Day 6: I think this is becoming a party

I didn’t write anything yesterday, mostly because I didn’t want to come on here and winge about the miserable roads we were on. Hwy 1 is terrible:  huge trucks with loud horns who think it’s a game to see how close they can get to us. The whole day was long and flat and dusty. So I didn’t write about yesterday. Well I guess I just did.

But that’s because today was the best day ever! Definitely my favorite day so far. We took a short ride to meet up with the Ho Chi Minh Highway and then headed south on that all day. It was another lovely new road with almost no cars, and it was through GORGEOUS mountains. It was so. very. nice to have some hills and interesting scenery after two relatively boring days. I could tell that my legs are getting stronger, and focused much less on the “distinct lack of low gears.”

About 40k down the highway, we stopped for a food and water break (we’re eating a whole lot these days, including peanut butter by the fingerfull and 1.5 litre bottles of soda, I digress). And this time our break, for some reason, also included beer. (It’s sugar and calories and electrolytes, right? Isn’t that what we’re after?) After about 30 minutes, as our friend Sam so aptly put it “right guys, I think this is becoming a party, we still have 40k to go.” It was true, so we moved on.

A few miles down the way, we took  a (correct) left turn, but found ourselves going the wrong way on a one-way two-lane street. In my book, this isn’t safe, so we turned around and consulted our driver (who, by the way, is a saint and a genius and knows everything about Vietnam’s roads, and his name is Bac, as in Johann Sebastian). His message was clear “that way, Laos. This way, Pho Chau.” Wrong way on a one-way street it was. Carry on. But then it seemed that cars were heading in both directions, most of them on the wrong side of the road, so I chalked it up to thingsiwillneverunderstand and hoped for the best.

In short, today was lovely because the ride was challenging and splendid. We took lots of breaks so we stuck together a little more than usual, and there was lots of laughter at random happenings.

In other news:

• I got poked and groped some more by Vietnamese women this morning
• I raced a kid who was running barefoot, and defeated him ruthlessly, it’s really not fair and I should not be so competitive with small children. Ask my old students how many of them beat me arm wrestling, I just can’t help it.
• Everyone in this town finds us hilarious and we don’t even have to do anything. My hair is so short it doesn’t make sense and my friend’s legs are so long that it doesn’t make sense. Good entertainment for all.
• I nearly hit three different cows at three different times today.