More hills, headwinds, and heat made for a pretty brutal ride yesterday. Got to the hotel at 4:30 ate some ramen in the room and went to bed. The scenery was pretty nice though, maybe the best we have seen so far.
We saw a couple of cyclists on a tandem heading North. Waves were exchanged but both parties continued on, too tired for a ‘stop and chat.’ We also met an Italian on a bike also heading to HCMC while searching for a hotel. He started his journey in Hue.
Also this happened.
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.
Still ahead of schedule so we decided to take another day off as there was much to see right in town. First stop of the morning was the Long Khanh pagoda. It is one of the more elaborate we have seen with a 56ft Buddha statue on its grounds.
If you look close you will notice a swastika on the chest. As it turns out they used the symbol long before the nazis. People here don’t seem to be aware or care much as we have seen them repeatedly on architecture throughout the trip.
Next we took a walk to the Thap Doi Cham towers. You can climb inside and look straight up through to the sky. Pretty impressive.
All that plus the beach, another museum and more good food made this a pretty enjoyable stop.
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.