Up early and Elias has dropped his bike in to get the repairs done. Then he comes back and we get some breakfast, the good old baguette and pate combo. Then we head back to see his Moto. I decide it is probably a good idea to fix my indicators and change the oil. Elias, on the other hand, has a long list of repairs, including, all his lights, luggage holder, foot rest and of course the oil. After getting this done and dusted it is back to the hotel to check out and get the luggage on the bikes. Of course when I am loading up Jessie, she decides to fall over, again. With all my luggage on. Right in the hotel, petrol starts pouring out. I call for Elias to help me lift her up, but the French p****just starts laughing and reaches for his camera. The two women in the hotel end up helping me, while Elias chuckles away to himself. Thanks Elias. After this I put the bike up on to the back stand, so it is level when I am putting my luggage on, and hopefully more stable. The situation deteriorates further when I try to remove my bike from the back stand and end up scraping 6 inch marks in the tiled floor. Ohh my god, I need to get out of here now before I do any more damage.
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We navigate out of BMT and the destination today is Nha Trang. No bother for the pros. Great day on the bike, the weather is fantastic and we make some good time. This is the first time that we are going to be on the coast since we started the trip. We weave through the mountains, and down through the villages before we emerge from the hills and see the sea. What a sight, now this is the Vietnam I want to see on my bike. We pass rice fields, fish farms, and lakes on the way down to the sea. The road starts getting busier as the light is fading. Then suddenly the road forks, with no signs telling you which way to go. We pull over and Elias asks someone the way. Now, you must know how Elias does this. In his thick French accent he pulls over beside a local, no hello, just shouts the name of the city, pronouncing it completely wrong. The local looks completely confused, so Elias shouts louder, with every iteration of Nha Trang you can think of, except the right one. It is pronounced Nung Chung, spoken with the throat and not the mouth. Ha. Eventually the guy points in a direction and Elias shouts 'Gammon' (correct pronounciation 'cam un') The road is really starting to get conjested, and everyone is travelling at speed, we have bikes, buses, trucks, the lot. The main roads have a lane on the right hand side for bikes, but if you want to over take you just move in to the other lane to pass the bike, no need to look or indicate, as it is always the responsibility of the person behind to avoid you. The issue on this road is that there is a ramp down to the bike lane, meaning that I am feeling nervous moving up and down it. Don't want to unbalance the bike. So with all this going on, and the light fading, I am glad that we have had a few days practice on the bikes, wouldn't have fancied this at the start.
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I am pleased as we pull in to Nha Trang and there is still some light, we stop off for a cup of coffee and to see if we can find some cheap accomodation on the internet. It has become a bit of a habbit of ours, drive all day, get to the city, find a coffee shop and then find the right part of town to get somewhere to sleep. Coffee drank and we set off in search of our budget accomodation. Directions are sometimes a little sketchy when using the map, and about 3 or 4 streets can have the same name, so it can be quite a challenge. After a few poor places we eventually find the place we were looking for, The Ruby Hotel. Elias goes in a checks the room because I don't want to leave Jessie on her own, given her tendancy to fall over. The people are friendly and Elias says the room is good so we roll the bikes in to the underground garage and unload the gear. This is really the only annoying thing about having the Moto. Everyday starts and ends the same, with the luggage, i'm not too bad I just use 4 bungees, and a couple of bags. Elias takes at least 10mins at each end for his removal process, far too long.
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We get our stuff in the room and then just head down the street to find somewhere to eat. I end up getting a pizza and some chips, I'm not feeling the Vietnamese food tonight. Elias gets the burger and then a banana pancake with chocolate sauce. He is disappointed as a crepe turns up, and not the 3 inch thick pancake that he wanted. He does a good job of destroying it none the less. We head to another bar and have a few beers and play some pool. Elias is really good at pool. Not! Ha, but a good sport none the less. We have quite a few beers and then back to the hotel, no plan for tomorrow decided, but we are going to stay here.