Qinzhou China to Mong Cai Vietnam Jan.23/08

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Jan. 23/08 Qinzhou-Mong Cai(Vietnam) 100km 17.5km/hr.

We've decided to add the above header info. for anyone who's doing route research. The road was excellent-there appeared to be two options to get to the Vietnamese border-a freeway type concrete road that skirts the edge of town(seemed new-not on our map)or Hwy 312 which leaves right from town. 312 was a really nice rural ride through lots of little villages-we really enjoyed it and G snapped lots of photos! We also had our nicest bike weather day yet-the sun came out and it hit 20°C!! We definitely were peeling off layers as it was the same windy cold when we had left Qinzhou in the a.m. The 312 merged back with the freeway for the last 30km or so. It felt like forever to finsih that last stretch-the kms seem a lot longer on a freeway with less to see! The thing that kept us going was our(ok,more my) excitement for Vietnamese spring rolls! We made pretty good time and had little trouble crossing the border into Vietnam other than a curious small "fee" on the Chinese side that we weren't previously aware of and two flights of steps inside the building with a small one foot wide ramp along the edge to push the bikes up! Elevator please! Got into Mong Cai, lined up for the bank machine where everyone was doing multiple transactions-the most the machine would let you take out at a time was 2 million Dong(yeah, I know you're laughing right now Derek) and a cheap hotel is in the 100-150 thousand range. Anyway, found a decent place and then walked around the markets and then through town in search of the holy "nem rau--veggie spring rolls--pronounced nem zau as we were later to discover). Much to my dismay, after walking around forever we didn't find any-all was not lost though as Bia(beer) Hanoi ain't half bad!

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Photos

Tofu Vendor
Bought a little tofu and then got them to cook it up for us with some rice and veggies at the next truck stop!

Delicious!
This was the result!!