An easy ride today, so it was another relaxed 8:30am start. We went through the tourist areas on our way out and again marvelled at the beauty of this place. We were brought to our senses as we turned onto a road beside the river though. It was bumpy and wet and had the odd truck whizzing by.
There was a section of the river for boat building. There would have been 20-40 similar boats being worked on.
Crossing the river, we went through a small town then turned off and onto a quiet road. We were soon Komooted, as our route took us straight into a cement processing plant. A humourless, uniformed little man on a motorbike, efficiently told us to leave. It was wet and slushy with limestone powder everywhere, so as we left, I had white mud on my tyres -first time ever.
So we re-routed further west on a nice road that was shared with only a few trucks. It also came to an end in an industrial area that was removing rocks from the karst mountains. Luckily, the truckies told us where to go – across a little bridge to the other side of the river.
And over there, throad was small and quiet with some stunning scenery on the left but an industrial wasteland on the right. That sums up Vietnam today.
There were some quiet small roads and lanes through the rice fields before we came to our hotel – the Omerta. The owner let us wash our bikes (badly needed) and store them downstairs – ably overseen by his security guy who strangely moved the bikes a few times. Every time I wandered by, they were in a different place.
Dinner was a beef Pho over the river and I went to bed early in the hope of catching up on some sleep.