Day 14 21st November Can Lau to My Tho 110Km

Day 14 21st November Can Lau to My Tho 110Km



The hotel was fine, I got up early had a quick breakfast and went through my routines; taking a malaria tablet, packing, putting on sunscreen, water, GPS on the bike and satellites fixed. As a group we were all getting much better at being ready on time. One of the last jobs was to check that the luggage was all loaded onto the van prior to setting off. It was a little strange to think that this was the penultimate day of the Cycle Challenge - where had the time gone?

Here is a view from my bedroom balcony, one of my rituals is to take pictures of and from hotel rooms I stay in. (It drives my family nuts).

Today was to be quite a long day, but the early part would take some of the smaller village paths/roads. Many of these were concrete and only just wide enough for two bikes/motor bikes so we would get to see the rural side of Viet Nam. As Tom was still suffering from knee problems he had hired a local motor bike driver to lead the way. Although the paths were not quite as unpredictable as the Cambodian dirt tracks it helped to have local knowledge to ensure we did not miss the scenic countryside. A cooler box full of water bottles was also carried by the motor bike. That way we could ensure we maintained our hydration in places where the van was not able to follow.

Just for the record here is the fourth bike I rode on the trip, everything was in much better shape on this bike. Custard transferred from my blue bar bag to the black one supplied with the bike. A pity I did not include my Brooks saddle in the picture, which by now was definitely looking more aged and showing depressions where it had adapted to my shape. It was very comfortable but the wear and tear was accelerated by its time bumping in the van in Cambodia, even with the cover on, which had worn through.

Here is Jim psyching himself up for the ride, ready to leave the hotel. My hotel room had a balcony overlooking the main street, but it was not noisy. Our support van can be seen just behind Jim. One thing I have not mentioned, perhaps because I am now used to it - they also drive on the right in Viet Nam, but with more discipline than in Cambodia.

The early morning traffic was quite busy with motorbikes swarming as usual, my impression of the traffic in Vietnam is that it is a little more orderly than in Cambodia, but there are also many more motorbikes on the roads. After a few kilometres we moved away from the bustle of the town traffic and commuters to a small lane. Instead of parking the family car here they park the family boat in front of the house.

Along this lane there were a variety of houses, given the amount of water around many were built on poles, this one looks like it has had a later extension on the side of the house. The water acts as a moat.

As we cycled along the industriousness of the Vietnamese people can be seen in the roadside stalls. I am not sure what the plants were by the roadside, there were lots for sale though.

Here is a picture of the road, several contrasts with Cambodia; a good road surface and telegraph poles to name but two.

It is not unusual to see tropical fruit growing here, it is tropical after all, equivalent to say apple trees in England. When the van stopped for a water and snack stop they would sometimes have a bunch of bananas. Bananas are good cycling food, they provide carbs, potassium and vitamins and are easy to digest. Even better, out here they tasted much, much nicer than the bananas that make it to the UK. I don't eat many bananas back home as they seem to acquire a bitty texture. Out here they were sweeter and smoother.

As we cycled along, Tom and the Motorcycle driver would generally stay ahead of us, every now and then they would stop to check the directions with the locals. They ensured that we stayed away from main roads as much as possible. Choosing the route is clearly a flexible process. While they were busy navigating we followed, stopping as something caught our eye, taking pictures and then cycling furiously to catch up.

One such time I had stopped to photograph something and was speeding along to catch the others, but still looking at the scenery around me. This was the path I was travelling down when I got a bang on the head or rather the helmet fortunately. I had not seen a mango hanging down and clouted it as I went through. It would have knocked me off my bike without the helmet. I also found that they hung their electricity wires quite low across the path, requiring me to duck once or twice. The other challenge involved in cycling along these paths is that the young men whizz by on their motorbikes with almost no room to spare (I know I sound like a grumpy old man - I don't believe it). I found that the best thing to do was just carry on, if I took too much avoiding action then I would wobble towards the edge and then back again making the near miss even nearer. I don't think any of us actually brushed against someone coming the other way, the Vietnamese are well used to riding on these small "lanes".

As we progressed towards My Tho we crossed rivers using a few smaller ferries, really only suitable for people, bikes and motorbikes. As we waited we would often get giggling schoolkids looking at us, I found that the best way to "scare" them off was to pretend to take a picture. In this picture we were waiting for the ferry to arrive, it was a three-way stop. Apparently the kids travel free, but is quite expensive considering for the rest in terms of the level of wages here.

The lad in the red hat was paying a lot of attention but trying to avoid getting his picture taken, he did a good job of it. Round here it was common to see young children travelling around on the ferries. Invariably they would be the first on the ferry and first off, often jumping off before the ferry had reach the ramp.

One unusual sight during this ferry trip was a church, the first I noticed in Viet Nam.

A more common sight, in Viet Nam, was the sale of produce by the roadside, not that different from seeing farm produce sold by the roadside in the UK. The bridge in the background was somewhat larger than many we had travelled over. Often they were fairly short, around 10m and had no railings. On a bike the best approach was to maintain a reasonable pace over them - and not wobble - whilst hoping there was no-one coming the other way.

The area we cycled through was clearly set up for agriculture, fields edges were defined, with appropriate water levels for rice planting.

One thing that was not as common as in Cambodia were Palm trees, I've no idea why not.

We did see lotus flowers growing quite often, they are the Vietnamese national flower and it is a symbol of purity, commitment and optimism for the future.

This is one bridge we did not cycle over, there would have been quite a sag in the middle. Again it shows the Vietnamese ability to pragmatically overcome obstacles, in my view anyway.

Here we have some more rice fields, nicely laid out. I think that the fact that it was the penultimate day and that my opportunities to take pictures would soon diminish caused me to take even more pictures.

As we cycled along one small path we passedby some brick kilns., Tom was off in the distance, but with that odd mix of tourist curiosity and arrogance we wandered in and around to have a look. The owner seemed to be welcoming, although give the little Vietnamese I know he might just as well been telling us to go away or we will spook his bricks.

On the other side was a communal house, somewhat similar in concept to almshouses in England I believe. It was an unusually ornate building for this path.

Rice husks were used to fuel the kiln, seen in the pile in the foreground.

Inside the kiln it was pretty hot (doh what was I expecting), here is the where they fired the bricks.

A little further up the path we caught another ferry and could see the two Kilns by the side of the river bank.

As we approached the town/city of My Tho it turned from an idyllic rural cycle ride into an urban "hell", once again we had to use maximum concentration to avoid the vehicles moving in all directions including coming up on the inside, the wrong way. My Tho is situated on one of the large tributaries of the Mekong Delta and had the air of a seaside town. At one point as we cycled into the centre of the town the road appeared blocked so our support van drove on the opposite side of the road with its hazard lights flashing and we followed behind it like some strange bicycle convoy.

In one place the road was being re-built, but instead of using traffic lights to control the traffic flow both sides carried on regardless, swerving around the road-building equipment. It was a good job we had mountain bikes with thick tyres as the road surface was thick gravel in places and very difficult to cycle on.

Eventually we reached our hotel, a very nice place by the river, here is the view, from the hotel, of the other side, look at all of those TV aerials.

The view from the hotel of the hotel river bank side, shows a bridge being constructed further upstream. We saw a number of bridges being constructed during our rides around Viet Nam. This one is due to open soon, a large construction by any standards.

The hotel's restaurant was on the riverside, overlooking the river, this was the open bit, further along it was fully enclosed. On arrival we normally "celebrated" with a chilled (or as chilled as we could get) beer. Chris is sitting here waiting for his to arrive whilst I pass the time taking pictures. Then we would all pop back to our rooms to shower and sort out whatever "cleanish" clothes we could find for dinner and apply insect repellent. The more organised of us also did some clothes washing, after a while I gave up as I found myself carrying damp clothes from one hotel to the next. Our bikes got cleaned for us, JIm washed his own bike though, where possible sneaking it up to wash in the shower!

The other great thing about Vietnamese Hotels is that most of them also had free wireless internet and no rip-off extra charges. The first time I noticed my laptop had connected before I realised. To make an unauthorised connection like this is illegal in the UK and I figured that in a Communist country the rules were not going to be any laxer - gulp. So I checked with the front desk, later my brother confirmed that the internet is widely and freely available in the business hotels he uses when travelling around Viet Nam.

On this trip we atel ocal food for dinner organised by the appropriate cycling guide, although they did not eat with us. At this place we found ourselves eating our dinner inside the restaurant. It was an interesting mix of food designed to appeal to Western tastes. for me I would have preferred Vietnamese food - Pho would have been my choice. One of the dishes was a rather odd vegetable soup - I had to put chillies and fish sauce in it to liven it up.

As you might expect from a hotel situated by the river, various fish dishes were served - the giant prawns were delicious and as Jim and Mary did not want theirs Chris and I got two each.

Tomorrow Saigon or bust - we have to make a decision whether we would cycle into the centre of Saigon or not. On previous trips they sometimes cycled to within 10Km of the centre and then hopped into the van for the rest of the journey because the heavy traffic can be very intimidating.