Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

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Vietnam — 11, a long road

2011-05-31

The next day we rode 86 km in 9 and a half hours. Decent, considering it was through the mountains. But we totally could have done more; luckily, we didn't have to. The elevation gain according to GPS was 1500 meters.

Vietnam 6 - Cycling


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Two gray armchairs with wooden armrests stand next to a dark coffee table with a tea set on it. Behind the furniture is a window with blue frames and light curtains.

Tea and a thermos are common, but the micro-trash can is only found in hotels

A window with blue frames and security grilles, framed by light curtains with a floral print. Green vegetation and a part of the roof of a neighboring building are visible through the glass.

Grilles on the windows, even though it's not the first floor

 The interior of a room with white walls, where cream-colored curtains with a floral pattern and a pink valance hang by the window. An air conditioner is installed on the wall, and below it stands a light wooden table with a pink desk lamp and a phone, next to a dark chair with a red seat.

You could get some work done, too. The room is a two-room suite, by the way, although there's only one bed — a double

A cream-colored multi-story building with blue balconies and a red tiled roof towers over a lush green lawn. It is surrounded by a variety of tropical trees, including palms, and thick bushes.

Outside

 A sepia image of a street with a multi-story light building adorned with balconies and many air conditioners. In the foreground on the right, massive power poles with transformers and wires are visible, and along the winding road stretches a metal fence and palm trees.

Way outside

 A bright fresh salad of green herbs, bean sprouts, and lime wedges, close-up in a blue bowl.

For breakfast, pho bo and pea shoots, very tasty

 A deep white bowl of Vietnamese pho bo soup showing flat rice noodles, pieces of beef, finely chopped green onions, and a metal spoon.

This is Pho Bo, in case anyone forgot

A woman on a moped with a child in front rides on a wet road under a large red and black checkered umbrella. In the background, other mopeds, houses, and the flag of Vietnam are visible.

Don't even need a car, got an umbrella

A round 'No honking' sign on a striped pole stands on a muddy shoulder. Behind it is a structure with a thatched roof and open doorways, as well as trees under a gray sky. 

Curious sign

In the foreground, on the muddy ground, samples of multi-colored ceramic tiles and several stacks of terracotta roof tiles are displayed. Behind them, on the porch of an old wooden house with a patterned green floor, two women are sitting.

The tiles in Vietnam are really beautiful, I became a fan

 A cyclist and a motorcyclist are riding on a wet paved road in a rural area. On the sides, houses, thick greenery, and hills under a cloudy sky are visible.

Zig-zag

 A paved road with a metal guardrail curves through hills covered in thick green forest. Ahead on the road, a round traffic sign with the number 17 in a red border is installed.

Greenery, fog, wet, it started raining

A green road sign in Vietnamese informs about a suspension bridge, indicating its length (130 m), load capacity (2.5 tons), and width and height restrictions. On the left, a blue awning and a part of a motorcycle are partially visible.

This is the promised classic sign with bridge data

 A long suspension bridge with a reddish-brown metal deck and concrete pylons crosses a wide muddy river. In the background, mountains covered with dense forest rise under a bright cloudy sky.

And this is a motorbike bridge. Pretty intense, huh?

 A cyclist with yellow panniers rides on a wet asphalt road towards a lowered red and white barrier next to a small yellow checkpoint building. In the background, forested hills and sparse village buildings are visible.

A boom barrier for some reason, maybe a toll road. Saw this only once, they raised it for us and didn't make us stop.

Four white ducks are wading single file through a shallow muddy stream and dirty cracked earth. A slope covered with greenery is visible in the background.

The geese are watching closely

 An elderly woman in a traditional conical straw hat and a striped shirt stands on a hillside by a bamboo railing, smiling and looking back against a backdrop of dense green vegetation.

Auntie picking cucumbers from the trees

A person in a conical straw hat and a striped shirt stands with their back to the camera, pointing a long wooden pole towards thick bamboo thickets.

Just like we do with apples

A pile of peeled wooden logs lies on the ground near a truck where people are working. Village buildings, a canopy, and forested hills are visible in the background.

Making plywood

A narrow river flows along a rocky bed in a gorge surrounded by thick green vegetation and trees. On the rocky right bank stands a small concrete structure partially covered with climbing vines.

Countless little rivers

 A round road sign prohibiting a distance of less than 12 meters between vehicles against the background of forested hills and a cloudy sky.

Another interesting sign, rarely seen

 Thick thickets of banana palms with large green leaves in the foreground, against the background of a green field and forested hills under a bright, cloudy sky.

I think this is a banana tree

 A rural landscape with a pond in the foreground, surrounded by lush green hills. An electrical pole is visible on the left near the water, and across the pond, on the far slope, there is a small village of huts with thatched roofs under a cloudy sky.

Poles and swamps are everywhere

 Three dark pigs at the foot of a clay cliff with a cave overgrown with greenery, from which a gray dirt scree descends. One animal stands at the cave entrance, and the other two are on the left in the foreground.

"The pig lives here," some Vietnamese guy told me later after looking at this photo. "Pig is tasty," another one said

A lot of peeled and sliced bamboo shoots with visible hollow cores, stacked together and partially covered with dry leaves and a striped bag, lying on a rough surface.

Maybe this is a mango tree. Or maybe not

A cloudy day in a mountainous rural area: a narrow river flows past green fields with grazing buffalo and thatched-roof huts. Forested hills crossed by power lines rise on the horizon.

 

 A small settlement with traditional huts under thatched roofs, nestled among tropical greenery and palm trees against a backdrop of a hilly mountain landscape.

A luxury-class hut and its satellites

A winding river flows along bright green rice fields in a hilly valley under a cloudy sky. In the distance, village houses are visible against the backdrop of forest-covered mountains.

I'd live here

 Three young people — a woman in cycling gear next to a loaded bicycle and two men — stand by the road in a rural area. The woman and one of the men are smoking against the backdrop of simple buildings, a Vietnamese sign, and tropical greenery.

French folks on motorbikes

I have to say, during our bicycle journey, we hadn't seen any European faces at all. These were the first we met in several days, not counting the bike wimps in the minibus. Their motorbike broke down, so they're fixing it. We also saw some character on a folding bike, mad respect to him.

 A man in a blue polo shirt stands on the left, while two other men in uniform discuss documents lying on the luggage of a motorcycle covered with a blue tarp. The action takes place outside in front of a building with a sign.

There's no way people like this wouldn't drive the Americans out

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Bridge, dog

A white toilet with an open lid stands in a bathroom with tiled walls and floor. To the left, a wide opening offers a view of a lush, bright green rice field. 

A crapper with a view of the rice terraces, very nice. You take a shit and admire nature

Did you think there'd be nothing else interesting in this post? You're mistaken. By popular demand, here is the most shocking and terrible food I ingested in Vietnam, and pretty much the most intense and creepy experience of the trip.

Two balut eggs with partially peeled shells lie in a white bowl, revealing a developing embryo and yolk.

For those who haven't heard, can you guess what this is?

 A boiled duck balut egg, peeled at the top, in a person's hand, with a formed embryo visible inside, featuring a clearly distinguishable small foot.

That's right, it's a boiled duck embryo

Using a dictionary, I translated it as "eggs, duck, wash inside out." After consuming four of these eggs, I almost turned inside out myself. Later I asked the locals if they actually eat this and even like it. And I ate it too, except I gave the most unappetizing parts to the dog in the photo below.

 Two smiling women and a child are sitting on red chairs, looking at the camera. In front of them stands a dog, against the backdrop of a simple home interior with pictures and boxes.

The hostess named Tam (Tam) and the doggie who helped me eat the eggs

The lady tried to explain to me for a very long time that I shouldn't order what I had ordered, but I'm a stubborn psycho. I regret nothing. I won't mess with your nerves anymore.

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This is Tamarind, a type of tree

Of course, it's "nectar," not juice, meaning a drink with sugar and enhancers. The taste is interesting, but too intense — you wouldn't drink it often, and it's too sweet. I have a suspicion that the tea from the last post was actually made of Tamarind, but you can only tell that by the color of the wood, not by the taste.

 

A narrow cobbled street in an old town under bright sun, creating a sharp boundary of light and shadow, with a few passersby and a strong sun glare in the distance. 

Muck

Several puppies of different colors are sleeping in a wire cage, next to which an adult light brown dog lies on the ground. In the background — muddy ground and a motorcycle wheel.

This is also a rare case where we saw doggies meant for food

I knew they eat dogs in Asia, but I'd only read about Korea, where they eat a specific breed. As it turns out, in Vietnam they eat them all. Every Vietnamese person I asked said that dogs are tasty.  I didn't eat a dog, but I would have tried it if the opportunity had come up. You can write letters to the UN if you don't like it. Believing that dogs are better than pigs, cows, rabbits, horses, and deer is, in my opinion, a double standard, hypocrisy, and a sick mentality. If you don't eat meat at all, or at least don't eat mammals, that I can still understand, but singling out dogs from other animals just because they're pets to you and not food is Western cultural fascism and narrow-mindedness.

A long row of thin sheets of wood veneer drying out in the open against the background of a two-story green residential house.

Prepping plywood

IMG_5636 

Plywood paradise

Stacks of wood veneer are piled by the side of a wet road next to a forested hill, while a pile of wood waste burns on the left, producing a tall column of thick white smoke.

Burning the scraps

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Craters of Mordor

 A round table with a glossy surface made of brown marble-patterned tiles along the edge and dark gray granite-patterned tiles in the center, decorated with an orange-and-white ornament. Next to it are blue plastic chairs, and in the background — shelves with drinks and food.

The tables are beautiful too, even in the huts

 A metal truss bridge with a wooden deck, crossed by cyclists and moped riders. Thick green vegetation is visible on both sides of the bridge, and its surface looks wet.

A curious bridge

 A three-story hotel and restaurant building, Trung Kiên, in Vietnam under a cloudy sky, in front of which there are signs in Vietnamese and topiary trees growing.

We came across this hotel near the end of the route, but we had already set our sights on the city

Two people riding a motorcycle on a wet winding road, with the rear passenger sticking their right arm out to the side.

They ride three to a motorbike, too

 Three smiling Asian schoolchildren in white shirts with light blue collars are riding a motorcycle on a road against a hilly landscape. The boy in the middle with a backpack turns around and laughs, looking at the girl sitting behind him.

Schoolkids

 A dirt road with puddles in a wooded area leads to simple village buildings, one of which has a 'WC' sign with an arrow. A motorcycle is parked near the buildings, a wooden ladder stands there, and a small child is visible.

An extremely rare case — the toilet is marked, and even Western-style, as WC

A motorcyclist rides on a wet paved road in a rural area, transporting a pig in a metal cage on the luggage rack. On the sides of the road, simple village houses, green trees, and passersby are visible under a cloudy sky.

Hauling a goat

 Close-up of a man with brown hair and light stubble, looking down in a black T-shirt with part of the yellow inscription 'LIVESTRON', against the background of a cloudy sky and green foliage.

Tired me

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Another extremely rare case — something resembling a trash can

A hand holds a black can of Vietnamese Birdy Black coffee with the AJINOMOTO logo on top, against a blurred background of greenery.

Canned coffee, a la USA. Coffee without milk, on the strong side

A tall spotlight pole with many lamps rises above a semicircular concrete structure with pointed roofs, resembling a grandstand. In the foreground — uneven ground with stones and sparse vegetation under a bright sky.

Vietnamese unfinished megaliths

 A black-and-white selfie of a man in a light helmet, glasses, and a dark T-shirt with the inscription 'LIVESTRONG'. A ruined industrial building with a metal roof structure and a wall of slabs are visible in the background.

Me again

 A low stone wall with white rectangular planters separates a dirt slope from a dense green forest stretching to the hills on the horizon. Two tall trees rise above the forest under a bright sky.

View from the megalith

 A two-story beige building with a red roof is located at the foot of a forested hill behind water-filled ponds. In the foreground spreads a plowed field with young shoots and a rag scarecrow.

Only three categories of buildings look this decent in Vietnam: schools, party buildings, and hotels

In the foreground is a dark body of water, behind which a winding dirt road leads to a yellow house with a portico and a parked scooter. The entire scene is surrounded by dense tropical vegetation and tall palm trees under a cloudy sky.

I'd live here!

A cyclist with touring gear rides on a wet road behind a scooter towards a multi-story hotel building in Vietnam. Trees, signs in Vietnamese, and a parked truck are visible along the road under a cloudy sky.

Stopped at the first hotel we came across

 

Two cyclists at night on a wet road. A man with a beard and a headlamp is towing the heavily loaded bicycle of a woman in a helmet using a special hitch. 

The hotel had a Kärcher, so the bikes got washed

Two white statues of boys against a yellow wall with windows. The right statue is part of a fountain, shooting a stream of water into a shallow pool.

It's fancy inside, though the hotel is also pricier than usual

 Top view of a shallow pool where numerous golden and a few dark fish are swimming. On the light green tiled bottom, ripples from falling water drops forming circular patterns are visible.

There are even live fish under the statues

 A spacious, dimly lit hall with long wooden tables and chairs, decorated with paintings, chandeliers, and ceiling fans. In the background, a red slogan in Vietnamese, a turned-on TV, and large vases with flowers are visible.

Lobby

A white teapot with a lid tied with string and four floral-patterned cups stand on a metal tray on a wooden table. In the background on the left, a blue ashtray and a glass are visible.

The ever-present tea

At the hotel that evening, I had a very long and detailed conversation with a staff member, a nice guy named Khuong. This is the only name the locals didn't understand when I pronounced it to them. I think he was also 28 years old, but he was a whole 20 cm shorter than me, which he joked about a couple of times. I spent a long time spinning yarns about Latvia to him, showing him photos on my iPhone, and asking him about Vietnam. He spoke fine, but with a brutal accent. I don't know how much of my stories he understood, since I also speak with a brutal accent, just a Russian one. Khuong said the city behind the hotel had a population of a million, but Wikipedia is highly skeptical about that. What else we talked about, you'll find out in the next post.

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