Viet Road Trip Day 10
Viet Road Trip is a blog about my solo scooter trip through Vietnam. This is Day 10, the previous post in this series can be found here
The tenth day of my trip was my first relax-day since beginning the scooter trip. My taxes were due soon, so I had to dedicate some time to getting them taken care of.
My hotel was brand new, but the wifi only worked occasionally. This is pretty common in Vietnam. Luckily mobile internet is cheap and fast. I tethered my laptop to my phone and did my taxes that way. Of course I couldn't just submit the taxes though. The IRS required me to get a number from them by phone. Calling the IRS ended up requiring more than an hour, two trips to get phone cards, and about $50.
Once taxes were done, I went out for a ride. The internet said Monkey Mountain was worth seeing, so I made the short ride up the coast to climb the mountain. The weather was warm and nice, but it was very hazy. It wasn't good weather for photos, but I the riding was great.
This is my favorite video of the day, with my least favorite audio. Sorry about the song, it's hard to fast forward when I'm riding.
Here I am abusing my poor motorbike. At one point I had to get off and push the moped. I stopped soon after that, I didn't want to damage my bike.
A view from the side of the path.
Da Nang on the horizon.
After Monkey Mountain, I went back into town to explore. Most of my time had been spent on the beach side of Da Nang, and I wanted to see the city side of Da Nang.
At the time, one of the top rated establishments in Da Nang was an English cafe. Actually there were several of them. English cafes are cafes where Vietnamese people (mostly university students) go to practice their English skills. Foreigners go there to meet Vietnamese people who speak English.
I went to an English cafe called The Keys and it was great! I can't remember what the activity was that evening, but I made a couple of friends quickly. The cafe made a very good impression on me. It would be huge factor in deciding to return to Da Nang for an extended stay.
This photo was actually taken a couple months later when I returned to Da Nang. I didn't take any photos on my first visit.
After a few hours at The Keys, I went back to the neighborhood that my hotel was in. I parked my bike and went out in search of a drinking establishment. I found a drinking establishment, but I also found something much more rare. Something very precious indeed.
By this point in my trip I had been on the road for almost a year. Before I started my trip, I had been living in Germany for 8 years. During that whole time I was happy man, enjoying life almost to its fullest. There was just one thing missing from my life to truly make it complete. That thing was Beef Jerky. And before you say anything, my German friends, Bifi is not beef jerky. It's just not.
Most cultures around the world don't know a damn thing about jerky. They couldn't make good jerky even if the future of their nation depended on it. In Da Nang I finally found my cultural equals in regards to refined snacking and beef jerkery. I found a people who have learned all of the fine intricacies of jerking beef (and other animals) through hundreds of years of tradition. I was so excited that I bought 3 kilograms of Jerky. No, I didn't have room for it. Yes, I threw away clothes to transport jerky. Yes, ants also love jerky and set up camp in my backpack a few times. And yes, it was worth it!
The one on the left is some sort of non-cow animal.
The jerky itself was pretty good. I don't think it would sell too well in the USA, but it was a million times better than the horrible fish jerky that's in every convenience store in Asia. The beef jerky's texture is pretty dry and tough. Instead of using salt to help preserve it, like in the States, the Vietnamese mostly use sugar. Much of the jerky was sweeter than I like, but the spicy one was great with the sweetness.
I returned to my hotel and made the necessary adjustments to fit the jerky into my backpack. My route for the next day would take me over Hai Van Pass. I counted my blessings (especially my four new beefy blessings) and called it a night.
Looking back, I don't think Da Nang had really touched my heart yet. I liked it a lot more than Hoi An, but that's true about most places in Vietnam. I think the ease of making friends, and the abundance of jerky planted seeds of affection in my heart that wouldn't bloom for a month or two. I didn't know it then, but Da Nang and I would be seeing a lot of each other in the future.
Apologies for not writing anything about death in this post, despite the title. It's the only thing clever I could think of to go with taxes. I did get footage of a traffic fatality a few day after this one. I'll be posting it when that day comes, it was a strange experience.
That's it for day 10. Day 11 will be a fantastic ride over the famous Hai Van pass. Until then, ride safe!
Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Vietnam. Read about days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7.1, 8, 8.1, 9, and 9.1 here.