Although rain had been forecast for the Saigon area today broke clear with light cloud ( but boy, did it get hot later on) so breakfast was on the roof terrace. My usual five-a-day had a bit of variation today, I gave the green thing a miss and had the pinky red thing instead. Better choice. And I doubled the passion fruit because of how delicious they are!
Today was a 55km ride, so that meant I could have two coconut profiteroles ;-)
I'm not fixated on the food (honest!), but it's such a treat not having to shop, prepare and cook or tidy up either, so you can understand why I get so excited.
On the road everything is done for us, when we stop they even come and take my helmet off and prop my bike up before the other hands me fresh fruit and homemade lemonade. Here's Tong/Tang making sure everything is kept cool for us - see the big ice blocks?
As we headed out to the coast today we cycled through rubber plantations and farm land.
This is tapioca waiting for the rains so it can be planted in the prepared fields.
And here is why cashew nuts are so expensive. Only ONE nut per fruit. So a lot of fruit is needed for that bag of nuts to go with your G&T!
The roads are mostly straight and in the main well tarmaced, well as good as, if not better, than Hampshire roads!
This is a young rubber plantation,
and these are papayas ripening,
but the bananas aren't quite ready yet.
Hoping that these ducks have a happy life...
We cycle past rice paddy, after rice paddy.
Young and old, they always like to wave and shout 'hello' as we ride by.
Every 20km we have a stop for refreshing lemonade and fruit. Glorious rambutan today, which are part of the lychee family.
The guys need a break too! It's hot cycling towards lunch time, so by the time we stop I am all but done in,
good job stir fried noodles with beef and vegetables was on the lunch menu!
As we approached the coast we saw all these fishing boats moored,
which was a pop of colour against all the lush greenery.
Tonight we are at the luxury Sealinks Hotel
Where we were met with more smiles, fruit cocktails and frangipani garlands which has such a heavenly smell.
As you can see, I already have my cyclist tide marks!
Very smart room
but the motion sensitive lights in the bathroom keep fading when you least expect them to. Made putting mascara on quick tricky this evening.
Once I had peeled off my very soggy cycling gear ( Lam cycled next to use when it was really hot and 'showered' us with a bottle of iced water - cold, but it helped on the last kilometre when I thought I wasn't going to make it.) and had a quick coffee it was time to sample one of the many swimming pools...
It felt really good to stretch out in the water...aaaagh :-) Set under the coconut trees with a cooling breeze it was a perfect way to end the day.
Then back to my room, just here, see?
and here is me, stretched out on the lounger writing this!
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