After a few days in the central highlands of Vietnam, we’re now back on the coast in a town called Mui Né. We set off early this morning from Di Linh, keen to beat the heat as much as we could. Apart from a couple of long climbs at the start of the ride, we descended for much of the 110km as we travelled back down to sea level.
(Early morning reflections on the still water of a rice paddy)
(Nicky sporting her winter gloves and face mask for a bit of extra sun protection)
(A busy blue bee at work)
At around the 40km mark, and still in the more mountainous area, we stopped at a small village for a drink, knowing the next town was another 40km away. The steep mountain area we had rode through reminded us a lot of the landscape we experienced in Laos and this small village with its dirt roads and wooden huts also felt very familiar. We pulled into a small roadside shop for a glass of sugarcane juice. Nuoc Mia, fresh sugarcane juice, is a popular drink and every second shop or roadside stall seems to sell it. The peeled sticks of sugarcane sit in buckets of water, ready to be pressed by the juicing machine. Unlike many of the machines we had seen in other towns, this one was a manual one and Nicky jumped in to assist the young woman who was huffing and puffing to turn the handle and crush the tough cane for us.
(It's thirsty work making sugarcane juice)
At this point, four local guys turned up on a motorbike - one motorbike for the four of them. The first guy jumped off and made straight for Paul’s beard. The second jumped off and took the camera from Nicky, keen to take a photo of his mate with Paul. Once they’d had a few photos taken, they had a go at the juicing machine themselves before jumping back on the bike and speeding off. They were pretty entertaining.
(Paul with a couple of local lads)
We were about 20km from our destination by lunch time and, keen to escape the sun, we stopped in the town of Ma Lâm for some food and shade. But it's hard to relax when covered in dust and knowing the final leg of the journey is still ahead so we didn't stay long. We were now back among the green rice paddies and coconut trees and could feel the head wind picking up from the sea.
(Not sea creatures but a dragon fruit crop)
(Fishing boats just outside of Mui Né)
By mid afternoon we arrived into Mui Né where it was clear from the endless resorts and souvenir shops that we were firmly back on the tourist trail. We took a room at the first hotel we enquired at, happy to have a lovely view of the ocean from our window. Tomorrow we'll explore some of what Mui Né has to offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment