Day 2 Cycling Mai Chau to Khu Pho. 103km, 1053m ascent

 

After 7am breakfast of omelette, fruit, brioche-style bread and some revolting coffee and tea, we headed back on the road.

 Coffee here is thick, black and often fully loaded with sugar. It is served with a small amount of condensed milk....Tea was luke warm peach tea. Also loaded with sugar. Needless to say I tried both and moved on quickly to fresh orange juice! Adjusting your breakfast routine takes skill, time, patience and a desire to experiment...

Todays ride took us through rice fields, tapioca and banana trees and corn fields. Also plenty of villages strewn along the road, usually with a dog or two hanging around in the heat, someone buzzing about on a scooter, and a cafe/roadside food stall. We saw bamboo being chopped and made into stuff (not sure what - it all looked like  long pipes, but massive!), we passed people washing down the newly surfaced road to reduce the dust, and we waved back as small children and adults who were clearly amused by the white tourists on bikes.

The morning was relatively cool and after 25k we headed 600m uphill for 13k. Windy roads through gorgeously lush and rich countryside. Then a longer 25k down to lunch. Pretty easy riding, everyone going at their own pace.

Lunch was in a local cafe and was local food....rice, green veg soup, spicy overcooked trout, fatty pork, tiny eggplant, which I tried but didn't like (after Andrew referred to it as fish eyeball) and egg (like an omelette).

It was getting hot by this time - midday, and as we had dropped back into the valley it really felt it. The next 30k were undulating, on relatively OK roads (some gravel where it was being repaired) but so so hot. My face and feet were burning in the heat.

We stopped for some refreshments at another roadside cafe, with just 15km to go, cruised into the hotel.

Today our bikes needed a wash, as the wet roads created a sort of soft concrete that covered the bike. It came off easily but the dust just needed to be removed. I fear my bike will never recover from this trip - the dust and the road surface are not kind to a race bike!

The hotel is like something from the communist era. plain, concrete and relatively functional. No restaurant and a bed that seems also to have a mattress made of concrete - the hardest and most uncomfortable bed I have ever slept in, with a sort of cover which looked like it needed a good wash. The room was plain simple and dated, and the shower was basically a sink-tap attachment to a hose and showerhead, which we had to hold over ourselves in the open bathroom to shower with....an experience!

So after a couple of hours cooling in the A/C we headed out with Dutch Peter to a local bar for some beers, where we sat outside by the rice fields and got accosted by some Vietnamese childred who clearly had no seen westerners before. One 10 year old girl (below) was keen to practice her English, and the 10 year old boy was more keen to show us his cigarette lighter tricks but spoke no English. Toby became the star and ended up having to pose with the bar staff for a selfie. He loved it...

We also learned that they Vietnamese like thier pets and this puppy hung around us all evening. He nearly ended up in our luggage.

Dinner was also in a local restaurant that seemed to be used mostly for weddings. It was empty except for us. So we had the usual rice, soup, pork, fish, eggs for dinner..Although the pork dish was very tasty with a completely unrecognisable vegetable that looked (but didnt taste) like seaweed.

Very tired that night - the heat was draining, so we ended up having 10 hours in bed and about 8 hours broken sleep.