Day 4 – Rockin’ the Coast from Nha Trang to Quy Nhon
Distance: 246km / 153 miles
Bike Condition: Freshly lubed.
Driver Condition: Awed by the scenery! And… did we mention our butts hurt?
Before heading out of Nha Trang this morning, we stopped by a few sights in town, beginning with the Nha Trang Cathedral. We really only did a fly-by of this, just stopping for a quick photo. A remnant of the French colonial period, the cathedral was built between 1928 and 1933 in French Gothic style. According to one of the tourist magazines I browsed in Nha Trang, the Catholic community in Vietnam is second in size only to the Philippines in Southeast Asia. Interesting tidbit.
Moving along through the morning traffic, we drove to the north end of Nha Trang to the Po Nagar Cham Towers. The Cham are an ethnic minority descended from the people of Champa, a Hindu kingdom dating from the late 2nd century AD. The former capital of this kingdom, Cha Ban, was located about 26km north of Quy Nhon, which is where we plan to stay tonight, and Cham sights and ruins are scattered throughout central Vietnam.
The Po Nagar Cham Towers sit on the north bank of the Cai River in Nha Trang, built between the 7th and 12th centuries, and are still actively used for worship by Cham, Chinese, and Vietnamese Buddhists. While the complex is believed to have originally had 7 or 8 towers, only four remain today, the most impressive of which is the 28m tall North Tower, with a red-orange brick pyramid-ish shaped roof, which dates from AD 817. The towers honor Yang Ino Po Nagar, the goddess of the Dua (Lui) clan, who ruled over the southern part of the Cham kingdom. When we visited, the complex was a hub of activity, with musicians, worshippers, tourists, and a general crowd and clamor, all by just after 8am.
Finally, on our way out of town we stopped by the Hon Chong lookout, offering fine views of the coastline and the island Hon Do (Red Island). This would only be the first of many spectacular coastal views of the day, as we traveled along the mountainous coastline for several portions of the day’s journey, mountains to our left and the turquoise blue sea below to our right, with lush green foliage clinging to the cliffsides and colorful boats bobbing in the bays.
While we attempted to avoid Highway 1A as much as possible, it was unavoidable in some sections, a lair of trucks and tour buses to contest. Not all of the sections were bad though, and some portions of highway crossed through beautiful expanses of rice fields that stretched from mountains to sea, all speckled with white herons (or a similar looking bird) that fished the fields for insects, and farmers in leaf hats for their work in the hot sun.
About 68km south of Quy Nhon, we took a detour from the route to check out Ganh Da Dia, the Vietnamese doppelgänger of the Giant’s Causeway of Northern Ireland. Here, similar interlocked columns of pentagonal and hexagonal pillar-shaped volcanic rocks jut up along the coastline, formed millions of years ago from cooling molten basalt. The sight Is apparently used often by Buddhist monks for ceremonies, and we did indeed see a group of young monks there but didn’t notice any ceremonies taking place. We relaxed along the rocks for a bit, dipping our feet in the warm clear blue waters before taking the footpath along the rocky shoreline back to the parking area, where we grabbed a late lunch at one of the restaurants.
The group of robed young monks that we had just seen out at the rocks was now enjoying coconut drinks. With no English menus and very little English spoken, I took a stab in the dark at a menu option and ended up with fried noodles with squid (or it may have been Octopus… purple-ish coloring) and some greens. I picked through it, slowly becoming wary of the restaurant’s cleanliness. Everything tasted fine, though we’ve said that many times before we ended up with our heads in the porcelain throne. Not wanting to risk it, Shawn hadn’t ordered anything and opted to wait until we arrived in Quy Nhon, another 80km up the road. Time shall tell. As of writing, so far so good…
One of the best parts of the trip out to Ganh Da Dia was actually the drive to the coast, detouring from our main route to Quy Nhon. The small road that lead to the coast went through small farming villages, with narrow roads crossing between rice fields, motorbikes and ancient tractors piled high with the recent hay harvest, and grains raked across the roadsides, drying in the sun. Everywhere there was activity along the roads: school kids running and biking, cows being lead to pasture, grains raked to dry, hay and other crops being transported by bicycle, cart, motorbike, and tractor.
We almost had a major mishap on our way back to the main route. Shawn lead the way through the small field-fringed roads, me following behind. Suddenly his passport wallet came flying out of his backpack onto the side of the road. Luckily, I was behind him so saw it happen and immediately stopped to retrieve it while he continued down the road, completely unaware that his main wallet, with passport, credit cards, etc., lie on the side of a rice field. A local woman passing by on a bicycle saw this happen as well and hurried to help me as I stopped my bike to retrieve it. I thanked her as she grabbed it and handed it to me, and quickly sped down the road to catch up with Shawn. Crisis averted! If he had been behind me, we would have never seen this happen or known that his wallet was missing until it was too late. I caught up with him down the road, where he waited for me after making a wrong turn and discovering I was no longer behind him. His backpack had been unzipped and thankfully nothing else appeared to have fallen out. Wallet stowed and backpack zipped, we continued down the road. Lesson learned: make sure our zippers are zipped and everything secure!
The remainder of the trip to Quy Nhon continued through more agricultural areas of rice and other crop fields dotted with small houses along the borders of the fields, and also through more mountain roads bordering the sea below. Finally, we saw Quy Nhon ahead, a large city jutting out into the ocean.
Shawn had booked a hostel earlier while I ate my mystery seafood lunch, so we went directly there to check in. The John & Paul Inn was rock themed and had a great bar on the ground level with photos of the Beatles, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and other bands. They served us a “welcome” ice tea with lime that was absolutely delicious, so refreshing after the heat of the road.
All checked in, we took care of the next order of business, which was bike maintenance. The bar tender at our hostel pointed us down the road to a bike shop just a block away. The great thing about Vietnam, with millions of motorbikes on the road, is that there is literally a bike service/repair shop on nearly every city block, so you never have to go far for service. We took care of oil changes once again, and also had my starter adjusted so that the button works again. Yay!
Bike maintenance taken care of, we took a quick jaunt down to the the beach before returning to the hostel for free happy hour drinks and dinner. Tired, we opted to eat at the hostel, which had only western food options, so we took a break from Vietnamese food for the night.
Tomorrow we will head toward Kon Tum… there are a couple of different route options. One shorter, but less scenic (for the majority of the drive) and one more scenic, but A LOT longer, and may end up tacking on another day, which we’re not sure we have time for. We’ll take a look at the routes again tomorrow before setting out. For now, it’s sleep time.