You know that terrifying feeling when you walk out of your hotel in the morning and discover that your motorcycle isn't where you left it? We get that feeling every single day in Vietnam. Except it's not that terrifying. Mostly because they're not our bikes! :D But also because we were warned by the rental company, during our debrief in HCM, not to put the steering locks on on our motorcycles. The staff usually shuffle them around to make room for other two-wheelers depending on which guests are checking in or about to leave.  Here they are! We woke up this morning to find that our bikes that we had parked outside had spent the night indoors. How nice for them! Every time I come out and see that our bikes have moved, I always have this thought that they've gone on some magical, wondrous ride without us, but when they return, they've forgotten where we had left them, so they just park in any old spot. I wonder if they know good roads and scenic places to visit that we don't know about? Are they having a better time than we are? I would really like to read their blog about The Secret Lives of Motorbikes in Vietnam: "The man is not very good at shifting. My gearbox hurts."
On second thought, I don't think I want to read their blog. Just a short update this time. We're taking a rest day on the south-east coastal city of Phan Rang and doing nothing today but eat and relax! We found a good bahn mi place on the Internet. Our hotel is in a newer part of town, so we ride about 10 minutes to the old city to find this well-reviewed food stall. We canvass the area on foot, armed with pictures of the food stall on our phones and questioning all the vendors in the area like detectives, "Have you seen this person... er food stall?" Nobody knows. It appears this stall is no longer in business. Possibly a victim to the pandemic, since the last review was in 2019, right before Vietnam closed it's borders during the lockdown.  Fortunately, this super-friendly lady across the street waved us over and cooked us up some of her delicious Bahn Cuon  Bahn cuon are rice rolls with pork slices, topped with crunchy, deep-fried onion bits and mushrooms. What a serendipitous find! We walk back to our bikes and see so many other vendors preparing food  Oooh, what are they grilling up? I want to try everything! I'm having a bad case of FOMO. FOODMO!  This lady was selling some custard-like dessert. We had to try some! They were very sweet and delicious but we didn't know what they were made of. Tried asking the lady but she didn't understand what we were asking.  Seeing our confusion, this guy on my left came over to us and helped us out He tried to explain the ingredients by miming it. I'm okay at charades... in Canada. But apparently non-verbal clues are very different in other cultures. He kept pointing to his fingernail. What? However, Neda got it almost immediately: mung beans. She showed him on Google Translate. He nodded his head, "yes" with a big smile. "They're small beans, the size of a fingernail!" She explained to me, triumphantly! What The? I was dumb-founded at how she got that from a fingernail! I think she found a new charades partner...So friendly!  Vietnamese is a hard language to pick up, so this is how're communicating from now on - using Google Translate on our smartphones. On our walk back to the bikes, we pass by a fruit vendor. The fruits here in Vietnam are so juicy and delicious! We never get custard apples this fresh in Canada, and they are everywhere here. Rested in our hotel room till dinner, then we went out to try this place that served Bahn Xeo, some Vietnamese fried rice pancakes filled with pork and shrimp! We never did find that Bahn Xeo place, but decided we'd been eating waaaay too much the last few days, so instead hit a convenience store, picked up some supplies and we headed back to the hotel to munch on the fruits for dinner instead. On the way back:  Apparently, I have Google Maps set to "shortest distance"... While riding the main streets lined with shops and stalls, I always wondered, where do people actually live? Well, we found out, when my phone routed me through this narrow maze of alleyways wide enough only for one scooter! We rode past lots of houses and got to peer into people's front yards to get a glimpse into life off the main street.  Living life one quarter block at a time We got lost and wound up in this neighbourhood where they were holding street races, Fast & Furious style. This sassy local chick challenged Neda to a race for pink slips. When the flag dropped, both of them barrelled down the narrow alleyway. It was neck and neck till the very end, until Neda hit the NOS button on her one-fiddy. Left that pedal-bike choking on a cloud of low-octane fumes! Later on that night, the next blog entry on "The Secret Lives of Motorcycles" is being written: "The man is not very good at navigating."
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