My world walk blog - Vietnam #9 - 148 kilometres from China!

My world walk blog - Vietnam #9 - 148 kilometres from China!

148 kilometres from China!

After I left Uong Bi I walked pretty smartly along route 18. The day was much milder than it has been in a long while, so my funny hats had a rest day while I let my feet off their chains and strode out for a 44-kilometre day. Ah! Yes how nice it was to be able to wear just a baseball cap

After 24 kilometres I decided to take a back road to a large busy village called Van Yen and I arrived during the rush-hour chaos. See the video I posted yesterday. The backroad was actually an unopened expressway which was under construction. I let that busy period ease down by feasting on a half roasted duck dinner. That certainly was a nice change. By that stage, it was almost dark so I lit up well and walked for another couple of hours on a smaller highway Those last couple of hours were refreshingly cool and I walked in the shoulder towards the traffic before I finished at 9 pm in a place called Thong Nhat.

I lucked out for I managed to get a luxury hotel for about US$7. The room is nice and clean with white marble tiles and has two double beds, swing doors that lead out onto a balcony where I enjoyed some leisure time the next day.

Upon getting up on Tuesday there was a thunderstorm with frequent bursts of torrential rain. As mentioned before that I have several days left on my Vietnam visa, so I decided to take the day off as there was little point in walking in that.
First I made a breakfast stop for a bowl of Bun Poh and as always I made lots of friends both there and stopping on the way back to my hotel.

I spent most of the day sorting and backing up my photos and then I wandered down to another restaurant and put in my order. When it arrived the owner a man called Luong Hong Lan grabbed me and pulled me over to the family table to share their food with me. And how delicious that was: fish, vegetables, noodles, various spices, tofu and deliciously steamed cabbage. It was a delightful dinner and thanks to this kind man who waved my payment away.

Btw I have been having some trouble with my Spot tracking device. Sometimes after I turn it on it takes a couple of hours to receive a track. Other times I get one within a few minutes. This is perhaps an opportune time to mention that there is no Spot coverage in China. I will be posting a blog pretty soon of what to expect, and what not to expect from me while in the Peoples Republic. I'm now just 148 kilometres away.

25,089 kilometres for 718 road days.