Day 17 Phong Nha to Dong Hai

 A short day today as we were anticipating rain all day. Our first stop was in the market in Phong Nha to buy some plastic capes that all the locals seem to use. Purchased for the princely sum of 60p. Talking of money our accommodation for 3 nights, was really very lovely, excursion and hire of motorbikes was £130 for the two of us- a real bargain.

We set off in fine mizzle and the capes worked a treat keeping the mud off our butts and the rain off our torsos- only problem was after a short while we started to steam! After a number of brief stops and amendments to our outerwear we had it sorted- then the rain stopped and we were back to normal attire. We had a quite strong tailwind which moved us along the highway relatively swiftly and by 12:30 we were at our digs.

The journey was uneventful and apart from a very muddy and boggy section where we had to push and we got our shoes filthy with a clingy sandstone mud. We did pass by some dramatic sand dune coastline as you can see in the pictures. I did notice that the Vietnamese are not too dissimilar from us Brits; there was a short supply of ‘Hellos’ and smiles this morning and goes to prove that the weather can make one miserable!

Having arrived in such good time we were able to clean off our bikes do our washing, eat a pot noodle and walk into town to explore cafes for our evening meal- we happened to find a lovely vegan restaurant with a varied menu. We decided to have a coffee there and the maitre D’ asked us what we wanted to eat later on and if we chose from the menu she would get it prepared in advance. The waitress took our order and all was good, sorted. But it wasn’t, somehow the nuances had been lost in translation and from the kitchen we could hear food being prepared. With typical British reserve we waited a little before questioning the Maitre D’ and as we suspected our lovely waitress come chef was busy preparing. I think we managed to stop her in time. So upon our return later this evening I hope our food is not too over cooked!!!

Our hotel is right on the beach and we have a sea view ( had to get an upgrade) but it is worth it as we can sea that the surf is up and the strong wind makes for some interesting sea views.

*the picture of the tree is a ‘forest school’piccy Jen took- they are extracting sap from






the pine trees, which she has done back home to make glue.

Comments

  1. Dr FeelgoodJanuary 23, 2024 at 2:33 PM

    Brilliant - the transition from gloopy sand to pristine tarmac looks a good one!
    Did you splash in the waves Pete?! 🤔🙄😜

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 50 Svay Leu (Boojie glamping pod)

Image
 In the Tour de France the penultimate day is the last day of racing proper with the final day just being a procession into Paris- racing done and celebrate the three hard weeks in the saddle. Today being our penultimate day to our final tour destination felt a little like that feeling - work done and look forward to that feeling of accomplishment on the final day's ride. Some random thoughts about Cambodia, the people are humble and many are poor but they are always welcoming, courteous and smiley. What I found staggering was every home we passed whether close to the road or some distance from it, we could hear the shouts of 'hello' from small children and upon our reply we would hear the sound of distant laughter. We have not figured out how they are aware of our approach but it is uncanny that we cannot go unnoticed- maybe they have better eyesight, hearing or even sense of smell but they always spot the westerner and send us on our way smiling at their beautiful smiles ...
Read more

Day 51 Siem Reap took us into Siem Reap and out again to our digs on the outskirts of the city. We were tired and was getting grumpy as our route took us ever westwards and away fro Siem Reap. We literally finished up on the outer edge of Siem Reap down a dirt track not knowing if we were in the right place. My phone had stopped accessing the internet. We arrived, hot bothered, thirsty and hungry. We had tried to inform the Homestay of our change of plans but with no decent internet access we were unsure if our messages had got through. We were greeted by an elderly lady who quickly called her daughter- who spoke a very little English. She asked us to wait for Mr Nr Bung

Image
 We left at 12:30pm having had a relaxing breakfast and morning dip in the pool- that is me anyway. Jen decided to get up at 5 to cycle up a mountain to see the sunrise- an 11 mile round trip. Not a problem as today was an easy 12km to our next planned stay in the nearby village Homestay.  Things didn’t work out as planned, when we got to the Homestay that was very primitive and not the best accommodation, they began with a charge of $50 (including meals) we paid less than that at the boojie hotel yesterday. With some negotiations that came down to $25 but by which time we did not feel comfortable about staying as they had tried to rip us off. It was now 1pm and very hot. Should we stay and forget our principles or leave and take our chances - we decided to leave and cycle the 60 km to Siem Reap in the burning afternoon sun. Jen was worried as she had already put in some hard miles. We followed Komoot into Siem Reap unfortunately the road it took us on was restricted to those ...
Read more

Day 53 Angkor Wat

Image
 Temple Day!  I researched the numerous blogs on line and found a suggested cycle route for a day tour. The temples are quite far apart so we knew we would just see a few but hopefully we would remember them.  With another 36 degree heat looming, we left at 7.30am after Mr Buns scrumptious breakfast of pancake and fruit. Angkor Wat was our first stop. Built in the 12th century, and described as a hindu- Buddhist temple, it is huge and magnificent. Thousands come here each morning for sunrise, but not wanting the crowds or the early start, we found the numbers fine at this later time. After a chilled stroll around and a cold drink we cycled onto the next temple. All the temples we saw were subtly different in size, construction, level of condition and degree to which they had been restored. One in particular was known as the temple with trees growing out of it. We overheard one guide saying at this temple that if a seed takes root within the walls, this is now removed to p...
Read more