March 19 - Nearing the Coast

In the morning, I made an attempt at cleaning up my dirty bags in the hotel room and effectively made a mess in the room. After a very good breakfast - OK, let's stop for a minute to discuss breakfast. These luxury hotels cater for every taste and preference, you can have noodle soup and hot meals (Asian culture), all kinds of egg dishes and cold cuts (European culture), pancakes and French bread (American culture) and then more (international culture). I focused on being European, but also ventured internationally, think it was over 90 minutes spent at the restaurant.

Checking out was a surprise. You see, there is a strict control of the status of the room you've left behind, on a walkie-talkie house-keeping is informed about your departure, they ran to your now empty room and check if you've taken anything 'mistakenly'. In fact, there is an itinerary list, containing everything from the bathrobe to the wastepaper basket, with a price tag next to it, in case you decide to 'own' it. That wasn't the problem in my case, house-keeping complained that the bathroom was a mess and, in turn, the reception gave me a hard time for that. I retaliated, telling them if their roads would be cleaner, I would have not made a mess. OK, I do realize they were right.

I then asked for some clothes and did the best to remove the dirt from the bike frame and the moving parts - this time outside the hotel. It took quite some time, removing the thick layer of mud. I have never experienced this much dirt on my bike.

The hotel on the right where I did not become a preferred guest (next to it is a wedding hall)

Leaving town, I saw something large, circular "thing" being sold - it turned out to be a bread, sort of like a huge roti known from India. It was sprayed with poppy seeds and was quite delicious.

Vietnamese roti

Now I was on smaller roads - and soon had to cross a very narrow bridge. I had to concentrate so as not to lose my balance - would have been quite tragic.

Narrow bridge

After the bridge, there were lots of smaller motorbikes coming in the opposite direction - many of these electric. They were children returning from school. Then there was a big commotion and (finally) met someone who spoke good English, a teacher. I asked him about the gathering, it turned out some young kids "borrowed' a large motorbike from their parents and rode to school with that and police were giving them a hard time. It is good, I thought, that law is enforced in the country.

Somewhere here was police giving a hard time to the kids (two girls at front were wiping their tears, they were laughing at me - not sure why???)

Like in most parts of the country, there was war memorial monuments to be seen, here are but a couple.

Monument net to a lake

Military cemetery

At a town, I saw a burial, with loud music being played. From the picture of the deceases, I believe it was someone who had served in the military.

Burial

Later in the day, I was getting close to the coast, I crossed bridge over the Red River, the view was indeed nice.

View from the Red River

Near the city of Haiphong, there was now a modern bridge to cross.

Gate to Haiphong

Haiphong is the third largest city in Vietnam, with over 2 million inhabitants. It took me a very long time to reach the center - from my guide book, I knew there was a hydrofoil boat taking passengers to a surrounding island, called Cat Ba. I started asking people about the island, they all showed in a certain direction. I was a bit surprised to see traffic getting lighter and that I was heading outside town - this is when I realized what was happening. A new bridge to Cat Ba had just been built, so this is where people were steering me to, while prior to this, one was forced to take the boat. However, this bridge was still about 30-40 kilometers away and it was already quite late in the afternoon, so I turned around and found the ship terminal. Alas, the last boat of the day had already left, so I checked in to a hotel full of kitsch: there were copies of Renaissance paintings hanging, a heavy, sweet odor was to be felt. Downstairs, in the garage, was a cage full of jungle birds (and a large parrot outside the cage), a rather strange place, called Classic Hoang Long Hotel.

I went for short walk and saw a large group of people, predominantly men, drinking beer and eating all sorts of noodles, sitting outside - I sat down at a table. To my amazement, an ice-cold glass of beer was to be had for just 20 cents or so (a bottle of water cost the double!), so drank a few and had some very good food.

Dinner in Haiphong

The day wasn't quite over - after doing some 450 kilometers the past three days, my knee was hurting a bit. Not far from my hotel, I found a foot massage parlor, where I got an excellent massage for just Eur 10 or so, for well over an hour, after which I was in perfect working condition. I slept quite well.