Morning started with a romantic vista. The main highway was quiet but I wanted to get off and find the old road (assuming there was one). My forays to the west was bone jarring old concrete roads past homesteads, great for Hello where you from but too slow. I went down to the east but ended up in several backyards with wee timorous mousie dogs all bark and no bite. I gave up and went back to the main highway. A good section of today’s ride would be in the hills and forests anyway
What a relief to be away from traffic and the infernal mindless use of the horn. Up we went, not too bad and the heart kept going. Found a graveyard with some pricey carved items that reminded me of what my mother said near the end of her life (having not spent much for years) you cant take it with you.
Many undulations later I noticed some scarred pine trees. Seems they collect the sticky sap like rubber and chicle hunters. As I got back on my bike, with one very sticky finger, a farming lady stopped for a chat, in the absence of conversation I gave her a coffee sweet, sadly kopiko, not the posh ones the charming Miss Minty, in her wonderful guest house in Thang Hoa gave me to keep me going. I kept going but the sweets ran out.
Miss Minty also set up a Whatsapp group of aspiring VN cyclists who’d had the good luck to stay with her. Hi Dutch Michelle heading north and complained of a headwind – rubbish, it was a good tail wind (for me).
After a delightful foray into a market looking for food – No, 5kg of mangousteens is far too much for me! I do enjoy the markets where the ladies sell home grown and other produce. I wish my VNese was better so I could join in with the obviously naughty and crude banter.
I arrived after an embarrassingly short time cycling arrived at Ju’s in Dong Hai. I dropped my bags and went for 2 hours/20km exploring. The adjacent island was being trasnformed with a new small town and shops being built. Thank goodness for gps or I’d never have found my way out again.
Had a lovely chat with my cousin at a small bar and on the way back an old lady flagged me down, she was selling spectacles. Yippee a replacement clear pair of dust and bug stoppers that also gain me free entry to any gay bar.
A closeup of the hand-woven tarred warp and weft on a very heavy working 2-man coracle.