Sweat and sunscreen cake frosting/70 mile bike journey

MI time: 7:52 a.m.
Local Vietnamese time: 6:52 p.m.
Date: 20 June 2008
Location: On a street corner, drinking an iced coffee with condensed milk in Can Tho city, Vietnam. At 5:30 a.m. this morning after fueling up with cashews and raisins, I actually put on my hideous bike shorts-- you know, the really tight ones, like the shorts they wear in the 70's exercise videos. However, with a long journey of nearly 70 miles, I didn't want a sore bootie. you would think that at 5:30, traffic would be non-existent. I think there was less traffic on westnedge Avenue at the early a.m. hour the day we left than in Ben Tre. Tho motos were already zipping down the street and by 6;10 the sun was already energetically dancing its song SOLO-without the accompanyment of the clouds.

It was only a few miles out of the town to the ferry dock. Even in the course of a couple of miles, we stopped and stopped again to guzzle water. We even tied a five liter water bottle to the back of the bicycle. We went through over ten liters of water today! The first fifty miles of the trip (Mo Cai to Vinh Long, Vietnam) were beautiful--narrow roads holding hands with bridges. Along the sides of the road, there was rice laid out to dry. While on Michigan backroads, we usually find peace and quiet on the rolling hills, here in Vietnam we were ALWAYS surrounded by the zoom of motos. We passed nearly all of the fellow bicyclers riding older three speed bikes. Kids yelled , "Hello!" All day, we were greeted with Hello, hello, HELLO! We eagerly yelled back and people responded with a shy laughter. That is pretty much the extent of my Vietnamese communication skills-- zero-- we rely on their one word of English and end up with a two word pleasant conversation :)

By the time we reached the town of Vinh Long, the sun was baking us and we had to stop! Everywhere along the side of the road there are cafes where the custom is to drink a class of 1/3 full espresso and filled up to the top with ice. They also put a pot of green tea on the table. After finishing with iced espresso, it is custom to refill the glass with the green tea; very refreshing and energizing. We felt ready to pump onward the next twenty miles to our destination of Can Tho, but little did we know that our next twenty miles we would be in FULL midday sun-- no trees for shade in a construction area with NO shoulder. Motos, bicycles, buses, vans--CRAZINESS! But heh, we lived to laugh and write about it. We were on the ferry ride to cross the river with only two more miles to go, beat red, dripping with sweat when a nice lady approached us with, "hello, where are you from?" She was very pleasant and spoke much more than the usually one word vocabulary. She chatted with us the entire ferry ride and asked us where we were going to in Can Tho. I pointed to a hotel name in my guidebook. She smiles and said, "Nice family in this hotel." Off the ferry at the entrance to the city of Can Tho, traffic was hectic with moto galore. Feeling overwhelmed without a map, I just went straight and figured we would eventually run into something interesting! Then I noticed our new friend was riding her moto real slow for us to follow her, "I show you hotel," she said with a smile. She went slow the entire way turning here and there, like a guided pac man race tour. At one point, I couldn't swerve left fast enough through the maze of motos and found myself stuck in the middle of traffic. Steve and the lady waited kindly for me to maneuver my way around, then down a short alley. I cannot really pronounce the name of our hotel, but it is off the main drag just a bit where the BRRRRRRRMMMMM of the motos is faint. The owner lady greeted us warmly, "I show you room!" We climbed a spiraling staircase to room four. The room had air conditioning, fan, private shower and bath, king bed, and balcony for ten dollars. "Yes!" I said, "two nights!" Downstairs, our lady friend that had so patiently guided us here showed us her map of the city and asked if we would like a boat tour of the floating markets tomorrow. She said that her uncles did tours for 16 dollars a person starting at five-thirty a.m. and lasting for about eight hours. Breakfast and coffee would be included. We warned her that we were vegetarian and shared with her our troubles of finding vegetarian food. "No problem," she said, as she began scribbling gibberish letters on the back of a card. "This card will help you. It say I vegetarian. I no eat meat."

After seventy miles of biking, we were caked with sweat-- not exactly cream frosting, rather with a mix of sun screen and dirt. The cold shower felt soooo good! Buddha had helped us so much today, but Buddha belly was hungry! We decided to try out the magic words on the card. Hopping into the local restaurant across the street, Steve showed the lady our new "insurance" card. She smiled. We anxiously waited and were so happy when in minutes she returned with a plate of white rice and stir fried vegetables. Finally we really enjoyed Vietnamese cuisine. Our success for the day--
TOI AN CHAY! (I AM VEGETARIAN).