Wet Towels

After our long and hectic day cycling to Ba Loc we stopped at the first guesthouse we saw. It was already dark, and as far as we had heard there was only one guesthouse in Ba Loc. Dana summed it up when she exited the bathroom and declared "I can't believe we're paying to stay here!!" It was freezing outside and there was no indoor heating. Our lighting was inconsistent and the beds were rock hard (though this isn't surprising). Our washroom came with one clogged drain, no hot water and a soggy towel.  As a cherry on top when Dana noted that the only towel left in our room was wet and requested a new one we received a "new" wet towel. Lovely.... But after a long, painful day of biking nothing will keep you from sleep. And one thick comforter kept me warm.

Dana was concerned by after another two days of cycling in the hills of Vietnam we would lose all interest in cycling and miss out on possibly the best part of our Vietnam adventure - the coast, where we thought things may be a little flatter, warmer and more clearly signed. I agreed. Cycling had just gone from friendly towns and breathtaking views to a challenge I was not up to. We located a girl from a nearby store who seemed to be the only one in town who spoke some English. With the help of her father and two others she sorted out what we were looking for and had us follow her to a stop where a bus driver happened to be eating breakfast. Pure luck! Within twenty minutes we were on a bus to Nimh Binh.

Once in Nimh Binh we spent the afternoon getting ourselves sorted. One of our chores was to clean off our bikes. After two days of cycling through muddy wet roads they were disgusting. We lucked upon a spot where, for 1USD, they were scrubbed clean by a lovely lady who was fully equipped with a pressure hose, buckets and rain boots. A dollar well spent. Unfortunately neither of us thought to take "before" photos of the bikes.