Cycling up and down Phong Nha

Today we rented bikes from our hotel. Please keep in mind while reading the rest, these were two road bicycles with baskets but no gears. We started off in the wrong direction, realising not when the path turned to a fly-tipping area and further narrowed but when it finally ended at a wall. Back we went, dodging the young children on their bikes as they yelled hello at us. We followed the track parallel to the river, stopping at the Bomb Crater Bar which was shut but had beautiful views. We turned off the main track onto a dirt path, past a farmstay and to our first big hill of the day. Most of the rest of the cycle until we stopped for ‘lunch’ was rough, rocky and hilly terrain. We were glad to see signs for the Moi Moi restaurant, pulled up ready to fill up. Unfortunately, the chef wasn’t there so the girl serving us got some water, lemon juice and heated up some spring rolls for us. We soon remembered why we always order vegetable spring rolls as Kerry dissected, with a chopstick, the grizzle and fat from each of the 9 rolls to make them palatable. A bit disappointed we got back on our bikes and headed down the river to a bridge and then we were on our way back. More rough hills, a duck farm and local villages brought us back to our town, totalling 27km.
Our hotel host was kind enough to allow us to use our room until our night bus so we had a quick shower and went to have some proper food. The drinks tasted more like grass than the fruit smoothies we had ordered. We then watched a film and packed up before sharing a blue cheese pizza at Capture. It was delicious, and the brownie was gone too quick to comment.Read more