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Published: January 31st 2007
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Beautiful Valley
In a remote valley, a local farmer allowed us to free-camp on his patio. I don't think he was expecting six separate tents, though! Day 243, 29th January
Tam Diep - Thanh Hoa - Tha Vinh - La Van
I had a rough sleep on the farmers patio last night, six tents crammed together on a small patio, and the humid and stick air. It was still hot despite there being a bright full moon with a few wispy clouds. After making our own breakfast, we thanked the local guy who’d let us camp, and headed off along the valley back to state highway 1.
It wasn’t long before we had left the hills and were on flat and flooded land again. Rice paddies and buffaloes were everywhere, not to mention thousands of people up to their knees in water planting rice. I thought back to the dried-out paddies we’d found ideal to camp in through China, would these be the same in eight months time?
The trucks and buses on the road came close to us and when they honked their horns they made us jump out of our skins. They were the loudest yet! Then all of a sudden, the traffic disappeared and the road was full of thousands of cyclists - weird? There was a terrific tail-wind that
Propaganda Hoarding
This was one of many government hoardings put up alongside the roads. blew up and before lunchtime we’d done 50 miles! Along the road we noticed lots of Catholic churches, some with dates on them showing that they were either built or re-opened in the 1990s - I reckon the latter. There were lots of places in nearly every town where you could inspect American military hardware that was either shot-down or captured.
By the end of the day, we ended up in a little friendly café after doing a hundred-miler where we met a guy who let us pitch our tents on his bit of land by his straw and mud hut in the trees. As we were chatting and chilling, Stephane was busy cleaning every single spoke on his bike with an old toothbrush. I think he’s in love? As we got ready to crash out the friendly guy brought out a lamp on a cable to light the place up. We tried to explain that we preferred the dark to sleep in and besides, the lamp will attract millions of nasty bitey insects. But he wouldn’t relent. So we had to bear with it….
Total Miles: 10907.80 Todays Miles: 100.24 Average speed: 16.3 Time on bike: 6:08
Poor Cow!
I bought this pack of powdered milk for my tea. Check the udders out on this nuclear freak! Day 244, 30th January
La Van - Vinh - Ha Tinh - Cam Xuyen
Last night was a noisy affair. We were next to the road and railway line, and our host was fumbling around the tents for ages. In the morning he became aggressive, asking us for money for his son who needed to study and was starving - this however didn’t stop him buying copious amounts of alcohol. When I offered his food in the form of rice and pasta, he knocked it out of my hand and made a drinking gesture instead! I told him to do something that involved going forth and pro-creating…
It was a very dull and overcast day as we entered the very socialist-looking town of Vinh with its military museum full of captured Yankee stuff. There were hammer and sickle emblems, red stars, and socialist propaganda posters all over the museum. What I’ve noticed is that the Vietnamese don’t brag about winning the war with America. In fact, I’ve never heard anyone mention the war up to yet. Unlike the bloody idiot English who do the “Sieg Heil” salute or say “Heil Hitler” everytime they see anything
Roadside Repairs
A bit of bike repairing is guaranteed to attract the attention of curious locals. German or when there is and England vs Germany football game on- that’s sad!
We carried on south, past AIDS awareness posters that seem prevalent in Vietnam on hoardings in streets, and on the sides of buildings. The landscape was flat and watery again, later on it began to rain so we waited it out at a café. The rain just wouldn’t stop, so we carried on until we found a soggy grassy patch next to a sandy riverbank. The weather has been un-seasonably cold the last few days. People are dressed up in balaclavas and woolens. One good thing about this weather is that nobody was about to see us camp.
As I lay in my tent with the rain pattering down on the canvas, I began to think about the trip we’re doing, and the guys I’m with right now. I’ve been with Rory, Toby and Scott from the beginning, since we set out from England 8 months ago. We’ve probably spent longer together in quality time than the average married couples have. I mean, if you add up the hours working couples are actually together, then maybe you need 10 to 20 years to equal
Local Girls
Every time you stop for a sip of water, you get locals stopping too - just to take a peek at the foreigner. the combined time us guys have spent together. We know everything about each other, even the most intimate details about every bodily function. Even if Rory farts, we know what colour his crap will be! But, joking aside, if everything goes well, we’ll arrive in Singapore in a couple of months, and the journey will have been completed. I get butterflies in my stomach thinking of that. It will be a big goodbye, maybe it will be the same feeling you get when you end a relationship, times four!
Darkness descended, the patter of rain continued, bullfrogs croaked. I relaxed on my piece of Vietnam yards away from an American, two Canadians, and two Brits - if we’d been here 30 years ago we probably wouldn’t have survived the night. But tonight we can relax until the Earth turns to face the sun again in ten hours, and thus continue the Odyssey….
Total Miles: 10976.88 Todays Miles: 69.07 Average speed: 15.0 Time on bike: 4:35
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Tot: 0.403s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 18; qc: 103; dbt: 0.1716s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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ninee
non-member comment
Take care for your trip
Your trip look not comfortable but you can touch with real life of local people.