The road that wasn't a road yet.

The road looked freshly cut into the mountain and was paved at first. It didn't last long. Mud and rocks and river crossings for about 20 km. My bike slipped once and my bag got muddy but not too bad. I was however followed by a persistent marsh fly for the whole way, determined to take a blood sample.

Pims bike had been wired up in the morning to fix his light issues, but looking back, the mechanic wasn't all that qualified.

I think people in Vietnam and south east asia like to help, even when they don't really know what they're doing. If it gets them a few extra bucks from a tourist that's probably half their weeks wage. But anyway, this "mechanic" must have linked his light switch with his horn, because halfway through when Pim decided it was time for some illumination, the horn switched on permanently at full blast and you could damn well hear him coming from the other side of the mountain!

I wanted to coast with engine off for some of the down hill sections so the bike wouldn't get ahead of itself and too fast to control but when Pim caught up with me I swear I probably lost a few decibels of hearing! The engineer of the group (ahem) told him to cut his horn cable after crossing a bridge that wasn't a bridge yet. The workers were in hysterics!

They seemed to be burning the bridge cement dry, and were still working on the supports so we had to ride through the river to continue our route.
The path continued muddy for quite sometime and progressed to just rocks which were tricky at the end but thankfully we had no slips or accidents.

I must have coasted for the last 2 km downhill until we got back onto tar Mac with no engine. The tarmac was like seeing an oasis in a desert of bad road surfaces. It called for no hands on the handlebars past the other two who were taking an exit photo.

The ride the rest of the way was smooth in terms of surface. Not necessarily in terms of bike performance...En savoir plus