Day 4: Ngoc Lac – Thai Hoa

Distance: 66.7 miles

Time: 5:54

Average Speed: 11.3 mph

I had curtailed my scheduled plans for the day and was now aiming for a hotel at 58 miles, due to yesterday’s punishing ride.

I wheeled out to the high street for breakfast and had the customary beef and noodle soup, then set off around half 8.

When I set off, I started to feel like this was the Ho Chi Minh Highway proper, it was a much more substantial road of freshly-laid tarmac, rolling along over shallower gradient hills, and I was able to tick off the miles much more quickly. During the morning, cloud cover came and went and with the slightly less hot conditions of the mid morning I managed to rack up 30 miles by midday.

I stopped at a roadside Banh Mi seller during the morning too, picking up two Banh Mi baguettes and a Coke for 30,000 Dong, in other words, one pound. The baguettes were tasty appearing to be filled with a chunk of omelette, chopped up hot dog and chili sauce (for the record, that’s hot dog as in American style sausage…). While I was stopped, I was interrogated by the owner’s daughter, something I’m getting used to from children of around 10 keen to try out their English skills. what’s your name, what age are you, where are you from? Not sure they’ve heard of Scotland but some had heard of the UK!

Into the afternoon, the heat picked up – reaching 28 degrees – with the length of the hills increasing in solidarity . Infuriatingly, the enjoyment of the similarly lengthening downhills was tempered by a stiff headwind.

Reaching 45 miles at ten past two, I realised that my initial goal of 67 miles for the day was back in reach. Looking at hotel reviews on Google, I hazily remembered the reviews for the Riverside Hotel Thai Hoa from my pre-trip planning, so reset my course for there and spent the last 9 miles on a quiet back road.

Arriving at the hotel and waiting to check in, I was shocked to find Mark from the hotel at Mai Chau coming out of the lift. On their motorbikes, he, and friends Phil and Lou, had headed for the coast yesterday, decided they didn’t fancy the coast highway so headed back inland today. It was an utterly random chain of events that had led us all to be at this hotel tonight, and it seemed like a good reason to have a few drinks!

Going for dinner afterwards, we wandered for ages through town before jumping in a taxi and, asked for a restaurant recommendation. We got dropped at an ideal place, 100m from the hotel. It did make getting home afterwards straightforward.

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