The last day started out with a bang (not literally). As we started our drive to the abandoned water park just outside of Hue, we had a couple of locals point out our back flat tire. I hopped off to let Grant drive it to the gas station while I walked the short distance. The workers then pointed to a shop across the street where they could work on our tire. They were able to patch the hole in the inner tube and inflate the tire. They charged about $2USD. After our short pit stop, we were on our way. Everything we had read said there were local “guards” at the entrance of this place that may ask for a cover charge (read: locals that have no affiliation but can collect money).

When we got there, we didn’t see anyone so we headed on in and drove around the park. Ho Thuy Tien was built in 2004 for $3 million USD and was opened prematurely before it was completely finished. The internet said it was mysteriously closed and has been abandoned ever since. It used to be a spot you only heard about from backpackers but now it has become a tourist attraction with a location spot on Google maps. We stopped by the amphitheater first before heading to the main attraction, the three story tall dragon at the edge of the lake. We walked through and climbed the stairs to the top of the dragon mouth to get the view of the park. Grant was able to grab an aerial view video on his drones. We were worried this so called “guard” would see it and try to take it. But thankfully we didn’t encounter him at all during our time exploring.

The other part of the park was the slide area in the middle of the jungle. It was kind of off the beaten path. We had it to ourselves for a good 15-20 minutes before others arrived and were able to grab some more drone footage and pictures. It is so crazy how fast the jungle overtakes things in this part of the world.

However, once we got back to our bike, we noticed the tire was flat again. We drove it slowly out of the park and asked some people that passed by if they knew of a shop close to us. “Asking” and “answering” is largely pantomiming in this part of the world if you don’t speak Vietnamese! One guy pointed up the street and signaled “500” with his hands so we assumed that meant go that way for 500m. Another guy told us there was someone about 1km up the road so we hopped off and walked the bike up the road. Everyone in the small town was so nice – 2 or 3 different people stopped to see if we needed help, even though we couldn’t communicate at all with words. We grabbed some cold drinks at a cafe on the corner and continued our walk up the hill. A local guy stopped us and said he could fix the tire in his garage shop. Grant tried to feign contempt at paying $500,000 VND ($20) but I was ready to just pay the fee to replace it to ensure we make it the three to four hours back to Da Nang safely. He did do a really good job – he ended up giving us a completely new tire and tube, re-oiled the chain, and made sure the chain tension was correct. Grant in the end admitted to me the $20 was well spent to get us home safe (we had 60 miles left, including through a huge mountain pass), even if it was half the cost of the entire bike rental for the week.

He fixed it quick and we were back in the road to Hue. We grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant which was surprisingly pretty good before cooling off in the AC. Grant kept telling me I should be thankful for this heat as I complained about the cold in Seoul. Honestly I was ready for the warmth but didn’t think we’d be jumping almost 50 degrees and it was hot. We waited until around 2:30PM before hitting the road back to Da Nang. Thankfully the cloud coverage helped to cool the temperature down a little making the ride a lot more enjoyable than the previous day.

We made better time this drive, but still had to make a couple of “free the booty” stops and drone stops. Once back in Da Nang, we dropped off the bike and headed to grab some Thai food. The meal was great and some of the best food we had had in Vietnam. Though Grant was a little saddened to learn the chef was a British guy living in Vietnam. I overheard him telling some guests that he had lived in Thailand for about 6 years before visiting Vietnam in 2020. He ended up finding his wife here and stayed. The restaurant had only been open for about four months and is still trying to get its name out there.

We ended the night planning out our last day in Da Nang before our evening flight to Cambodia.