January 25, 2017

We were asleep very early last night, as soon as it got dark we were in bed and sound asleep. A good sleep in the very firm bed. We woke to rain on the roof of the guesthouse. We were awake at six and needed to clear the room by 8:00 a.m. We had our cereal for breakfast and then headed out in the rain.

It was a little cool to start and we had our heavy rain jackets on. We kept them on throughout the ride, as it didn’t really warm up all that much. We arrived in Thanh Hoa at about 12:45, average speed of about 20 kms per hour.

We managed to stop and take a few photos today.

We decided to stop every half hour or so to make sure we stayed hydrated. Last time we were on the Grand Adventure Part One, we had VeloHydration packs on the back of the bike with a tube running from the top tube, similar to a camel back but it sat on the back rack. It made it very easy to drink regularly.

The scenery was a little different today there were some gaps between towns and the countryside was primarily farming rice paddies.

We could see some Karst Mountains through the mist and gloom of the day.

As soon as we can we will try and get off the A1 and head into the countryside, we should be closer to the coast and may be able to find some guest houses along the coast.

Cycling today there were some rest stops for buses that we could have stopped at. Which we might have to do in future days to get some food. We did bring some Cliff Bars with us and they came in handy on the road.

We found a nice guest house in Thanh Hoa.  It is slightly away from the A1 but close to the downtown for getting something to eat. We could see the sign from the A1 but when we got to the place it looked closed, we were just about to walk away when the owner arrived on her scooter.  We asked all the questions or at least pointed to them in our Travellers Phrase book – hot water, wi-fi, how much, can I see the room?  She took me up to the room, very clean pointed out the air conditioner, t.v. and the hot water heater in the bathroom, a little bit more expensive than yesterday at $17.00.  It was clean and she had our bikes locked up in the room next door.

We are struggling to find food when we arrive at our location at the end of our ride. Yesterday we walked back into town about 2 kms and found some Pho. Today we wanted to find a sandwich for lunch and then go out again for dinner. That didn’t work out, we were hoping to find a café but cafés only sell coffees and not food.

We stopped in to see the menu at a large restaurant near the guesthouse.  It looked like a good place to have dinner.

It was pretty expensive, but other than street food there were no other restaurants to speak of in this huge city. We told the waiter that we would be back. We noticed another place and went to see their menu, but it turned out to be the micro brewery for the Cowboys restaurant.

The waiter we had spoken to found us and told us that unfortunately, the restaurant was closing at 7:00 for the start of the New Year celebrations. We decided to eat dinner mid afternoon again. The waiter recommended hot pot which consisted of a spicy broth with vegetables in it and then along came the food – cook your own dinner. Not quite, we had a very pretty waitress cook for us. Chicken was added first, then some mushrooms, lettuce, water cress, vermicelli noodles. We were served into little bowls and the food kept coming and coming. Eventually we had to stop eating, it was very good.

I asked how to say Happy New Year, in Vietnamese – she literally said \”Happy New Year in Vietnamese\” which is Năm mới hạnh phúc trong tiếng Việt. Easy for her to say.

When we got back to our room, Ralf couldn’t find his glasses. He has his watch attached to the case and figured if anyone found it they would keep it. He thought he might have left it at the place we had a coffee. He went back and they had kept them behind the counter for him.

Another early night tonight although. the planned route tomorrow is only about 67 kms. The weather forecast is for 24 degrees, pleasant and warm.