Day 4 - Tan Ky to Pho Chau
We woke at 8am after probably the best nights sleep since we arrived, The evening before we had really nice food and fuelled up really well because both of us had just been sort of getting by on food and fueling rides on dates, nuts, gels and bits of food we bought road side. On checking out of the hotel we met up with Jos from Holland again, who we met and rode South with yesterday, Jos made his way back to the HCM trail and ended up staying in the town and hotel we stayed at. We had a quick breakfast of egg and herbs roll with Jos at a food stall over the road from the hotel and then we hit the road just after 9am. We continued down the HCM trail and Jos took a different route due south.
We left Tan Ky firstly heading west along the HCM trail and for the first 15ks it was very rural houses with lots of space at the front of them were the owners were growing herbs and tea and the usual kids playing outside, but what was notable was that there was virtually no traffic. This was probably due to there being a more direct southern route out of Tan Ky whereas our route looped west and then downwards. The plantations got a little larger with groups of tea picking workers hiding from the sun under umbrellas and under moveable shade covering. We also passed a large field with a guy and his buffalo traditionally plowing a field which was a pretty awesome sight as I have never seen this before and I don't think Alex will have.
I decided to use my camera today because we kept loosing a lot of good photo opportunities of crazy overloaded motorcycles or cute kids going nuts and shouting Hellooooooow. What would happen is you'd pass a bunch and by the time you got your iPhone out they would sort of stop what they were doing, and it happened a few times that we actually turn around to take there picture and they would leg it back up the road or back into there house laughing, so from now on I'm using my water proof camera around my neck so I can point and shoot at any good opportunity
After 25ks the Garmin showed we were coming up to a large river crossing so we stopped for coffee right before the bridge were a few guys were sat around having a beer. We ordered coffee and sat next to the guys and after a lot of gesturing and google translate they got the message we had come from Hanoi on our way down to Ho Chi Minh City. We have found the Vietnamese and especially the guys to be really inquisitive and don't mind invading your personal space. Alex's bike for the second day running particularly got singled out and one of the guys wanted a go on it and just jumped on it and made his way to the bridge with all his friends laughing and egging him on. After a couple of minutes he came back and handed the bike back to Alex and he continued to check both our bikes out including pressing the screen and button on my Garmin which was set up with today's route.
After resetting the Garmin and finishing our coffees we continued along good quality rolling road with the odd climb for the next 60ks through steeped hillsides of large tea plantations situated either side of us, and paddy fields with buffalo in them, it was typical Vietnam holiday brochure pictures stuff. Also, like day 2 we came across lots of beehives under trees although this time they were in someone's front garden and we so a lady at the front of the house. I wasn't going to miss this opportunity so I slammed on the brakes with Alex nearly rear ending me as I manage two bee hives myself in my garden at home. By the time we got back to the front of the house the lady had gone in so we parked the bikes up and waited while observing the hives, there was certainly a lot of activity with bees coming and going obviously foraging pollen. The lady came out again after a few minutes and we gestured for her to come over and she did. Through gesturing and Google translate we asked if we could look near the hives, she nodded and walked towards the hives were we stopped and she just walked straight up in a tee shirt leggings a flip flops and opened the tops off a couple of hives. No smoke, no protective suite, no gloves, nothing, I couldn't believe it. The hives were very strong with most of the frames covered in bees. She put the lids back on and we asked through Go.ogle translate if we could taste the honey, she nodded. We went up to the house and she took out containers of honey. She took the lid off a bottle and you could see it was pure raw honey, it hadn't been strained or nothing because there were not only bits of comb in there were a few dead bees - real raw unprocessed stuff. She filled a thimble up and we had a taste, it was lovely. She ran back in the house and came out with a litre bottle of honey in a plastic bag for us and thrust it into Alex's hands. We couldn't take it as we are both running with two panniers full of kit, what a shame!
We offered the lady money but she shook her head and just smiled. We smiled back and gestured we need to go and we waved good bye, what an unforgettable experience of Vietnamese beekeeping.
Further down the road we went past a family outside there house, two kids playing, mum looking busy and dad fanning the flames around a the carcass of a full goat, it was a whole new meaning to a Sunday roast for us!
Our destination of Pho Chau approached and we planned to stop at a guest house in the town but on our last 3ks out we went past a large resort hotel on our left which looked really nice, we didn't spot this the previous evening when me and Alex go through the ride profile and work out options for accommodation, but after googling the hotel we ended up staying here. Today we planned to do just the set route as we were already a day ahead but what we got today was riding 87ks side by side through unbelievable landscape taking in plenty of coffee & honey stops, it was more like a recovery day and we loved every minute.
We left Tan Ky firstly heading west along the HCM trail and for the first 15ks it was very rural houses with lots of space at the front of them were the owners were growing herbs and tea and the usual kids playing outside, but what was notable was that there was virtually no traffic. This was probably due to there being a more direct southern route out of Tan Ky whereas our route looped west and then downwards. The plantations got a little larger with groups of tea picking workers hiding from the sun under umbrellas and under moveable shade covering. We also passed a large field with a guy and his buffalo traditionally plowing a field which was a pretty awesome sight as I have never seen this before and I don't think Alex will have.
I decided to use my camera today because we kept loosing a lot of good photo opportunities of crazy overloaded motorcycles or cute kids going nuts and shouting Hellooooooow. What would happen is you'd pass a bunch and by the time you got your iPhone out they would sort of stop what they were doing, and it happened a few times that we actually turn around to take there picture and they would leg it back up the road or back into there house laughing, so from now on I'm using my water proof camera around my neck so I can point and shoot at any good opportunity
After 25ks the Garmin showed we were coming up to a large river crossing so we stopped for coffee right before the bridge were a few guys were sat around having a beer. We ordered coffee and sat next to the guys and after a lot of gesturing and google translate they got the message we had come from Hanoi on our way down to Ho Chi Minh City. We have found the Vietnamese and especially the guys to be really inquisitive and don't mind invading your personal space. Alex's bike for the second day running particularly got singled out and one of the guys wanted a go on it and just jumped on it and made his way to the bridge with all his friends laughing and egging him on. After a couple of minutes he came back and handed the bike back to Alex and he continued to check both our bikes out including pressing the screen and button on my Garmin which was set up with today's route.
After resetting the Garmin and finishing our coffees we continued along good quality rolling road with the odd climb for the next 60ks through steeped hillsides of large tea plantations situated either side of us, and paddy fields with buffalo in them, it was typical Vietnam holiday brochure pictures stuff. Also, like day 2 we came across lots of beehives under trees although this time they were in someone's front garden and we so a lady at the front of the house. I wasn't going to miss this opportunity so I slammed on the brakes with Alex nearly rear ending me as I manage two bee hives myself in my garden at home. By the time we got back to the front of the house the lady had gone in so we parked the bikes up and waited while observing the hives, there was certainly a lot of activity with bees coming and going obviously foraging pollen. The lady came out again after a few minutes and we gestured for her to come over and she did. Through gesturing and Google translate we asked if we could look near the hives, she nodded and walked towards the hives were we stopped and she just walked straight up in a tee shirt leggings a flip flops and opened the tops off a couple of hives. No smoke, no protective suite, no gloves, nothing, I couldn't believe it. The hives were very strong with most of the frames covered in bees. She put the lids back on and we asked through Go.ogle translate if we could taste the honey, she nodded. We went up to the house and she took out containers of honey. She took the lid off a bottle and you could see it was pure raw honey, it hadn't been strained or nothing because there were not only bits of comb in there were a few dead bees - real raw unprocessed stuff. She filled a thimble up and we had a taste, it was lovely. She ran back in the house and came out with a litre bottle of honey in a plastic bag for us and thrust it into Alex's hands. We couldn't take it as we are both running with two panniers full of kit, what a shame!
We offered the lady money but she shook her head and just smiled. We smiled back and gestured we need to go and we waved good bye, what an unforgettable experience of Vietnamese beekeeping.
Further down the road we went past a family outside there house, two kids playing, mum looking busy and dad fanning the flames around a the carcass of a full goat, it was a whole new meaning to a Sunday roast for us!
Our destination of Pho Chau approached and we planned to stop at a guest house in the town but on our last 3ks out we went past a large resort hotel on our left which looked really nice, we didn't spot this the previous evening when me and Alex go through the ride profile and work out options for accommodation, but after googling the hotel we ended up staying here. Today we planned to do just the set route as we were already a day ahead but what we got today was riding 87ks side by side through unbelievable landscape taking in plenty of coffee & honey stops, it was more like a recovery day and we loved every minute.
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