Fresh Greens 1

I'm in a new world.

It's only taken a border crossing, a day of riding, and the scaling of a few high passes.

And now here I am in greenland.

Viet style

It's been cold on the bike. Except when my body heats up, from pumping it up those many many climbs.

There was mist in the hills, right from when I hit the road this morning

Unfortunately my brakes have been playing up. Not good. I've got new brake pads, but the brake system on my bike is actually not the one it was designed for, so it's fiddly. I had to stop a few times early today to try and sort it out. I have to readjust them regularly, which is annoying.

Bamboo's the industry around here. The hills are covered in it. And the villagers harvest and sell it. Or use it themselves of course.

Any flat land is cultivated with irrigated wet rice.

It's beautiful

The villages are mostly quite small, some with traditional hill tribe buildings. But it's not as poor and rundown as on the Lao side of the border.

I found a little shop. They had a few cakes. And I got halfway through the first Milo I've had in decades when I noticed that Milo is now owned by Nestlé. Hmmmm. They've probably owned it forever.

I followed this river, eventually getting to a small town called Son Lu, my stop for the night.

There was a supermarket! It had things in it! I bought some! I was happy!

Except when I tasted the cake thingy. I thought it was some sort of sweet crumble, but it was actually a sweet sponge cake with, wait for it, a fishy-cheesey topping. They seem to do that quite regularly with their sweets in Southeast Asia. It's fraught.

But I still ate it.

Ngọc Lặc

I'm so shattered.

Physically.

I had another big ride today, and now I can relax.

I'm in such a different world to the one I was in only a few days ago.

It's cold. My weather app says it's 18 Celsius outside, but that must be wrong. It feels way colder. I've just been out to get some dinner, and have been riding in a very light drizzle, in the dark. Now I'm fully rugged up.

It was a long and stunning ride here today.

This poor guy had been hit, his buddies and the human locals came out to mourn.

Snack suppliers

Snack spot

Snack. Deep fried sweet potato rösti

More bamboo harvesters

Vietnamese flags are all over the place. Some people are quite patriotic. On the road, teen boys, and even adults, sometimes call out to me "Vietnam Number 1!"

But by far the more common greeting is "hello!!," often followed by spontaneous squeals or laughter. And always accompanied with waves. I've honestly been calling out responses and waving to people hundreds of times every day. No lie.

Sometimes it's actually quite tiring being such a celebrity.

Magnificent views

My last high pass of the day.

I passed a local market. It was busy.

Lotsa hill tribers

And this is my old rundown hotel, on the outskirts of Ngọc Lặc. I'm in my room now, it's only 8.30pm, but I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open. Extended physical activity can do that to ya.

I met two young Danish cyclists in town, as it was getting dark. It was drizzling, and they were keen to find a place to stay, so we didn't chat long.

They've ridden all the way from Denmark on a tandem bike! One bike frame, 2 seats, 2 sets of pedals.

What drives people to do such things?!!??!!

Every single stop on the bike would need to be negotiated, as well as speed, direction, traffic obstacles, absolutely everything would need to be communicated. I mean, I'm sure after all this time that they've worked out ways to deal with all that stuff, but when I asked them how it actually was riding tandem they both agreed that it's pretty complicated at times, especially on hilly windy roads, as, besides all the other things, the length of the bike is an issue too.

But before I crash out I've just gotta say how magnificent the ride was today. This country is nothing short of spectacular.

And there's plenty more where that came from.

I'm actually really marvelling at how amazing my journey is for me at the moment.

I'm so free. Independent. Flexible. Seeing amazing new things every day. Getting great workouts as part of the deal.

I've been brushing up on my Vietnamese, and it feels good to be able to communicate in their language, albeit in a very basic way. After 2 full days in the country, I'm yet to meet anyone who speaks more than a word or two of English.

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