After many days lounging in Hoi An we decided it was time to go. As we loaded our panniers onto the bikes, we noticed that Spiros had a flat. Shoot! Okay, no biggie, we have plenty of spares. At first, we figured we would just patch the tube, but as I tried to pump it back up, the valve broke off. Okay, I got out a new tube. The minute I grabbed the valve it completely separated from the tube and fell off. What the?!!!! I’ve never seen that happen before. I grabbed another new tube…same thing. Ten minutes later we were scratching our heads and standing over 5 completely useless new tubes. Now, I don’t want to be harsh or anything, but me thinks Kenda are some pretty crappy tubes. 
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Luckily we still had one good new tube (different brand). We were up and running but with over a 1000 km to go before Ho Chi Minh City, we needed to get some replacement tubes. We went to the local market to ask around and within minutes, we had a crowd around us; the owner of the shop, one to help fit the tube, a couple to translate and of course, a few who just wanted to watch, squeeze the tires, check out the peddles, discuss the gears etc, etc. Back home we probably would have freaked out if strangers came over and started poking at our bikes, but it’s just very commonplace now.
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To make a long story slightly shorter, they didn’t have tubes but they sold valves separately that are secured onto a tube using a nut and washer. They don’t fit our tires very well and they loose air but they’ll do in a pinch. We bought a few and since it was now too late to go forward, we stayed in Hoi An for another day and did a day trip to Danang, Vietnam’s 4th largest city, to see if we can find something better.
With the number of bicycles in Vietnam, we didn’t suspect we would have any trouble finding tubes but we went to about 15 shops, each shop owner shook their head and pointed us to the next shop. Just as we were about to give up, a young local man cycled up to us, grabbed the tube, shook his head, pointed at himself and then pointed down the street. Okay. We followed him down the street, through back roads, down alleyways, ducking corners till we finally arrived to his house. When we got in, he pointed at a display case that held spare parts, a picture of himself and some medals. Nice! He rummaged through a huge bag of old tubes and pulled out one of these valves. He seemed so happy to have helped us we didn’t have the heart to tell him we already had 3 just like it. When we offered to pay for the part, he refused and wished us a good journey.
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So, we didn’t leave Hoi An as planned and never found the tubes we were looking for. But we got to ride our bikes, had some great banana cake and someone went out of their way to help us, just because. It was a very good day. 
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