Day 38 Pleiku to Cambodian border







 We left our lovely digs by eight and navigated the steep hills of Pleiku. We were soon in open countryside and travelling on single track roads, this is the first occasion that we have travelled on roads as bad as ours. The compensating factor was the coffee and tea plantations emitted a beautiful aroma and were very pleasing on the eye. However they were also on steep sided valleys which meant there was some serious out of the saddle climbs. The sun was out and a healthy sweat salted our faces and dripped into the eyes.

We also saw a fair few rubber plantations which always fascinates Jen's foraging instincts. We stopped for our breakfast after a couple of hours and devoured a Bang Mi Op la or to you and me a egg filled baguette. Very tasty but best not to look to closely at the rather scruffy stall. I think this time we had some meat slipped in, at least it looked like meat. This we carefully evacuated from our delicious mid-morning break. We stopped towards the end of our day for another drink stop and I managed to see some very small Vietnamese flags for my bike- these were given to us a well as a parcel of sticky rice (it weighed a ton- at least that's what Jen's face said to me). I would have carried it but I had two small flags to add to my burden!!

By 12:30 we had arrived at our army hotel and the concierge (lieutenant) was most helpful and obliging. He'd been pestered earlier in the day by Hanh (host from Mang Deng) to let her know when we arrived - she also mentioned we were vegetarian. So he duly obliged and gave her a ring and passed the phone over to me, so kind, He'd also managed to secure some tomatoes and carrots per Hanh's instructions. Such kind people. Later in the afternoon he took us to the border to see if we could change money, but no luck, the guards told us it was not necessary as we could use dollars in Cambodia.

Luckily we still have some pot noodles. So it's sticky rice, carrot and tomato and a pot noodle. Nothing appears open in this sleepy border town - the New Year apparently closes these small village completely for the week.

Cambodia tomorrow so an early start.

Comments

  1. Dr FeelgoodFebruary 14, 2024 at 3:19 PM

    Sounds an eventful finale to Vietnam - bring on Cambodia!

    ReplyDelete

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