It’s 5:30am,
I've been asleep since 11:30 last night, which is very good for me, but as soon
as I wake, I realise just how rock hard and uncomfortable Vietnamese beds are,
and this one is the hardest one of them all.
Fortunately, we are only here for one night, so I might as well get up,
write some more of our blog, and then get ready for what is 130ks riding to our
next stop tonight.
After my
previous experience of riding in 40 degree heat, I have taken to not riding
after lunch. Given the conditions –
heat, humidity, road surface, bike quality and personal fitness, riding 60 –
70ks in a day is enough for me to enjoy the riding, but not leave me so spent
that all I want to do is sleep when the day is over.
Our next day’s
riding was from what is called “Fish Pass”, and was about a 2 hour drive from
Nha Trang. When we got down to reception
to get on the bus, the heavens had already opened, and the rain was bucketing
down. This made the 2 hour drive
northward all the more enjoyable, as it meant we at least had a chance of the
rain abating before we had to get on our bikes.
As I've mentioned, the bikes aren't the most modern, and descending on
the old style v-brakes, with our front suspension that doesn't work all that
well.
The route we
are taking for the next few days follows the coast so we got to see many
fishing villages as we wound our way northwards. The rain continued for about the first hour,
but eventually the clouds lightened, and finally the rain stopped, the roads
dried and we all increased in confidence that we would have a dry day. The traffic on the trip was horrendous with
trucks backed up all the way, but the Vietnamese don’t let this deter them, and
continue to pass on blind corners. This
really is a nation of defensive drivers, although the latest statistics (2010)
I have show that the reality is quite different from the appearances, with their road toll being about 5 times worse than ours. :-|
When we did get riding, the route started off with the usual “undulations” which are all very manageable hills, and make for nice vistas when you reach the tops. After an hour however, we got down to sea level, and travelled through some interesting rural scenes with people working in the fields, which was great to stop and take photos of.
After a
while, however, we got past the best of the rural scenes and the riding then got
a bit boring for a while, as we were on a very straight flat road going past
what look like a new residential subdivision, and through some not terribly
interesting little towns. At the 40k
mark, we stopped for a drink and a re-group, and when we left Cuong, our guide
got to the front and for some reason decided to put the hammer down a bit. He’s a pretty good rider, and is used to the
heat, so is very capable of charging up and down the field between different
groups, whereas I'm just content to be making progress. Anyway, it was a fun ride, particularly as
the road surface wasn't great which meant the peloton had to weave to avoid the
potholes, which when you’re hanging on to the back of the bunch made for some
interesting reactions.
Lunch was at
the 65k mark, and that was riding for me for the day. Because of the two hour drive to get to the
start of the ride, the stops for photos, drinks, snacks etc., we didn't get to
lunch until 2pm, by which stage it was again extremely hot.
This also meant that by the time we had
lunch, the riders had done their ride, and we had made the 1 ½ hour drive to
the hotel that we didn't arrive at our hotel until about 5:30, which was pretty
much the end of the sunshine hours. This
didn't please everyone in the group, so at dinner that night it was agreed that
we would have more options for people to limit the amount of riding, so that
they did get some down time to either relax, go to the pool or visit the local
town we were staying in. That was fine
with me, as I’m doing more than enough riding to make it enjoyable without making it
too taxing.
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