We conquered the mountain and a few observations

Today we cycled 52 miles. I have never cycled 52 miles. The first 10 miles were rolling hills ending with a stop at a cafe in a small town. Actually I can't call it a cafe. It had the ubiquitous Vietnam style thick, dripped espresso and a lovely fragrant jasmine tea. It also had two pool tables, a small grocery store, an antique gas pump, a wandering pig, and a war movie playing on the flat screen with the Vietnamese soldiers as the heroes against the Americans. 

The next ten miles were mostly uphill with a 3.5 miles stretch of an 8% grade to cross the Hon Giao Pass at almost 4700 feet. We ate lunch overlooking a river. It was a wonderful noodle dish with veggies and beef followed by sliced mango.  What came next made the climb worth the effort. For over an hour, we came down the other side of the mountain for 20 miles. It was sort of like the longest ski run in the world starting completely fogged in and cool at the top to warm and humid cruising through banana and sugar cane plantations.

We are now in Nha Trang, a beach front resort on the South China Sea full of Russian tourists. 

The main Internet cable for all of Vietnam is down and all Internet traffic is being rerouted through Singapore or Malaysia so all connections are super, super slow. So, still no pictures, sorry.

Some observations:

-Vietnam barbeque means a metal brazier filled with natural charcoal on your table surrounded by platters of raw, marinated cubes of beef, large prawns, calamari pieces, chunks of mackerel, tofu, veggies and fruit. You grill your own dinner.

-Beer is cheap. A LARGE bottle of San Miguel was $1 US dollar and one of Saigon beer was 50 cents.

-Vietnamese food is delicious. 

-Vietnamese dogs are skinny.

-Monkeys beg for watermelon.

-Fresh guava is seedy and doesn't have much flavor.

-Vietnamese watermelon is scrumptious.

-Asian breakfasts are savory rather than sweet: pho, sticky rice with chicken, rice porridge with salted egg, fried rice with salted fish and more.

-Every little kid and some adults love to shout hello to you and giggle as you pass through on bikes. 

-If you are a coffee drinker, and I am not, you must have patience to let the coffee drip one drop at a time. It takes about 10 minutes.

-Hotels serve you a cup of tea as you arrive. 

-There are 90.5 million people in Vietnam and 45 million motorbikes. We have seen more than one family of 5 riding on a motorbike at the same time. 

-The tax when you buy a car is 200%. 

-People do not pay income tax in Vietnam. 

-People do pay to go to school, the infrastructure is in bad shape, there is no safety net for the old or disabled, you could die in a public hospital. 

-Poinsettias grow wild.

-Vietnam grows and exports coffee, tea and rice.

-The landscape is beautiful.

-There is racism against ethnic minorities.

-There is a huge divide between a class of really wealthy people and everyone else. 

-Men pee in public all over the country. 

-Vietnamese love the sparkle and celebratory nature of Christmas even though few are Christians.

-Russians love to travel .

-There is a mental mindset that is very different between those who were alive during the "American War" and those who weren't.