Day 42
How wonderful to wake up with only the sound of the ocean. No horns blaring nor trucks rumbling, just the rhythmic crash of waves.
With a hot cup of coffee in hand, we took a stroll along the beach. Probably a summer retreat popular among the locals, this beach was deserted during the winter time. Lucky for us, to have this coast all to ourselves. What a joy to do my bike maintenance in the sun on the beach, without drawing a huge curious crowd.
One of the advantages of slow travel is buying local groceries. We made sandwiches with freshly baked baguettes (3,000 – 5,000 VND each) and scrambled eggs (3,000 VND per egg) with fresh chives (free from buying the eggs). After spending almost a month in Vietnam, we now have a good idea about the prices. This gives us an advantage to know if the owner is charging us the “westerner’s price”.
At one of the small convenience stores in town where we stopped for groceries, we were met by more curious men who once again, without asking, tried to sit in our trike. We signed no. Then one guy took a card out of his wallet and gave it to me. It looked official. I guessed some type of government card so I gave it back, not understanding his intention. He kept on forcing the card into my hands, which only made us want to flee.
As we pedaled away I saw Cher holding it. Turned out the man forced the card into Cher’s hand as she didn’t get away quickly enough. What do we do with it? I said throw it away. Cher placed it on a patch of grass by the road, so that he might find it again and we continued on our way. Another 100 meters on, the man came flying around the corner on his motorbike and began motioning for his card. After many confusing conversations and gestures, it turned out that the card he was trying to force into our hands, was his driver’s license. He was probably trying to use his driver’s license as a token for a spin on our trikes. All was lost in translation (in this case, no translation) and what he didn’t know was that it wasn’t safe to trust us with his driver’s license.