Boys Weekend

We can’t blame Silas for coming away from this Boys Weekend a bit disappointed. It was floated as a motorbike ride up Highway 1 between Nha Trang, the old French seaside playground, and finishing at the Life Resort Quy Nhon, a MM client I had never seen. We planned to break the trip in half by staying one night at L’Isle de Baleine, a sorta primitive but drop-dead gorgeous and totally remote island esort lying less than a mile from one of the longest strips of natural dunesland I’ve ever seen outside Ireland. In any case, the motorbikes were a no-go — several Russians turned a bus over on this same road last week, and no foreigners are allowed to drive themselves on anything for the foreseeable future, not even mopeds. Then we tried to SCUBA on Whale Island and they balked at Silas’ mildly asthmatic history, insisting on a doctor’s wavier we couldn’t possibly obtain in the time we had there. Then we got to Quy Nhon with every intention of renting mopeds in Quy Nhon City for a run-about — but all they had were four-gear motorbikes, not the one-speed, automatic mopeds we’d been expecting and Silas had ridden before. A letdown, but we did sample some incredible scenery up the coast, swim in South China Sea at three stunning locales, hike, play pool, gorge ourselves and basically hang out with our often genial travel compatriots, Scott and Jim. We got home Monday and Silas needs a hair cut. I think we’ll find some mopeds and drive to the street barber together.