Day 7 - Dong Hoi to Dong Ha
After a pretty tough day yesterday the overnight stay at the Nam Long Hotel was superb. Dong Hoi itself is a pretty little fishing town on the coast and we really enjoyed our stay and our visit to the "Cafe Bicycle" which is owned by an ex Vietnamese pro cyclist. Yesterday evening and this morning at breakfast on the front outdoor terrace at the Nam Long Hotel we fuelled really well on food because for the last week we had been sort of "surviving".
Our laundry was ready and we packed our bags and checked out of the hotel and had photos done with the staff, the Nam Long Hotel showed us real hospitality. Before we set off for our main ride for the day we actually loved Dong Hoi that much that we went for a "ride" around the town and beaches, it was really lovely with fishing boats and older ladies drying shrimp out on the front on mats with the sun beating down. Before we left town we had to have one last iced coffee at the "Cafe Bicycle". We pulled up on our bikes on the front and sat down with a group of Vietnamese students and workers and ordered our drinks. We got talking to one of the guys and the Cafe owners wife "Dao" came out with her phone open on her Facebook page with a picture of myself with yesterday cycling gear on riding into Dong Hoi. We remembered that a guy on a moped cruised along side us chatting and took some pictures and took off, obviously posting the pics which have gone viral amongst his friends and the Vietnamese cycling community in Dong Hoi! We couldn't believe it.
Sadly we had to leave Dong Hoi so we set off heading West back to the HCM trail which was around 7KM away. We passed through the outskirts of Dong Hoi and passed a small outdoor market were we stopped and took a few photos before we reached the HCM trail were we turned left and headed South / South East for what seemed like hours of endless uninspiring flat and rolling road with trees either side. Traffic was pretty light and the weather started to cloud and spit rain so we pulled over and put overshoes on just in case. Soon as we had done this 3ks down the road we had to stop again this time to put sun cream on!! The weather seamed to get hotter and hotter and I drained 1.5litres in bottles and virtually another 1.5litre bottle in my mid loader. It was weird as we said there was more places to stop and replenish in the more remoter areas over the last seven days than there was today. Finally we found a shop come house and bought water and some orange juice. We didn't really eat much today but had a few bananas which we purchased from the lady yesterday and some gels. The original planned stop over point tonight was Cam Lo, although to around 12ks to the east of there is a large town called Dong Ha were during the ride we said we would head for. Although further than Cam Lo we didn't mind because our route tomorrow actually came through here making tomorrow's ride to Hue even shorter. We turned off the HCM and passed through some villages and a moped passed us with a cage on the back with dogs in. Your guess is as good as ours but we think there will be three less dogs in Vietnam tomorrow to chase me and Alex! We rolled in to Dong Ha and tonight we are really pushing the boat out were we are staying at the Muong Thanh Grand Quang Tri Hotel. We cycled up the hotels grand entrance and parked our bikes in Valet parking were the concierge unloaded our panniers and parked our bikes for us. 800,000vnd!!! £26.00 for both of us with breakfast. Please don't stop my card Susan!
Our laundry was ready and we packed our bags and checked out of the hotel and had photos done with the staff, the Nam Long Hotel showed us real hospitality. Before we set off for our main ride for the day we actually loved Dong Hoi that much that we went for a "ride" around the town and beaches, it was really lovely with fishing boats and older ladies drying shrimp out on the front on mats with the sun beating down. Before we left town we had to have one last iced coffee at the "Cafe Bicycle". We pulled up on our bikes on the front and sat down with a group of Vietnamese students and workers and ordered our drinks. We got talking to one of the guys and the Cafe owners wife "Dao" came out with her phone open on her Facebook page with a picture of myself with yesterday cycling gear on riding into Dong Hoi. We remembered that a guy on a moped cruised along side us chatting and took some pictures and took off, obviously posting the pics which have gone viral amongst his friends and the Vietnamese cycling community in Dong Hoi! We couldn't believe it.
Sadly we had to leave Dong Hoi so we set off heading West back to the HCM trail which was around 7KM away. We passed through the outskirts of Dong Hoi and passed a small outdoor market were we stopped and took a few photos before we reached the HCM trail were we turned left and headed South / South East for what seemed like hours of endless uninspiring flat and rolling road with trees either side. Traffic was pretty light and the weather started to cloud and spit rain so we pulled over and put overshoes on just in case. Soon as we had done this 3ks down the road we had to stop again this time to put sun cream on!! The weather seamed to get hotter and hotter and I drained 1.5litres in bottles and virtually another 1.5litre bottle in my mid loader. It was weird as we said there was more places to stop and replenish in the more remoter areas over the last seven days than there was today. Finally we found a shop come house and bought water and some orange juice. We didn't really eat much today but had a few bananas which we purchased from the lady yesterday and some gels. The original planned stop over point tonight was Cam Lo, although to around 12ks to the east of there is a large town called Dong Ha were during the ride we said we would head for. Although further than Cam Lo we didn't mind because our route tomorrow actually came through here making tomorrow's ride to Hue even shorter. We turned off the HCM and passed through some villages and a moped passed us with a cage on the back with dogs in. Your guess is as good as ours but we think there will be three less dogs in Vietnam tomorrow to chase me and Alex! We rolled in to Dong Ha and tonight we are really pushing the boat out were we are staying at the Muong Thanh Grand Quang Tri Hotel. We cycled up the hotels grand entrance and parked our bikes in Valet parking were the concierge unloaded our panniers and parked our bikes for us. 800,000vnd!!! £26.00 for both of us with breakfast. Please don't stop my card Susan!
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