I’m in Russia for a bit now.
Russians
Every second person I meet on the street is Russian. I hear more Russian words than Vietnamese. The signs in the shops, the menus are translated into Russian, not English.
Several times a local resident put Google Translate in front of me, where he translated what he was saying from Vietnamese to Russian. After I told him in English that I didn’t understand what he was saying.
The tourists
In a few moments, it became clear that this city is a tourist paradise.
Beaches and high-rise, multi-star hotels are everywhere.
Accordingly, it is difficult for me to find cheap and local food. Pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs and all kinds of non-local food are everywhere. My beloved fried rice is barely making a dent.
The place is noisy. The tourists behave like tourists. This means anything to anyone. The locals are accordingly more tired and jaded. I don’t want to make a connection between the two things. But I have to. There are fewer kind gestures here. Fewer smiles.
I didn’t even plan to stay longer than the number of nights I booked my accommodation for.
My days
My days were filled with work now, I set aside one day to explore the city’s attractions. That will be tomorrow. By the time you read this, it will be today.
I spent the part of my days when I wasn’t walking at 3-4 Highlands Cafés.
I had a longer sightseeing walk on Monday, which I really enjoyed. I walked over a long bridge over the sea to a smaller part of the city. There I looked at a building from the Champa Kingdom era. I didn’t even have to check what it was. The style was familiar. I enjoyed being close to the sea.
Yesterday I was caught in a tropical rain. It happened just as it is written in the big book. I left the café to have dinner. But before that, I wanted to sit on the beach in the evening. On the way there, a sandstorm hit me. It was hard, the wind blowing the sand in my face.
I sat down on the beach and immediately it started to rain. My Belarusian friend gave me a raincoat to protect my backpack. I put it on my laptop bag. Then I decided to enjoy the rain that was already pouring. I sat with my eyes closed in the tornado-like wind and the pouring rain and I simply loved being there.
With a twist, I had to take a bath and wash my hair. And wash my clothes.
I’ve been working a lot on my Saturday blog posts these days. That’s really exciting.
Over the weekend, I found what I want to work on professionally. I spent a lot of time on that this week too. If the concept is ready, I’ll probably show it here too.
There’s only one thing that’s overshadowing my week. I can’t really sleep in my current room. My bed is quite wooden, and something is scratching me to death every night. So when I go to bed, I have a hard time falling asleep. By the time I do fall asleep, I wake up to find myself scratching myself terribly.
These experiences are also part of my digital nomad life. There is a swimming pool on the roof of the hostel. I wanted to try this yesterday, but it was raining. I planned to sit and read a book in it, so I skipped this experience. I hope it will happen today. It must be special to read in a glass-walled pool on the sixth floor.
I am planning a whole day of wandering around tomorrow. I just haven’t looked into what attractions there are in the area yet. It’s 8pm on Wednesday. I feel like I still have time to figure out tomorrow’s plan.
This week I received a very nice and generous invitation from two of my friends. In mid-October, I will fly from Cambodia to Thailand to spend a week together in a very exclusive hotel. They are coming here for vacation. So that we can be together, they are paying for the entire trip.
After 13 months, they will be the first of my old friends that I will meet and hug with.
I look forward to meeting you.
But first, let’s see what surprises tomorrow holds.
Thursday
Let’s say today started last night.
I tried the pool on the sixth floor. It’s not glass-walled. Regardless, I really enjoyed the experience. I finally picked up one of the two thick books I put in my backpack here in Asia.
When the room closed, I took a shower. And finally, I was so tired that I fell asleep right away.
And nothing bothered me.
I woke up in the morning feeling rested. I was immediately ready to go.
I walked 20 meters from the entrance of the hotel and sat down to have a coffee. They immediately brought me a liter of Vietnamese tea with my coffee. I love this kindness.
While I was drinking coffee, I bought my bus ticket for tomorrow. I booked my next accommodation.
Then I went hunting for a motorbike.
The motorbike case
During my previous walks, I had seen a few places with one eye, and I targeted one of them.
The owner was very happy for me. I was the first Hungarian he saw.
He asked if I had an international driving license. I lied that I did. For one thing, it’s not valid for large motorbikes. For another, it expired the previous month.
The next question was whether he could see it. Since I had left it in my room, he couldn’t. He said he would come with me to the hotel. What? No, you won’t come, I’ll go. I’ve been calling this kind of behavior for a while now smiling distrust. It’s one thing to want to see it. But on the other hand, you know that if I go, I’m not sure I’ll come back. This isn’t about me. He’s not accompanying you because he’s nice, but because he’s distrustful.
And he’s right. If I go, I can easily find another place. Where they might not want to see the papers.
He kicked the ball off my case by saying that when he found out where I was going, he said he would come with me. What!? No way. I’m going alone and enjoying the day alone!
So I left.
I found another place within 3 minutes.
A professional place.
I was given perfect information in English. We signed a contract. Before and during – to avoid any misunderstanding – they explained what the rules were.
They gave me a clean and perfect crash helmet. The bike is impeccable. Clean, adjusted mirrors and no useless phone holder.
And the constructive suggestion that cuts the Gordian knot in two. 50 cc electric bike. No license required.
I don’t even understand why I always suffer with bigger gasoline bikes. I’ll make a note of this for myself now. There’s no speeding with this bike. I don’t have to worry about the cops. It’s quiet. And it’s slow enough for the day I’m in.
It doesn’t have the power that a petrol engine has. But it almost glides on the road. It’s a different kind of experience. And I’ve actually already said to myself that it suits me very well.
Khu du lịch Ba Hồ
This place is about 25 km north of Nha Trang, about 40-45 minutes by motorbike.
I set off here. Without an escort. LOL.
I enjoyed the slow flow on the road. I was burning in the heat of about 50 degrees. I loved the warm air caressing my skin.
I stopped on the road where I saw something beautiful. I stopped to eat where the first nice impression came from.
I also love the way they wait for guests further from the city.
I point to the food and we are ready. There is no menu, no unnecessary circles. I really like that in such places they always give a little soup with the chosen dish.
I ate a bowl of rice. It was very delicious pork with it. And green beans, and a boiled egg. I arrived at my first destination perfectly full.
I bought a ticket. Along with the natural beauty comes a few experiences.
I drank my coffee, wrote these few lines. I am ready to explore.
I didn’t get very far. The path goes up along the stream here. But you could enter the riverbed. Here the path leads over increasingly larger rocks. I sweated like a horse. Because the experience is huge and unmissable. Jumping from one huge rock to the next. In the meantime, watching the water. Looking for fish, following butterflies. The sun is shining, everything around me is green.
Finally, I found a large rock at the base of a tree that gave me shade. I took in the sky, the river around me. And the rock invited me to lie on it for a quarter of an hour.
I took up the invitation.
Then I climbed more rocks up. This whole place is a river valley. The environment was designed to make it a good place to spend time here.
I would have tried three attractions.
I would have liked to go kayaking. But when I saw the small pool where I could just clown around, I gave up on that.
Riding a bike on a wire rope. Well, that’s something. That’s for me. But today there’s maintenance, the track isn’t working. Fate gave up that for me.
The third activity is the Sky Walk. A very promising name. Walking in the sky is again something that would be a shame to miss. When I saw the place, I changed my mind. It’s still worth missing. The word clowning came to mind again when I looked at the circular track built three meters high among the trees. It’s true that I would be 300 centimeters closer to the sky, but still… I gave up on that too in a 2-1 ratio.
I preferred to walk to the end of the area. I kept jumping from rock to rock. I often felt like a chamois.
Then finally came the adventurous part. I needed ropes and irons hammered into the rock to climb. That’s it! Water was flowing off me, not just in the riverbed. My muscles were working. My shoes, which I had bought in Sa Pa, were torn. And I was just happy to be moving.
When I reached the end of the road, for a change, I lay on another flat rock and looked at the sky. More precisely, at the clouds. Today there was such a dynamic performance in the sky that I was just scratching my head. Overtaking. Eruptions. Mergers and disintegrations. Young and old played together. It was an enjoyable show.
I’m now starting down, but before I leave here, I’m going to cool down. I’ve been listening to Symphony X’s Odyssey for weeks. It’s become a pretty good timekeeper, listening to the 24-minute masterpiece at every stop.
We’re already at the finale, so I’m going to leave right now and jump on my motorbike.
The city and the pagoda
I came across 3 sights around this city. I visited one of them on Monday without planning. Today, a pagoda was waiting for me in the city center.
The traffic is terrible. There was a lot of it for me today. On the way there, a thought occurred to me. Every 5 seconds, someone commits a traffic violation here that would easily get me a failing grade on a test.
This phenomenon occurs three times more in the city center. Everyone is driving in all directions on the road, that is the smallest thing. But the fact that they are constantly opposite coming in my lane is very tiring after a while.
There is practically no traffic situation that I can be sure of. Constant attention, constant slaloming can usually be fun. Today was not like that.
Finally, I reached the pagoda safely. Where the locals immediately sent me from the street to the paid parking lot 50 meters away. This local solidarity was also tiring today. They have no reason to send me away, but I was forced to leave.
As soon as I stopped in the parking lot, the parking attendant came with the ticket. I told him to leave me alone for a minute while I locked the motor and got my wallet.
I decided to eat in front of the pagoda.
Here I had to wait until a local resident told the waitress to notice that I was there.
I walked over to a table, put down my stuff. After 10 seconds, a Russian woman came over to ask if they could sit at the table. Of course, I said, and walked over to the other table 40 cm away. Even now I don’t understand what the point of that was.
The fried rice was okay. It was necessary, because I had another difficult decision ahead of me.
When I got to the pagoda, an old man immediately beheaded me for wearing short pants. I only found this strange because there were a few locals in shorts inside the courtyard. Manners are manners, rules are rules. I’m not arguing, I’m just leaving.
But a man immediately grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards a clothing counter. That was enough. I took him to the ground with a chokehold.
Well, I didn’t do that. I just pulled my arm out of his hands and left the whole place in a stinking mess with a “no thank you”.
I fought my way back through the forest of one-way streets and crazy people to the motorbike rental place.
I’d had enough of motorbikes for today. I’d had enough of this city and all the impatient and nervous people.
I don’t mind leaving tomorrow at all. This city is nice, but there are too many people here.
It was better outside the city.
I’m tired today. And not from jumping on rocks.
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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