Phong Thổ (day 6)

We wandered across the street to a coffee shop. S took off to find us some breakfast, and came back with a Vietnamese breakfast sandwich which had been grilled like a panini. Egg, "bacon", cucumber and sauce filling. A's coffee was without sugar as he enjoys, but a very different concept to most locals. After enjoying our coffee, went for a walk, passing through the large Saturday market along the river. Everything seemed to be for sale, including some cute looking animals which likely weren't going home as someone's pet 😓.

Next we arrived to the French Commander Bunker of Dien Bien Phu historic sight. It's a replica of the one successfully captured in May 1954 by the Viet forces.

We then stopped at the Bảo tàng Chiến thắng Điện Biên Phủ history museum and viewed the displays of the victory of the Viet Minh. In 2021 a mural was started to display the battle in Điện Biên, painted by 200 people and took 2 years to compete! It is huge!

We rode some fun rocky offroad sections and skinny dirt trails we would typically think of hiking on. We had a do at least three uturns as we attempted to find the way forward. The small single lane concrete mountain pass we found meandering through rural houses was completely enveloped in cloud with visibility down to 20ft. Most of the ride was on a country highway following reservoirs along more of the Da River with at least two hydroelectric dams and another early into its construction. Zig zagging back and forth was a lot of fun with almost nobody on the road. It reminded us of a video game dodging cattle, chickens, water Buffalo, construction zones only marked with branches across our lane, children playing on the sides... 🚸🙃 Weee!

Today's ride, 170km in 4.5hrs.
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