Paradise missplaced and misunderstood.

I am sitting in  the resteraunt of my "resort" having an evening beer. I had wanted to sit listeqning to some music that is playing outside but the "resort" wanted to charge me extra for the beer so I am sitting in the resteraunt listening to the music on the other side of the wall. This sort  of silliness pervades this place and why I have chosen the above title.

Today I rode from the "resort" to the very south of the island to the fishing port down there. It was very interesting. I then rode to the very far north by the coast road. The first part from the southern tip to Long Beach was all dirt or should I say dust. A bit rough but OK. I had a very nice fried rice about halfway for lunch in an idyllic beach spot that could have been stunning but had not quite been finished off so it was messy. It was a nice lunch though. Travelling on I went through Long Beach and Duong Dong (the city here) and on to a place called Can Cua or something like that. It was very pretty and the beqches even more so. Again though there was something amiss. Rubbish was everywhere except where there was any kind of outlet, food or otherwise. Then it was clean as a whistle and swept regularly to keep it that way. Outside of interest the rubbish is extreme and destroys any feeling of peace and equinimity generated by the beautiful scene. I'm not sure why it is so but the feeling of a misplacement or misunderstanding of what is needed is strong. It is a shame really because the place could be astounding and now it is not. On the way to the far north I came across a Vietnamese version of Disneyland. It was really bizarre to come across this thing in the middle of a rainforest. Suddenly it was there and then it was  followed by a huge golf course with tailored lawns and barbed wire fences, another anachronism. 

Tomorrow I will go exploring again. I'm going into the middle of the island where they threaten to have streams that you can swim in. I will also go to a fishing village on the eastern side of the island. I hope I get a better impression there.