Day 23
Despite the normal cacophony of crowds of industrious people waking and going about their business reverberating through our room, I wanted to stay in bed. We could split the distance in half, but it’s also close enough that with a little perseverance we could make it. My subtle hints to make the distance more appealing failed as Cher quickly saw through my ruse. So we left it at, let’s just see where the day takes us.
Take us it did! After 4 miles of slight downhill, our angle of decent increased until we were cruising at 15 miles per hour doing little more than steering and breaking. Mile after mile, we rolled by and waited to see a mountain rising in front of us but none came. Instead of mountains rising in front of us, they rose on either side as we were channeled into a plateau, bearing the resemblance of postcards showing the signature Vietnamese landscape. Soon we began to see the rolling Karst formations that can only mean one thing, rock climbing! Stretching through much of Southeast Asia, these limestone forms, readily eroded by water, create a climber’s paradise with a multitude of features – pockets, stalactites and tufa, all of which are gentle on the finger tips. Only after 35 miles of downhill did our decent start to peter out.
This is what we came for, and the reason that we are carrying an extra 25 pounds of gear mile after mile. Both of us could use a few days of regularity. The daily adventure of finding food, and shelter is loosing its luster. Twice today we were hounded by over-curious individuals. First there was a man who was stepping over the line with his touching and refused to stop while we stopped at a street stall. I tried to make a point by pretending to get in his car, to which he thought we wanted him to put our trikes in his pint-sized car. This time Cher was not amused by my ambiguous international body gestures. Then a group of screaming school children on bikes surrounded us while we tried to locate our current position.
Finally upon arriving in Huu Lung, we quickly pulled into a hotel, unpacked and showered. Going out to the nearest town for groceries afterwards, we cycled without our bags for the first time and felt light as a feather. We are both looking forward to crashing with the promise of sleeping in.