Beach time at Cua Dai beach and planning our next easy rider trip

Our search for a tour company yesterday ended with no success but the lady at our home stay helped us out and we agreed that the guy from the easy rider company would meet us this morning at breakfast - but he was nowhere to be seen. The same with the home stay lady. So we had breakfast and started looking for alternatives when she suddenly showed up, made a few calls and 10 minutes later we were talking to "Mr. Thai" about going on a two day trip from Hoi An to Hue where we would catch the night train to Hanoi.

He agreed on our plans, had a few suggestions and we paid the deposit. Our home stay lady also took care of booking tickets for the night train and suddenly all the practicalities were taken care of. Excellent morning.

We rented bikes at our home stay - the ordinary ones requiring pedal power. We managed to do a little more than 100 metres on the bikes before the first pit stop. There is a nice bakery around the corner and it turned out they served really good coffee. Loaded with good coffee we headed for the beach and arrived there after less than 15 minutes of pedalling down the road trying our best to negotiate the crazy Vietnamese traffic.

We drove the road parallel to the beach to get a bit away from all the people offering "free parking", lunch, dinner, souvenirs and everything else making it to the far end of the beach, parked the bikes and found a couple of beach chairs.

It was a bit windy and hazy today so perfect conditions for staying on the beach and enjoyed the breeze. And later some food and a cold beer for lunch. And then a swim in the sea only to realise that the water here is cold - cold as in not as warm as in Myanmar or Thailand. Some 24 degrees maybe. Still warm compared to Danish summer, but cold for us being in Vietnam.

We headed home, pit stopped for more coffee before going out for dinner at a restaurant we passed by last night in one of the side streets. It turned out to be a local place where the menu was a big buffet of meat, fish and veggies and then DIY-BBQ at the table. And self serve cold beers from the fridge. Being the only tourists at the place we attracted some extra attention from the staff and the other customers. The food was excellent and we left feeling quite stuffed with meat and BBQ.

Back at the home stay it was the usual "get-things-packed-for-tomorrow" routine and then to bed. Pick up at 8 AM and then on the road for two full days. Exciting.

Breakfast and Googling for trips options

All done and ready to hit the road

Lunch on the beach

Roof top view from the home stay

Meat buffet for the BBQ

Vietnamese Surf and Turf

Banos bike ride and impressive waterfalls - and Runtun spa

Banos is the place for being active. Or at least one place. Hiking, rafting, canyoning, zip-lining, horse back riding, biking and a lot more. There are plenty of places that offer activities all day long. We headed out early and found a shop to rent bikes and helmets for USD 7 per person. And as we headed out on the street with our bikes we met the two girls from the bus yesterday - also on bikes. So we naturally headed out together going downhill on the "Routa de las Cascadas". Its basically a long downhill drive towards the town of Rio Verde where there are some impressive waterfalls to look at on the way. And then of course also beautiful mountains and other scenery.

We certainly enjoyed the sunshine and the fact that it was an easy drive down the road, going on the main road only taking detours to avoid the few tunnels on the way. We arrived in Rio Verde, left the bikes and walked down to a private estate to get a closer look at one of the waterfalls - the Pailion del Diablo. It was very impressive to hike closer to the waterfall and feel the spray and hear the roar of the water. Mikkel even made it all the way to the top of the waterfall. And got soaked.

We headed back to the bikes and waited for the transport back to Banos being too lazy to bike up the road to Banos - and also using our rather crappy bikes as an excuse not to bike back to town. They were cheap and not fit for going uphill.

Eventually there were enough of us for the driver to start the truck and hurry us back to Banos. We handed back the bikes, went for some lunch. Malene felt like she deserved a bit of massage and while she was out Mikkel had his hair trimmed to Galapagos lenght - ready for some days with lots of salt water and few showers.

In the late afternoon we took a taxi 10 kilometres to the top of the mountain to the Runtun hotel and spa and soaked in the hot pools overlooking the town. It was a bit expensive to get in there but we deserved it and we enjoyed the view of the town down in the valley while soaking in hot water. And also paying attention to volcano.

When we couldn't soak any more we headed back to Banos for dinner. What a nice day.

Heading out of town

First waterfall

A look down the river valley

Wet detour to avoid a tunnel

One more cascade of water

Free rider

Arriving in Rio Verde

Pailion del Diablo

Getting all the way to the top of the waterfall

Soaked

Heading back to Banos

Banos by night

Runtun Spa

Ready for the pools