February 17, 2017

Although we had a good night’s sleep both Ralf and I felt a little \”blah\” today. It is one of those days when cycle touring that you are not sure what the matter is, and you can’t really say you are not enjoying the journey, it is more I can’t be bothered today.

This is the hotel we stayed at last night in Phan Rang, very grand.

The weather was good, if not a little too hot spiking at 41.6 degrees today. The wind kept shifting slightly, sometimes it was pushing us, other times it was more to the side. The scenery was a little boring, but the traffic was good and fairly quiet. The smell of the garbage along the side of the road was ripe. Just one of those days.

As we were leaving Phan Rang along the back road, we saw this large Pagoda.

We passed a very large (six) newly built coal fired electricity generating plant. Assisted by the Chinese and with a very large block of housing for the workers. That are probably bought in from China to work in the plant.

Shortly after we noticed wind turbines on the top of the small hill. Compensating for the coal fired generating plant. I have always been in favour of renewable energy: wind turbines, solar panels etc. However, after our conversation with the Dutch ladies I decided to be more open-minded about their effects. A very small observation today, but as we came closer to the turbines the temperature went up by 4 degrees, as we left the area it went back down. The temperature in this area was 41.6 degrees, then within a few kilometres of the last turbine the temperature returned to 37 degrees. The turbines moving the already warm air, created even more heat. Our very non-scientific observation, but something worth looking into.

Ralf’s camera quit yesterday. It looks as though it is the same problem he had on the last trip when it died on him in Ontario. This is only four weeks into a three month trip, he wasn’t very happy. Today he used the small Olympus, that I have been using.

Although we felt the scenery was a little monotonous, we did notice a few things.  An area of rocks, nice house with a rock garden at the back and a stepped shrine.

The agriculture has also changed, we saw men harvesting hay and a few \”orchards\” of Dragon fruit.  They grow the plant up the concrete posts and the Dragon Fruit grow out similar to cactus fruit.

Whilst we were in Cuba,the Cuban dry their rice along the side of the road. In Vietnam, at least in this area, they dry their rice on a large pad of concrete.  This is why you should always wash your rice before using.

The population of Vietnam is predominately Buddhist, we have seen a lot of catholic churches along the way and today we saw our first mosque.  About 13% of Vietnamese are muslim.

We were glad to finish the ride early today, about 2:00. We found a Nha Nghi, it is o.k. nothing to write home about. After a shower we explored the town, it is quite a large town with a large fish and vege market. We bought some cake and then found a coffee shop where we could eat the cake. This is the first time we have encountered beggars. Three kids followed us to the cake shop and one held out his hand for money. I shook it, I never give to children who are begging, they then expect every tourist to give them money. We witnessed this in Cuba, where in some towns all we heard was dollar, dollar. Coffee shops in Vietnam are just that, coffee shops. They sometimes sell tea, but usually just coffee. This one actually had smoothies as well. Ralf had a black Vietnamese coffee and I had a blackcurrant smoothie, we ate our cakes and it was good. The coffee shop was situated on a corner of an intersection and we watched the world go by for about an hour.

We are hoping to get some breakfast from a lady across the street tomorrow morning, if she is set up early enough. If not we have some buns and nutella that will keep us going for a while. Tomorrow is a relatively short day to Mui Ne. Mui Ne was recommended to us by Yves, the French Canadian. He said it is like Nha Trang was a few years ago, very peaceful and relaxing.