Thinh My

Arrived 17/07/2011

The main highway so far has been pretty unpleasant; traffic, noise, poor road, more tooting and more traffic so I have taken to the Ho Chi Minh Road.  This is the same route that was used during the war to connect and transport goods between North and South Vietnam as well as into Laos.  So I am riding along a bit of history, some very scenic and peaceful history.

My first stop along the Ho Chi Minh Road is this small town that I think is only there because of an intersection.  I was a bit lucky in finding a place to stay here because nothing was jumping out at me so the ask, point, draw then there was a place about 200m down the road from where I was.  The guy at the bike shop in Hanoi told me you need to know where to stay along this road because the small towns you pass through are hit and miss if there's somewhere to stay.  I had passed a wee bunch of guesthouses about 5-10km earlier and thought I should be sweet at the next marked town… just.

This guy here just has a deep freezer strapped to his bike - no worries

So my luxurious accommodation for the night was a wooden slat bed.  Yes just that, no mattress.  Well I lie, actually there was a bamboo mat (about 2mm thick) and a wooden woven mat on top of that.  The comfort second to sleeping on a bed of nails.  A bit improvising with the four pillows and two duvets and I had the closest to a mattress that I could get.  Not a bad bed in the end the only problem was when the power went for couple hours in the middle of the night and I left to melt in my sauna with no fan.

Turning a wooden bed into something slightly more comfortable

I am becoming accustomed to Com Pho (rice noodle soup – beef, chicken, etc maybe dog?).  Meals for the day were Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) for lunch and a big shot of rice wine (not the greatest), Pho Bo for afternoon snack and Com Pho Ga (chicken soup thing).  Awesome, so much nutrition!