The cockerel didn't go off as expected and neither did the radio station. The power was off too, perhaps that explains the lack of Vietnamese communist party propaganda, but perhaps not the lack of crowing.
I didn't do a GPS altitude check on arrival yesterday, but a quick check before we leave reveals that we're at just over 900m. That explains why it's a little nippy. Breakfast at the dinner venue, but I reckon the chef must be still in bed.
Off we go, and again we're up and down, rather like the undergarments of certain ladies of ill repute, as one of my colourful nameless chums put it, so he did. Up to 1200m. The views are largely similar to what we've seen already: terraced paddy fields; small villages with shops selling the same kind of fresh veg and packaged food sold everywhere else; kids waving, or not; chickens, dogs and pigs; and muddy tracks. Sounds like I found it monotonous, but it wasn't, every day is fresh with new experiences. People are happy and Vietnam seems to be doing OK.
Yesterday I composed the first three paragraphs of my blog in my head while riding the first stint. I spoke them out loud in my helmet and thought they sounded rather good. As soon I stopped I had forgotten them! Memory like a sieve. I did recall the essence of them later, but I don't think they sounded as good. I need someway of recording or note taking as I go; I've yet to work out a practical (waterproof, one handed gloved operation, minimal wires, all day battery life) solution, so I just type notes from memory at each stop.
Lots of off-road today in between fast curvy stretches of broken tarmac. Some real mud plugged and sprayed over my number plate as best I could. Getting the hang of spinning up the back wheel, even though there's not much power to play with. Works on gravel too if you keep your weight forward and give the handlebars a little twist; opposite lock is always very satisfying.
On one particular muddy section, even the locals were struggling and Tang had to give a couple on a loaded scooter a push to free them from the mud before the remainder of our group could get past. Danny has an off here and we rush to help him in our usual way, by taking photos of his predicament!
I said previously that the roads in Vietnam were quite good, well I'd like to revise that - the roads near Hanoi are mostly good, here they are like that found in most less developed countries, broken tarmac, dirt and gravel. It's exacerbated by the mountainous terrain and frequent landslides. We saw a party repairing the roads, laying stones rolled flat then topped with tarmac. The result is smooth and level, but I suspect not long lasting. We also saw them laying new concrete paths in the hills on a bed of sand. Again, smooth, but not for long.
I commute to work daily by motorbike, so I know almost every little bump and crack on my route. With similar bumps, lumps and ruts to Belgium, a determined Vietnamese local will always find a way past our group, despite us riding 250cc bikes, bigger than almost everything else on two wheels. Danny gets toasted by a particularly eager guy on a tatty step-through moped. He obviously knows which lumps and bumps to avoid.
The ladies have different colours today. Yesterday was predominantly pink, today seems more greens and purples. All are very colourful.
Before lunch Ta asks if we want to take the tricky off-road route or the main road to reach the lunch stop. Silly question! There follows a twisty path scratched into the hillside with wheel swallowing ruts, more mud, sand and gravel. Gerard, Graham and I are following Ta and for once he puts on a spurt of speed and we all respond willingly. We stop often to let the tail-enders catch up, but we're all going at our own pace and all thoroughly enjoying it. At one point I see Graham lose his back end briefly, spinning it sideways before recovering, and a few seconds I lose the front at the same spot, almost coming to a halt and worse, letting Ray catch it on camera!
Back on tarmac after lunch but the corners are littered with sand and gravel just waiting for an unsuspecting Harley rider. And they caught one, Steve going down unceremoniously on a right-hander, bending the rear brake pedal but fortunately not himself.
While riding the winding tarmac sections I frequently notice what I think are a truck's wet tyre tracks, as if it's gone through a puddle and left a trail. But the trail is continuous and doesn't end. I eventually figured out it was a truck, but the trail was water dripped onto the brakes to cool them after the constant up/downs of the road.
Restarting after a stop and Steve in front of me suddenly stops! His brake light isn't working and I'm barely able to stop in time locking the front wheel but not hitting him. Behind, Graham just manages to avoid rear-ending me (I'm also without brake light). Steve's front brake is locked on. Turns out his earlier fall bent the hand guard so that it touches the front brake lever causing it to jam in place. It's lucky he didn't go over the bars. Tu fixes it in the traditional way, with a hammer and a long stick.
We're near the Chinese border at various times during the day and Steve notes a text message saying "welcome to China" when his phone connects briefly with a Chinese mobile network.
Before reaching our destination we take a fast road and have to dice with more traffic than we find on the back roads. It's quite common to be forced to move over by an oncoming car, overtaking another car, on your side of the road. Most of us are used to this and in fact it's not as bad as in India were buses overtake lorries, overtaking carts. We're not phased. One loon in a Pajero heading the same way as us overtakes on two blind bends before disappearing into the distance, in doing so he forces an oncoming car to take avoiding action.
We roll into town in the dark. Flashing lights and markets, shops still open, but people heading home. The roads are busy. After 215km today, we park up at our out of town hotel, it's a resort complex with individual huts set in-between the trees and it has a lake out back. Very nice, but the pool isn't open as it's "broken". After dinner we enjoy an ice-cream from their freezer.
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