February 1, 2017

We were up early and had a good breakfast at the Nam Long Plus Hotel. We loaded our bikes and headed out at 8:00 a.m. The forecast was for rain later in the day. As we cycled along the road I heard someone shout – I’ve done that ride. I was wearing my Tour De Norfolk jersey. We stopped, turned around and had a great chat with two Canadians from Waterloo. They are also cycling and heading south, but they were not sure what to do as the weather forecast calls for rain for the next three or four days. We swapped emails/websites and perhaps will see them again on the road south.

We stopped a few more times to take photos of the old gates and a couple of buildings.

As we came to an intersection we noticed the market was in full swing. Our route took us through the middle of the market!! We had a great laugh with some of the stall holders.

I think this area was the area that was flooded in December, either that or they are very late planting the rice fields.

We had a great tail wind and we were motoring average speed of about 25 kph. The traffic has picked up a little on the A1, but still very manageable. The buses are the worst, they undertake everything and sound their horns to let you know they are being idiots.  At the 30 km mark it started to rain, a little, then a little more, then full on rain. Although it is raining the temperature is not too cold, it is just that you get very wet, the bikes get disgustingly dirty and eventually we both get a little miserable.

We made the turn to Vin Moc Tunnels and cycled the 14 kms to the tunnels. At the gate is a little restaurant that you can park your bike or scooter for 3,000 VND each. The young lass looks after it for you. We were cold and Ralf had a coffee and I had a ginger tea.A couple of French motor-bikers came and were complaining about the fact that he had to pay for parking even though they were having some Pho.  Really, 3,000 VND is about 0.17 cents.

We paid the entrance fee of 40,000 VND (each) about $2.35 and headed down the stone path to entrance # 3.

The tunnels are amazing, they were built initially for the Vietnamese soldiers, but as the Americans discovered that they were supplying the Con Co Island they started to bomb the heck out of the villages. The villagers went underground with the soldiers. There are over a kilometre of underground tunnels ranging to 30 metres deep.

The lighting was very poor, that gave the whole thing more authenticity. Some of the tunnels came out above the beach area. It was a little unnerving when you could hear the roar of the surf inside the tunnel.

The temperature was warmer in the tunnel than outside, the tunnels were designed that all the water would empty out towards the ocean, so that the tunnels didn’t flood.

Within the tunnels they have depictions of how people lived underground.

After our trip through the tunnels we watched the video of how the tunnels were built and how many people lived there. It was very informative.

We headed back out to our bikes. We decided to have some Pho before heading out, to find a hotel for the night. The rain was still persisting and we were getting cold.

We came into the small seaside village of Cua Truan, it is rather tired and not many places are open at this time of the year.  As soon as we spotted a hotel that looked half-way decent we went in. The owner speaks German and we quickly got the bikes dried off and headed up to our small but clean room. The hotel was next to the lighthouse and was called Khach San Cua Tung. No food is available in the hotel, but there is a place across the road the owner recommended.

We wandered down to the area the owner recommended. We found a very small place that a group of young Vietnamese eating, we figured it can’t be too bad. Unfortunately there was no English menu, we ordered our meal by committee and google translate. At one point we had about four people with their phones trying to get us something to eat. Eventually the young cook came out with her phone, typed in what she had available and we ordered that. We had a sweet and sour soup, followed by a lovely steamed fish with greens and rice. We weren’t sure what we had ordered, but when it arrived it tasted fabulous and we went back to the hotel comfortably full.  The whole meal for two with four beers was less than $22.00.

The owner of the hotel invited us to sit and chat and have a glass of wine with him. The hotels in this area are very quiet at this time of the year, but from April to September they are busy.

Our wet cycling gear is hanging in the hotel room, I have limited hopes for it drying overnight.

Another 95 km day tomorrow heading to Hue. Again the forecast is for showers, hope we don’t get too wet.