This section from Dinh Van to Di Linh is the twenty-second instalment of my bicycle ride from Yunnan to Cambodia – if all goes according to plan. Titled “Slap the Belgian!”, it is simultaneously published on Crazyguyonabike.com, where you’ll find a map with the itinerary and many other bicycle diaries by me and others. I hope you’ll enjoy.
Tu’s been able to keep her meal down, but today Katya is feeling a little worse so we leave late. With breakfast and chat, it takes us until 11 am to be on the road. No biggie: we’re not looking at a very heavy or long day.
Most of the day was relatively uninteresting. The intense traffic on the QL27 towards Lien Nghia stressed us out, even the shortcut to the actual town was annoying and hitting the QL20 didn’t help either.
Seems like I’d forgotten how bad traffic was: trucks and hasty vans are leaning on their horns while almost knocking you off the road. No fun. We make a long stop at a roadside cafe where we stuff ourselves with sugarcane juice, beer, banana pancakes, dried banana, fruit and all kinds of nuts.
By 3.30pm we’re back on the road and we’re looking at a final 300m climb to just shy of 1000m. With the impending dark, the constant loud stream of honking cars and our sore legs, this turns out to be extremely stressful. Tu’s stomach doesn’t seem to have entirely settled or perhaps she has a heatstroke, but she carries on bravely.
By the time we roll into Di Linh at 990m altitude, we’re all completely knackered. I seek out the hotel I’d stayed in 3 years ago, which was fair-priced and had nice mountain views as well as stuffed fridges, the Nhat Minh hotel, and go for food.
When we come back, we realise there are other cyclists staying at the hotel – this time a Dutch couple. We have a very short new year celebration with some beer in the hotel lobby and then go to bed. 2013 is by no means going out with a bang because the Vietnamese celebrate New Year by the lunar calendar. In 2014 that’s the 29th of January. Whereas in China there’d be firecrackers and all kinds of goofiness anyway, because any reason to make money is a good one, Vietnam is eerily quiet tonight.
