day 50 - Mai Chau to Vu Ban

Friday, 13 December 2013

Day 50 of our trip and we continue to be surprised by the lovely people we meet along the way.

We had a bit of a late start this morning after a great breakfast at the hotel. Mr Duong and his staff saw us off and we were really grateful to have had such a good stay with them. They kindly gave us some honey from their own kitchen as we hadn't been able to find any for sale at the markets since leaving Thailand. 

(A view of Mai Chau from the road)

After some good flat riding through the outskirts of the town, we began a long climb through a mountain pass just as it began to rain. Lucky we had our emergency rain ponchos! Thanks Aaron! From the top, we had a 10km descent through the mist and we felt pretty numb with cold once the road flattened out again. We stopped for lunch to warm up and, once back on the road, we turned onto a quieter road recommended by Mr Duong. The scenery was beautiful. We passed many small villages and people at work in the rice fields. Children were playing or cycling home from school and there were animals everywhere. 

(Emergency poncho!)

At one point we passed a large group of people leaving a house. Everyone in the group was wearing white head bands. The mood seemed very sombre and we presumed it was a funeral. We also passed a number of tombstones nearby which we hadn't seen since beginning our trip. We wondered if the local people bury their deceased rather than cremate them.

(Rice paddies and rolling hills)

(A wedding tent in the distance provided a splash of colour to the scenery)

(Accompanied by a group of school kids)

68km later, we arrived in Vu Ban. We immediately understood why Mr Duong had recommended taking the back road as the main road had become a thick muddy mess. We decided to try and find accommodation in the town and then do the remaining 50km tomorrow to get to our next destination - Cuc Phuong National Park.

It didn't take long to find a guesthouse. The woman who greeted us showed Nicky a room but as her English was limited and Nicky had only a few words of Vietnamese, the woman called to a boy outside who came in and translated. His name was Ngoc and he was probably about 15 years old. He picked up a phrasebook from behind the reception desk and used that to ask us any complicated questions, sometimes referring to the browser on his mobile phone for help. 

(Ngoc and Paul)

After we had moved our belongings to the room, we began to leave the hotel to look for food when Ngoc offered to help us. He asked what we'd like to eat and lead us in the direction of a small restaurant. Once we got there, he asked the woman, who appeared to be the owner, what food she had and he went about translating back and forth between the woman and Nicky. Nicky attempted a few words and also resorted to her best impression of a chicken laying an egg. The woman began to cook and brought dish after dish to our table. Our favourite was a stew with potato, turnip and ham. We were attempting to compliment her on the dish but she understood this to mean that we wanted more, and the food continued to come out. 

She was a lovely woman who seemed keen to talk to us and we wished we had been able to have a conversation with her. We wondered if they get many foreigners travelling through the town as quite a few people seemed to arrive and stood around watching us eat. We rolled out of the restaurant, entirely satisfied. Ngoc had sat near us the whole time, studying his phrasebook but politely refusing when we offered to share our meal with him. He then took us to a local shop where we were able to stock up on some snacks for the ride tomorrow. He seemed perplexed by our huge appetites, asking when our last meal was. He walked us back to the hotel and we said farewell, grateful to have met him and to have had his help. 

(The lovely woman who cooked us dinner)

Tomorrow we will ride to the national park where we'll spend two nights.