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.

February 16, 2017

I was awake early (6:00 a.m.) with a little tummy ache, I think I ate too much last night, or maybe it was the paint stripper Hanoi Vodka that upset me!

We packed our stuff ready to go and went downstairs for a lovely mushroom omelette and some good coffee.

After leaving the mayhem that is Nha Trang, we followed a quiet road to the A1. 

They have built some big resorts in this area.  This one had two or three entrances and the property was well over a kilometre long, I am not sure how wide it would have been, but there was a golf course and driving range located on the property.

There was a small climb to connect us to the A1, with some nice views over the water.

The A1 took us past an old airbase, where cows were grazing on the overgrown run-way and between the old bunkers.  I think this may have been left by the Americans – it was near Can Ram.  We could see buildings on both sides of the road, the A1 runs through the middle of what would have been the base.

The ride on the A1 was uneventful, we were cycling between two mountain ranges along a very wide valley. The valley had some rice paddies but not a lot of growing seemed to be happening.

The Towns are further apart as we head south and the A1 is getting quieter as well. This section indicated who could ride on the shoulder, bikes are number 1.  The motorbikes tend to ride in the slow lane, but then get honked at by the cars, buses and trucks.

We stopped at a rest stop, and noticed this strange structure, it was concrete and there were speakers blasting out bird song.  There was no-one around that we could ask what it was.  Although this area is quite famous for the birds nest, that you can make birds nest soup with.  The island opposite Nha Trang, has lots of natural nests.  We weren\’t sure if this was to encourage the swallows to make nests here, where it might be a  little easier to harvest.

We came across these two buildings they are the Thap Hoa Lai. This is a cluster of towers that was built in the ninth century. Hoa Lai tower group is from the Cham architectural style.

It was really hot again today, even the water buffalo were trying to keep cool.

The variety of houses we see on the road are quite amazing, from something that wouldn\’t look out of place in North America to someone who may not have wanted waterfront property.

We had tried to book a place in Phan Rang last night but couldn’t get hold of the cheap and cheerful hotel we had planned on staying. We asked the receptionist at the Souvenir Hotel if she could call them this morning. Unfortunately, there was no answer. We knew there were a lot of hotels to choose from in Phan Rang, but it can be a bit of a pain trying to find a hotel when you are already tired after a long ride.  When we arrived in Phan Rang the cheap and cheerful hotel was closed, we quickly looked at the iPad and found the other hotel that we had been looking at on bookings.com, but we knew it was going to be more expensive.  The Ho Phoung hotel looked very grand from the outside.  I asked to see the room, it is lovely, nicer than the one we stayed in Nha Trang.  Big room, good shower and helpful staff.  I asked for the standard room at 250,000 VND but I think we have got a much nicer room than the standard.  We might be paying 300,000 VND – $17.65.  We asked the receptionist where to get some food,  the receptionist said she could order pizza for us.  We went out to get some beer and water and check out the local eateries – only street food available, it looked pretty scary. We had pizza and a couple of beers in the room.

February 15, 2017

We could have by-passed Nha Trang, but then we would have missed a lovely Indian meal.

We actually had a rest day today. Nothing planned just relaxing. We had a leisurely breakfast at one of the little restaurants in the square and got chatting to a French Canadian from Montreal. He has been coming to Vietnam for about 10 years, mainly in the Nha Trang area. However, he is not happy about the influx of the Russians and the Chinese. In his opinion they have no class.

He has an “adopted” daughter who lives partly in Vietnam and partly in Canada. She has her Canadian citizenship, and graduated from High School and College in Canada. Her family live in the Mekong area and she is one of eleven. One of her sister’s lives in Sweden.

Yves was a very interesting guy and gave us a lot of insight into Vietnam. Although we had picked up a lot of what he was telling us. We had a laugh about the building “code”, he told us that the hotels etc are only built to last for 15 to 20 years maximum. My advice is know how old your hotel is before you book it, if it is close to the end of its lifespan it will be a very grubby old hotel.

After our very leisurely breakfast we headed out for a very relaxed walk along the sea front. This area was reserved for motorbike/scooter parking – imagine trying to find your bike after having a few drinks.

It was very blustery, there were some Russians on the beach, and one fella ready to go in for a swim.

Nha Trang is a large, busy, bustling, holiday city. It has a long sandy beach that stretches the length of the town about 2 kms. There are a lot of rules for the beach area, which was very interesting reading.

The sea is very rough and has quite the drop-off close to shore, which means when the waves roll in they crash onto the beach. I think you have to be a very strong swimmer to be able to swim in this area. We were told the sea is a lot calmer in the summer.

As we cycled into town yesterday, there was a large unusual building.

Today we walked to it and discovered that we could go to the top and get a good view of the Town. The third floor was dedicated to fallen soldiers. Surprisingly, most of the dates were pre-1955, most of them pertained to the fight against the French in the 1930’s.

There is a wide park area between the beach and the main downtown area.  The Vietnamese always have these park areas, very well maintained.  The Parks Department were working on redoing the planters at the centre of this roundabout.

Nha Trang has hundreds of restaurants and bars. It was so nice to get a choice of food tonight, ranging from BBQ, Indian, Thai and lots of fresh seafood restaurants. Most of the seafood was shellfish, I can’t eat shellfish, we gave those a miss.

We noticed the Indian restaurant had a set menu for 125,000VND ($7.35). We chose to eat an Indian meal tonight and it was really good – poppadoms with mango chutney, vege curry (for me) chicken tandoori (for Ralf), rice, garlic nan bread and a soft drink. The restaurant had proper tables and chairs and was indoors, the service was really good.

We had thought about having a massage today, but after eating a good lunch and a big dinner, we opted to have an early night.

A lovely rest day.

February 14, 2017

A long ride today, but what a tail wind – awesome. Total elevation gain was 627 metres of climbing and the temperature peaked at 37 degrees C.

We were up early and had a good breakfast at the hotel. Two minutes on the road and I am already heading in the wrong direction. Ralf corrected me and we headed out of Tuy Hoa. We crossed a bridge that didn’t exist on garmin maps, and I spotted a sign that said A1, this road did not go anywhere, it was a new clover leaf coming of the non-existent bridge. There is a lot of new road development in Vietnam, on this occasion there were signs in place but the road wasn’t finished yet.

We had to find our way to the A1. We made a right turn through a village and were surrounded by kids on bicycles going to school. Hello, hello, hello, and the occasional “what’s your name?’ Ralf loves racing with these kids. All the boys started racing Ralf and laughing when he won. Ralf commented that the kids would be at school early today because they were chasing him.

The A1 today was fairly quiet and we had an awesome tail wind. Here is an example of major road works on the A1. A small barrier and then the construction crew – risking life and limb to fill in the holes.

We had one major hill to climb today(167 metres). There is a tunnel in the building stage that would take all the truck traffic away from the pass. That would be good because it was a busy road, as the trucks crawled up the steep incline.

The view of the valley we had come from was lovely.  There is always the ever present danger of land slides.

The downhill was not as good as the Hy Van Pass, because there was too much traffic and the road was not as good.  We spotted this oil refinery on the way down, I have no idea how they got the trucks to that area, it appeared to be down a very narrow road from the top of the Pass.

At the half-way point (65 kms) we stopped and had a second breakfast of eggs and bread and a cold coke. The temperature peaked at 37.4 degrees c. The wind kept us cool, but you have to be really careful when it is this windy, as we didn’t feel overheated. It is really important to stay hydrated in these temperatures, we drank over 6 litres of water today (3 litres each).  We put our sleeves on at noon and our arms were covered, we didn’t burn.

We have seen lots of trucks with pigs in them traveling north.  We see at least six a day.  At various stages during their trip there are pull offs with hoses and the pigs get sprayed.  We are not sure if this is too cool them down or an attempt of giving them some hydration.

Although it was a long ride we stopped and took photos along the way.

We have traveled over 1,000 kms in Vietnam on back-roads and busy main roads.  This is the first STOP sign that we have seen. The sign was on a quiet side street coming from a dirt road, up a slight incline.  I am guessing that you had to floor the scooter to get up the little hill, but you were supposed to stop before entering the highway.  Not sure if that happened, because as I mentioned before, most of the scooter/motorbike riders do not even look when they come out of an intersection on to the main road.

Although some people think you don\’t get to see the \”real\” Vietnam when cycling the A1, I beg to differ.  A lot of the population live along the A1, they conduct their business, whether it is recycling, drying food or commercial enterprises and they live next to or behind their business.  In North America and Europe, these businesses would not be allowed to set up shop so close to a highway.

We were 11 kms outside of Nha Trang when we spotted the left turn to Nha Trang. Damn, it was the scenic route and added another 6 kms on to the ride.

I am not sure if it would have been less hilly going along the A1, but we were both tired and wanted to get to the hotel.

This very colourful cemetery caught our eye on the outskirts of Nha Trang.

We negotiated the busy streets of Nha Trang. We got within a block of the hotel and could not find it, we went down back alley ways that opened up into small squares with restaurants and hotels tucked away. No sign of our hotel, Ralf said “It’s like Paris all over again”.

For those of you who do not know the story. When we were in Paris for our honeymoon, we could see the hotel but could not get to it because of all the One-Way Streets. Eventually, we parked the car at the end of the street and walked to the front door of the hotel. At reception they told us to bring our luggage and park the car at the Place de la Madelaine and that is where we left the car for the week in Paris!

We went down one narrow street with restaurants along the alley, turned right as instructed by a local shop-assistant, and the hotel was still not to be seen. I turned around and about 50 metres in front of me was the flashing neon sign for Souvenir Hotel. Turn left not right! The hotel is the narrowest hotel we have stayed in – about 18 metres wide!

The city is a big tourist place, mainly filled with Russians. Everywhere we turned there were signs in Russian and the menus were in Vietnamese, Russian and English. Tomorrow we will relax and maybe go for a little walk, but nothing major planned for the day. A rest day.

February 13, 2017

The Vietnamese hotels have incredibly hard beds and last night’s bed was one of the hardest, I felt as if I was sleeping on a wooden board. I usually wake up first, although I had a bad nights sleep Ralf was awake before me and had taken some excellent photos of the sunrise.

I was a little sluggish to get on the move today, which was o.k. as it was supposed to be a short ride to Song Cau. We had planned on taking the highway, although there was an alternative coastal route to take. The coastal route involved taking a very rickety wooden bridge. It was a toll bridge!! I had read a blog about this bridge and was concerned about Ralf’s wrist and the control he may or may not have of his bike while crossing the bridge. The Dutch ladies suggested we could always walk across it, that was what they planned to do.

After leaving Song Cau we had a nice ride up the A1, there were some lovely statues.

At the 15 kms mark I spotted the rickety bridge and for some unknown reason I said to Ralf let’s do it. We crossed the highway and made our way down a dirt path to the rickety bridge. The cost for crossing was 2000, 3000 or 5000 VND (11 cents, 17 cents or 29 cents) the cost depended on whether you were a bike, motorbike or weighed over 100 kg. They told us the price was 5000 VND, we both looked at the chart and laughed and said no we do not weigh over 100 kg, they had been caught out. Everyone laughed and we were charged 4000 (22 cents) for the two bikes.

It was a little scary going across the bridge, but I cycled all the way.  There were motorbikes going across at the same time, I would stop when they went past, but apart from that I cycled all the way.

We caught up with the Dutch ladies in the next village and then got misplaced. We headed up the paved road to Ga Da Dia a scenic lookout point, we should have taken the concrete road out of the village. We went 4 kms up hill to the scenic lookout and then turned around and came back down again.

We found the right road and followed it all the way into Tuy Hoa.  Village life is tough, both for the oxen and the humans. 

Most of the work is manual labour, although I think there were two workers and a foreman in this picture.  The guy sitting on the log while the other two are sawing away/

Today we went through lots of villages with loads of kids shouting hello. Sometimes you don’t see the person or child shouting hello, the “hello” appears out of nowhere. I think that they are actually motion sensors that shout hello when you come into range, if you don’t respond then it keeps going, if you do respond \”it\” giggles and then it stops.

The scenery wasn’t stunning today, but the villages were interesting. This is how they dry rice paper used for making spring rolls.

There were some large houses and some very small houses and always lots of children.

As we came to the outskirts of the Tuy Hoa, I spotted these buildings, one of them had the olympic rings on the outside. I speculated that the group of buildings was probably an athletes training camp. The translation on the gate actually says it is a naval facility (submarines), police and nursing centre.

We arrived at the hotel at 2:30 and settled in. The City of Tuy Hoa is very large with wide landscaped boulevards, but appears to not have very much going for it. It has a large beach area and some large hotels that were deserted. We bought some street food and headed back to the hotel.

An early start in the morning as we are going to make the push to Nha Trang where we will get a few days off.

February 12, 2017

As you can see by the new town (Song Cau)  we didn’t get on the train to Saigon.

After icing the wrist last night, Ralf woke up with a less swollen arm and more movement in his fingers. I think we can carry on he says. OMG what am I going to do with him. We had decided last night that we were going to take the train and give his wrist time to heal.

We cycled to the train station, a distance of about 10 kms back along the A1 and down a back street. Fortunately, the lady at the counter spoke reasonable English and when she struggled to find the right words, she used google translate on her computer.

“Can we get to Ho Chi Minh City, with our bicycles” “Yes, but bikes go on another train – Speak to the person at the luggage office”.

Off I went to speak to the lady at the luggage office. Again she spoke reasonable English. Bikes cannot go on the same train – no baggage car. O.k. can we get to Nha Trang with the bikes on the same train. Nha Trang is a resort area about 250 kms down the coast, at least if we could get there it would be a nice place to rest for a few days. Yes we can take the TN1 at 1:30 today the bikes will go on the same train. Bring your bikes here. She was very helpful and had a kind smile.

Back to Ralf, we can get to Nha Trang today. I will just go and check there are seats available on the train. Of course there were no seats available on today\’s train! Tomorrow there are seats available, but not together, in fact two cars apart and separate floors.

I was so frustrated, it bought me to tears. Why can’t things go smoothly, just let us get on a train with the bikes and let Ralf’s wrist heal so that we can carry on. Ralf put his arms around me and said “Look I can wiggle my fingers, let’s see how far we can get today”.

So the decision was made to carry on. We headed back towards Quy Nhon and onto the QL10D, away from the A1 and onto a good paved road that was lovely.

There were a few hills for the first 25 kms or so and then quite flat along the coast. It was so nice to be away from the A1 and on a good road that had a few hills and lovely scenery.

There were some resort hotels along this road. Ralf always asks the security guards if he can take photos, the security guard said he could take photos of the coast but not the resort – oops, managed to get a few of the resort.

We came over one small hill and spotted some signs for a BackPackers hostel, restaurant and bar. We were at the 35 km mark and I needed something more to eat.

We pulled in and had a second breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread and coffee. It was a great place to rest and I considered suggesting to Ralf to stop here for the night. It was full of young people who were mostly travelling by motorbike. However, it was very windy and we decided that 35 kms was not long enough.

From this place we were on a downhill section, when Ralf spotted two touring bikes with two ladies – yes we have caught up with the Dutch ladies again. Lillian and Birgit (sorry if I have spelled that incorrectly). They told us they were only going to Song Cau today and it was about 30 more kilometres, they had seen a hotel on-line but not booked. We told them we would probably see them later and we did, we are staying at the same hotel.

We left them eating their lunch of peanut butter baguette and headed down the hill. We had a great tail wind for most of the ride. Although Ralf still struggled to change gears, he managed the hills.

As we hit the flat section and the wind picked up to push us along the way, we spotted a lone touring cyclists coming in the opposite direction. We always like to stop, some cyclists stop others don’t. We waved and slowed down and Nikitita crossed the road for a chat. A young Russian who has cycled from Russia, through China to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and is now heading home. He has been on the road for 15 months. He seemed pleased to stop and chat and said cycling on his own could be very lonely. Then the two Dutch ladies caught up with us and also stopped for a chat. He said it must be nice to cycle with a friend. He headed back into the wind and we all carried on to Song Cau.

As we came into Song Cau, we spotted this fella collecting this weed, it was drying on the side of the road.  Not sure what it was.

The Dutch ladies arrived before us, and had checked out the rooms to make sure they were clean. Yes they were clean and we could have a room with a view. We checked in and then chatted to them on our shared balcony. As we chatted about Vietnam, we discovered that Lillian, Birgit and I are in the same field (planning). Lillian works with environmental planning issues and Birgit specializes in noise. We chatted about wind turbines and their effect. It was a very interesting conversation.

After a lovely hot shower, Ralf and I headed out for a walk down town.

The downtown is spread out over about two kilometres.  Ralf wanted to stop at this \”Doctors\” office to see if they could give him something for his cough.  Very traditional Asian medicine.

As we walked down we saw what we thought were chickens roasting on a spit, Swiss Chalet chicken anyone?

We carried on and spotted a few other small eating places and on the corner of one street there were three or four Pho Bo carts serving dinner for the locals.

We stopped in at the bike shop, we need some air in the tires tomorrow.  Check out this Vietnamese beauty.  Look at how many spokes are in the wheel.  Also there is a little rubber step near the back wheel, this is so you can carry your school friend to school and she has somewhere to put her feet !

We decided to go for the Swiss Chalet rotisserie chicken. When we got back to the little restaurant, we realized it wasn’t chicken but duck. In for a penny in for a pound, we were guided to a clean table and waited. Four beers arrived, followed by some cucumber and greens, with cabbage (coleslaw), then a bowl of really good soup. Finally, the duck arrived, one whole duck chopped into pieces, it was really good, the rub on the skin was very tasty. 

We drank a beer each and managed to polish off most of the duck and all of the soup and vegetables. Cost for this lovely meal was $14.70.

The Hotel Laura is located on the left hand side when you make the left turn into Song Cau of the A1.  The rooms are clean and some have a view of the beach.  However the beds are really hard, but that is typical of Vietnamese beds.

February 11, 2017

The weather caught us out today. We were expecting overcast skies with some rain. As we left the guest house we could see some blue skies, but the majority of it was grey and overcast. Then the sun came out and we had not put any sun cream on, out came the new arm-covers and we were good to go. We had a few little showers, which had us stopping and putting on the jackets and 2 minutes later we were taking them off. We had no significant rain until we got to the hotel and then within five minutes of us settling into the room the heavens opened and it poured.

We had decided to stick to the A1 again today, and do the shorter distance of 88 kms instead of 105 kms. As you can see by the completed kilometres something went wrong, more about that later.

We had a great tail wind and were really motoring, the scenery was lovely and for the most part (until we came into Quy Nhon) the traffic was reasonable.

Or maybe I am just getting used to the lunacy that is Vietnamese drivers.

Quy Nhon is a big City and is sprawled out over about 10 kms. We were “Welcomed” to the city and proceeded to check Garmin for the route to the hotel. For some unknown reason Garmin decided to take us away from the hotel and continue out of the City on the A1. We came across a beautiful Pagoda and we stopped to take photos, then I mentioned to Ralf that I was concerned we were leaving the City. We checked Maps.Me and yes we had cycled 7 kms in the wrong direction. We turned around and headed back into the wind and back into town – hence the additional 11 kms.

We found the hotel and settled in, Ralf’s arm is very swollen and he can hardly use it at all. He cannot gear down, today after the first little hill when he managed to drop the gear into his second chain ring, but couldn’t move it up again. Time for a rethink on the route.

We are going to try and take the train to Saigon from here, the only problem is getting the bikes on the same train we would be taking. Always have the same problems with trains and bikes.

I suggested to Ralf that we could take the sleeper bus. His response was he would rather ride with a broken wrist than take the bus. They are the craziest drivers on the road. I have never seen one of them use his brakes. They just hurtle along using their horn to get other vehicles out of their way. I think their road test consists of: put your foot to the metal and see how many things you can avoid, do not use your brakes, only use your horn.

Towards the end of the ride I was getting a little annoyed with the scooter drivers again, I almost pushed one of them of her scooter she came so close to me. In their eyes “I lost face” however, I did not lose my life by moving into traffic coming up behind me. Because this stupid “bi$%ch did not even glance to her left as she came out of the intersection.

We may be in Saigon tomorrow night or the next night, we will see. If we can get on the train, we will have a few days rest in Saigon to give the arm/wrist some rest, then carry on.

February 10, 2017

It rained throughout the night, and was pouring with rain when we woke up at 6:00. We tried to go back to sleep but the constant beating of rain on the tin roof does not assist in sleeping.

We had breakfast and asked for more hot water from the owner so that we could have coffee. We slowly got our things together and eventually had to head out in the rain at 8:15.

I have been reading an Australian’s blog who did this route in 2012/2013 and I remember he said he stayed in Bong Son. My calculations had this town at about 40 kms. We had decided to head for this town and quit for the day. We had even considered hopping on a train here and heading straight for Saigon! It is supposed to be the dry season and we have had more rain in Vietnam in 24 days than we had in 28 days in England in 2014!

Ralf took some photos from the Nha Nghi before leaving this morning.  View from the back of the guest house.

The ride would have been very scenic and enjoyable if hadn’t been for the constant rain. There was not much traffic on the A1 and there were a few little hills to go up and over. There are no photos today, although I could have taken some if I had put the waterproof camera in my pocket.

We arrived in one town which I thought might be Bong Son but was a bit short on the distance. I asked at a hotel what town we were in. Not Bong Son another 10 kms down the road. The hotel owner did offer us a room for five hours for 70,000 VND – about $4.00. Ralf’s comment was “five hours these guys have some stamina”!

We carried on to Bong Son, cycled past a few Nha Nghi and then asked at an “Apple” store where a Khach San was – Khach San is hotel and generally has better rooms. We went past the same Nha Nghi’s and found a small hotel tucked down an alley. The room is very large with a double bed and a single bed. The bathroom actually has a bath-tub in it, but I think it would take forever to fill it with the little hot water heater above the tub. It costs $14.00 and has air conditioning, a fan and cable TV and it is clean.

After we had showered and warmed up a little we headed out for lunch – Bahn Mi with eggs and a green tea. It started to rain again while we were out so we waited until it had stopped before heading down the street to find some milo, fruit and beer – what a combination. We also bought a tensor bandage for Ralf’s wrist. I think I might have put it on a little tight the first time as Ralf was complaining about his fingers turning blue! Hopefully it helps, any suggestions what to do with a sprained wrist will be welcomed.

The “restaurant” set up in Vietnam can be rather strange. Usually there is a cart of some kind set up with various food and then inside are a few tables and chairs. You choose what you want from the cart and then sit down on plastic chairs and a metal table. The first place we went in only had one portion of rice left and a few scraggy bits of meat. We headed down to the main street where we had lunch. A stall holder indicated that we should eat at her stall. There were three different dishes to choose from – prawns, mystery meat with an egg and some other mystery meat, all came with rice and beans. Ralf and I had the same, but I opted not to have the mystery meat just the eggs, she gave me an extra egg and some more hot sauce, which wasn’t very spicy. Rice made a change from the noodles, but it would be nice to sit down and have a nice meal with proper chairs and a menu. Ralf spotted the big bread dumplings we had once before. He bought one and ate it on the way back to the hotel. Big fluffy white bun, with mystery meat and a quails egg inside. My tummy is doing a few flip-flops at the moment, I hope it settles down.

Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a little clearer, we have 80+ ks to do if we follow the highway or 100+ if we follow the coastal route. If it is raining – straight down the highway, if not the more scenic route, of course it also depends on how Ralf’s wrist is feeling. Forecast for intermittent showers.

February 9, 2017

A surprisingly good nights sleep on a somewhat comfy mattress. Vietnamese mattresses are very hard, even at the nicer hotels we have stayed at the mattresses are hard. Last night’s mattress was a little softer and consequently a better nights sleep.

We headed out at about 8:30, the forecast was for showers later in the day. The first 25 kms on the A1 was absolutely idiocy. As Ralf puts it a “Special Kind of Stupid”. The road was reduced to two-lanes in part as they were working on the expansion to four-lanes. This did not make a blind bit of difference to the bus drivers who figured they could drive wherever the heck they wanted and at the same speed as if they had four-lanes to choose from. How there wasn’t head on collisions I have no idea.

Fortunately Ralf and I choose to ride on the side that was undergoing the roadworks, there was no one working on that side and although it was a bit rough in places, we had the side of the road to ourselves.

There seems to be a lot of new roads being constructed.  I am not sure where they are going to or coming from.

Eventually the road widened out again and there was a concrete divide between the two sides of the highway. We had our wide shoulder to ride on again and everything settled down to the chaos that riding in Vietnam is all about.

At about the 70 km mark we decided to find something to eat and start looking for somewhere to stay.

According to google maps there are no towns between Hoi Ann and Nha Trang a distance of about 500 kms. Of course that is not true, there are hundreds of little towns, some of them only have a few street stalls others are large and have all the facilities including “motels” and “guest houses”.

We cycled through a large town where we found a Bahn Mi stand – this is a road side stand that usually has some scary meat and if you are lucky eggs that she will fry up and put in a baguette with hot sauce and a few veges. We always opt for the eggs, or just buy the buns and eat them dry – anything for a few carbs

After lunch we started to look for somewhere to stay. There were two options in the Town, one of the hotels we had to wake the owner, he was sleeping in the front foyer. The room was disgusting – I am not sure when the sheets were last changed. The second option was cleaner, on the third floor, but small, but at 170,0000 VND ($10.00) was a good price. It was only 1:00 p.m. and I figured there would be more options down the road. We carried on and that was a big mistake.

The remaining Nha Nghi (guesthouses) I looked at (4) left a lot to be desired – no proper plumbing (squat toilets) and only a sink to wash-in. We were at 86 kms and Ralf’s arm was hurting, he couldn’t do another 12 ks to the next bigger town and who knows what would be in that Town. We pulled off the road into the Nha Nghi 2009. With my handy dandy Phrasebook the lady of the house showed me the room, it was clean except for a big crack down one wall and there appeared to be a flush toilet and shower. Although I could tell the shower only had cold water. I asked if it had hot water, showing her the translation in my handy Phrase book. Yes she said and bought me a kettle, she later came back with a thermos of hot water.  Something lost in translation, I think.

By the time I had come back to talk to Ralf the whole family had dragged him in and parked my bike next to the room. I guess we are staying here the night.

At least we can get more hot water for our noodles tonight and we can eat the tuna and two buns we bought on the way. Tomorrow morning we can have coffee and our muesli and milo – pure luxury.

We both had cold showers, had a hot cup of coffee and some snacks. Then it started to rain, we are clean, dry and have a relatively clean bed to sleep in tonight. The rest of the facilities are somewhat lacking – the toilet although appeared to be a flush toilet, we actually have to pour water down it to get it to flush.

There is no internet – Ralf has cellular data on his iPad, but even that isn’t strong enough to find us a route tomorrow. We have no idea what the weather is going to be like, where we are going or where we will be sleeping tomorrow. Life is an Adventure.

February 8, 2017

We were up early and ready for an early start, that didn’t quite materialize. We went down for breakfast at 7:15 but there was no-one there. We returned at just after 7:30 p.m. Tabi and Mark were already there and were having their breakfast cooked.  We said our farewells to Mark and Tabi, they are spending one more day in Hoi An and then heading towards the hills and Ho Chi Minh Trail.

We eventually set off at 9:15, it was already quite warm. We found our way out of Hoi An and over the river quite easily. We were planning on taking the back-roads today. We had decided not to pre-book a hotel today as we were not sure how Ralf was going to hold up, with his sore throat and his wrist. We knew there were lots of hotels in Tam Ky, which was about 58 kms.

Ralf is dropping to bits, his throat is no better and his left wrist is bothering him a lot. He is not sure what he did, it looks a little swollen – possibly tendon problem. I may have to trade him in for a newer model.

Before we left on this trip Ralf bought new maps for South-East Asis for his garmin.  They haven\’t been very good for Vietnam.  Some of the roads aren\’t on them and others appear to be in the wrong place.  After crossing the bridge, which didn\’t exist on the Garmin maps, we made our turn on to the rural back road which was a slab concrete road. 

As we stopped for a water break at 10 kms, Ralf realized he had left his water bottles in the room. Fortunately he had bought a spare, but it is so hot he really should have two bottles. He will have to use the store bought bottle as his other bottle – yuck warm water.

I will accept responsibility, I had said I would bring the bottles down and forgot to bring Ralf’s down as my arms were full with my helmet, and bottles.

The road wasn’t to bad for the first 10 ks or so, then it started to break up. We ended up on a dirt track again which ended up at a large sand dune. First turn around. Then we followed a young kid onto a better track which led to a rough road. Ralf checked the garmin, yep we were on the right road.

We negotiated around delivery trucks, delivering red bricks in several small communities.

We passed a new subdivision under construction with new roads, not sure who is going to live here.  Although with a population of 90 million people and growing, they have to build houses somewhere.

Then we came across a major construction area which we were not allowed to go through, even though we asked one of the foremen. No we had to go back it was too dangerous to negotiate through the construction cranes and vehicles.

Eventually we found ourselves on the DT614, it was a lane and a half paved road. The road was fairly good and we followed it all the way to Tam Ky. The scenery was rather depressing. There were a lot of small villages, recently established 2012 to 2015. After every village there was a large cemetery, Ralf referred to the road as Death Valley. Cemetery after cemetery after cemetery. We didn’t check the dates on the headstones, we are not sure if all of these cemeteries were a result of the Vietnam/U.S. war or not.

We entered Tam Ky towards the southern end of it, most of the hotels were to the north and we do not like to back-track. We decided to keep cycling for another 20 kms or so and hope to find a guesthouse or a hotel. However, we were both hungry, we kept our eyes open for a café or a bread stall. Ralf spotted a bread stall and we headed across the road. Omelete on a bread bun with some hot sauce and fresh coconut water. The lady had this large bunch of coconuts and hacked away at one of them with a massive machete. She emptied the “water” into a jug added some sugar and ice and the soft meat from the coconut and we were good to go. We squeezed some lime into the only thing that was missing was the rum!

As we left Tam Ky we put our new arm covers on – they worked really well. I don’t know how they work, but my arms felt very cool and comfortable.

We were back on the A1. I now have a love hate relationship with the A1. I hate it because it is noisy and busy, the trucks and buses are back on the road and they honk their horns all the time. I love it (may be love is too strong a word) the road is straight, the tarmac is flat and you cannot get lost, or turned around, you can always stop find somewhere to eat, drink and sleep.

At about the 70 km mark we cycled through a town that had a large steel works, there were a couple of hotels, but both of them were booked. The receptionist at one of the hotles told us there was a hotel about 14 kms down the road. We spotted the Than Lich 10 kms later and pulled in. After we checked in, I headed across the street to a convenience store for beer and water. That beer really tasted good.

Staying at the Than Lich hotel in Nui Thanh tonight. The first room I checked out was a little damp, the second one is at the front of the hotel, we get a bit of road noise, but we have ear plugs and we are both tired. It is clean and cheap ($14.00) – no breakfast, but we still have muesli and milo.

Dinner was down the road – Pho – which is broth with noodles and greens. Pho Bo is the same with beef in it, I am becoming more vegetarian as we go through Vietnam – no Bo for me.