my time in Vietnam gets shorter… 
…and so does the map!
The night had been quite calm, because around the resort, there is not much traffic and finally it was only one other guy sleeping in the dorm and he was sleeping earlier and getting up later than me. Only a cat was sitting in front of the door and complaining that the door was closed, and it was cold outside (or whatever else was to complain about).
It was wet, and it was cold, and the toilet was outside, and raindrops found a way between roof and walls to hit you from time to time, mostly in the neck. So, I kept it short and this was a mistake that I don’t want to repeat.
But first, I got breakfast. That was a surprise, because the dorm was cheap and in the booking information, I read that there is no breakfast included, however, two persons had told me I can have breakfast. There were good things like fruits and juices, but I felt too cold, because it was outdoors (under a roof), so I only took toasted bread and tea. After breakfast, I felt that I should go back to that place with the raindrops in the neck, but I thought, I can do that when I arrive in the next hotel.
I took another way for leaving the resort and that was not only good because of better roads but I saw more of the great scenery of steep hills and lakes.
Half an our later, I had stomach cramps and could hardly cycle.
Because of the wet and cold weather and the pain, I was not able to find a better solution than to continue cycling, and when the pain was too bad, to stop pedaling and just roll. I felt very uncomfortable, but to stop and the idea to do something else was also too uncomfortable.
My inner monologue focused on ways to deal with that (in a humorous way), circling around words like “post-production” or “return to sender” and “re-compression” and other ways to paraphrase what was going on and what I suggested to my guts to do. And I tried to find appropriate wordings for my diary…
The complete distance to Ha Long was 175km and today, I wanted to do at least 50km to leave no too big portion for tomorrow. And when I had done that after more than 3 hours my stomach calmed down. So, I could extend my project to doing at least half of the kilometers today.
At km82, I should go right, but the road was under reconstruction and I had to make a big detour. So, finally the first hotel on my way was at km100.
Nothing new to say about the afternoon (bed…)
In the evening I crossed the street to take dinner in a restaurant and the owner asked a customer for translation. The young man was sitting with two others with many different dishes and with his help I could order some of them for me, too. Meanwhile, they invited me to join their dinner and the first man and I talked a bit (the others couldn’t speak English). He is from Hanoi and the others from other cities, but they work here for a construction company for a while. He wanted to know what I am doing here and where I am coming from. I know that nearly no one in Vietnam knows Austria (“Ah, Australia!” “No, Austria, in Europe, between Germany and Italy!” “?”) and so on my phone, I show it on mapsme, where I also have marked my route.
First, they shared their dishes with me, then we shared what I had ordered, but in the end, the young man invited all of us and they left to continue their work (it was 7pm).
“Dinner in a restaurant” means sitting outside, in this case at 12°C and some wind, but at least protected from the rain. Sometimes the tables are very low, and you sit on plastic chairs suitable for kindergarten, not knowing where to put your knees and how to reach from plate to mouth without losing everything on the way (you have chopsticks for rice and slippery noodles)
So, a bit freezing I hurried back to my bed in the hotel. Still I am busy planning the China-part which is harder than the other parts. I hope I will feel better when I am finally there!
In the last days, I saw some motorcycles with cages and dogs inside. I had seen some before, too, but thought the owner transports his dog… Now, I saw big tongs designed to catch dogs at the neck and I also think back on the big truck with dogs (see day 160).