Ha Long to Quan Toan

After coming back from the Ha Long Bay boat trip, I consider staying the night in Ha Long City. Ha Long City is one of those places with flashy hotels mushrooming all over the place and hookers on offer by tauts on motorbikes. Considering that I can neither afford nor want either, that leaves me with very limited options for the rest of the day. I go back to my hotel, change into my cycling gear, and pedal off.

The day's ride is nothing special. I stay on the main highway the whole way. The wide shoulder lane makes it relatively stress free as all the trucks and busses pass with more than enough room to spare. The exhaust from the passing vehicles doesn't bother me as much as the noise the vehicles make. It has been said that in Asia, car horns wear out before their brakes do. That definitely applies in Vietnam. As the trucks pass, the drivers always lean on their horns to let everyone on the road know that they are passing. The first time it happens, it almost makes me jump off my bike and leaves me with my left ear ringing. After a while, I get used to it and would simply move closer to the edge of the shoulder. Then I start to appreciate the Doppler Effect: as a truck comes up from behind me, the pitch of the horn blast would be in a high pitch; it then shifts to a lower-pitch sound at the point it passes me.

I stop at the only guesthouse in a small town called Quan Toan as night falls and take the cheapest room on the basement level. The ceiling is exactly six feet high, so I have to stoop a little to walk around the room without scraping my head. There is no hot shower. To wash myself, I have to scoop warm water from a bucket and pour it over my head. After dinner and some reading, I turn in for an early night under the security of a mosquito net.

Stats:
Distance today: 63.2 km