A lovely start to the day, bright sun, blue sea and a matching sky. Wind blowing the trees overhead but no longer crashing down onto the roof since the owner chopped the offending boughs off. Not quite full astern but my body acts as a sail!! Good bye little fishing village, views to the granite Light-house with it’s little rock pools that looked so tempting to dive down into and see if theres anything to explore and the friendly young staff at LaLa Chill.
Warning Legs: prepare to pump. Warning Body: heat alert 36C. A late start 0945 am due to booking hotels and flights to see son Alastair in Hoi An, the famous handbag and ladies clothes outlet. Easy day though with 3 options for overnight stays.
The sand dunes continued plus I managed to photograph the glaringly white salt piles and pans. Up to the right I could just make out the Pagoda at the end of the cable-car and the merest glimpse of the tip of Asia’s largest recumbent Budha – peeping through the insect and bird-rich trees.
Enough of the poetic stuff. Take a sharp left – I need to check Ridewithgps is not pissing me about, so I pulled up under one of the ubiquitous tin rooves where three good natured ladies, their faces covered like clever bank robbers, were dismembering various unfortunate creatures for the lunch time rush hour. Twas too early for lunch so I accepted the turn.
After a few km of the bumpy worn cement road I came to an Evel Knievel take-off ramp, fortunately in the daytime or I might have fallen off the end with insufficent speed and no landing area. I pushed the bike across a handy little sandy path to the other side where I met three men determined that I should not continue for the last 15 yards back up to the road.
Much gesticulating and head shaking (on both our parts) later, I turned back, expecting a long & sweaty unnecessary detour but now one of the three men was waving to me from his plastic rope-guided blue coracle on the water beside my reluctant path. I gathered that I needed to use his boat to recross the water. And so it was.
Panniers etc removed we man-handled the poor bike into the boat, the propulsion rope interferred at every opportunity with the bike, my neck, shoulders and scalp. I grimaced (a scowl disguised as a (pained) smile).
Arriving at the not too distand dock, the second of the three men appeared and helped me out of the boat across the loose sand and dried mud to the very place I had stood on 20 minutes before. I smelt an opportunist ruse, a not so cunning plan.
I called Giang, my cavalry, since the oldest man – the ferryman – awkwardly suggested 20,000 VND (67p). I can understand and reply well enough in numbers now to continue. Frankly, I’d have happily paid five quid at least for the fun and excitement but a deal is a deal. He had been most helpful pre during and post disembarkation, with typical candour he had laughed and smiled through-out. A charming man for sure if only I could speak the lingo.
Giang explained that I had given all my small change as tips at Lala Chill and had only large denomination notes and I’d go get change at the little adjacent cafe. This made him and his wife who’d appeared at the property by the road along with three noisey but friendly dogs appear uncomfortable – either because the cafe owner would reveal the boat-ruse or because it put me out somewhat. He said I did not need to pay if I had nothing. Had I left him he would have accepted it so definately a ruse and not a hussle. As if a foreigner had no money.
In the cafe there was the usual where are you from and how old are you. A mild coffee den noum khong duong and some welcome change. On returning to the steep dusty track to give the old boy his 20k he rushed up, gave me a glass of iced water from inside the (his) house and would not accept the 25k I offered him using two hands (its more polite than one hand).
As usual a smile and Cam Urn and putting the money into his pocket settled the matter. Neither of the other two men appeared at all, so definately not a hustle.
The first touching event of the day.
Cycling onwards and by now westwards I headed to La Gi (LaZi) back on the rather pleasant road. Is it my imagination or is there more English and better behaved and quieter drivers this far south?
Approaching midday and getting hungry now and looking for fodder – garage, private house, closed and so it went on. Then I saw a guy under an umbrella with what looked like dried hands of bananas, 20 metres later my head told me to turn around and investigate. Yes, a WTF moment par excellence.
There were lots of plastic bags filled with ?water and opaque lumps obviously out of the grizzled fruits he had. Passing cars, like me, screeched to a halt and most got out to buy a bag. A machete was required to split each fruit pod to reveal a seed twice the size of an almond and almost transparent.
Seeds safely onboard off I went looking for lunch. Option 2 meant 20 extra km and option 3 was all the way to Vung Trau. A late start offset by the strong almost tail-wind meant any distance was possible today.
Just before the main bridge into LaGi there was a family cooking banana fritters, battered small bananas, full size Bs, plus something I never worked out and a pie of pork n mushrooms. I said two of each, he ignored this and added items at random doing calculations. I tapped him on the shoulder to stop the bag over-flowing. ? 67pence for that lot you are kidding me. Then he turned round and pointed at his son cooking an egg and asked Com (rice)?
Nod head vigourously – yes please. I chipped in the relatively expensive Palmyra nuts that he pushed to one side. No need to trade. Definately no need to offer to pay either, it’s traditional hospitality.
Second touching event of the day.
All the while there was a small dog going mad running round and round us. It seems that anything left over went to the dog, the dog was rightly concerned by the unexpected guest who obviously enjoys a pie and a few pints of ale. I did not eat any of the fish preferring the cabbage dipped in dark home crushed chilly sauce. Chop sticks when sweating profusely are not ideal culinary instruments.
Stopping at a mini supermarket for a cooling a/c session and ice cream break just 15km before route option 2 but after having to cancel a hotel that had BEACH in its name but was miles away from any beach I chose a 9.4/10 guest house just 600m away and called it a day.
What an amazing stay. Mr Hung looked after me in a wonderful way visits to the harbour etc and giving me dried bananas on arrival and two pairs of sandals to relieve my feet after all the pedalling