I spent about an hour or so walking up and down the river, perusing the various vendor's wares, watching the other tourists take touristy selfies on the bridge, and photographing some of it. There were many restaurants and street food stalls that were appealing (lots of donut ladies!) but despite their sales pitches I wasn't really hungry. After a time I had seen more or less what there was to see and I decided to sit on a riverboat bar which had a guitarist playing. I seated myself, ordered a cuba libre, and was enjoying a few songs until...
the Columbians appeared.
There were 5 of them, they were loud, they were boisterous, and most of all they were happy. They did distract from the guitarist a bit but all in all they were a lot of fun. They spoke very little English and not many of us on the boat spoke enough Spanish for it to matter. I realized fairly quickly that outside of the Columbians I probably had the most Spanish; I neglected to mention this to them for fear they would focus on me. They sang songs that weren't being played, requested La Bamba a few times, and damn near put down a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red in the 30 minutes or so they were there. See the mayhem for yourself...
About 10pm most of the stores and shop had closed up, and by 10:30 it was quiet as a mouse. The streets were empty, the lights were all off, it was time to go home. Though I have a feeling the Columbians didn't stop partying for a while.
The next morning the family at the Bamboo Garden homestay cooked me a very tasty fried rice w/ egg breakfast and also made a pretty good ca phe sua da. I borrowed a bicycle from them and hit the road, aiming towards the beach. It was slow going as it was a fairly cheap 1-speed bike, so the 4km trip took me about 25min. The beach at the end of Hai Ba Trung St was beautiful, wide and incredibly long. Unfortunately I was leaving town later that day and wouldn't have time to dry out my swimsuit before leaving so I didn't swim, but it was good to at least be there.
On the way back I had a little extra time so I decided to take a detour and go down a farm road. I ended up adding a kilometer or two to the trip but it was worth it as it took me down a dirt road past numerous farmhouses and seemingly endless rice fields. The decision left it's mark on me however, in the form of one pretty decent sunburn. I returned to the homestay, showered, packed, and checked out, then headed to a nearby cafe along the river to pass the 5 hours until my bus showed up to take me to Nha Trang.
The bus was all too similar to the previous sleeper bus I had taken; it smelled bad, the driver seemed a bit too aggressive, and the berth was built for a Vietnamese frame. But it got me to my destination, Nha Trang. Or should I say, got me past my destination, as I realized too late that I missed the ideal stop and instead had to take a taxi ride back the way we'd come to get to the area my next homestay was in. It wasn't too far, the taxi fare was only 119,000d, and it was 5am so there was no traffic.
The place I was/am set to stay in for the next night wasn't open yet so I decided to spend some time watching the sunrise at the beach, which was only about a 2 minute walk away. And I was not disappointed as it was a beautiful greeting from the sun.
What surprised me most once I got to the beach was how many people were out and about already. There were a few dozen people swimming in the water, another few dozen on the beach preparing to get in, and even more on the sidewalks adjacent doing their morning exercise routine. I'm not sure how effective these routines are as it's essentially walking and stretching, but then again Asian people do live longer than their Caucasian counterparts so maybe there's something to it.
After that I realized that I hadn't eaten in damn near 14 hours and that noise I heard had to be my stomach telling me I was an idiot. So I walked down the road a ways and found a cafe, where I sit now and type this. After scrambled eggs, toast, coffee, and a coconut smoothie I am ready to start the day and see what I can discover here.
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