We spent today in Dong Le, giving our legs a bit of a rest. Dong Le is a small town and they certainly don't seem accustomed to having foreigners in town as we were stared at intently everywhere we went. On the whole though, people were friendly, particularly the children.
After breakfast, we made use of the large forecourt at the guest house to do some work on the bikes. It wasn't long before a small group of children had gathered around and wanted to have a little chat. The most talkative of the group was a little girl of nine, who had a brilliant expression of delight on her face when Nicky counted to ten in Vietnamese. The little girl then brought her sixteen year old cousin over to talk to us. We wish we could remember their names but sadly we can't. The sixteen year old had excellent English and we spent nearly an hour talking to her. She acted as translator for some of the adults who had also gathered around. They wanted to know where we had cycled from, why we had come to their town, where we were from, what we do for work etc. The girl had many questions about life in Australia and what it is like to fly in a plane. She was surprised to know we don't get terribly sick from the plane journey and to hear that it is very safe to fly. When we said goodbye, she said she hopes to see us some day in Australia. Hopefully she will get to travel and see some of the world one day.
(Fun with the kids at the guest house)
(The tall girl to Nicky's left hopes to travel to Australia one day)
(Paul perfecting his two fingered salute)
In the afternoon, we went for a walk around the town but found it to be very quiet, with many businesses closed. We returned to the guest house where we tried our first proper Vietnamese coffee which looks something like an upside down Guinness. They serve it in a small glass with sweetened condensed milk on the bottom. A filter is then placed on top to allow the coffee to drip through. Once the coffee has filtered through, they add an ice cube or two and mix it all together. It was quite more-ish!
By the time we headed out to dinner in the evening, the town was showing a few more signs of life. There was loud music playing from a nearby cafe and a few places serving food. We went back to the restaurant that we had eaten at the night before, as the owner had prepared a good meal for us. There was a large group of people already there and shortly after we sat down, Paul was approached by a couple of the men from the group, wanting him to drink their home brewed rice wine with them. This has happened on quite a few occasions on this trip - Nicky thinks it's his magnetic beard - but thankfully Paul has managed to politely decline without seeming to cause any offence. As we ate our meal, they continued to watch us but no more drinks were offered.
Tomorrow we will head towards the coast and then south towards Hué. We haven't yet determined where we will stop, only that we would like to cover a long distance so that we can be in Hué on the following day, which will be 6 January.
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