which is between mountains and rice fields. Actually the rice fields are in the valley, so the last-left sun shined on it and make it fully in light yellow. I stupidly thought it was the yellow flower field or something because it's far away until when I drove closer. I heard and dreamt of visiting the lavender field in France, the colorful flower field in Netherlands, but when I saw that portrait, on my way, I realized sometimes heaven is just all around us and we just didn't take time to see/feel it. That was really stunning and I felt so lucky to be in it.
Evening:
Around 6pm, I arrived Cam Ranh. Cam Ranh is military area of US army before in the war and it's always famous as a nice bay. That is a nice part of it, the horrible part is no lights on all the highway road between it and Nha Trang. I have been in many adventurous situations but that was scary, not adventurous at all. It's about 60km to get Nha Trang from Cam Ranh, the roads mostly passing rice fields and in the evening, there is nothing out of flies. Can you imagine that driving on the road without lights and the flies kept coming to your eyes? Can you wear glasses to protect from the flies? Yes, of course you can but you can't see the street well because no lights and vice versa. Moreover, people there crosses the street whenever they like without any notification. I found myself screaming, swearing and heart-beating, it was the longest 60km I have ever had. Ahhhh, I forgot one important point that all cars/trucks all used the floodlight instead of the headlight. Yes, the floodlight is bright but on the dark street like that, it's too bright and it makes your eyes can't see, not even open. Also the floodlight is forbidden to use in the evenings for long way, it's supposed to use for short flashing to notice the opposite transports. At that moment, I wondered where the polices were?
At 7:15pm, the drama had gone when I got to Nha Trang city zone, light came back to my life. Got hotel and received room. When I'm about to take a shower, I realized I didn't bring any shampoo, when to find some stores around to buy but couldn't find any near by. So I asked the receptionist of the hotel whether they sale any and being surprised when she just gave me her bottle of shampoo and told me feel free to use as much as I want. Well, it's not much money and I was staying in budget hotel (only 250,000vnd/night) but the generous was invaluable. I strongly appreciated.
Shower finished, I felt alive. It's time to have dinner as I didn't eat for all day long. The receptionist again shown me the best duck porridge in Nha Trang. It's 5 mins walking away from my hotel and I found my heaven. They were the best duck salad and duck porridge I have ever had (maybe because I was too hungry), it was 50,000vnd (approx. 2,5$) for everything, heaven again is just simple like that.
After happy dining, I went for a walk for digesting, also had raspberry ice-cream for dessert before heading back to hotel having an early sleep after such a long day.
....to be continuing...
* Ghost month: In Chinese calendar, the seventh month is the ghost month. In that month, we believe that the ghost, including your ancients, would come back and annoying us by causing some unlucky like accident. So on that month, if we lost any material things, we think it's still lucky.
