The Road to Hue

Not one of my best days but I'll start at the beginning. Our first stop out of town was at the marble carving factory. Big business in this part of the world. After that it was a nice stretch along the coast to Da Nang and the famous China Beach. This was a huge US Military base during the war.

I was feeling very queasy, upset tummy, and a stiff neck. So when we got to the end of the first 20k of the 100 I was already toast. I jumped in the bus and road. I wasn't planning on biking up the mountain pass anyway. Fionna joined me and we met the rest of the gang at the top of the pass. Hai Van Pass is the most famous pass in the country. There was plenty of traffic and one student driver who almost caused an accident. The views were amazing. 

Geoff and the rest made it up the 10k in the heat and humidity. It was quite a climb. I hopped back on the bike for the descent which was a whole lot of fun, but I still wasn't feeling too good. We biked to lunch - another seaside resort. Put on our swimsuits and got wet. I went to the pool and dove right in before they asked for my ticket. Fionna was already swimming. We had no tickets and didn't intend to buy any. So we got out and quietly slipped away to change for lunch.

After lunch I continued riding the next 27k or so to the next stop. This road started off beautiful. Lots of breeze and nice trees with views of the coast. One minute you are enjoying the scenery and then bam! the next thing you know we are riding on pure gravel in what felt like a construction site with heavy work trucks along with the scooters and the rest. The road was horrendous. My butt and my neck were really getting sore. I slowed down quite a bit and Geoff stayed in the back with me. Finally made it to the rest stop and everyone got up and took off! I barely caught my breath and said screw it, I'll ride in the bus. I wasn't sure what condition the next road would be. They left Geoff behind as well, so he got on the bus. I felt bad for him but we were both sort of pissed that they didn't wait.  

It was a short ride and everyone got on the bus for the ride to the hotel. We didn't have much time to get ready for dinner. The restaurant was inside the Citidel. Very pretty and great food. Olivia ordered a glass of Vietnamese spirits and I joined her. It is some sort of booze made with rice. Stronger than what we know as saki. It felt real good going down and helped heal some of my wounds. I am hoping tomorrow is better.

Tomorrow is our last day with this bus driver and truck driver. The truck carries the bikes and trails the group.  They were both great. Tomorrow we tour the city and come back to the hotel to get ready for the train. We take an overnight train. We pick up new drivers and new bikes. Neither one of us has been on a sleeper train before. Should be interesting. Speaking of sleep.....

BTW, no wifi on the train - will post next day.
Next time... On that midnight train..