I am still here in Nha Trang enjoying the days by the ocean. Despite a few torrential rains the weather has been good, not too hot and fine for the beach. For the past two nights the rain has come while I was sleeping and it sounds like the roof might fall in under the impact. I am always glad when the rain comes while I am comfortably inside and sleeping because it seems that there is a correlation "rainy at night, sun shining bright." I especially enjoy waking up in the hotel and looking out at sunrise over the China Sea. The sun surely does rise early here, before 0600.
Two days ago a Vietnamese friend and I rented a motorbike to explore the area around the city. We decided to head south where there are beautiful beaches with crystalline water (and no pollution like right here in the city.) The beach we found exceeded expectations and we were able to take our motorbike right on to the sand and ride for a long distance. All was perfect until we decided to ride back to one of the fisherman huts and try to buy some lunch. The ignition switch was inoperative! Not only were we unable to start the bike but we also could not get in to the underseat storage compartment where our money and phone were because the same ignition switch unlocked and locked that compartment.
I was becoming a little anxious at this point because we really were far from any town and other people. We started pushing the bike along and finally came to a beachside shack (truly a shack and not a cute cafe that calls itself a shack) where there were 4 really rough looking characters eating lunch and drinking whiskey. If we had been in Georgia I am sure the soundtrack of "Duelling Banjos" would have been playing. There was supposed to be a screwdiver at the next place down the beach and sure enough there was so we brought it back to our bike and one the above characters took a look at our bike unsuccessfully.
We continued onward pushing the bike to where we got the screwdriver and the lady there knew of a mechanic and she called. About a half hour later the fixer arrived and began his investigation of the problem. This was a Japanese (Suzuki) bike and just like a Japanese car, you have to take everything apart to get to what you want because all is so interconnected. We had the bike in pieces spread out on the beach and finally he made a temporary fix and the bike started.
Then it was time to pay but our money was still locked up so the next challenge was to get into the storage area. Mechanics are almost magician-like to me and eventually he was able to open the underseat storage. For his services he asked for 25,000 Vietnamese Dong. That is one dollar and twenty five cents. That's right sportsfans, a buck twenty five for his trip out to us and well over an hour of work. It would not be so bad to take your car to the shop at home at that rate.
Being hot and sandy my friend asked the proprietress if there was a shower and she offered us what she had, which was a deep well and a bucket. Standing on a few planks of wood you would drop the bucket into the well and pour water over your head. That was the first shower like that I ever had.
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