We met up with the Italian cyclist again. Heinz is his name and he is actually from a northern part of Italy where they speak German. As he was a bit unsure of the route he road with us today.

Out of nowhere we passed a vegan place. Awesome food for a great price and one of the people who worked there knew pretty good English and was stoked we were vegan.

We split up with Heinz for a bit in the hills. Again the heat was worse than the climbing.

It was amazing how quickly the landscape changed. Even the local people in this area seemed to have their own ways.

We met back up with Heinz in town and were happy to find a hotel. This was the one stop we were a bit worried about, since the Internet didn’t come up with anything and we were just going with a tip from another blog. Off to go try and track down some dinner.

Today was a pretty tough ride. Constant ups and downs, then a head wind at the end that made the downs feel like more ups. Some pretty nice views though. The heat also got turned way up. All this after a later than usual start because of a second GI illness.
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We have been surviving on fruit, ramen, white rice, 50¢ Red Bulls, and the occasional plate of fried vegetables. Communicating beyond simple exchanges at shops has proved to be near impossible. Most of our attempts at Vietnamese are incomprehensible since pronunciation is so important. Even a slight change in pitch can completely change the meaning of the word. Unfortunately only the junk food at the rare supermarket has English ingredients labeled.

For parts of today’s ride we had to share the shoulder with drying rice.

The route had some ups and downs today and continued to be lined with shops and homes, although at times it opened up for long stretches making for some nice scenery.

Another short day, no rain, no flats with more friendly, interested people. It’s fun trying to have a conversation when neither party knows the other’s language.

This is the smallest town we have stayed in so far. But our hotel is a short walk to the beach with a great view.

We had a chance to throw together some random video clips from a few days ago.

We have been ahead of schedule so we decided to take a day off and visit this museum just outside of town. It is a memorial to those killed during the My Lai massacre, at the actual site of the tragedy.

There 504 civilians including very young children were killed.

This event was originally covered up by the US government, the aggressors were given commendations and the few soldiers who tried to stop it were seen as traitors. After investigations the roles reversed the whistleblowers are now seen as heroes and more than 20 US soldiers were tried for war crimes.

There is really too much history to sum up in a quick post. We would recommend looking into it further if you are as unfamiliar as we were with the event. Hopefully we can learn from the past.

Today started out fine. Our road out of town was more of a bike path.

Unfortunately we spent the rest off the entire day ducking out of the rain.

Also we had another flat to deal with. Including one that we did not mention that makes three so far. Every time, we found what looks like a bristle from a metal brush stuck in our tires. At least it is an opportunity to refine our patching skills.

Dinner was a new record at $1.50 US for the two of us.

Today was our first real climb, it was nice to break up the flat roads. The scenery is continuing to improve as we head south. Picked up a nice tail wind which brought with it some cooler weather.

We arrived in Dong Hoi by noon which gave us time to check out the town citadel. Our hotel is also quite an improvement from the last couple nights and still a bargain at about $17.50. From our balcony we can see the remains of a church bombed in 1965 which is preserved as a memorial.