Good morning SE Asia!: 29/11/2013 - Nha Trang to Phan Rang

After 3 days off in "little Russia", our legs started to feel restless and it was time to move on and get back on the bikes.

The cycle itself was nothing special. Cycling out of Nha Trang we saw the Vinpearl island and the cable car that goes to it for ages, but we both weren't sad to leave it behind. We stayed for about 40km on the beach road which was a nice change from the AH1 (even though the AH1 by now is not that bad any more). We also got nearly caught up in a massive rain shower, but we stopped for water in a little road side shop just as it started. Had a coke there and waited for the worst to be over as the nice lady moved us further and further inside the tin shack shop as the rain got worse whist motorcyclists came in to buy emergency ponchos. The weather after that was just on and off rainy but not enough to make us stop again.

We didn't have a hotel booking in Phan Rang, but it was very easy to find a nice, hotel as we rolled through the one long main street of the town. It was cheap too and had a restaurant. Greg noticed a specialist Bahn Mi shop that had a massive selection that we cycled past, so after a shower and a wee freshen up we walked back and had our favourite Vietnamese fast food (not really Vietnamese but it is a local favourite). We bought two each with various fillings and took them over to a plastic chair type place opposite in the bus station yard that had cold beer and coke. We ate our sandwiches whilst watching some loose cockerels and hens having an entertaining scrap and craw in the dust and wind and spitty rain.

When we got back to the hotel we met two older American touring cyclists on brand new shiny matching race bikes with new panniers and bags who were also heading the same way as us. We only had a brief talk as they didn't seem very chatty, saying they had been searching up and down the town looking for a place that didn't have plastic chairs and that served food on proper plates with cutlery! Wonder if we going to meet them again. Later on we came down to the hotel restaurant and had a late dinner as well. Fatties.