Day 25! I had an amazing drive from Nha Trang to Quy Nhon where I actually experienced my first flat tire! I also started my stay at a lovely hostel that you might be a bit jealous of when you see the pictures from it 😅

I woke up at 7am to an empty hostel dorm room. Sometimes you get lucky and have a nice night of privacy for cheap!

I got ready, finished packing, and then made my way down to the lobby of the hostel to check out.

I waited for about half an hour for my friend Tom to come down and then we took a quick walk to the Banh Mi place we had been frequenting.

I’ve already said this a few times, but I really enjoyed hanging with Tom! We had a lot of nice chats about life and I can’t wait to hang out with him in the future!

But while we were eating, some lady backed her motorbike into mine and knocked mine over! Luckily my bike was okay, but it was a frustrating way to start my morning.

We said our goodbyes and I set out for my 4 hour bike ride to Quy Nhon!

30 minutes into the ride I stopped to fill up my gas.

The ride started off with a city landscape, then quickly turned into flat roads and open fields.

It was really windy today so my bike was getting pushed around. This wasn’t the most fun especially when having to pass by trucks and busses throughout the ride.

The landscape was absolutely gorgeous, especially when it turned into winding up a mountain they overlooked the ocean!

I had to pull over and take a picture! This view was incredible and it made the drive very enjoyable!

At this stop I took a picture for a group of foreigners who I’d run into later on my drive as well!

About an hour after the viewpoint I stopped for gas again. I think driving into the wind and also on a mountain made me need fuel more often because I was paying a lot more than the first few days of riding (the prices could also be a little higher too).

If I remember correctly, I paid 50,000 for the first fill up and 60,000 for the second.

Now this is where I experienced a major hiccup during my ride.

I had caught up to the foreigners I had met previously at the view point. We couldn’t communicate but throughout the ride together we were smiling, giving each other thumbs ups, and they even were taking selfies and videos with me.

Sometimes they’d ride in my blind spot which was a little odd, but overall it was fine and nice to ride with others.

But out of no where I start feeling my bike slide around. I immediately knew what had happened and worked my way onto the shoulder of the road. The foreigners didn’t see and drove off.

I had gotten my first flat tire on the back tire of my bike… probably won’t be my last.

Fortunately, I was right next to a woman working outside and I went up with Google translate to ask where the nearest mechanic was.

There was a bit of a problem with her directions so someone nearby walked me to the mechanic and by some stroke of luck it was 30 feet away from where I popped my tire!

I have to say, my luck with this bike has been pretty extraordinary. This situation could have been a lot worse with me having to push my bike miles to the next town!

The mechanic even got to work on it within 10 minutes of me showing up!

The repair in total took around 20 minutes and cost 80,000 Dong (under $4).

The mechanic had to replace the tube on the inside of the wheel because it had about a half an inch tear in it! I have no clue what I rolled over but it did a number to it!

I paid the mechanic 100,000 and left him a tip because I was super thankful and also because he fixed it so quickly!

I set back out on the road with about an hour and 15 minutes left of my ride!

Once I got 30 minutes away from my next hostel I stopped for gas again as this hostel is in the middle of nowhere!

I finished off my 30 minute drive and arrived at Life’s a Beach hostel in Quy Nhon!

I could already tell I was going to love this hostel right when I arrived. It overlooks an abandoned beach, has hammocks everywhere, everyone was super friendly especially the owners and staff, and they even gave me a free beer right when I arrived!

I ended up chatting to the owners a bit! They’re from the UK and have been living in Vietnam for the past 10 years!

Before heading to my room, I ordered lunch. I got chicken in fish sauce with vegis and rice and it was really tasty (I’m a big fan of fish sauce)!

After eating and putting my stuff in the dorm room, it was time to relax!

This hostel isn’t very busy which is exactly what I was looking for after the party hostel in Nha Trang.

Even with it being calmer, I had a nice chat with a couple travelers before heading outside to enjoy relaxing in a hammock overlooking the ocean!

I spent a few hours listening to the Ready Player 2 audio book and just enjoying the view!

It was pretty windy and the sun only came out for a few minutes. So I headed back to my dorm room to put on some sweat pants.

When I came back to the hammocks, someone had taken the one I was originally using. So I hopped into a green one which is definitely more my style anyways!

I can already tell I’m going to spend a few days here just relaxing and enjoying some quiet time! Hopefully the sun will come out more too, but even if it doesn’t it’ll be a very enjoyable experience.

After the sun went down I decided to go hang out with the travelers I met earlier. For some reason all 4 of them were all from the Netherlands but only 2 of them were traveling together!

The hostel put on a family dinner for 150,000 Dong which is way more than I’d usually spend on a meal, but I thought it’d be a great way to keep hanging out with the other travelers here.

I ended up eating a ton of food and the quality was really good too! I met people from Canada and the UK as well!

After a very nice dinner and lots of chatting and laughter it was time for the first activity of the night, bingo!

Now… I just played music bingo the other night anddd it didn’t go so well. But tonight, it couldn’t have gone better!

There were three rounds, completing 1 row, having two rows completed, and then having every box filled in.

I ended up winning all three 😂 I really wasn’t intending on drinking tonight and taking a chill night. But the first round prize was a free beer, the second round was a free cocktail, and the third round was a free hat.

The hat says “Life’s a Beach” so now I’ll be repping the hostel on future adventures (also this is Mark from the Netherlands).

After destroying the competition in bingo it was time for bar Olympics!

This consisted of a number of random games from bouncing ping pong balls to picking up a cardboard box with your mouth to playing smash ball on the pool table.

It was a hilariously goofy time and everyone was getting very competitive, but being good sports about it!

The nice part about it was it wasn’t the usual party hostel vibe (even though there were drinking games involved). Everyone here is super down to earth and great to chat with!

I ended up getting second place in the Olympics to a very nice guy from Quebec!

It was a very very nice day today. Even with the bike mishap everything worked out in the end and I ended up at a great hostel!

I’m looking forward to spending another day here and seeing the new people I can meet!

– Elie