January 14, 2007
To Mytho: navigating back roads
Pretty much the same routine to get on the road, it is a long day in kilometers. Not soon after getting started, we are at the river and in line for the ferry. It's still just barely light, the wait and ride only takes about a half hour, and we are off again counting down the kilometers.
After about 15km we stop at a roadside cafe. Patrick had just picked up 2 baguettes from a sandwich vendor and orders iced coffee. We start to eat the baguettes with Nutella and cheese. This time we are served glasses of ice, a small pot of tea water and the coffee comes dripping through a steel/aluminum pot setting on top of a tall shot glass. We look at each other, wondering what we are supposed to do. The contraption on the glass worked like a French coffee press. So, we dumped the coffee into the ice and drank up.
After Vinh long, we take the bridge across the river. It's huge, a Friendship Bridge with Australia-Vietnam, and a great view of the Mekong Delta. The adventure then begins when we reach the intersection to Cai Be.
We turn off the route to try to find a secondary road that follows the Tien Giang river to Mytho. The first 4 km to Cai Be was a piece of cake. Finding the road wasn't. We ask for directions several times; most people try to direct us back to the main road. It's hard to convince them we want the secondary road that follows the river.
A couple of bridges and the road gets too narrow for cars, then the concrete disappears, and we are on gravel that then also narrows to just a bike lane.... It's pretty riding though. We follow the canal in roughly the right direction. There are small houses, rice fields, palm trees and banana groves everywhere. We get to what seems to be a major intersection with a narrow high wooden bridge spanning the canal. Patrick suspects we did not go far enough South, so we turn here and head south trying to find the road our map shows.
Instead, we get to a sand road, wide enough for cars again and follow this then further east. We keep stopping regularly to ask directions, but most responses are ambiguous at least...when we finally do reach civilization again, in the form of an asphalt road, we see a sign for Cai Be!
If we had stayed on the main road, we would have reached this about 10km past the intersection we turned at...instead it took us more than 20km and a couple of hours on some of the prettiest roads and paths we have seen so far in the Mekong Delta. So, we are not complaining, it's just that we still have about 30km to Mytho.
Now we know where we are again, we turn South and finally find the secondary road along the Tien Giang arm of the Mekong. The last 10km hurt and the road construction/utility work on the last kilometers into Mytho don't help either. But we make it and quickly find the Dong Tien Hotel. We're on the sixth floor, but there is an elevator! Patrick runs back out for some beers we feel we deserve, clean up and rest for a while drinking a second beer. There are nice views from the hotel. Patrick has filled up another card and burns the pictures to a DVD and hopes to mail to Nathan from Saigon.
We walk to a recommended restaurant, but instead end up eating Pho with Ca (noodle soup with vegetables and chicken) in the parking lot of an office building. Women have set up a stainless cooking cart and a bunch of tables and chairs and are serving a nice meal. People already seated seem to be middle class office workers, so we guess the food is safe.
Today's ride: 118 km (73 miles)
Total: 4,155 km (2,580 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |