For the previous instalments of our adventure, click here.

Kham Duc

As was the case with Quy Nhon and Kontum, this was very much just a pit stop on the way to Hoi An. What was different though was the people we found ourselves surrounded by. Upon arrival in Kham Duc we hadn’t seen a western face for almost three days which was nice, but at the same time grew rather tiresome as we were the novelty act in the previous towns.

We checked in to the Be Chau Giang Hotel and very quickly noticed lots of big bikes – the type only associated with ‘Easy Riders’ – and before we knew it we were surrounded by other tourists. Although I’m not a huge fan of overly-touristy places, it felt nice to not be the only white guys in town for a night. I say ‘white’, however I’d managed to give my arms a big of a red tint from the ride. Serves me right for laughing at James a few days earlier.

What goes around…

We decided to go for a wander after a few beers and realised that there was very little to do in Kham Duc. James and I have been laughing a lot (shock horror) at the ‘hot toc’ craze here, which is where you essentially pay someone to dig around in your ears with all sorts of cotton buds, wire and razor blades (yes, really) and they tidy them up a bit. Anyway, after a bit of Dutch courage guess which idiot decided to get one? Yep. Never again.

After my ever so slightly disturbing experience at the hands of that woman, the plan was very much to grab some food, a few more beers and retire for the night. We opted for the beef hotpot in the hotel restaurant and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it was one of the best meals we had in Vietnam. After burning the pan when we got the bottom, we quickly got the bill and headed to bed.

Before we managed to burn the pan!

The journey

This was to be our fourth journey in as many days and, in all honesty, we were praying for an equally as uneventful journey as the one from Quy Nhon to Kontum.

Thankfully, it proved to be so. James’ bike didn’t give us any grief and to put it bluntly, there was really bugger all to report. The scenery was beautiful, as it has been for the large majority of the trip and we were pretty much coasting the whole way. As you’ll see from the video, I had a fair bit of spare time to ponder on trivial matters.

We pulled in to Hoi An where we were going to spend four nights, including my birthday, and try not to think of any long bike journeys for a few days. The 11p beers down by the river would no doubt help us along the way!

Click here for the next part of our journey: Hoi An to Khe Sanh!