It was a wet start to the day even though it wasn’t actually raining where we were. The humidity from yesterday persisted and everything still felt damp.
It was wet, so hardly any photos today.
The Tet holiday is officially over and today is the first day back, so there were lots more shops and businesses open – at least in the morning.
I needed some extra breakfast – a whole mango just isn’t enough. So I grabbed a couple of Banh Mi and headed off to catch up with Miles.
The first ten kilometres weren’t full of excitement but soon after, I was back into postcard Vietnam scenery. That to me, is rice paddies, hills, winding roads and small villages. I stopped and had the second Banh Mi beside some rice paddies, and it started to drizzle a bit, then a bit more until it was definitely raining. So Poncho Man made his first appearance of the trip.
That was also where the main climb started. Miles had stopped for coffee, most of the way up, so I pulled in and had a traditional Trung Nguyen coffee. That always puts a bit of zing in your day, and the rest of the climb was a breeze.
What followed was twenty kms or so, of really nice small roads and countryside that was fun to ride through. The poncho didn’t stay on for the whole time, but the roads were definitely wet and muddy and much of that mud ended up on This Moment. (I’m not using mudguards on this trip).
A second Banh Mi stop coincided with the primary school over the road, disgorging all of the students into the chaos of school pickup time. We couldn’t believe it – it was only 10:30am ! Regardless, there were a million hello’s and waves along the way.
Later a coffee stop was extended by two mango smoothies and the rain started just as we were leaving. The last thirty kilometres was as unexciting as the previous section was beautiful. We also passed karst mountains, some of which had nearly disappeared due to mining.
We finally rolled into Thanh Hoa which is a surprisingly large and bustling city. There’s lots going on. I had to wash the bike, but first, I had to wash myself. I’d picked up a lot of road dirt along the way.
The Palm Hotel in town is really nice and dinner was at a popular grill restaurant down the road. A mango smoothie capped of a fulfilling day of Vietnamese cycling.