travel journal: Cuc Phuong to Vinh

Sunrise in Cuc Phuong

We left the national park bright and early this morning to start our long trip down to Vinh, the larger city on the coast near Cua Lo beach. A fairly straight forward ride, it was nice to enjoy the scenery change from forest to farm to beach on the long highway stretch of QL 1A. Lessons learned today,

-It's important to stretch your legs often while on a motorcycle for such a long period of time. They can easily fall asleep, and you can easily fall over while trying to get off the bike at, say, a highway gas station.

-It is actually possible for a motorcycle key to vibrate OUT of the ignition, and for the bike to continue running, and to not notice it's gone for a very long period of time.

-If you find yourself with a missing key and your engine somehow still on, random highway side bike shops will probably have a key that fits your bike, and it will cost $2. Crisis averted.

About 200 km or so later, we found our way into a hotel in the very deserted beach town of Cua Lo. As we walked around we realized quickly that foreigners don't really come to Vinh or Cua Lo beach, it's really just a Vietnamese vacation spot. We also quickly realized that most people were fascinated by Elliot and really wanted to take pictures with him and buy him beers.