Insects to craft beers in one day. Hero taxi driver in Hue.
Yesterdays blog will be simple to write! It was cats and dogs and then some. But, and every rain cloud has a silver lining – the magical tail wind persisted AND it was flat AND well tarmaced (except the village roads) and tomorrows forecast looks better. The limestone was far behind so the roads are much less dusty and fewer gravel trucks.
The worst night ever, it took half my can of bug spray to silence the bed cockroaches, there was no cold beer in the hinterland at all, facilities not good, the balcony door did not lock and the toilet was open to the outside’s flying foe. Luckily for me the lovely Miss Giang, who booked the telephone only Nha Nghi, had warned the friendly receptionist to lay in some cold beers or expect Mr Grumpy.
It went from sandy dunes with the ocean and lots of camping picnic areas along the coast to paddy fields passing the usual collection of linear shanty buildings. It is wonderful though to see the variety of crafts and things available in every commune along the way. Picnic areas are easy to spot as the VN leave almost every piece of rubbish behind when they leave.
Caped crusader time – the faithful Raleigh cycling cape stopped me, tool bag, Noddy, alibangbang and Kate the cater-pillar from getting really soaked and it kept the chill of wet clothes at bay. As did the two coffee stops.
Detoured to the village side roads for coffee and got swarmed and warmed. Found a welcome lunch stop and the weather started to ease but it did not stop until almost in Hue, the tall Vinpearl building indicating the city centre through the gloom.
Found the hotel first time cleaned up luckily a young lad helped carry everything upstairs to floor 4. It was cheap and actually good as the room is not over looked and very central.
Out to savour some of the best food in Vietnam but after a month of eating spaghetti in soup with 2 sticks I opted for a burger and fries. Then off to the real ale place Imperial Craft beer. Having but one tee shirt for R&R I was easily persuaded into buying a tee shirt and several excellent real beers – an oasis after a month of fizzy lager!
I wandered back and found the wonderful Cham bar just a few minutes walk away. Thom brewery ales for sale at 3 quid yes please. Be warned google translate is battery hungry. Thanks to the totally honest cabbie who rescued me from pimps on motor-bikes and Bangkok like street girl approaches and eventually we found the correct Jade Hotel and he only asked the original 11k. I tipped him really well for his honesty and help.
Tomorrow get bike cleaned professionally cos there’s sand and sticky grime all over it. Work out the next week’s route – can I avoid Danang entirely? Nails need doing. Explore some of the historic places but avoid HCM and rusty relic war museums.