So with a stiff neck and a tight back we had a breakfast cooked by the tour guide in the hotel this morning: White bread rolls, omelette, tomatoes, peanut butter, bananas and Happy Cow cheese! You just have to learn to eat what you have infront of you, and the peanut butter with banana roll worked a treat.
Todays riding was much faster - mostly flat on smooth roads, all of which were the Ho Chi Minh Highway - the main road leading to Ho Chi Minh City. The first part was through a busy busy road, which was pretty hair-raising - big lorries and trucks on single carriageway roads, and us..
The truck and buses pass from infront and behind by honking their horn very loudly and multiple times. They also overtake into you on the oncoming highway without giving and consideration to cyclists coming the other direction....that freaked us out a few times. Add in scooter drivers going in all directions, concentration levels were high.
Again we cycled through rice fields, industrious shop owners, people chopping wood, moving vegetables on scooters, having coffee, resting on hammocks. Bascially going about their day. It was cooler today, a little overcast, rather than yesterdays blue sky and blazing heat.
Two water stops involved hammocks and nice roadside local bars, which we relaxed in until ready to start again, generally waiting for English Peter to catch up, recover and eat/drink whatever he needed. Snacks have been anything from pineapple, bananas, homemade lemonade, crackers, sweet biscuits/cakes. Occasionally exceptional fizzy drinks have been bought and tried. Mostly the tea, coffee and soft drinks are so full of added sugar they are undrinkable (to me, anyway). It seems to be the way of modern society in these Asian countries - basicially 30 years behind the UK in terms of sugar consumption.
However, at 82k the heavens opened, lightening and thunder right in front of us caused a few of us to take shelter. Rivers running down the street, and torrential rain for 20 minutes meant we took cover in a local persons front yard which was covered and he offered us tea and his chairs to rest on...thankfully it passed, the roads dried quickly (you could see steam coming off them very soon after the rain stopped), and we continued to a sweet cafe for lunch.
Lunch and dinner seems to be a variation on a theme: rice, fish, pork, soup/broth, vegetables. Lots of garlic and herbs but none of it exceptionally tasty. The meat is mostly poor quality so you never eat much of it. The vegetables are local, so I couldnt say what they were. There is definately spinach in there, occasionally pumpkin, and some other green leafy stuff. Its not very spicy so far, apparently that comes further south.
Back to the next hotel by 3pm so after cleaning the bikes and checking in, we went out for a massage - my neck and back were killing me after that dodgy bed last night. 3 of us found somewhere in the local town and we must have provided entertainment for the entire month. First there was giggling, then we had to speak with the boss on the phone in English and finally we got in for a massage. Three of us in the same room getting pretty much the same treatment, to the second! Continued giggling throughout the massage - I suspect these young girls hadn't seen white hairy men before. I was right - we had to pose for a photo afterwards and probably the talk of the town for the entire evening!
THe heavens opened again this evening, just as we got back to the hotel after our massage. Thankfully transport to dinner was in the van. Here is a picture of dinner. The brown things are like fried sweet potato, except a local tube, we also had banana leaf salad, beef and garlic, plus more rice, fishand some fried tofu, which was actually very nice.
My tummy is growing.
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