So after leaving the ghost town of Tuy Hoa, I continued north to the orginial destination – Quy Nhon (Kwee Non). The road itself was uneventful but pretty good riding compared to the rain of the day before. I saw some pretty odd things en route, this being the strangest.
I pulled over to the side of the road a short while later as I spotted an abandoned service station and quite frankly, I’ve always got time for exploring abandoned buildings whether it be in Vietnam or the UK. I didn’t find anything of interest really but there were some beautiful views across the bay hidden behind it.
The drive down from the cliffs was also pretty good. Quy Nhon is somewhat of a beach town, maybe akin to Portsmouth or Bognor Regis – Not quite the most famous, but still known to the locals to be pretty good in parts. The city was clean and pretty and rather small to other places i’d been, not to mention with legitmate asphalt roads (your ass and back really begin to appreciate these)
I checked into the hotel which had a fantastic view over the beach. This whole area isn’t very tourist orientated at all – yet. There are long beaches of untouched golden sands that still have been unspoiled hoards of tourists. There was not one person who came up to me trying to sell their wares in the entire time I was there. It actually made nice change.
More tourists over the coming years were expected to be fair, so in an entirely hipster way, I got here before it was cool. After spending most of the afternoon on the beach, I decided it would be a good time to get some food. A german restaurant ranked pretty highly on tripadvisor, so I decided to go and have a gander.
It was pretty good, quiet empty but beautifully decorated in all manner of stone. After a few rums and ordering a schnitzel (I come 7000 miles from home and eat german food. heh.) The owner came up for a chat. He was a lovely man, maybe late 40’s early 50’s who had moved to Vietnam 12 years previous and started a business selling stone back to Europe.
He asked what I did, and I told him nothing currently, but I’d done.. well.. a lot, from bar work / manager to recruitment to body piercing and to PR & Marketing. He seemed genuinely interested and started telling me about a resort he was building down the road that would be ready about May 2015 that would need a manager, and suddenly the chat turned into more of a job interview. My food arrived so he left for a while to meet a few people in his office upstairs but rejoined me later to discuss the resort me. We exchanged contact details and left it at that, but he said he’d be very interested in chatting to me more about it when he is next in Sai Gon.
The next day I stopped off in Quang Ngai – It was a pretty small town a few miles from the sea. If I am totally honest, there isn’t much going on here; it’s incredibly industry orientated but what it really does do is hit home how much has changed since ‘The War’
Quang Ngai is the closest town to the the Villages of Son My and My Lai which are carved in history for for all the wrong reasons. The ‘My Lai Massacre’ was one of the worst parts of the Vietnam war where 350-500 civilians were murdered by US forces. I decided to go and visit the memorial museum.
Company C of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment had been stationed in Vie Nam for around 3 months and the 11th infantry brigade had been stationed around Quang Ngai. In 3 months they had lost 28 men but never even encountered the enemy once – All deaths were through traps and explosives left by the NVA. They knew the villagers in the outlying regions were working with the NVA so were ordered to go to My Lai to investigate. Through searching they found two old WW2 rifles and after a gunshot was heard, it started. Through various miscommunications and the fact that some people had just *snapped* mentally, in four hours the entire town had be slaughtered.
Calling in various airstrikes to try and bombard the area, a cover up was attempted but to no avail. A few people spoke to commanding officers and it was referenced as not everyone had died; there were some survivors who told of the massacre.
22 members of the regiment were court martialed – all but one were found not guilty. The one who was found guilty was sentenced to 3 years house arrest before being set free.
It really was an incredibly fucked-up time for everyone involved and goes to show what people are capable of when PTSD is commonplace among soldiers and people are seen as sub-human.
Anyway, after a coffee, I was back on the road towards Hoi An. I saw several strange things en route down the AH1. The electrics failed on my bike again so I pulled into have a few parts replaced on the bike and I noticed this too:
I got to Hoi An late and tired. I checked into possibly the nicest hotel I’ve been in yet (pool, breakfast, minibar. Aw yeah. Even comes with a full stocked bathroom! £8. Oh, to give you some idea by the way..
Yeah, I’ll have a hangover tomorrow. Catch you all later 😉