Day 16 Phones, scooters and ducks (Phong Nha)

 Our last day in Phong Nha before our bottoms sit on our seats of torture and our thighs push those intrepid velocipedes in the burning heat. Actually it is rainy at the moment and it is also predicted for tomorrow. C'est la Vie. 

We decided to hire a scooter for the day and go back to the botanical gardens and would you believe it a Duck stop (more later). We took the scooter from the hotel and handily it had a phone holder fitted,which helped navigation no end. We drove to the petrol station to fill up and then  headed the 13km up to the botanical garden (really just a walk through native jungle). As we  climbed towards our destination we rode across a very rutted and uneven section of concrete where my Doogee (What the hell is a Doogee phone I hear you say)  phone decided to escape its cradle and bounce down the road. A quick applying of the brakes and Jen lept  from the scooter to pick up what we thought would be a dead or smashed phone. Nope, they are built like a tank and are as heavy as a brick but they do truly seem indestructible as the makers profess.

We walked the 5km through the botanical gardens (more jungle than garden) where we eventually came to the waterfall we had stopped at briefly yesterday. There were lots of clear pools which Jen decided she was going to have a bathe in. Upon undressing her iPhone, I suspect you may have heard of these ubiquitous devices, fell from her pocket and into the pool. A quick grab and wrap in a towel and again fortunately all was well. So it appears that both phones are survivors, though one costs £900 to replace and the other £160. Some of you geeks will now be typing Doogee into Google! It's a great travel phone, recommended by my mate Bruce. Shout out for Bruce.

The next part of the day was the weirdest experience of my lifetime, honestly I'm serious, the weirdest by a long shot. Yesterday on our tour we were asked by our guide if we wanted to go to a Duck Stop, I wasn't interested but I could see that Jen was ensnared by the temptress that is curiosity. So this morning it was on our agenda. We rode to the Duck Stop not knowing what to expect, we were greeted by very welcoming young Vietnamese folk who sat us down gave us some nibbles and a pair of plastic jellies (a kind of sandal). We were then put into a group of eight and led to a pen where approximately 100 ducks were kept. Our guide then proceeded to march/dance with a bucket full of feed and the ducks followed in Pied Pipe fashion.  It was hilarious, until that is we were told that one by one we would do the same! Food was thrown at our feet and basically we were attacked by the ducks trying to get to the scattered food on the ground. Then we had to endure a series of activities with ducks at our feet knees and even holding one. Upon completion of all these horrors we were eventually offered a lovely plate of pancakes and a beer. What a bizarre experience. No ducks were harmed in this madness and we contributed £6.60 to the Vietnamese economy.

A quick ride back home to try and beat the ominous rain clouds that had slowly appeared. As the rain was holding off, Jen went in search of black tea tea bags- taking a label from one we had at breakfast to show the shop keepers. She returned an hour later with no success so living off lemon tea granules!! 

 Tomorrow is predicting rain so should be fun on the bikes back to the coast.