This entire self-guided trip would be impossible without GPS and modern mapping and navigation tools. We are using the basic route of a commercial bike tour for our framework, but that tour description only lists destination towns, for the good reason that they don’t want to give people like us the entire route for free! And so, we use an app called GaiaGPS on our phones to make our route between towns and then transfer that route to our Wahoo cycle computer that gives us turn-by-turn instructions as we ride.
Today, our ride was from Binh Chahn to Đức Phố, a distance of about 55 miles, with minimal elevation gain. Our route had over 50 turns to make along the way, which would have been basically impossible in the old days of paper maps. I have memories of touring in other countries rotating a map around and trying like mad to figure out where we were! GPS makes that much easier. And yet, the other variable is that road conditions vary widely in Vietnam! GaiaGPS selects routes to avoid large roads, and that can mean that the route might be anything! Walking paths, small dirt roads, secondary roads, etc. Which is great since we didn’t come to Vietnam to ride on the shoulder of highways.
One of our little roads took us past some people harvesting something that we didn’t recognize. And so, with Chris showing some interest, we found that they were harvesting peanuts. I’m sure they were perplexed that we were interested, but maybe flattered too. Vietnamese people are very sweet! And so, we found out more about harvesting peanuts and Chris was given a large bag of raw peanuts with dirt still on them to take with her!
The next group of people we encountered were harvesting watermelons and placing them into a truck. And they were very interested in us, wanting to know where we were from and then wanting us to pose with them for photos. Man…they all gathered around us like we were celebrities and took many photos. What we’ve found is that many people here have never met an American before, and so it’s a big deal somehow. Of course, they also tried to give us watermelons to take with, but we demurred due to weight. I think they were kind of confused by that since everyone carries side buckets with heavy weights on their old bikes and giant bunches of hay. But…we escaped without taking a watermelon, for now anyway.
Finally, we got arrived at our hotel, got showered and then went out to find dinner. We trolled the Main Street for busy places and chose a place that met our criteria, but we had no idea what they served. It was called Bánh xèo, and ended up being a shrimp pancake that you rolled up in rice paper with fresh greens, dipping in sauce like spring rolls. The owner kindly showed us how to assemble the food together, since we didn’t know how to do that. It was very tasty and interesting. The pancakes are made in small cast iron crepe pans over wood fires. I think we ate 8 pancakes (4 each) and all the rest of the stuff and were satisfied, with a beer apiece. Total price…60,000 VND which is about $2.60. And it was really a special meal…very good!
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