Very early start, long but good ride

   Early to bed enabled me to rise at 4:45 and start off from Phan Thiet at 5:44.  It was light enough out though the sun hadn’t risen.  Rush hour was well underway with thousands of motorbikes on the move.  You would have thought I was a late sleeper.  At a local market I had to finesse my way through a mass of humanity.  Once out on Route one, the hoards of motorbikes, cars and trucks were everywhere, horns blaring.  My new hi tech horn has been very useful, helping me ward off the crazies.  It is compact with a bottom right beneath my right brake lever.  It puts our four different rings, all of which catch your attention real fast.
     A good hour into my ride, I finally reach the turn off for the coastal road.  Instantly, the landscaped changed into serene countryside.  The road was less than smooth but the villages I passed through had a nice innocent feel to them. People stared and waved or shouted ‘Hello’.  One village after another with the ocean off in the distance to my left.  After three and a half hours of pedaling with the the heat building I pulled over at a nowhere road side store of sorts.  As I left this morning, the hotel owner gave me a huge peeled grapefruit.  So I bought two strange brand sodas and whittled away at the grapefruit. This place was a real shack isolated on a hillside with very little inventory.  The interior was stripped down with a very modest living arrangement in the back room.  An attractive woman in her fifties ran the place. She seemed totally out of place, along with her iPhone 6.  She pulled up a chair and watched me eat trying to speak to me in Vietnamese.  It was all very odd.  Back on the bike, I began my only climb of the day.  It lasted for about a mile, nothing too strenuous.  Finally after almost sixty miles ridden,  I rolled into Binh Chau.  Although known for its hot springs, the town was fairly much a third world operation or close to it.  I did find a hotel, though nothing special.  Later, I walked into town and had a classic Vietnamese lunch of rice with a mixture of items I pointed out for the woman to load on.  The open front restaurant had the usual low tables, small chairs, chopsticks, dim lighting, hot sauce, tissues as napkins and curious looks from the other patrons. I ate as if I were a local having become very familiar with how things are done.  Drifting around town looking for ice cream brought me back to the cafe I initially stopped at.  Humidity and the late afternoon heat had me sucking down my second smoothie of the day followed by a bowl of ice cream. I earned it.
     Tomorrow morning I have a short ride to the coastal city of Vung Tau where I will be meeting up with Peter Doan, who I met in Nha Trang.  He has a high rise condo that I will be staying at for two nights.