Day 34 Mang Den to Kontum

 We left our lovely Homestay in the mountains and said goodbye to the generous and kind Hanh. The weather was kind as we set off at 8.30 and we were anticipating a lovely descent to our destination of Kantum.

It truly delivered and the cycling Gods must have heard our grumbling of the previous days and taken pity on us. The wind at our backs and a marvellous descent for mile after mile. We had a few climbs they were short though- on one occasion a young boy decided to race us- he won on his fixie and gave us a cheeky smile as he bade us farewell. We made excellent time and were at the rather swanky hotel by 11:30 having had one stop for a drink.

The main roads out here are impeccable, smooth tarmac (not a pothole in sight) and beautifully engineered. Our Komoot App has not caught up with these recent improvements and to our delight we found that the anticipated climbs never materialised. The investment in infrastructure is staggering and so it seems also the material conditions of the people. Hanh was telling us yesterday how much things had changed in the past 10 years. She also shared with us the Covid experience and how Vietnam had tens of thousands of deaths compared to our hundreds of thousands. Vietnam has a larger population than the UK with a population of 100 million.

We have met up with 2 Americans Tom and Scott whose paths we have been crossing, also on a cycling expedition. Tom is involved with an orphanage in Kontum and we are hoping to spend some time there over the next few days- though apparently many of the children have gone home to their villages for the New Year which begins tomorrow. Apparently all of the shops will be shut but we have stocked up on pot noodles in case food is hard to come






by!

Comments

  1. BruceFebruary 9, 2024 at 7:33 AM

    This sounds and looks wonderful, good reward for the tough day. How do you go about finding the Homestays, is there a web site or app of some sort?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2024 at 3:58 AM

    Booking.com. Some are more like hotels and some really are home stays

    ReplyDelete

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