This morning we decided to do another test of our footwear. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed. The feet didn’t feel worse after 5 hours through the rain than after 5 minutes. The downside? They were already dripping 30 seconds after the start.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a very brief abstract of our day. We started at 8 from our hotel. It was raining. We stopped at 11 for a coffee and a bit later for lunch. It was raining. We arrived at our new hotel at 3 in the afternoon. It was pouring.
The ride was actually pretty uneventful. After the first few minutes everything was soaked. Most locals were still driving without any lighting. Often times still on the wrong side of the road, even if there was nothing to evade on their side.
We stopped at what we thought to be a local restaurant for lunch. Turns out, it was probably only a shop. After we tried to explain to them that we’re looking for something to eat, they offered us an instant coffee at their table. Even though it was probably one of the best instant coffees I’ve ever had, it was still no match for normal Vietnamese drip coffee.
A bit later we stopped again for lunch. This time we did actually manage to stop at a restaurant where they served pho. I know, we eat that a lot, but it’s actually quite challenging to find a restaurant with anything else, since they have like a thousand different names for the same basic dish. The locals invited us over to their table for a glass of tea and also offered us a drink and some of their pipe.
After we arrived at the hotel and took a warm shower we started discussing a few basic points: The weather report for the next 7 days is about the same as today. We did not enjoy our ride here, even though some of the roads were very nice. Ergo, we have to adjust our plans a bit.
Originally, we wanted to go for Ha Long Bay from here and take a 3 day boat ride. After this we planned to go do a few of the northern routes for about 7 days. With the bad weather we canned the idea of going to Ha Long now. Instead, we booked a homestay with AirBnB for the last 2 weeks in Ha Noi. We’ll do 1 - 3 day tours from there instead. This will still give us maximum flexibility while allowing us to travel a bit lighter and have a home base to return to in the evenings.
This day definitely took its toll on us… Besides the shoes, both of our duffel bags picked up some water - even though mine is brand new. We also lost the water resistant action cam. It fried itself after about 20 minutes in the rain. We’ll probably upload one last video of Vietnamese roads while it’s raining, but since I don’t feel like editing it tonight, this will be a bit later.
On the plus side: The rain trousers I bought in Switzerland which would “only hold for maybe 30 to 60 minutes” did actually keep me dry for the full 5 hours. The raincoat we bought here did its job as well.
