Here come the rains again...

Oscar in Hoi An

Well, it’s pelting down with rain outside but I’m no longer in HoiAn.  I really liked the place and as a richer, older traveller it’s probably a place I’d revisit but it was too expensive for me on my budget and being there for nearly a week and a half I’d stayed there long enough anyway.

I am now in Quy Nhon which is around 270 kilometres south of HoiAn.  I should start by saying that this was not my intended stop between HoiAn and Nha Trang.  I was intending to stay in another town roughly 170 kilometres further north but when I drove through this town at a little past 12 yesterday and well ahead of schedule I thought it be best to push on.  What I didn’t know was that those dark clouds on the horizon was one MONSTER of a storm.  It started off light.  So light in fact that I thought it was just a passing shower and didn’t worry about pulling over to put on my rain jacket and rain proof pants.  When the heavens truly opened though and by the time I’d pulled over I was already so drenched that there was no point putting on rain gear at all… so I just rode on.  At first I thought it was hail as the rain hitting my legs stung….and that’s through Kevlar jeans but nope, that was just tropical rain sized rain drops!  The wind was so strong and at one point I was leaning into the wind just to keep the bike upright.  On three separate occasions I past a truck coming in the opposite direction which happened to drive through a massive puddle JUST as I rode past which then sent a wall of water in my direction! 

Not that this image really fits into this blog entry but I had to
post it somewhere because it is so damn insane!  Possibly the
fattest dog in Vietnam.  No, scratch that.  The world!

I always wondered how the locals handled this sort of weather and I now know.  They simply don’t.  They all turn into roadside restaurants for a beer or twenty and wait for the storm to pass over.  I didn’t know this… and besides I was drenched already and you can’t drown a rat twice.   What I did find… enjoyable (because at this point I was beyond the point of caring being now hilariously wet) was crossing under a bridge that had flooded.  I had no idea how deep that water was.  There was no traffic at this point of the journey (unusual for Hwy 1A but everyone on the road vanishes when it gets this wet) which would have been handy to gauge the waters depth by seeing others go first so after a slight pause and enjoying the shelter of the overhead bridge and absence of rain drops falling on my helmet I thought I’d just jump into the deep end so to speak and get stuck into it.  So I chuck the bike in first and ride on in.  At first the water reaches the foot pegs… then over my ankles… then halfway up my legs… Oh crap!  Thankfully it didn’t get too much deeper as I’m pretty sure Oscar would have choked up if it had.  Already the exhaust was making bubbles under the water!

I pulled into Quy Nhon a little past 4 and a little bit wet. 

On the road between Hoi An and Quy Nhon... before the rains.

Despite me spending a small fortune on Oscar in HoiAn I wasn’t rewarded for it.  I went to a second mechanic in HoiAn to fix my still existing issues and my carby was pulled apart and cleaned out (it runs MUCH better now) and the idle was fixed.  I also had the front axle replaced which I knew was making the front wheel rattle quite badly but the other mechanic refused to acknowledge.  So what’s wrong now?  Well, this time it’s the exhaust and Oscar crackles and pops more than a pig on a spit.  What’s incredibly more frustrating is that the grip on the throttle now slips so if I go to open the throttle up it just moves the grip rather than the actual throttle.  Some glue outta fix that and when the rain subsides I’m off to do some shopping.  Oh, and the brake light fell off.  Yes, another case of something just falling off the bike.  Thankfully it was caught by a few loose bungee cords that I’d used to tie my bag to the back of the bike so I still have it.  Sticky tape will fix it!  Oscar sure is a quality bike.

Hopefully I get a break tomorrow  morning and I’ll try and make the last 230 kilometres to Nha Trang.  It’s nice to be moving again.