That is a beautiful breakfast .. probably even more delicious than canned chicken.

I would imagine a similar breakfast in Portland (with far inferior fruit) would cost at least $15.00.

And didn't Bruce mention in the 'missed splurge' entry that your breakfasts ran about 50 cents for the two of you?

Fake it ‘til you make it, I say!

Love that view.

Your smile always seems to say "All is well; in fact, life is just great!"

It fooled me!

Heat stroke is deadly for sure. When I read other cycling journals and they mention how hot they are I worry about them. Most people don't realize how quickly you can die from heat stroke. I'm prone to it and I've been extremely lucky. Andrea has pulled me through twice. I hope I never have to try to survive it again. Horrible stuff. And it would have been a horrible place to die - for Andrea to deal with all that would entail.

I do wish we had splurged because how often does anyone get a chance to be the first to stay in a brand new hotel with nobody else staying there? BUT, we went on and that evening we met a man who turned out to be one of the highlights of our entire trip. He was so fun and generous - the epitome of the Vietnamese people. We wouldn't have met him if we had stayed in that new hotel. A hotel is just a building but an interaction with a person is a much more meaningful experience. I have to keep remembering that fact.

Again .. so glad you were there, Andrea, to help Bruce! And that you were both able to laugh the next day about you telling him to get his shit together.

What a scary situation with the internet and your sister confirming the seriousness of it all.

Glad we had yall's words of wisdom and tales of heat stroke terror to help prevent us from going there on Porridge. I think we were close a couple times.

Maybe if they painted it black and white and positioned the rectangle thingys so that it looked like a piano ??

Crikey! Since Bruce is still around, hopefully that means the ceiling is gone .. or re-designed and painted more tastefully.

Yeesh! How scary. Thank goodness Andrea was there to help you!!

That looks like a very wise frog!

I can't imagine riding a bike through this chaos .. but I see the woman in the yellow shirt and I remember something Scott said about 'riding like a fish' in urban areas of Taiwan.

1,000 miles is a big deal, especially with all of the rain that you had.

Belated high fives!

I wondered if the poor pup may have ended up being someone's meal ...

Regardless of how the rest of her life went or how much longer she lived, I'm glad she got to experience the moment of compassion that you provided.

And whether or not the witnesses agreed with or understood your response, it's an experience that they likely remembered .. the beauty of cultural exchange!

Since dogs are often eaten there, at restaurants even, I think that they were fairly bemused by me caring for the poor little thing. I had yelled at the driver that hit him seemingly on purpose, and I asked them to give pupdog some water. There was a lot for them to observe, the dog crying, the two foreigners being emotional (which is fraught with meaning and uncertainty for them and best faced impassively), and the comical aspect of our little loaded bikes. No doubt they talked about it at dinner that night. The dog was probably injured enough that it became the meal but we weren’t able to discern whether the stray dogs there are pets or meat or both so all we can do is get back on our bikes and ride away. That’s a price you pay in a country where you have little communication skills and only a breezy awareness of local culture. Sometimes you just ride away from a mystery situation. I do not think these people were unkind but it was a sad scene and I’ll never forget the dog’s tail wagging hopefully when I picked her up and talked to her.

What a great experience! And even better that you got to take his smile home with you .. and share it with your readers!!