Day 13: Mountains, blown tires, worn breaks, and mountains

First, let’s talk about yesterday. Our first day off of this trip. We were in Hue - the Imperial City. I would love to tell you more about this lovely city, except that I was too busy swimming and reading books and taking naps to really explore it beyond a trip to the pharmacy. But it was SO GOOD to have this day off. 12 days in a row is a long time to ride bikes, and our bodies were starting to feel it. So a late morning’s sleep, a swimming pool, and lots of food that wasn’t rice or noodles was just what the doctor ordered.

And if the days before didn’t justify our day off, then today and the next two days do. We’ve made it into some seriously steep mountains here. The kind that road bikes just aren’t made for. I blew out two tires before lunch. And spent far too much time walking my bike up hills for my liking. But, that’s the Central Highlands! And we did touch the clouds not once, but twice in a mere 70 kilometers. And today was just 70k and we made it here at 4pm. Tomorrow we have to go 110k! Let’s hope we got all the bike troubles out of the way today, eh?

It did bring back that old familiar phrase which rang through my head a few weeks ago. Only this time more loudly. DISTINCT LACK OF LOW GEARS!

That’s about it for now. I spent too much energy today being distracted/annoyed by the bike troubles to take too much note of the things we were seeing. But I saw some good valleys and mini waterfalls (aka Trickly Hows) nonetheless.

But one more thing, on an entirely unrelated note. If you notice my sudden disappearance on the popular blue and white social networking site of FB, that’s because the gov’t just blocked it for the entire country. So this is to answer the question of “where the @#$% is Katie,” should the question arise. And also to raise the question, “What the @#$% is going on in Vietnam? And what’s so dangerous about said blue and white site?” It truly is a crazy place. I’ll say no more, in the interest of maintaining access to this site.

See you in a few days for a cheerier update! 

PS – in fairness. All is still going exceptionally well. No one’s been really hurt, everyone’s made it the whole way. And we’re getting along splendidly, considering we’ve been together non-stop for two weeks now doing some pretty tough stuff. So bring on the Central Highlands, that’s what I say!