Today is easily described in two words: asphalt perfection. Or rather, concrete perfection. We started at 8:00 sharp in Khe Sanh and arrived in Son Trach at 16:00. Between us and our destination were thousands of turns, no traffic, jungle on both sides and views which could be taken directly from a movie.
There is not much else to say about our route here, so we’ll just let the visuals speak for themselves…
We arrived in Son Trach to an absolutely stunning view of the city right next to the river Son. After enjoying the view for a few minutes, we continued on for the last kilometer to the hotel and took a shower.
We left the hotel room again and went to the local market. We started our dinner by eating Bánh Xèo Cây, which literally translates to pancakes. Even though Son Trach is very touristic, it’s easy to find the good food here: ignore every store which has English stuff written outside or only tourists sitting inside. Instead, take the vendors/restaurants where the locals go.
After walking some more, we went into a second place where we’ve seen locals eating some birds. We ordered that one and Flo also ordered a random item from the menu. The bird was a bit underwhelming. The meat was on the sweet side, the marinade was good and the chilly salt worked well with it. There wasn’t too much meat on the bones though and the scissors still take some getting used to.
The second one was served with a huge smile. It was a large plate filled with snails and some lemon grass. After burning our fingers on the first few, we finished the plate pretty quickly. It was delicious. I think the shop owner didn’t think we’d eat it at all…
This store is also a good point to say something about cleanliness here in Vietnam. While eating we spotted a mouse and a rat in the restaurant. There are also normally dogs sitting around under the tables. The locals often just throw the garbage and bones on the ground. Everything is served and eaten with bare hands. We of course ignore all of this. We’re here for the good food, which we would definitely not get at one of the tourist restaurants (which look cleaner, but probably are not).
Oh nearly forgot: We also found out that the shoes we bought are actually waterproof even though they don’t look like it at all. No, it was not rain. Flo drove through some cow manure on the way here and splashed it all over his bike, trousers and shoes so he did some hand washing at the hotel. The bike will probably get a shower sooner or later as well - until now we were pretty lucky.
