January 31, 2007
To Dak To: taking minivan inland
Patrick hops out of the minivan, adamantly says, "No, if bike goes on that bus, I go on that bus". Finally, Patrick's bike is unloaded from the top and placed in the back of the minivan. We continue on, reaching Kon Tum bus station about 11:00.
Amazing how a half hour earlier waking up seems more difficult. We have to be at the bus station by 0530 to catch the 0600 bus to Kon Tum, supposedly the only bus that will take bicycles.
We arrive, still dark, trying to figure out how to get into the bus station. Men stop us and say "no" when we ask, "Bus to Kon Tum". At 0645, we see one bus with Kon Tum in the window leave. Patrick goes into the station, walks around looking at the busses, no luck. Still the men say "no". We unpack and start to prepare the bikes for the ride, when all of a sudden there is a bus for 300,000 and Patrick negotiates down to 200,000.
Bikes are tied to the roof of the minivan with no rack. Gear stacked in the back and we wait. A paper taped to the windshield indicates 0645 on 31-01...so we wait and soon we are off. The driver honking and the conductor shouting out the window for more passengers. Besides us, there is an elderly man aboard. We are trolling for more passengers, and overtime we get more people and more stuff till we are full except the front seat. People have to get on and off quickly...under 5 sec, the bus barely stopping. At one stop, one of our panniers fell out but we got it back in...it was the one with Dan's ashes and Rachel wrote to Laura "we almost lost Dan today".
As we climb higher, the minivan honks for a big bus to stop. They start to untie the bikes and indicate they are putting at least one bike on top of the big bus. We think from the pantomime of blowing a whistle and writing it must be illegal for the bikes and they are afraid of a ticket. The bikes stay in the minivan and we reach Kon Tum.
As we put the bikes back together, we have an audience. Patrick gives the Christmas Bell ornament hanging off his back rack to a man watching us. We head to the "Family Guesthouse" and down the road, we stop and talk over whether to stay here or ride the 40kms to Dak To.
We decide to ride on.
First, we get baguettes and stop for an orange drink and Rachel makes a ham and cheese sandwich. The road is hilly with traffic of buses and trucks. We ride through coffee fields, happy that it is a "short day" and that we moved on, our visas expire February 9. We reach Dak To around 3:30 and find the "Green Guesthouse" that had been mentioned to us from other cyclists. It's a bit dingy and a dirty bathroom with 5 old toothbrushes and an empty Colgate tube still lying around...but at least we have a place to stay.
Patrick rides on to explore the town and brings back beer and water and says there's a restaurant nearby. There's no hot water and we take "spit" baths, then dinner of chicken, rice, sliced pork, lettuce and cucumber.
A long day and we are tired.
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Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 4,926 km (3,059 miles)
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