Day 15 - How Many Roads Must a Man Walk Down Before He Drives Into the Sea?

I woke up first the next morning since I was the only one who hadn't gotten black out drunk. We had to check out by 12 and we had a bus at about 3. Ken and Dave made it downstairs before we had to check out and we went to get some lunch. Ken said he was missing some unspecified amount of money, he wasn't sure how much exactly he had to begin with, and that his face hurt. Which means that he might have gotten mugged, or he might have dropped some money and walked into a door. He was also yelling something about a bad man the night before but he doesn't really remember what it was all about. We stopped by a really beautiful temple at the edge of town before we left. We actually didn't get ripped off by our taxi driver, which was a nice change of pace. The temple was a series of small stone buildings that were some of the oldest of this type ever built. It was a gorgeous and quite spot that looked down over the city in a really majestic way. It was nice to just sit there for a while.

The bus we got on, it was more like a small van, was absolutely full with the three of us sitting in a middle row. I've been in a lot of cars and vans in China that made me afraid for my life, but never have I been so scared, or I think so close to death, as on this ride. I should start by mentioning how beautiful it was. The whole ride I saw one of three things: First, I saw beautiful hills and mountains with a road that snaked all around them. Second, I saw a beautiful coast line that came right to the foot of these mountains. It looked sort of like the Amalfi coast line but set in a jungle. Finally, toward the end of the trip I saw one of the most amazing sights I've even seen. By the time I was approaching the town I were heading to it was night and the sea was totally black except for some small fishing boats that were still out. I don't know what they were all fishing for but the light from inside their cabins was like a beacon on the black sea, until they looked like stars in the sky except sitting at our feet. It was enough to take my breath away.

What was also enough to take my breath away was the way our van drove. Most of the roads we drove on would have been scary enough, what with their step grades, sharp curves, and constant chance of plunging off a cliff to our certain death, if you didn't drive like a mad man, but that wasn't about to slow down our driver. Imagine a person driving along a sharp coast line, speeding at way above the posted limit, that person would have been considered a safe driver. The biggest problem was that since there was probably pretty much only one two lane road connection those cities every sort of traffic had to use it. There were cars, vans, buses, logging trucks, and my personal favorite gigantic flat bed trucks with rocks the size of boulders on them. What made it even better is that those rocks weren't secured by anything, not that it would have made much real difference, so they had to drive really, really, slowly. What this meant is that all the faster, or more insane, drivers had to constantly pass the slower ones.

Between passing and looking to see if we could pass our van probably spent more time in the wrong lane than the right one. Passing on such a small road involves driving into the wrong lane to get a better view of traffic then going as fast as possible past whatever driver, or drivers, were slowing you down possibly while blaring the horn.The most terrifying moment of the day came when some one passing going the other way, ie someone who had come into our lane, at a sharp turn forced us partially off the road to avoid a head on collision. I actually think I heard the driver grumble about that one. Adding to the fun was the fact that the roads had teeny shoulders, or none at all, and that the edge of the road lead to a huge drop down to the sea, making me wonder if under all that beautiful foliage were the wrecks of thousands of vans that didn't make it.

As night fell we finally made it to Qui Nhoy, another sparkling beach town that was actually less touristy thanks to its lack of rail road access. As we pulled up the bus station the van was surrounded by 15 people who all wanted us to take a ride on their moto. The door to the van actually stuck a little so it was an odd sight seeing them out their pulling on the door handle trying to get to us. I think I have a lot more appreciation now for how that goat at the Siberian Tiger Park felt. Since I never like to give business to people who pester me I walked past them and we took a taxi to a hotel from the book. The hotel was really nice with a big beautiful room with a bathtub, a desk, and even a balcony. We found a place for dinner run by this woman Barbra who was famous for being a westerner who lived in this town and ran a few tourist businesses. She came over and introduced herself after we sat down and answered some questions. Dave thought it would be fun to be able to do the same thing in China, just live by the beach as some sort of local celebrity.