Good morning SE Asia!: 21/11/2013 - Quang Ngai to Hoai Nhon

I have to admit that the thought of another day on the AH1 with scooters, trucks, buses, and all sorts of other motorised vehicles racing passed, didn't make us jump out of bed with anticipation, but today was only going to be a short cycle. Also between Hue and Mui Ne is no real alternative, unless you deviate hundreds of miles of the route to go back to the Ho Chi Minh Highway.

We had a quick breakfast (Banh Mi Opla and a Vietnamese breakfast) in a little roadside café heading out of Quang Ngai and then off we went. It was actually not too bad today. The road was surprisingly a lot more quiet, still busy through some stretches, but nothing compared to the ride to Quang Ngai.

We arrived in Hoai Nhon early and were even considering to keep going. We didn't have a booking or anything, so it would have been no problem. But we still decided to stay. The day before to Quang Ngai was long and trying and I fancied a rest. We cycled in to town and at first couldn't see any guest houses, so we decided to have a sit down and a drink and ask some locals to show us the nearest guest house. So I was getting off my bike to push it the last 2m to the café when I dropped my back wheel in a perfectly wheel-sized hole which was part of a Vietnamese drain cover. Daft! I managed to manoeuvre my front wheel perfectly around it just to drop my back wheel with all the extra luggage weight right in it. Very annoying. Might have bent my dérailleur.

There were actually three right next to each other, but we didn't see them when we cycled past. We chose one of the three which looked okay. Greg did some work on the bikes and especially had a closer look at my dérailleur while we watched some lady boys coming out of the hotel next door and getting in a mini van. Glad, we didn't choose that hotel.

We had an early dinner with more Banh Mi Opla (yes, we like the stuff!) and beer (which we also like!) sitting in a road side café underneath huge tarpaulin to shelter us from the rain. My bahn mi was delivered with extra chillies for some point and I needed extra ice to calm my burning tongue. It pissed down and it was nice to sit there and keep ordering ice cold tiger beer for 30p a can whilst the rain poured off the plastic roofing in sheets, made us very relaxed and just watching the people going about their evening business was enjoyable. Then after back to our nice £6 hotel.