Day 49: Rach Gia - Ha Tien - Frankie goes to.....Indochina

February 21, 2018

Day 49: Rach Gia - Ha Tien

Routing: #QL80

By no means a pleasant end to my cycling days in Vietnam. Avoid that QL 80 if you can! It basically is a narrow country road in poor condition definitely not suited for the amount of traffic on it nowadays, coaches in particular. Amazing number of them going to or coming from Ha Tien, serving any city down in the South of Vietnam. They are my enemies no. 1. When they blow their compressor horns right next to you - and for some reason the retarded individuals driving them love doing that - it does physically hurt. Just one positive aspect about the 90 km today: wind from behind all the way up to Ha Tien which made the ride at least as short as possible.

But then! The story I can still hardly believe. My Portland based advisor had recommended the Viet Toan Guesthouse and I had asked google maps to take me there. When approaching the town I stopped on the bridge to take a photo and a nice young man on his scooter stopped next to me, asking the usual questions. At the end he wanted to know whether I would accept his business card as he is running a guesthouse. You know what´s coming now.... the Viet Toan. If you take the amount of people on the road into consideration and would know there are dozens of hotels and guesthouses in town, how minimal is the chance to be addressed by the owner of the very guesthouse you are headed for anyway? I love that sort of stuff. Minimum two nights before I move back into Cambodia, just 5 km up the road.

You may have seen an egg sandwich before even if it is unlikely it was as nice as this one. The reason for me posting this photo is the wrapping paper. The banh mi always come wrapped in some sort of scrap paper, attached with a rubber ring. On two occasions I had the printing ink on the bread but don´t think it added to the taste

Back down at the sea. While the Mekong was the backbone of the first half of my trip, the Gulf of Thailand will from now on be on my left until I move over from Koh Samui to the Malaysian border

The QL 80 offered some nice views over the very last kilometers. What you can´t see on this photo is the revolting condition of the road. It really was a miserable day on the bike

This is Mac Cuu and I still have to find out whether he is of Scottish descent

And that´s Puk, the owner of the Viet Toan Guesthouse

Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 3,876 km (2,407 miles)

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Nic RoetsYou could have left Road 80 at Kiên Luong. There is a ferry over the canal and then you have a shorter ride to Ha Tien on a quieter road. It's all mapped in OpenStreetMap.
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6 years ago

Frank RoettgenTo Nic RoetsI guess I have to familiarize myself more with all the various maps options that are available on the internet, Nic. I find it annoying to learn afterwards there would have been far better options....Thank you for your comment anyway, possibly somebody else will be able to take advantage of it!
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6 years ago