2016 - Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City by Bicycle: Day 22: Wed 07 Dec

Forgot to get weather details

Listed: 50km; actual: 51km; total: 1119km

Breakfast was a bit light-on but we only had 50km of riding today and we knew we would get plenty of snack and water stops so weren't too worried. Rode away from the hotel about 7:45am and were soon on the back roads amongst the real people, again. Had a mixture of wide roads, skinny ones, smooth, not so smooth and downright rough! Muddy in parts as well because it rained last night.

Our first stop was at a rice noodle factory, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The conditions they produce foodstuffs in are not all that flash, but it is all they know. There were dogs running around the place sniffing the racks and there were lots of flies. They make a thick liquid from the rice powder, adding corn flour (we think) to make it set. That is pumped into a vat which dispenses it onto a heated conveyor belt. The sections are then transferred onto drying racks made from palm leaves woven together and put out into the open onto racks to dry. When they are dry, they are cut into strips or noodles. This process has only just been mechanized in this particular "factory". As we arrived there was a man sitting on a bench with a little puppy on his lap that was yelping like there was no tomorrow. We found out that the man was de-ticking the puppy and when Wendy walked past, she saw at least six ticks in the puppy's ear - shame! The man was probably cleaning it up to sell as food??

The second stop was at a brick "factory". Again, this was just on the side of the road and was quite rudimentary. Clay had been taken from the river, mixed with sand and cut into blocks. These blocks were fed into a hopper which smashed them up to spit out the formed bricks - a bit like a sausage machine really. The soft bricks are placed outside to dry (about three days) and then placed in the kiln in which they are 'fired' to set the clay so that when it rains, the house does not "melt"!! The fired bricks are then loaded onto barges to be distributed where required.

Not long after the brick factory, we had a drinks stop on the side of the Co Chien River looking at a very large bridge that looked remarkably like the Brisbane Gateway. We then rode over this bridge which was not quite as difficult as it seemed from the bottom. It was then back onto smaller, back roads and then over a very rickety, old wooden bridge where we were told to stop at the top to view the coconut "factory" on the river. There were a lot of barges with coconuts in different stages of maturation. On the opposite bank, there was what looked like rough-shredded coconut meat drying out in the sun. It was back onto the narrow paths and then through some very narrow market stall lanes in a village. We stopped for a drink and to get the rain coats ready as it had started to spit. However, as soon as we had them on, the rain stopped, thank goodness. Another 20km later we stopped for the last time and the bikes were taken apart, including saddles and pedals for those who bought their own.

We were then bused to a very flash restaurant, the Mekong Rest Stop (just out of My Tho city) where we had an eight-course meal! Of course, they were not huge courses but they filled us up nonetheless. We got back into the bus looking like fat ticks. No sooner had we pulled out of the restaurant car park and it started raining, really hard. We were all very thankful it held out for that long as it would not have been very nice to be riding in it. It took about an hour and a half on the freeway and eventually we were dropped off at the Rex hotel in HCM City (the only 5-star hotel we'll ever be able to afford). As we were lining up to check in, a nice man asked us for our passports and then lead us to the informal lounge area and asked us to take a seat. A welcome drink arrived and about 20 minutes later the man came back with our passports and room keys. We had to provide a credit card and a USD600 holding fee just in case we absconded without paying the bill.

When we did get into the room, we unpacked and went for a swim. Wendy thought the water was cold, but Greg enjoyed it. We were going to have a beer on the pool deck, but decided against it when we saw the price. So, whilst it may the only 5* hotel we can afford to stay at, we certainly can't afford to drink or eat. Well, we could, but not very much of either. On the way back to our room we got lost! There are two wings - East and West, and you have to remember which way you came. We then went for a wander through the city to find a place to have beers and dinner. We found one around the corner from the hotel and we all had very non-Indochina meals and they tasted great! It was a bit of a shock to have to pay for your own meals again, after three weeks of just turning up, eating and going home. A slow wander after dinner, teeth then bed.