If there were two themes for today, they were rice and weddings, although not in the usual sense.
First..rice. As we’ve traveled south, the rice is now ready for harvest and we saw rice being harvested and also drying by the side of the roadsides, in courtyards, on drive ways and in people’s yards. Rice was everywhere. As we rode, we smelled the aroma of rice as it dried in the intense sun, like the smell of brown rice being sautéed in a pan. It’s a nice smell. Most people spread the rice on plastic tarps so they can gather it up more easily later, and also they can wrap the rice up during the night so the moisture of the night does not absorb into the rice. But rice is also spread on the side of the road, the people sweeping the road carefully before spreading their crop. This seems like an area that is rich is rice.
We also passed a lot of weddings! We were not sure if it was because it was Sunday, or the holiday weekend celebrating the reunification of Vietnam, or any other reason, but it seemed like a there were an unusual number of weddings. They were not timid affairs, broadcast by music blaring at fever pitch, and the entrance to the weddings cluttered with dozens of motorbikes of the invitees. About those people who are invited… it seems like EVERYONE is invited! We got waved into weddings by the townspeople who were coming to the wedding, as well motioned to come and join by the bride and groom. We were tempted, but we had 60 miles to make that day, and we wondered how easy it would be to escape once we joined. I’m sure it would have been fun.
This route is very near the beach, and we stopped at one particularly lovely spot to take some pictures. This area is on no one’s tourist route, but it’s beautiful.
Also along our way today were two ferry crossings, which we kind of remembered from looking at the maps. The route we take is made by the mapping app we use, and we give it a quick once over and start riding. The overwhelming majority of time, the maps work perfectly, but they don’t really consider ferry schedules so there is always a risk of having a long wait if you don’t pay attention. That was not an issue with these ferries, since they just shuttle from bank to bank constantly and it’s a short trip. Cost was about $0.80 for the two of us on one ferry and the second ferry was free.
Our last unusual road to pedal was across an old US military airport that is now a commercial airport serving the area.
Chu Lai Air Base was a military airport in Chu Lai, Vietnam, operated by the United States Marine Corps between 1965 and 1970. Abandoned after the end of the Vietnam War, it was reopened as Chu Lai Airport in 2005. Crossing it felt a bit weird, but we made it! It’s obviously a US base with Quonset huts flanking the airstrip. Brought chills to me.
Getting to our hotel, they told us that the hotel was full, and they had no room. Then they admitted they had made a mistake and then made sure we realized we had to pay 350,000 VND (about $15 US) for the night, which was what we were planning to pay anyway. Not sure what was going on there, but it all worked out.
We chose a restaurant near our hotel, and had pho, the only thing that restaurant served, which was really good. We asked about beer and our waitress just went next door to a store to buy 2 and brought them to us. The bill was less than $4 for dinner and drinks. And it was really good.
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