Day 9
Country
We left Tay Ninh at around 9.30 am and headed towards Cat Tien nationak park. We had heard it was worth visiting. Had to keep stopping frequently to check we were on the right road but made good progress once on the highway. At one of these stops Ron's leather jacket attracted an admirer who proceeded to check it out in an unashamedly hands-on manner!
We found in many places where we stopped to eat that the lady of the house would sell food while the man would also ply his trade from the same premises - often the porch of their house. This morning it so happened that the man of the house was a cobbler. Handy, as Ron's boots were falling apart and were fixed whilst we ate breakfast.
Couple of hours later we stopped at a "sports cafe" for a coffee. The owner was playing boules with sme other men. Ron and I messed about for a bit at the table tennis table and then carried on. We stopped again when we saw two westerners pushing their bikes on the road. One of them had a flat tyre and neither knew how to fix it. We offered to help and found some shade under a tree. However, they did not have any tools for their bikes and tools from our bikes did not fit their bike. As there were two of them - father and son from South Africa, but living in Surrey - they said they'd find local help and we left them to it. I hope they made it OK as it was a long way to the next village.
Google maps, good as it is, has it's shortcomings. It led us straight to Cat Tien national park alright but to an entrance on the north side where vehicles were not allowed in. Locals told us that we had to go around to the south side to get in from the main entrance. Google maps told us it was a further 56 kms and would take 2 hours. We had no choice but to follow it as there was nothing else near where we were. It led us to a river crossing where there was no bridge or ferry. We went around in circles for a bit. As we had already been on the road for about 180 kms in fierce heat, we were tired and kept making poor decisions. Eventually we found a bridge where Google thought was a ferry and it worked out OK. In fact it saved us about 20 kms I think. Google maps also massively under estimates the time it takes to reach from A to B. Despite all that it was still a vital piece of kit and without it our journey would have been a lot longer and frustrating I guess.
Finally we arrived at Sunny Field Eco Stilt House at 6.30 as the sun went down. 6 other bikers had turned up at the same time. Lucky we had booked a room earlier when we had got lost. We had done this so that we had an address to put into Google maps to get us out of where we were. We might have been turned away if not.
We met Jean - a young frenchman who made a living busking in Australia. He was in Vietnam to meet his brother who was also travelling. Jean was also riding a motorbike from HCMC to Hanoi but he was on a tighter schedule than us. We chatted to him for quite a while over dinner and kept in touch with him during the rest of the trip. It was Jeanwho suggested I open an Instagram account and at least post pictures if I didn't have time to write the journal everyday.
The stilt house was basic but great. Everything was constructed from wood - even the wash basin in the bathroom! There was no bed but the mattresses were laid on the floor. The roof was thatched and the tap was just an elbow joint with a stop cock. Water was heated from solar panels and all you could see from the balcont was surrounding fields. It was beautiful and we stayed there an extra day. The hosts were so lovely and couldn't smile wide enough.
