Day 17 Vietnam

We met another traveler last night at dinner. And stayed out last our bed time. We have decided to stay here the rest of the trip. We will miss out on a couple other areas of the country we wanted to visit. But we will opt in for building a little community and meeting some local people. So it’s a good trade off. This we also have decided is now semi, mostly, officially our honeymoon. We don’t feel bad about spending it on the beach.

I’m up early dawn in bed still. I head out to greet the morning and eat across the street from our hotel. Mondo is a Swedish owned restaurant. The owners a couple and their daughter decided to live a different life, to live on an island part of the year. They chose Vietnam. Now there daughter is growing up Tri lingual and gets to spend half the year on the beach.

This is a life I can imagine. This is a life I can dream about.

I have scooter lust now. It’s not even a matter of if I will get one its a matter of when. The convenience of the scooter is hard to remove once had. If you spend any time riding around on one you just get it in your blood. I didn’t think that I would like it so much. Like my other two wheeled obsession I should have known. I’m a two wheel junkie.

We take the scooter south and head towards Bai Sao beach. Half way there we end up on a construction road. That ends and were traveling on small jungle roads. Massive ruts and sand traps everywhere. We ask some locals Bai Sao? Bai Sao? (Sao beach?) We get some looks and some laughs. Then some hand gestures. I gesture my hands back in understanding. We stop at another intersection someone stops by us and points us in the right direction. Eventually and with a lot of skillful navigation we make it to the hardtop. The road we should have been on. I have a new respect for the endurance of the scooter. It’s a wonderful vehicle.

We make it into a small town and take a left. The beach is on the gulf of Thailand side and it’s quite stunning. Bright white sand and blue water with small whitecaps. Coconut trees line the beach. We rent some chairs for the day. A dollar a piece.

The trip here is dotted with construction. Nothing will be the same when we return. There is more development here than I’ve ever seen. They have massive areas slated to be developed. It’s going to change fast. Maybe they want it maybe they don’t know what’s coming. Maybe they do. They seem happy about it so I’m happy for them. I hope it’s managed well and the locals reap the rewards.

The sound of the waves crashing on the shore, Make for a great napping soundtrack. I rest up for the ride back. We eat scallops that we pick out from a tank. Grilled over fire with peanuts and lemongrass and we dip them in chili sauce and eat them with rice. Washed down with cold beer they are great. Here they eat all of the scallop. Not just the white part.

The ride back compared to the ride out is easy. We roll over mountains and across valleys over rivers and through villages. It’s stunning scenery. The sun goes down as we roll into town. The sky pink and orange.

The night market is where you go for cheap seafood. We go and then decide to have noodles somewhere else. Noodles or bun Bo hue is pho ish but different noodles and different ingredients. Eating with the locals is the best it’s super cheap and usually really good. You pull up sit down and just say two. They only serve one thing and you come for that. It’s the do one thing well and forget trying to do everything ok.

Read the other entries from our Vietnam trip below
Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 4 1/2 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 8 1/2 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 14 – Day 15 – Day 16 – Day 17 – Day 18 – Day 19 – Day 20 – Day 21