The Cycle of Life

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As of a wait for my Vietnam visa to activate in 4 days time I bus east to savvanakhet the following day, a pleasant mini city with good eating options and a picturesque downtown area, return to Phin and crawling 20k onto xepon via a few off beat village diversions, a cheerful food market in xepon fit with curbside piglet sales in the morning time! a local tip leads to a lazy half day washing clothes in a set of nearby rapid/waterfalls. A night in the town known as dong, after seeing a few trucks in town with dudes dancing to loud pop tunes I find a vibrant party atmosphere and festivities at a local wat on a random excursion, greeted with a cup of cold beer and flowers pinned on my shirt I buy some food and move on a little after before I am embraced into the drunken mud wrestling Haha. cruising 20k onto dansavan the last wee town before the border, nice places to eat and a scruffy budget stay for my last night in Laos.



17/05/16 A little concerned about a breaky bike but through the border @ 7am and around 25k into Vietnam my gamble pays off finding a bicycle store and a new chain for ami (5 dollars), not all but more gears than I had! Continuing to finish a scenic days 80k ride to Dong ha, a dusk raid of the fruit market for some bargain passion fruits! Really in one of the busy pop up river restaurants 18/05 longest cycle I've ever done taking the Ho Chi Minh highway 106k north to Dong Hoi, little traffic and nice green scenery on this road compared to alternative of highway 1. 19/05 some time wondering the seaside city before an afternoon 50k ride to Phong Nha, the ride in to this region is stunning, rice paddies and towering forest peaks. a cheap $3 hostel stay in the traveler town and a days torturous steep cycling to "paradise cave" my first time in a cave of any sort ( and paradise itself is pretty dam brilliant), circle back through some incredible scenery for another night.



21/05 an 80k ride to a little village of Hoa Tien with a single guesthouse and a truckers diner with great food. 22/05 a kind of accidental 100k ride, didn't map out the distance before hand, shortly after setting off I had my luckiest moment yet; 2 mins past picking up a puncture a Vietnamese family on a ten hour drive home turn around to come to my immediate rescue, "Gung" and his wife had fancy race bikes and an extensive repair kit on board, they also insisted on filling my bags with fruit and food plus more bottled water; incredibly generous! I ride all day to the town of Tinh di . 23/05 70k ride to do luong; a mix of roads with more suburbs than previous days, lots of maize being grown along the Ca river which wade for my afternoon views. Luong is a sizeable town with a friendly market and busy streets.



24/05 lots of huge dairy units in this region, I tried to enter one a couple of days before but got turned away at the bio security gate. Local farmers cart their maize and sugar cane to be weighed in on entry. I managed to find a yoghurt shoppie in the middle of nowhere on route. a day held up with wash out rain delays and another puncture, stop start all the 60k to the way to suburbs north of Thai Hoa for 5pm. 25/05 80k north to lam son, 26/05 70k on lots of connecting B roads; lots of fascinating harvesting going on through the small towns. Rice and maize all over the roads. 27/05 a hard thought 30k to tam coc, the street of traveller hotels south of the ninh Binh highlights. 28/05 a day sight seeing around transfer an & Tam coc. 29/05 90k to TT Diem Dien, a fun town where I enjoyed a nice dinner with handshakes and lots of cheer from the whole restaurant. This is duck and melon country (besides all the rice!) melon stalls on every corner and ducks on every pond.



30/05 FLOOD! a very wet morning and a tough 55k to a budget hotel on the north outskirts of Hai Phong, I had to push knee high in flood water for 3 kilometres before the city. Good spirits in the washed out crowds and an experience to remember, luckily I just managed to keep my electrics just out of splash in dry bags but I was utterly soaked!

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