January 26, 2017

We left our guest house at 7:45 and headed back out on to the A1 through town. We said our goodbyes to the guest house owner and I took a picture of their New Years Tree, the owner encouraged me to take a photo of the small shrine with offerings. I had already taken one in the room where we had stored the bikes.  The offerings include fruit, beer, cigarettes, flowers and money.

She asked me how old I was, I told her and she smiled she was 56, she looked really good for 56.

The New Years tree is a branch from a qumquat tree, they are being sold everywhere along  the road. They have small pink blossoms on them. The other tree they decorate at this time of the year is a clementine tree.

This monument was in Thanh Hoa – a similar monument was in Hanoi.

Today\’s ride was a little more relaxing as there are already less vehicles on the road. I think tomorrow will be really quiet as everyone will be with their families and everything closes for the day. We already noticed that some of the street food vendors are closed.

The scenery is getting more rural and there is a bigger separation distance between towns.

Again, we stopped regularly to hydrate and eat the Cliff bars today. At one stop, I asked Ralf if he wanted some pineapple, there was a small vendor with all sorts of fresh fruit. “How are we going to cut it”? I do have my handy dandy Swiss army knife but I figured I could ask the vendor if he could slice it for us. As I looked at the pineapple I noticed it wasn’t very ripe, so I suggested Dragon Fruit. I mimed cutting the fruit and the owner took it to the small house behind the stall. He came back with a plate and a huge carving knife. He gave us two little chairs to sit on and I sliced the fruit in quarters. It was heavenly, really sweet. In the meantime we were surrounded by children. The oldest Thi Ly asked me in very clear English “What is your name”? I told her Jacqueline which she attempted to pronounce, and then I asked her what her name was. I attempted to pronounce her name and we giggled. “I am 9 years old” this is a prompt for me to tell her how old I was. I told her, but she didn’t quite understand! Then she asked me “If I was Vietnam?” I understood this to be where are you from so I told her I was not from Vietnam but from Canada. We had quite the conversation, although you could see her trying to ask more questions but couldn’t think of the English words. Even so at 9 years old she was doing very well. She told me what Dragon Fruit is in Vietnamese, and when I didn’t pronounce it properly the first time she was very firm with correcting me, thanh long – the th is not pronounced as in the, but as in tea. Her little sister kept pestering to ask more questions, but she brushed her away.

We thanked the family and headed away, about a kilometer down the road I kicked myself we should have taken photos of the family.

We saw our first road marker for Ho Chi Minh City today 1550 kms, about one months ride.

During the New Year celebration people buy new things, clothes, phones and furniture.  Just because you only have a scooter does not mean you cannot take your new furniture home with you.  We took this photo and then saw him going down the road – with a table and another chair on top of the bench that was already loaded.

We saw a nice shrine along the side of the road.

I was a little concerned about finding food tonight and tomorrow because of the New Year celebrations. We came into Hoang Mai and decided to stay at a hotel with a restaurant to ensure we get a decent dinner, blow the expense.

The first hotel on the outskirts of Town didn’t have a restaurant, the second was a deluxe hotel that we thought we would have to take a mortgage to stay at. However, next door was a supermarket that we could buy some provisions for tomorrow. I entered the very large lobby of the Muong Thanh Grand hotel and asked if they had a room and how much it would cost. Yes, they had a room and the cost is $53.00, including breakfast, unbelievable. The place has a swimming pool, tennis courts, soccer pitch, restaurants, and karaoke bar. We booked it, our bikes are outside at the back of the hotel with a security guard watching over them. We locked them and covered them with our cover.

Although, I do not think things get stolen from tourists in places like this. Everyone has been very careful giving us the correct change and very respectful. In busy cities you will get the ever present pick-pockets and scam artists but in smaller cities everyone appears to be very honest. As Ralf found out yesterday when he went back to the café and they still had his glasses and watch.

I have no idea why there is a big hotel in this town. There are no big tourist attractions in the area, that I could find on line or in the Lonely Planet Guide.

After settling into the hotel we went next door to the supermarket and bought some lunch for today and provisions for tomorrow. We got quite the grocery bag full – bread, cheese, tomatoes, liver pate, 2 bags of chips, 2 bottles of water and some more milo for under $10.00. 

A relaxing afternoon in the hotel, Ralf was checking out the route and booking another hotel for tomorrow night in Vinh. After the New Years celebrations we should be able to go back to cheap guesthouses, everything will be open again on Saturday and we can get back on budget. Although, we are technically on budget, it is just that if we save money in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, we can spend a little more in Korea.

Room with a view.