05/02: Back on the road to Tra Vinh (+81km; 2825km)

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After a day rest we set off to Tra Vinh. A lot of smiling people and hello's made us warm up again to the Vietnamese people. But we are feeling the road for some reason...maybe we had a bit too much R&R at the combodian coast in the end? ;-) Had a couple of good views along the way and some impressive "big government public works" sights such as the Can Tho bridge.

Tra Vinh is a charming, although basic enough town. Not too small, not too busy, not quite either, not too interesting, not too uninteresting...pretty bland at first sight. & also after the 2nd look (which mostly yielded a couple views of commi architecture). We did have a nice curry dinner in some restaurant which was all out of rice so they went out & got us bread instead. It was pretty hard to understand what they tried telling us in vietnamese, but in the end we had a good snack.

04/02: 1 Asshole makes the difference

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Decided to take a rest day in Can Tho. A bit bigger city, seemed fairly nice at first sight & we felt the urge of 'visiting' something...biking from A to B doesn't really count as visiting...So after sleeping out we headed into town looking for breakfast. Strolling the river front you get hassled by a lot of people for a boatride on the mekong & what you hear is correct. Vietnamese touting can be a real bitch. They just won't stop & go away, basically your first response has to be quite agressive to our standards so they get it immediately (even then....) or just totally ignore them, but really totally, if you even only give them a brisk moment of attention it's over.

So it seems baguette is also popular in Vietnam. So far we only had the paté, veggies & chili stuffing version and its good. And cheap 5-10k dong (0,25 - 0,5 USD) it just depends who you ask it to...Unfortunately we also managed to have the first shit experience!

Breakfast at some roadside terras, 15k dong for a noodlesoup (sort of a standard price) and when your finished eating it's 50k dong...the dude could speak a bit of english so we didn't asked him to show us the price in bills...and yes, 15 & 50 sounds similar...asshole. We paid not wanting to discuss about it too long, but this is clearly the shit, ****** bad stories you get from others tourists. And this 1 guy is enough to fuck up the feeling you get from vietnam, even if yesterday we met really nice people all day long. Bad sticks a lot harder then good unfortunately. Anyway, learned our lesson. If they speak a bit of english take double care! Always ask to see the bills or pay in advance or discuss & fight about the bill when they try to rip you off. And 100% sure he didn't say 50k & it doesn't cost 50k...all our other soups so far cost 15k. So the hour or so after breakfast we walked around frustrated before letting it be, but nobody likes to get ripped off. I even don't mind paying 50k for it if that's what he said in advance & I agreed to it! This way you just really get ripped! Anyway, from what I hear it seems it's a bit of a cultural thing in Vietnam to rip people off, not just tourists or whatever, the guy will probably try to rip off locals too if he can. Really a shame, cause if you have 5 guys like him on a 4 week trip through Vietnam (& a 1000 nice guys) it leaves a bad after taste. Especially if nobody in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore & Cambodia tried this kind of shit. Well, learned our lesson. Try to fuck me over, I'll fuck you over. Similar mentality as in traffic....?? Is there something in communism that makes the vietnamese wanna overcompensate their individualism/personal gain/...?

And we just don't learn it, but we don't really like 'visiting' all that much...after 1h strolling through town we got bored out of our mind & headed back to our hotel for some star movies & clothes washing in the shower. Next time lets just stick to biking :-)

Compensated lunch with a nice dinner & mama's got a pair of new shades.

03/02: 2 brits by bike for breakfast, lucky boattrip & crazy,drunk xe om's (+114km; 2744km)

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The day after Tet, Chinese (vietnamese) new year! So, Happy Tet! Vietnam so far is similar but clearly different from the other countries we've been to...for starts, Vietnamese are loud. So are cambodians, but vietnamese seem to be it especially when it gets dark & others want to sleep?!? WTF? Our hotel receptionist was screaming (no shit) all the time for some reason, so hard we got not get any sleep (and we had a room of the top, 6th, floor in the hotel)...crazy. Line even had to get up & go downstairs to give him a seriously pissed off look to shut him up. Luckily it worked so we finally managed to get some rest.

At breakfast we also met 2 British brothers biking around who were also heading to Can Tho so after a bit of "bike-chitchat" we headed our ways. Roads are busy! It's like an antfarm. Xe Om's (motos) everywhere moving in some strange kind of chaotic order. Only dodgy side is that a lot are drunk, shitfaced out of their mind even. We counted at least 3 dudes crashed on the ground with their xe om. Most Xe om's also shoot out of side streets into your path everywhere & its your problem to dodge them, they just don't care, they don't even look at the coming traffic! So without surprise we witnessed a guy crashing to the ground because some other dude suddenly getting in front of him. The idiot then takes a minute to watch the crashed dude & his xe om before going on with his bussines. Crashed dude doesn't show any interest in stopping him or even talking to him...?? It's seriously dog-eat-dog...you crash (even clearly because of somebody else) it's your problem! So we know to always try to at least hurt/damage the other if they caused the accident, that way we get a bit even ;-)

Small backroads through the Mekong Delta to Can Tho...Sounds good, but it's hard to find your way around! All the water doesn't make it easy 'cause loads of tracks end up & crossings without bridges...you just never really know what side of the river to be on. Couple of friendly locals showed us the way for a bit, but we still managed to get stuck at the wrong end of the water at some point. Luckily a local quickly 'boated' us across 1 by 1 to the otherside where sweet sweet bridges awaited! No charge! We said Vietnamese aren't nice guys?? Finally ended up on another 'ferry'dingy with 3 xe oms (free again??) and where surprised to find the 2 brit bikers on the ferry's other crossing...what are the odds to meet up in the middle of some backroad while we we're both not really sure where we were :-) So we decided to head on together to Can Tho.

Can Tho looks like a enjoyable, laid back town. But we probably will not stick around for a rest day, maybe tomorrow in the still town of Tra Vinh. So had a nice BBQ, river side dinner by 4. Nice chats & laughs. Maybe we cross them later in Vietnam since they are moving the same way.

Owyeah, Mieke, mama, Gelukkige verjaardag & dikke kussen vanuit Vietnam! Ier met een brommerke rijden is avontuur verzekerd!

--> Impro-kaarsje voor uw verjaardag ;)

2/02: Rach Gia, Tet & Green lemon Tea (+93; 2630km)

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Biked 100 km from Ha Tien to Rach Gia. A lot more traffic here. Although 98% are motorcycles, once in a while you become deaf for a second when the busdrivers decide not only to honk their hornes ten times before they pass you but also when they're right next to you!
We've also found our new favourite drink of the country: green tea with lemon.

1/02: Country #5, enter Vietnam (+45; 2537km)

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Last stretches of red packed cambodian dirt roads today, through the salt fields around Kep. Looks just like  rice paddies except they are filled with salt water slowly vaporating until only piles of white salt remain. Nice views to end our month in cambodia.

Border crossing itself is a really minor experience ;-)...the dirt road suddenly is blocked by a really basic barrier, bike along it, get a cambodia check out stamp, bike about 200m in no-mansland (gamble ville! Ha Tien Casino :-)) Vietnam may be commi, but not if there are dollars involved. Anyway, then get a check-in vietnam stamp, where some borderdude takes your temperature & tries to ask you for a dollah...pfff; right, I've been on the asian road already too long for that crap. Take the passport, just walk away to the guy with the stamp (who didn't want an extra dollah :-) btw) Only pay for something you really need, ha. So Line then just skipped the first booth and went straight to the second.

Enter Vietnam, asfalt, no red dirt! Lets see if this will continue for the rest of the trip...Ha Tien, a nice, little town along the coast with a lot of hotels. Really, a lot! So we found a 10usd, new room with all the extras (warm water, cable tv, fridge). Sweet. Walked around town, learned to count in vietnamese, ate our first pho's (noodle soup) & saigon beer! Tasty stuff, all of it. Vietnam day 1, we like it. On to the others.