Following on from the second session of the night in the Ned Kelly bar with Nic, after Anita and Randy had sensibly gone off to bed, back at Sunny Hotel there was a mewing Asian screamer next door at the hotel that has …. kettle, fridge, flat TV and soundproofed walls.
One of the petite and feisty Barmaids – lets call her Scowler, accurately threw menus at the three of us. It was Nic’s call for the location so he already had his tin hat on. This did cause a slight delay in the morning but those muscled thighs made up time as we went along. 73km ish according to RWGPS.
After the fleshpots of Can Gia, it was a lovely truck free flat mangrove ride with pretty hand tended bushes, birds twittering and 100 learner drivers, taking advantage of the flat, traffic free roads that will be come a total nightmare in high season and at weekends. But meanwhile for Buddy Dane it was really greeaat.
Luckily I found a Banh My (VN Subway but better) on the short 7km trip to the port. I normally just say yes and nod when asked if it want this or that adding, belly pork – I make a note to manually out-sort the mostly fatty bits; I have sufficient blubber already. This morning’s lady created two ring burners but it’s fuel so eat it and shut up.
Ridewithgps did not approve of ferry #1 and inserted a huge land-based loop but oddly it was happy with Ferry #2. RWGPS also inserted one of its funny little “lets add 3km and see if Dane notices he’s been round the same pair of roundabouts six times”. My hotel in the Saigon traffic suddenly dropped from over 8km to 5 – three cheers.
I put the music on again today. My Blackview phone can belt it out and my windows 10 laptop connects nicely, Windows 11 would not talk with any other device but that went to Giang and I had the newly repaired original that broke earlier in the trip. Watch that man and Drive in Saturday = Buddy.
Giangs touchpad (my v new laptop) broke after a week probably due to the effing white and yellow lines that cross every road when there is even a small sniff of a bend etc.
Despite her insane optimism over the gioddiodingdong guarantee that I had amazingly kept and found, the micro-skirt shop girl new that weird foreign bloke was taking it cycling. It was she who found me a pc repair shop who did just that and mailed it to Giang. In UK that 500 gbp/quid laptop would probably have been thrown away. Uneconomic to fix.
Mangroves lined almost the entire journey, with their funny root systems that bind the soil and reduce erosion and their love of salty water they are a huge asset for every coastline or coral reef.
At the halfway point was a cafe selling the Hat Ngu coc nuts and a man outside was sitting on top of a pile of husks whilst using a machete to cut them in two before separating the little mini coco-nut-like-ish fruits. Sluggish navigable water split the forests in many places. These appear to contain all manner of sea creatures.
After the second ferry I found a foodie heaven, a street-side cafe with both a fridge and with beer actually in it – a rare event on the hot tourist seaside coast. Bizarre. Pointing at the dishes on offer the two single ladies helped me settle the table and eat. The lady shown was a cuddly 61! The other was 46. They asked me if I had a mother, I said no, she died a year ago of cancer aged 88. I could tell they thought they’d asked if I have a wife and were puzzled why I’d have an 88 year old wife. Tam Tam kept cropping up.
The Bike has been booked into a hotel for 5 nights at seven quid a night while I fly to Danang and onwards to Hoi An Handbag Town to see my son Alastair and his gf Candice.
