Day 58 - Tuy Hoa to Nha Trang (October 26)

Today was an early start - we began riding at 6:00 a.m. It was raining very hard. In fact today, it would rain all day long. We found highway 1A and turned south. Not five kilometers from our starting point, we came to a roundabout. I negotiated the roundabout ahead of Terry, but behind me I heard a quick woosh of air - Terry's tire had a flat again.

In fact, it was worse than that. Terry rode through what looked like a small puddle. It is almost impossible not to do this. Because it has been raining so hard for so long, there were puddles and flooded roads everywhere. However, this puddle was actually a deep pothole.

Hitting the pothole, Terry flipped over his handlebars. He had some small scrapes on his leg and some damage to his front tire. This was actually fortunate. He could have been hurt much worse. His bike was still salvageable and he could continue riding.

Terry brought his bike over to the island in the center of the roundabout. Inspecting his bike, he discoverd a tear in his front tire (the "replacement tire"), his forks had been bent back eliminating the normal "rake" of the forks, and his tube had slightly buckled and cracked in a few spots. With his bent forks, the handling of the bike would be much different.

It took quite a while to figure out how to fix the bike. Terry was limited to a torn tire and a damaged tube. He would need to position them carefully so he could continue to ride.

By 7:45 a.m., Terry was still not ready to ride. I was getting cold. Because it had been raining heavily, I was wet and the wind was making me cold. I couldn't put on a jacket because I had left my jacket in Quang Ngai a few days ago. Terry suggested that I continue riding to stay warm. So I got on my bike and headed south.

The ride went well and at a point, the wind was blowing nicely at my back. The views were very nice along this stretch of road. When the rain cleared and the clouds lifted, I could see for many miles. I was surrounded by green hills on my right and sandy flat lands surrounded by rice fields on my left.

The Climb to the Pass at Vung Ro

Vung Ro Port

Coastal Views South of Vung Ro

Beach at Dai Lanh

I neared Nha Trang. The rain came down heavily. The road became a small river in places. The road began to climb. There was one last steep hill to climb coming into Nha Trang. I crested the hill, and turned towards the city. The road was narrow and traffic went by quickly. I crossed many flooded sections of road until I came into the city proper.

In the city, I now rode in the center of the road. For a kilometer or so, the entire road was flooded, but there was less flooding in the center of the road.

Eventually, I found the tourist/backpacker quarter and booked a room at the hotel Sakura (1/32 Tran Quang Kai). An hour later, Terry limped into town on a tire that he had to continually reinflate along the way from Tuy Hoa. I had been there before (See my Wyoming posts).

Day 58 - Tuy Hoa to Nha Trang - 120 Kilometers