The hotel here in Tay Son is great. It even has a movie channel with English language movies. The last time I saw that was in KL 3-4 months ago. So I watched a couple of movies, stayed up too late and felt rubbish this morning.
When I woke up, it looked like it wasn’t a bad day so I packed up and then had another look outside – now it was pouring with rain. So I packed the bike and walked across the road for a delicious Pho.
When I’d finished, a wave of nausea came over me. My mouth was watering and I thought I was about to throw up. I must have looked just a little strange to the other diners. In about 5 minutes the wave had passed and I was good to go. I can’t think of an explanation but I was happy I wasn’t sick in that place 😁
It was still raining, so my old friend, the blue poncho was deployed, and would stay on for the rest of the day.
I was on the lookout for a coffee shop but realise that Google maps can’t be trusted. It seems fine in Malaysia and Thailand but definitely not in Laos, and as I’m learning, not in Vietnam.
I found a coffee shop after about 25kms and had a couple of Cafe Suas. Very nice, but the main benefit was being out of the rain and working out where I might spend the night. Huong Khe sounded ok. It is on a lake and has a couple of hotels, supermarkets and restaurants – that’s most of my needs covered right there.
Not many photos today due to the rain.
It was pretty light but steady rain by this stage, but it wasn’t going to be a long day, so I set off again.
I saw some English bike tourers coming the other way, so we stopped and had a chat. They have a month off, and are heading to Hanoi. They hadn’t seen any other cycle tourers along their way from Dalat to here.
Just outside Vu Quang, I stopped and had some lunch – a sort of noodle soup. Very nice again. There was a young guy there very keen to practice his English, so I didn’t order from the menu, I just talked about it with him. Consequently, I had nice food, but learnt nothing in terms of language or food.
Off again, and the rain was fairly light for a while and I nearly took the poncho off. But then it got serious and soon the only traffic on the road was me and trucks with water laying across on the road.
I pulled into a general store that had a large shelter and waited for things to ease. I must have been there for an hour before I could ride again. There were others there too and I was the celebrity again. Two young girls got me to pose for photos with them. I guess it passed the time.
After that, it was an easy run into Huong Khe and to the hotel.
The hotel (the Khach Sam Hoang Ngoc) is a dump – looks good on the outside but yuk. Don’t stay here if you can avoid it. Funny, it’s the same chain as the superb hotel last night. 350k and the first room I had was dirty with a few hidden ‘treasures’. The next one was generally clean but the hot water didn’t work. I couldn’t be bothered changing again so just put up with it.
I walked back into the centre around the lake to the mini mart and loaded up on emergency snacks for the next few days, then found a nice place for dinner. I couldn’t face another noodle soup today, so it was com rang dua bo – fried rice with beef, for me. I can’t say that it was anywhere near the standard of fried rice in Thailand and Laos but it was nice. The husband and wife team who ran the restaurant were lovely. The place was practically empty, so I don’t know how they survive.
