From Hoi An to Quy Nhon

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Today we start cycling at 7am. Weather: cloudy, so not as hot. The first part takes us past beautiful gardens where vegetables and flowers are cultivated and currently being watered. This morning we only cover 25 km by bike and then switch to the bus, which we use for 5 hours. We also stop at a memorial with a row of graves of soldiers who fell in the war against the US and France. For lunch, we don't go to a restaurant, but have our meal at a private family's home. We have seafood soup with rice or noodles. To keep everything hot, the soup is kept warm on the table with a heating plate. The ingredients of the soup are: vegetables, quail eggs, tofu, squid and other seafood. Very delicious.

After another hour on the bus, we finally get back on the bikes to cover another 40 km on mountain bikes. At first, the road is rough, like a patchwork quilt, but then the road gets really good, probably freshly paved. Then there are three climbs. The last one is phenomenal. There is a traffic jam everywhere. This must be a amusement park here, and after the cars also try to move forward on the opposite lane, everything is hopelessly congested. With our bikes, we simply walk across the adjacent field until it becomes rideable again.

Then we switch back to the bus, which takes us the last 20 km to the city of Quy Nhon, a vibrant city by the sea. The hotel is right by the sea, but neither the sea nor the pool inspire me to swim. The sea is like the weather, very gray. The pool is rather small.