Planalto Cycles

When I left my room in the morning, my bike was standing in front of the door (instead of outside, where I had locked it). It was nice that someone took care and carried it inside, but the long USB-cable that I had installed to connect the SPOT device with the dynamo, was ruined. The mini USB-plug was torn apart. The cable is very stable, and I cannot imagine how this could happen. The hotel manager, of course, knew nothing and I could do nothing but leave without that cable.
it was again a day with less wind, only very wet, without real rain. My jacket was wet very soon, and I took my rain cover, but then the rains stopped immediately. I didn’t want to play the on/off game, but after a few kilometres, I put the rain cover    away again. The same with my glasses. When I had them on, after a few minutes, I couldn’t see much. When I put them down, I got the feeling, it is drier again and I can take them, but it is soon too humid again.
Ok, no big problem, especially when the way is clear enough that I can follow the route with my poor natural view.
I came to Thanh Hóa and looked for a copy shop. Normally, you find 5 of them in every village (only slightly exaggerated) and now I crossed nearly the whole city to find one. There, I saw that some older papers in a plastic cover in my bag had gone mouldy since I last checked them a few weeks ago.
I also saw again sandwich booths, after 3 or 400 km. So, I took one at the shop of an elder friendly couple. It was cheap, and she asked me if I would like to have extra egg for 10000 more, and I simply agreed, because she was honest. In the meantime, her husband offered me a pipe. I never had seen such a pipe before and Thanh Hóa was full of them, you could buy them in several shops in each street that I crossed.
Later, I saw farmer offering pineapples, but not just a few, rather hundreds. I took one for 10000 and asked if the seller would cut it and put in my container. She did and I wanted to pay more for the extra work (a whole, uncut pineapple cannot cost the same as a prepared one, but she refused the money. So, I took some packages covered in banana leaves for the additional money. The first time when I bought such, there was rice with beans in it and I wanted to get that again, because the leave gives a better taste. But after unpacking many layers of leave, there was a thin roll with something, and the roll was covered in plastic foil. That was strange, because how should the leave get in touch with that roll?

When I went on, the pineapple shops were mixed with shops for stone sculptures. That could be small or bigger statues but also big “landscapes”.

The last 10km to my hostel in a resort were on bad roads where I only could go 5-10km/h and always had to care about slipping in the mud. But the landscape became more interesting and mysterious because of the fog.

In the end I landed in a luxury place, but they also had a 10-bed dormitory for 3$. When I arrived, it was empty, but then 3 or 4 Vietnamese guys checked in. Or only one? It was a coming and going, they were at least lying in 4 different beds, but only one brought a back bag in the room, the others had nothing. While I was writing, I was alone and don’t know how many will come back and stay overnight.
I took dinner and would have had the option to take a pizza or pasta for around 150.000d but I took my usual rice+vegetables(+egg)-combination for 50000.
A while after I left the restaurant, it knocked on the door and the manager brought my purse! I don’t know how I could have lost it and why I didn’t notice it at least later. And it was enough money inside, because yesterday, I withdrew money.
I only know that I was busy with planning and organizing, because now it is sure that I can go to Australia by freighter and I had to fill in many papers (that I had printed in the copyshop), take photos and send them to my agency in Berlin and every other minute, the internet connection failed. That was troublesome, especially when I also tried to transfer the money for the ticket. Now, everything is done, I can complete my diary and go to sleep.

nly one brought a back bag in the room, the others had nothing. While I was writing, I was alone and don’t know how many will come back and stay overnight.
I took dinner and would have had the option to take a pizza or pasta for around 150.000d but I took my usual rice+vegetables(+egg)-combination for 50000.
A while after I left the restaurant, it knocked on the door and the manager brought my purse! I don’t know how I could have lost it and why I didn’t notice it at least later. And it was enough money inside, because yesterday, I withdrew money.
I only know that I was busy with planning and organizing, because now it is sure that I can go to Australia by freighter and I had to fill in many papers (that I had printed in the copyshop), take photos and send them to my agency in Berlin and every other minute, the internet connection failed. That was troublesome, especially when I also tried to transfer the money for the ticket. Now, everything is done, I can complete my diary and go to sleep.

Because of recently writing “I should have taken a photo”, today I took two in the Hotel Tokyo. The name is bigger than reality. It is like in most hotels here: the lobby is promising, sometimes also the stairs and corridors look solid and tasteful or even a bit too grandiose. Then, you come to the room and in 95% of the cases the first symptoms of decay are to find here. The door handle, the lock, the bolt… at least something is nearly always ruined or never had been viable. Ok. I am not sure if I had mentioned before those toothbrushes that you always find in the bathrooms (whereas toilet paper sometimes only comes on demand, that’s why in my check-in routin

e, I take a short glance in the bathroom to find it, or not). So, on my Vietnam tour I could have built up a collection of 20 single-use tooth-brushes. My collection of single-use combs would be smaller, but at least there is always one….

Today was a comparably easy tour, because the wind was no problem, it was dry and mostly flat.

My new structure (I always structure things) is to divide the 100km in 3 portions, making the first 10km longer and the last 10km shorter, that is now 45+35+25km. The first part can be longer, because I am fresh and not hungry for a while (that has changed, I remember that in the first weeks, I could hardly go for an hour without eating). Often, I have a kind of muesli then. I got Vietnamese oat-flakes sometimes, then I add (soya-)milk and bananas. Still I see many banana trees, but it is harder to get some. Now, I could get lots of oranges, but they are “to cool” for me and not good in my muesli anyway. The muesli-break is not long, because I prepared it in the morning and just fill it in in me. The 2^nd break is for rice or noodles. Today, I went to a big restaurant in a rest area along the street. This is also a reaction to yesterday. I wanted to get a soup in a street restaurant. The price is normally 10000, but I would also accept 20000. The owner wanted 30000d. I tried to discuss that, he insisted, and I turned to leave. In this moment his wife came back with products from the market. She offered the soup for 10000, but he didn’t want to give in and I was ready to leave anyway.
So, today a restaurant with fix prices. Well, the price was higher, 40000d, but I could hardly finish it, the bowl with rice would normally be enough for 3 people. (I saw that people normally just take a third or even less. The rice seems to be too normal. It is their staple food and at the same time not valuated high enough.) I saw more than once people being surprised or amused when I finish my plates/bowls completely and so I did it again.
Now, only 20-25km were left to reach a hotel in the middle between Vinh and Binh Minh where I again have made a reservation. I found an interesting looking motel, narrow but high with big windows, only the entrance was hidden. Finally, a woman from a booth came and opened a small door leading only to a lift. She showed me a room and to banknotes summing up to 150.000d which is a good price. (the range so far was between 80.000 and 250.000 for a room and that doesn’t say much about the quality). We went down again, and on my phone, I wrote that for me it would be ok to take the room for 150.000. She showed the message to a man, maybe her son, and he said, no it is 300.000. I wanted to question that, he insisted, I smiled and said good-bye. He maybe was not impressed, just again dealt with is phone. I had not drive far, only 1km to find the next hotel. There, a list with prices and (Vietnamese) explanations hang at the wall. The cheapest room was 250.000 and that is my price limit, so I took it. And had saved $ 2,10…  or 1-2 meals to make another comparison. But as I said in other posts before, I am willing to pay a bit more sometimes, because I am the rich tourist and I am not interested in negotiating and bargaining. But they should be a bit less offensive and clumsy. So, it is not about the money, it is about learning (and maybe teaching?) a lesson.
What I could tell about the new hotel, is more or less a variation of things I had said before. A look at the bed, and I decide whether to use my thin sleeping bag or not (I use it). And as an affirmation for this decision, I found a box with condoms in the bed chink. That can mean, they didn’t change the linen after another guest or they discreetly put it there for a special clientele. I stay in my sleeping bag…

The last night had been an …interesting one, because of the “architecture” of the rooms (I should have taken a photo!). The wall to the neighbouring room was open over the bathroom, and you could hear well what was going on there (a couple was staying there). And I heard something in the late evening and in the very early morning. The first time was funny, because I had my earphones in and listened to music on youtube while I was writing diary and I was a bit confused, because I knew that music well from youth on and was sure that something didn’t belong to the song. Soon after the second time (maybe there was something in between, too, but I was busy with sleeping), they left and when I left a bit later, I saw through the open door the battlefield they had left. I always wondered about people throwing the waste simply on the ground and was sure they wouldn’t do that at home. Now, I know that at least this couple doesn’t regard a hotel room equal to their home and thus leave the rubbish on the floor. The floor additionally was wet, the light burning etc. I couldn’t do that even if nobody knows that I was it, but they had to give their passports to the manager when checking in.
This day, it was not dry anymore although it was not definitely raining. It was just wet from all sides, so I again took only few photos.
The second one was instead of writing a note. Not only today, I saw many shops selling coffins or caskets made of wood, respectively stone. And for a while I only noticed that there are sometimes as many coffins for children as for adults. When I see something, I often must be fast to write it down, before I get used to it. In this case, the question “why?” arises. Regarding child mortality, Vietnam is better than Turkey or Brasilia, approximately average of all countries (the range is between 2/1000 in Japan and 110/1000 in Afghanistan, Vietnam: 17/1000)

The last photo needed some willpower, because I had to find the right position for a selfie (what in general is not my strong point) while people were watching and maybe wondering. But for the word game Vinh-win situation, it had to be done.

For the end a confession (recall from my “cycling notes”)
Wifi…
Mr.G “can” wifi. I knew before but ignored it as a feature that I would not need (you know, the older people become the more they feel surrounded by things they or nobody can need…)
So far, I planned my tours with komoot on the PC. My phone is synchronized with the PC. And then I tried to establish a Bluetooth connection between Mr.G and phone, as in the instructions told. This is sometimes tiring, because they don’t find each other or lose each other before finishing sending and I often have to restart, etc. And now, I found out that and how Mr.G  can be connected to the internet. And after that I found out that now without any problems the data can be even faster transferred to him. Took my just 165 days of travelling and even longer of using this device….
That reminds me on something else I wanted to tell for a while:
I didn’t become better in cycling. I maybe can go longer without breaks, maybe I am a bit stronger, faster or what ever but not better. If someone takes a guitar you can tell by his/her movements about the routine and skills of playing. The same with those cycling artists who can make great tricks or stunts. And I didn’t become better, and my thought is, that I didn’t go to any limit of my skills to get better. I just drive. So sometimes, I try to drive on the marking line of the lane to become a bit more skilful and then I am again lazy and just go on. So far, in general my theory was, that it is enough to deal with something to get better. Now I think you must deal with the limits of your skills do shift these limits. But this is no new theory yet, only a new hypothesis.

Let’s start with yesterday and with my notes (that normally relate to the day/days before).
Yesterday, my tour was 9001km long.
Until my first stop at km45, I memorized “old US Gods perfection helmet no helmet clothes”. When I had my break, I first turned on the “Spot” to send a GPS signal of my current location. It is interesting that it took me more than 150 days of travelling to find a better way to use that device. You normally can use it as tracker and set an interval between 10-60min. In the beginning, I used 60min to have a continuous path, but it was too battery consuming and loading via USB didn’t work well. So, I changed to 10min and turned on the SPOT only 2-3x/day for 20-30min. But that didn’t always work and when I made a break, it also made a break, because it reacts on movement, and I could see it only later when I edited the map. And now, I use another feature, the “OK-message”. This is independent of movement and the message goes to selected email addresses. So, I sent it to my own address and get a message on my phone when it worked well and can turn off.
Back to my list:
“Old” refers to some old people (some men and more women) who also smile and greet, what makes me especially happy. “US”: I saw some raincoats in camouflage style and the writing US-army and also other things with “US” branding. I wonder, why people in Vietnam can buy, wear and use such things. I cannot “forgive” the US the Vietnam-war as long as they still have the same attitude (Nationalism, Imperialism, sick anti-Communism) and for that are ready to kill countless people and I wonder how people in Vietnam as direct victims can deal with that.
Gods: refers to the hostel clerks in Hué, who in the morning prepared coffee and always put a cup on the little altar, too. (I didn’t see what happened later to the coffee, because in the next morning, the place was empty and ready for a fresh cup).
Perfection: when I see the elaborated furniture offered in so many shops, I wonder why in practically every hotel some things in a ridicule way didn’t work. Yesterday in the hotel, you couldn’t close the door of the bathroom, because it was broader than the frame. In Hué, they always locked a door in that new built house, because it was to small and only by locking, you could reach the frame. I could have made an endless list especially of bathroom failures, but this would be too time-consuming, so I often just smiled silently for myself.
Helmets seem to be worn less often since I am travelling to the North, but now I see more often helmets reminding on army helmets.
And finally “clothes”. I still wonder how I can feel cold when people at the same time go in sandals or work barefoot in the rice-fields. Some people are dressed even warmer than me but most – and most children, too – wear less. Maybe, I will adapt better after a while, but 14°C so far never had been “my” t-shirt&shorts-time.
Today for the first time, I had breakfast in a restaurant. When I yesterday had finished my grand meal, a owner of another restaurant wanted me to come there for dinner. I was sure, that at dinner-time, I would sit or lie in bed, well covered and still well-fed and not willing to move outside. So, I promised to come for breakfast. It is in some way a good start in the day, to fill something warm in the stomach and maybe I will do that tomorrow, too. As said before, there is no heat of the day to avoid anymore, so I can take my time for that.
I will tell you, if I will have a day without strong head-winds, and when I don’t write about wind, that will not mean there was no. Today, like yesterday, there was no rain. And two short times, I got a slight idea in which direction the sun could be. Then it again looked like bad weather, but nothing happened, only fog came sometimes.

Around km80, there where many hotels and I was a little unsure if I really would find hotels around km100, like shown on the map. But I didn’t want to stop much before half of the distance to Vinh (200km from Dong Hoi), because what I don’t do today, I have to do tomorrow. But at km93, again hotels appeared and now, I thought, 7km is not too much asymmetrical and stopped. Later I found out, that this was the place I had selected as possible address for the stop. Mr.G had complained about my route several times, although there was only this road to go, and I had seen before on the map that there is something strange with the route design. I guess that the road had been renewed after the issue of the map. And by that I explain to me how I could go 7km less than the route-planner had calculated.
And today, I saw again some houses halfway cut off, and finally combined the course of the streets with that. Now I am sure, that they had to give way for the roads.

Today, I passed Tokyo hotel, tomorrow I will stay at Hotel Tokyo. (And the band Tokio hotel, that drove girls mad around 2005ff, still exists.)

Today, the temperature outside was higher than in my room (16°C). I stayed with my new routine of staying in bed the rest of the day. At least yesterday and today, even with warmer temperatures I wouldn’t have a better place for working on my laptop although I don’t find a good position to work without a table. (The name “laptop” for sure could not be invented by me.)

Yesterday, I had two surprising encounters regarding impolite behaviour, I just forgot to mention and remembered  them during cycling. During cycling, I remember many things again that I wanted to write down and didn’t. Some of them I manage to write in my phone as a note when I make a break. When I write the diary, I look at the notes and normally add them.
A man on a motorcycle ahead of me had lost his cap. He held shouldered some tools, so I thought it is easier when I give him the cap, I unfixed my shoe from the pedal, stopped, picked up the cap and gave it to him. He took it, turned and drove away without even looking at me. Ok, why not, he had not asked for helped.
The second was the manager or owner of that hotel. His whole attitude was somewhat rude, but 2x I thought, that is not the right way to deal with a guest (the only one there). I ordered food and when it was ready, he brought it, but didn’t even stop his (at that time at least 30min long) phone-call, just with a rough gesture placed the plate and cutlery in front of me without even looking at me. When I was finished and showed signs that I want to pay and leave, he again didn’t take notice of me, so I went to find someone else. This person went back to him, shouted at him, he stood up came to me, but continued a computer-game on his phone and his call for another minute before finally mercifully taking my money and turning back to his phone, while he gave me the change. His English was bad enough that I even didn’t consider to criticize him. But today, I wrote a reference to the hotel on tripadvisor (and earned a “junior badge” for that – whatever I do with it)
My second note was: floods. Yesterday, I not only saw fields and whole tracts of land under water, I also couldn’t pass a street that was too deep under water and had to do a detour. Both had impressed me and today I wondered why I still had not written about it yesterday.
Today in the morning, I left without a chance to greet anyone – if I would have liked to…
In the beginning, the streets were wet, but it didn’t rain, and later the wind, my true companion, even dried the streets. Mr.G led me again to a small street, but this time it was not shorter, the road surface could have been better and it was hilly. So, at the next detour, a real detour, even a road sign showed that it would be 31 instead of 30 km and would come back to the main road again, I disobeyed. This was a challenge for Mr.G who always offered a way to get back to the right path. What I never understand in such a case:
When my road and his route finally meet, he doesn’t want to go on, he wants to send me back on the route I should have been coming on.

So far, I never was motivated to try what would happen then. Should I go back to the point where I disobedient or to the start of the tour or would he after a while deem that I had repented my sins and suggest to turn in the right direction as friends again? Worth trying, once!
Today, only 80km were left to reach Dong Hoi, But after 60km, I wondered how I could have done 120km more a few days before. That reminds on another thing from yesterday! I had been extremely tired for 2-3 hours during the day. Sometimes, my eyes closed, and I had to use willpower to re-open them, because I knew that after a second or two it would be a rude awakening. With a dry and warm place at hand, it would have been easy to handle the situation, but I felt too cold to sit down anywhere, even if it would be dry. So, I tried to keep my eyes open, sometime riding standing. But there came the moment when I simply had to stop. (Btw, today I had to stop more often to find a natural restroom than I drank, maybe because of the soup and big glass of tea I had got a Soleil hostel?) I walked for a while and after that I was better again.
Now I wrote a lot about yesterday, but today was nothing special, except that it didn’t rain for the complete 5,5 hours I was on the road.
In Dong Hui, Mr.G wanted me to turn right from the main road, but that would have meant to jump down from the bridge to the road under. I didn’t, and “we” found to the hotel on other roads. After checking in in the 4-bed-dormitory (that I again shared with no-one) I bought some food for my stocks and went to a restaurant for rice, vegetables, egg and a soup. After finishing the big portion, I ordered the same again. And after that, I ate sweets for about 1000Kcal. But it was breakfast (part II), lunch and dinner, all in one. Like yesterday, I then took my shower, this time at 16°C and with a window that couldn’t be closed. But it was not that hard, because outside, it also had 16°C and was dry, so I was not that undercooled, and the water again was warm enough. Everything was prepared to jump into the bed immediately after the shower and stay there again until the morning.

Before breakfast, I prepared my bike for leaving when the hotel clerk arrived and was worried if I was about to leave. When I sat down for breakfast, I understood, why: he had brought soup from outside for me for breakfast! (The normal breakfast was toast, fried egg and vegetables). Then the colleague who so far had made the night shift also arrived. We even made some photos and connected on FB.

I left in the light rain and strong wind that accompanied me most of the day. Most of the day, the route ran on small and calm streets. The wind slowed me down anyway, but those streets most of the time, too. It was a lesson in being patient and persistent, because most of the time my “speed” was only 12-13km/h, more was not possible. But partly, the streets were not only calm and lonely, they brought me to picturesque landscapes

and for ~40km, I came along many religious buildings, maybe tombs (they reminded me on yesterday). Many were beautiful or at least in a beautiful scenery. I only could take a picture when I made a rest under an archway to escape the rain for opening my bag to get out food.

I later tried to find out more, but found only Vietnamese sites, at least with one video of a few of these ensembles. (Lăng mộ làng Kế Môn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9ylvQhXItk)
In the early afternoon, it stopped raining for a while, even the streets became a bit dry for some time.

But even now, my glasses became wet fast, just because of the foggy humidity.

I hadn’t found a hotel to book in advance, but on the komoot map, one was shown exactly in the middle between Hué and Dong Hoi. I went there, and  “of course” (?!) there was nothing.
I continued my tour and at least over the next 5km, saw enough good spots for wild camping. There were mainly two reasons why I didn’t just stop and camp.
One was the wetness, my clothes on my body and in my bags were moist, the tent would be it in the morning. And I was delayed with my diary, videos and most important; planning, because of the new cargo ship route to Australia.
So I went on to the next small city, were also some hotels should be. After  a bit of driving around, I found a hotel. I overcame my resistance to take a shower at 17°C in the room, arranged all things I could need around the bed and jumped in it. After a while, I warmed up again ?

After breakfast, the owners of the hostel invited me for tea and in the conversation persuaded me to visit at least the tomb of Tu Duc, because e.g. Pagodas are similar elsewhere, but this is unique in Hué. I was not really motivated to go by bike in that rain without any need, but the 20km round was within my possibilities. So, at noon, I started.
Of course, I prepared the route and of course Mr.G had some special roads and one time he said, go left and there was nothing than a path. So, I locked my bike and went on by foot, thinking that I would come to that tomb from another side. I even started making photos,

but after a while realized that these were more normal graves on a normal cemetery, just a bit more elaborated. I had to go a round on a muddy path to reach a street again and come back to my bike. “We” went on on streets that became smaller and narrower until I/we came to bridge, that will be a bridge again in some future but not now. Now I had to find a way back to the main road and did, what I supposed to be right. There were no signs but by just following the main-road, I finally came to the entrance to the park with the tomb.
A agitated woman stopped me and showed me the way to her “free” parking, that was in the court of her café. I promised to her that I will not eat or drink something and asked if it is still ok to park there and she promised, it was.
At the entrance, I got a ticket, made a fast round through the big park

with smaller and bigger buildings between houses, pagodas and palaces,

finally reached the tomb after several steps and forecourts,

came back to my bike and caught a good moment to flee without discussions as other people were coming in the trap at the same time.
On the way back, my further mission was to find the post office (good job, Mr.G!),

a recommended Vegetarian restaurant (not so good job) and an ATM (found on my own). The food was good, but not near to that what Lib and I had eaten in HCMC. But also, the price was not comparable, it was a “real” restaurant, with walls and (open!) windows, but for 2,5$ I got so much that I could hardly finish it.

At home, in the hostel, I noticed that the clothes, I had washed 2 days before, were still wet. Everything, even things not in touch with water, was humid, at the windows, the water from the glass ran on the windowsills, every paper had lost the paper sound and reminded more on tissue.
And I was feeling cold in that room with 18°C when I didn’t move. And I wondered about the locals who still walked and drove in sandals, and some even in short trousers. And in the hostel, they didn’t close the doors and had even the fan on.

I got a message from Arne, “my” cargo ship agent. There is a new option for the route Taiwan – Australia. Only, either I come very late to Sydney (or even too late for our common trip that my brother Markus is planning) or I lose half of my Taiwan-days for the earlier departure. I time of calculating, writing messages, researching and planning began.
At the moment, I try to find a way to reach Taiwan earlier, to have at least some days more. We will see, what is possible!

The hostel offered free breakfast for the price of 2,5€…
They even served fried eggs and slices tomatoes and cucumber and Vietnamese tea.
After that, I went to the city.

First stop: a shopping mall for my “food research” including a Vietnamese chocolate. It was not a very good one but better than the last ones. Then, I walked to the citadel. After a few minutes, a man on a motorcycle stopped and in quite good English started a conversation. Soon, it focused on tourism, on spots and the way to get there: with him. He showed me a book with references from different people praising his kindness etc. I just wanted to walk around and visit that citadel and he a had a lot of arguments why I should go with him instead. I wanted to think about that until tomorrow but: he is “a poor man without a phone”. Now it was easier for me to stop the whole conversation, wish him a good day and walk on. I walked another 3min until a motorcycle-man accompanied me, starting a conversation. The first time, it took me 10min to stop it, now one. On my further way, I refined my technique and could stop that business while walking on and still being friendly.

But when I reached the citadel, my motivation to go in with many other tourists and all the time have to say no to different offers was quite low. The last point was, when I heard and saw an Austrian couple buying half a pineapple for 30000d. This is ~4x the price I (as another tourist!) had payed last time. I took a few photos,

chose another way to walk back

and after 15km and 4 hours, I reached the hostel. The rest of the day was eating, planning writing and even a “results”-workout, that showed me that “rest-day” has a deeper meaning, because it was harder than usual and I made some exercises a bit easier.

The night had been a good introduction for the day, it was so stormy that the sound of the waves was my sleeping music and the wind came into the windows with a whistling noise. I wanted to leave early (but the reason to avoid the heat of the day is not valid anymore, it had 14°C at noon!) and the host had invited me for breakfast. I was ready to leave at 5:30 and went to the kitchen. I thought I would just leave a note and go but he was really there and started to prepare banana pancakes! Also guests from China were ready to leave and after preparing the pancakes, my host said he would go to the market to get some food for them, I could simply leave after eating. I am not sure if he had expected any money and only the situation was a bit stressful for him. For me it was better to leave some money in any case.
I went out in the windy cold early morning. After some kilometres, I had the feeling of going uphill all the time, but it was quite flat, only the wind made fake-hills for me. I came through a kind of nowhere land with a big road but nearly no traffic, no houses, only graves, but many of them. In shops for tomb accessories, I had seen stone-coffins with open cover and wondered what this is for. Still I don’t know, but it is filled with sand.

Later, in another nowhere-land, you could see a kind of Vietnam-Disneyland. Fake sailing ships, pagodas, hills and palaces. Two busses with tourists at the entrance seems small and the tourists couldn’t do a lot against the impression of loneliness. Please, note what the wind does with the trees. He did similar things with me.

Now, I should be used to that phenomenon that on certain places, you get something special and that in masses. And later and before simply not. Here it is: bricks.

The rain was not heavy most of the day, but after 1-2 hours, my jacket couldn’t prevent from the moisture. I wanted to take my rain-cover as late possible, because it increases the drag and limits the freedom of movement, but I started to feel cold although I had to work hard to move forward. To compensate my slow tempo, I had decided to make less breaks. In my had the thought to reach Hue in one day had started to work 2-3 days ago. It was 166km according to the route-planner and first, I had found a place to stay in Lang Co, ~60km before Hue and had thought, ok, the next day, I would reach Hue early enough to have some time to visit it. But I know that also after 60km, I can be too tired/lazy to walk around in a city, be it too hot, too cold, too rainy or another “too”. So, the thought was to win a day by reaching Hue in one day. After 80km, I thought, “so it is half done, only 20km more, than it is 100, and then 2x 30km and you are there!”, and similar games with numbers. But then, everything became different, not only different: much harder…
there was a hill and the route-planner had suggested a route with 180m going up and down within ~14km, what is ok. But when I came there, there was a barrier and a man who sent me back. I tried to persuade him to make an exception, no chance.
I had to go back 3km, what is hard enough, but what was even harder, was the route lying ahead of me: 23km and 540m to climb.

Suddenly, my tour was not hardly manageable 165km, it was 180km ☹
Many busses, cars and motorcycles went up or down that hill or better little mountain, many with their cameras filming the tour and the scenery. I was the only cyclist, and many cheered me up what indeed helped me to stay motivated. I had not known how high that climb would go, thinking, maybe 100 more than the shorter on, so, after each bend, I was shocked to see that it still goes up.

On top, it was foggy and had only 9°C, not enough for my short trousers and t-shirt + jacket to feel comfortable. I went down fast, hoping it would be again better there. Maybe it would have been, but the wind was again stronger.
I reached Lang Co, I saw hotels and I don’t know why, but I went on.
I had enough time to regret this, because I had to go on 5 more hours. At km140, I had promised to make a break for some warm food, but then, I thought it is better to go on as long there is some daylight. This was one of the more reasonable decisions on that day, because so I had won one less difficult hour of riding. When it had become dark it also had started raining stronger and I had to put off my glasses, now seeing less but that better or seeing more but worse. The last 20km were a bit easier, because the street was lightened, and I could see where my lane was and if there are some holes. My main motivation to go on was, that there was no alternative and to know that after 20, 19, 18…km I would reach a dry place. I reached Hué. Reaching the desired town, is always a relief. And the situation where Mr.G can show what he can. It was a mixture….
I should go right, didn’t find a street, went back, tried it again. There WAS no street! I went on on the existent road although Mr.G protested, and I hoped to find back to his route. It was raining too much to use my phone and my fingers and the display of the GPS were too wet to use it well, always came something else, the route was lost, I had to re-start, etc.
I had the choice to sit down somewhere and cry or to go on and find the humorous side of the situation. I found it and went on with some energy reserves stored somewhere for such situations. Mr.G became active in his role of the leader again and showed me a way to a street out of town with less and less lights and houses, a good place to die and never be found. But he was self-confident and proudly presented “400m to final destination”. You can interpret this in different direction, but 400m is less enough to go there. “There” was exactly: nothing. But 100-200m ahead, I found a sign, and that clearly said “soleil hostel” (what a name!!). I followed the sign and soon reached a house, a lightened house, to be more exact: Soleil hostel!
To make my arrival more dramatic, I fell with my bike 5m in front of the entrance, because it was so slippery. I survived and what is more, I could park my bike under a roof, get down my bags, try to lock my bike with clammy fingers (succeeded finally). As usual I took of my (wet and dirty) shoes and after the formalities tried to go to “my” room (a 4-bed dormitory but no one else there) without slipping at the stairs in wet socks (again succeeded!)
I definitely was ok with the shower providing warm water (but only became warm step by step when I – not much later! – lay in bed.
Good night to you, year 2018!

The day started less rainy as yesterday, but cooler, so I put on my jacket several times when it rained. Only the last rain before arriving was so heavy that is was again completely wet and due to the heavy wind, felt cold. I wonder when my clothes will be dry again…
Besides rain and wind?
I met a cycling couple from Germany, going down to HCMC. And an hour later, I went to a bakery and the seller could speak English quite well and told me that they had been there before me ?

Today, I had many friendly encounters, many friendly helloes and more from kids than so far in Vietnam.
I ate a similar soup two times. The second time, the seller wanted to get in contact on facebook. I paid the same price as everybody, 10000d. The first time, I saw someone paying 10000, but I only had a 20000d note. The son of the seller, a  boy of maybe 13-14y, seemed to start giving me back the rest, but his mum said something, and he stopped. I told her that other customers had paid 10000. She again showed 20k, smiled, turned away and continued her work. I don’t like it, but again, it is 40c or 80c, the price is embarrassing low for the load you get. I don’t want to be cheated, but I even less want to become rude or loud or whatever would have been necessary to get back my money from someone who has much less than I.
At Tam Thanh resort I suggested to take dinner instead of the change for my money, if possible. And it was.

So, I sat with the family of the manager, who had cooked a nice meal, and a couple living there. She teaches English in a nearby private school (for good money as she said) and he gives a helping hand at the resort. Both are from Birmingham.
The resort is maybe 50m from the beach and the wind builds up big waves and the heavy noise is the main sound everywhere. The wind is so strong (and the windows so bad) that the curtains in the room dance. And I still or again feel cold.
Tomorrow, I really would like to go the complete 166km to Hue, but with the wind, I fear, the hard tour will be a too hard tour, today, it was 135km and this was hard enough

today, I saw milestones on high heels

…mad photos of those typical entrances to settlements, reminding (me) on ancient times

…and wondered why life for gods is also harder in developing countries…