November 23rd: Thanh Hoa to Tinh Gia – 48 km / 30 miles
Day 41
After a poor night of sleep, we woke and put on our wet clammy clothes and got on our mud caked trikes. Although the sky was gray there was no rain today. As if to prove my feeling about the town having a sinister element, we were followed by a man on a motorbike. Many who follows us do so and are clearly curious about our trikes. They laugh, point or just have a curious look and are obviously staring at us. This guy did his best to pretend that he wasn’t looking at us when we acknowledged his presence. Several times I saw him behind and stopped and he stopped. Stopping quickly he went around us and stopped and pretended to look at some construction workers cutting a piece of wood. I took a picture of him just in case, and realized that his license was covered by mud and illegible. We waited but he continued to wait. We went around him and I saw him start up and follow us again. We stopped again, and he stopped in front of us. I got off my trike and let loose a string of expletives as I did my best gorilla impersonation and he sped off. I gestured that he was following us to a group of people on the street and they didn’t seem surprised, either that or they just nodded because they didn’t want to provoke the crazed white guy they just saw chasing a man on a motorbike.
In order to prevent curious motorists from following and creating a barricade where we have no where to turn, we simply slow to a crawl or stop. Cars will continue on because they block the road. Motorbikes are unstable at such slow speeds so they speed up and pass by. The trickiest are the children on bikes, as they always follow us till their hearts content while repeatedly yelling “hello”.
The rest of the day was uneventful. We were just exhausted. Much of the oil on our chains was scoured off by the dirt and grime and pedaling was an effort. Cher’s knee was beginning to ache and my legs just had nothing left. Looking for a good place to spend a rest day we were quite picky about our hotels and it paid off. Finding nothing along the main road we decided to head for the coast on a narrow sandy path. After passing through fields and cow pastures, we were greeted by the ocean. Along the beach, there were many “An Nghi”s, practically restaurants with guesthouse facilities.
We found a neat little bungalow on the beach with air-conditioning and hot water for just 150,000VND. We certainly wouldn’t need the air-conditioner with the cool ocean breeze. For once, we were put to bed by the pleasant sound of waves lapping on the beach instead of highway noise.
