D16: Kẻ Sặt to Hà Nội

February 19, 2018

Cyclos in Hanoi seem to now be entirely a tourist thing

Waking up in the morning, I noticed that my room had mosquito nets. Therefore, I can't really complain too much about the buzzing around my head as the two or three mozzies I hadn't already successfully swatted dead tried to find a nice piece of exposed skin to bite. Obviously, as I am current complaining, I can (and will) still complain, it's just that I can't complain too much. If I'd been paying attention at all, I would have seen the net and I could have dropped the net nice and early in the evening and not had any issues with the little bloodsuckers.

It's just, it's been so long since I've stayed in a hotel room with mosquito nets. At least 4 years and more likely 6. I suppose a few of the CNY 30 a night places that Myf and I stayed on the 2015 ride from Shanghai to Shenzhen probably would have had mosquito nets (or at least mosquitoes) if we'd been traveling in summer. But, even though my willingness to pay more money is certainly—to some degree—a factor, it seems that Chinese hotel rooms these days all have window screens and air conditioning. Vietnamese hotels—even some of the fairly nice ones—don't even necessarily have window glass in all the windows!

Combine that with things like all the men smoking, the heaps of trash by the sides of the big roads and the canals or the smoldering piles of rubbish on the outskirts of little villages and Vietnam is really reminding me of some of the nasty backwards habits that China has finally started to get over.

Even when the road is clean(ish) there's still lots of trash

A newly built building that hasn't finished getting painted (and lots of random roadside rubbish)

Only Vietnam is very much not China. The people shouting "hallo" at me are doing so in a more happy less catcalling fashion. Instead of grabbing their parents and pointing at me, the children wave (and wave, and wave, and wave, and wave until I finally acknowledge that they are waving). The toilets do not stink. With the exception of a closed petrol station by the side of the road in Cẩm Phả every single bathroom which I have relieved myself in has had toilet paper (something which even the hospital in Dongxing couldn't manage) and most of them have had soap. And while holiday season may certainly play some role, the people seem more relaxed and just generally happier on average. I've also yet to see casual violence towards children or animals.

I had a breakfast that was probably some sort of Phở (or maybe Bun) in the market close to my hotel. In a scene that was very reminiscent of my early days in China, I managed to clearly make my order known by way of dramatically acted sign language only to have a patron with just enough English to be trouble volunteer to help me and confuse them. When my soup noodles arrived, I followed the example of other patrons with squeezing lime juice in and adding hot pepper sauce.

I went south from Kẻ Sặt in the direction of An Khải. The road was perfectly pleasant but I turned anyways and followed alongside the little river for approximately 8 or 9 kilometers certain for the first half that it was surely going to turn paved "very soon" and equally certain for the second half that I'd gone far enough that it wasn't worth turning back. The next 10 or 11 kilometers were a fine bit of blacktop through a dull bit of countryside. This was followed by a truly lovely stretch of riverside road that was practically village and temple and temple and village for at least all of the next 5km. Unfortunately, while it was paved, the concrete was cracked and lumpety and I bounced around even more than I had when I was on dirt.

Even the fancy graves in China usually aren't as fancy as the normal graveyards here

Walking directions per Google Maps decided at some point that I wanted to be on a singletrack dirt trail. I very much did not want to be on a singletrack dirt trail nor was I especially trusting what sort of ferry boat the trail was going to lead me to. I still ended up spending another 3km on a lightly graveled dirt road before I got back to blessed pavement. With the exception of being well inland (anywhere from 600 meters to 1.6 kilometers) and often having houses or temples on the river side, the road I was on now seemed very much to be a dyke protecting the lowlands from the river in flood. It really didn't make any sense at all but it had to be at least 4 or 5 meters above the surrounding countryside on either side and it looked very much like the dykes I'd ridden on top of near the Yangtze.

I'm going this far and no farther down this path

Unfortunately, although this side of the river is a lot more used, it's still dirt

There were a bunch of interesting murals underneath this bridge. Most of them weren't well placed to be photographed.

Looks like a fairly big temple down that ways

This ceremonial entrance gate to the neighborhood may have once been a real gate

And a smoldering pile of rubbish because everywhere has to have a random smoldering pile of rubbish

Up over a bridge and down into Hanoi. First stop - coffee. Second stop - the backpacker district. I figured the hotels there would probably be cheaper and I knew they'd all have laundry service. There's only so many days in a row I can hand wash my jerseys before they just feel gross. Also, a few of my cotton items for wearing off of the bike hadn't fully dried after their last washing and they smelled rank.

Finding a hotel took far more time than it ought to have. For starters, all the booking websites like Expedia start prices by showing the cheapest room available which, in many cases, was a 6 or 8 or 10 bed dormitory. Next of all, it really bothered me that everyone wanted to quote the price at me in dollars and couldn't or wouldn't tell me how much in Vietnamese Dong. Finally, I didn't want to leave my bike outside on the street. By the time I found the first place that managed to meet all three of these minimalist requirements, I didn't even care to check what their rooms were like or how soft the bed was, I just paid.

I don't know what's more impressive, that she's staying balanced like that behind two people or that her shoes haven't fallen off

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 747 km (464 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0