It was a cold, miserable day today where the third day of our ride saw us getting pretty much destroyed by torrential rain that lasted almost 10 hours... Even my Gortex waterproof jacket was barely holding up...
06:01AM
It was just so calming sipping on freshly brewed coffee while watching the sun slowly rise above the clouds as Mel and I geared up for the 400KM ride from Da Lat to Quy Nhon today.
Bid farewell to my dear friend Quang as he'll be heading back to Ho Chi Minh together with Bang and Luan who are still snoozing away.
From Da Lat on, Mel and I will be riding on our own all the way to Sapa and we're ever more excited about the journey that lies ahead. As you can see from the map above, we'll be passing through a mix of mountainous roads with lots of twisties and coastal drives.
Barely 45 minutes into our ride, rain came in.
It was 15°C but with the downpur and the crosswinds, it started to get really cold.
They say fun is at the corners while you're on a motorcycle. But not when it's pouring, and certainly not when trucks swerve into your lane so much that you barely have much space left to dodge.
These heavy duty truck drivers usually just sound their horn and expect you to get out of their way.. and you better do so to avoid getting killed.
3 hours into the ride, the rain got heavier and to make things worse, thick fog came in as well! What a perfect combination to make riding so miserable hahaha.
This was a screenshot grab from a video taken with the GoPro Hero7Black. But our actual vision on the road was worse because we were looking through tinted visors and the rain droplets just blurred our visibility even more.
At this point, we were both just so cold we couldn't stop shivering. Even the cushions within our helmets were soaked.
And we needed to pee real bad HAHA. This big rock on the right looks like a great cover up.
Who else feels that cold weather shrinks your bladder size? LOL.
10:32AM
Finally, the sun came out for abit when we arrived at Nha Trang for a short coffee break. I whipped out some wet wipes to clean up our visors and helmets that were all splashed with mud and rain water.
Look at our GoPro Hero 7 Black, all covered up with mud. How to see shit? Hahaha.
After going through that first few hours of rain, we couldn't afford a long break time because we had to make the best out of the sunny weather for the remaining journey of the day cuz who knows when the rain will come in again.
We departed from Nha Trang and continued on before we hit an intersection where motorcycles are not allowed on the toll way up ahead, so we took the small roads on the right.
We were riding along these well paved tarmacs with the coast on our right, and appreciating every bit of the warm sunshine even though my socks and boots were completely soaked right now.
After hours of having that squishy feeling of my feet soaked in wet socks, we decided to stop here for a moment so I can air my fragrant smelling feet hahah.
Ah... that feels SO good. Hahaha my feet can finally take a breather!
10 minutes later, we were still sitting here with me swinging my wet socks around, two young guys on a scooter came up and stopped next to us. They looked kinda dodgy so the first thing I did was remove the keys from both Mel's bike and mine, and kept it in my pocket.
One guy then walked up to Mel and it seems like he was asking her for something though we didn't understand a single Vietnamese language he was saying.
The next thing we knew, he pulled out a syringe.
Mel instantly just looked away, without saying a word. Was this guy asking us for drugs? Or money to buy drugs or something?
I was about to swing my smelly socks towards his face but then they decided to leave since we were not responding to them.
Mel said, "Hmm maybe it's not exactly safe to just stop here hor? I think we better go also" so I dreadfully wore back my wet socks and continued the ride.
Well, guess what? 30 minutes later the weather took a turn again. Dark clouds blanketed the whole place and the rain came in real quick.
Through our Cardo comm set, we were like "wah biangggg! The rain is backkk! Shit!"
For the next 5 hours or so, we were riding in the heavy downpour. Mel was completely soaked through cuz she didn't have the appropriate wet weather gears, but even my Dainese gortex wasn't holding up much anymore. It's actually my favourite touring jacket and I feel that it's really good. But I think even the best waterproof touring jacket wouldn't be able to keep us completely dry if under the wet weather non stop for 6 - 7 hours.
Water will surely sip in somehow.
So much for emptying water from my boots earlier on and trying to swing-dry my socks. Rainwater had my boots refilled even faster than a waiter refilling my glass of water at a restaurant.
Upon nearing Quy Nhon, there were little pockets of sunshine, but the rain would almost come back as quickly as it left.
What helped to distract us from feeling worn out from the ride was seeing these local bikers carry oversized items on their little scooters. How do they even balance..
You can't even see the real wheels on this one with the stack of grass strapped on behind LOL.
Rain is indeed part and parcel of every ride, but I won't deny it started to feel depressing after riding in it for 8 - 10 hours!
Well most importantly, we arrived at Quy Nhon safely and popped by a laundry shop to get all our drenched clothes washed and dry for tomorrow's ride.
Extremely drained out from today's ride, we slurped up a bowl of delicious noodles from a random street stall nearby before retiring back to our hotel where we K.O. in just minutes, as we the rain pitter patter again...
Praying hard for a better weather tomorrow for the ride to Da Nang next!
[Singapore. Ho Chi Minh. Da Lat. Quy Nhon]
[Mileage Clocked: 770KM]
[Terrain: Mountain Passes and Coastal Roads]
[Traffic: Moderate]
[Terrain: Mountain Passes and Coastal Roads]
[Traffic: Moderate]
[Temperature/Weather: 17 - 24°C/Rain]
Next stop: Da Nang