The million dollar view from our $37 hotel

Distance: 84km
Temperature (max): 35°C
View the stats on Strava (Tan Thành tổ Phường Phi)

Total distance to date: 1,194km

Another hot one! At one point we found ourselves in a particularly long stretch of road with no shade cover and we were desperate so we stopped side by side on the roadway in the tiny strip of shade that the electricity pole provided.

Some of the infrastructure here makes us wonder. More than once we have cycled for 20km+ on barren roadway, four lanes wide and nicely paved. Honestly we could have sat in the middle of the road and had lunch & not be disturbed, there were so few other road users.

Traffic Police stand at the side of roads, blowing whistles & flagging down random vehicles. Today their target was a car right in front of us. In the skirmish of activity we thought perhaps they wanted us to stop too, so we did  Big smiles, and high fives—they were just curious about where we were from. Curiosity isn’t exclusive to children.

Traveling down the entire coastline of a country we are fortunate enough to see the varied climate. In the north it was rice planting season—in the south here it’s harvest time. Rice paddies are now tinted gold and we can see the rice pods bending over. There’s rice drying on tarps, in peoples front yards, on roadways and other public spaces—wherever they can spread it out enough to dry in the sun. The remaining rice stalks are piled up alongside the road or made into gigantic piles similar to haybales. We must also be in peanut country because those too are drying on tarps on the road.

We bought green oranges the other day. They’ve been floating around in our bags just waiting for the right time to try them. Today we learned—green oranges are way better than orange oranges! Juicy, sweet, big—so far, our favourite discovery here in ’Nam

We splurged on a nice hotel for the night. $37 places us in a gorgeous, luxury hotel located on a mountain side, close to a monastery and the tallest sitting  Buddha in the world (so we hear…). Our room is a new, one-bedroom king sized suite with a kitchen table, kitchenette, and large balcony  But the best part is the view! Absolutely stunning, from our 6th floor room, peering out massive panoramic windows that go floor to ceiling. Down below we see a beautiful white sandy beach and rolly polly waves. They provide a tram to deliver us up the intensely steep climb to our hotel room, part way up the mountain. We struck gold in this hotel! Tomorrow—we swim! (cuz yeah, it’s got a gigantic pool too!)

Our hotel, part way up the mountain.

View of the big white Buddha up in the mountain (from our hotel room!)

Daytime view from our balcony.