To Long Xuyen: Meeting a south Vietnamese soldier veteran

January 11, 2007

The road out of Chau Doc is a bit confusing with some splits and turns and no road signs. It's a two lane road until it leaves the town, then it widens into a four lane highway with nice smooth asphalt. Bad thing about the smooth ride is that Rachel's front wheel wobble returns.

We stop for a coffee break, they make a half cup of very strong sweet coffee and then pour this in a large glass filled with ice, then stirring it all together. We have our baguette and Nutella breakfast. About 10km before our destination we stop at another road side coffee, they occur about every 100 meters, and we have a cold coke. Patrick put the one narrow tire we kept after the tire switch in Bangkok back on Rachel's rear wheel. That seems to fix the wobble...we'll see.

We cross a bridge and thinking we are in Long Xuyen we start looking for our hotel. Turns out we were one bridge too soon, a couple of tuk tuk drivers set us straight. We find a hotel and settle in on the third floor. This time, no elevator so we shuttle gear up. The bikes can be locked up in the lobby, 2000,000 Dong includes breakfast, the room has a fan, fridge, hot shower and TV. We clean up and have lunch in the only restaurant Lonely Planet recommends in this town. The place is busy that we take as a good sign. The owner is a very friendly guy that comes a couple of times to talk to us. We watch some TV and then walk along the riverside. Many colorful boats, a fruit market and people everywhere. Makes for good pictures.

For dinner, we go back to the same restaurant. The owner explains he is a retired math teacher in the local high school, and during the war (he looks around to make sure no one is listening in) he was an artillery lieutenant with the South Vietnamese army. He flew as a spotter in US war planes. He gets a small leather folder and show us pictures of himself as a young officer. Per our guidebook, South Vietnamese officers faced five years in a re-education camp and problems with getting jobs thereafter.

Patrick tries to ask him about this more, but communication is too difficult to delve deeper.