the bikes are running smooth now after getting refited in saigon with some new spokes and relined brakepads. turns out that after all my searching it is next to impossible to buy shimano pads for disc brakes, so at their insistance, i didnt really want to, they took our worn pads and put some new shit on them, and they work just as well as the real thing for abour 2 dollars each instead of twenty. only in asia could this happen. we left dalat yesterday, after a day that was just like wellington summer. about 23 degrees and sunny. this is only possible because of its elevation, at 1500M its the tallest city in naam, and has a spectacular climate. the vietnamese people that we met all warned us how cold it is, and its really funny to see them walking around in ski jackets and beanies while the tourists luxuriate in shorts and tshirts. there are heaps of vietnamese tourists there, most from saigon, and i guess that to them its like a ski town.
we were tempted to do a tour with thses dudes called the easy riders but it was really expensive (by asian standards) so we decided to stick to the plan and cycle up the coast instead of going via the highlands. really glad that we did, because yesterday we had a 110 km ride from 1600M (there was a bit of uphill) to sea level, including a 33 km downhill that was fuckin extreme. lissa broke her pannier bag (managed to fix it with a random bolt that she found) and we got 4 flat tires. we managed to survive all day on the pancakes and bacon that our cafe lady tu ann made for us in dalat (i love that town, best breakfast so far in the trip) and the chocolate and dried tomatoes that were supposed to be strawberries (someone doesnt know what they are talking about) because there wasnt much food to eat en route. we passed a really old vietmanese guy running down the road thankfully in the direction that we were heading, completley naked. he didnt even have footwear. didnt want to look back to see lissas expression. i guess it was hot so why wear clothes... i guess. we stopped at a small village where an old french railway crossed a river, and i checked out some french pillboxes guarding the approach to the bridge from viet minh attack. i like the french style, their bunkers have little medieval type turrets on them that give them a little more charm than should be possible for a machinegun emplacement. the bridge over the river was still intact but the tracks are gone. i tried to walk out on the metal girders, but some kids were playing with my bike and i didnt want them to reset my cycle computer so i had to return. i gave one of them my ipod to listen to (prolly the strangest thing to happen to him all year). the afternoon wore on and we outran a thunderstorm while trying to catch up with some other cyclists who passed lissa as i was off exploring. we finally limped into town on 2 flattening tires as it got dark and met this crazy dude who used to be a translator for the yanks during the war. he found us a sweet hotel for cheap. wanted to collapse but he kept going on about nzers during the war and stuff so i managed to get rid of him by giving my email address, then had to repair 5 inner tubes before i could lie down. fuck. should have done that ages ago and not let them build up till i had no spares left but theres nothing like a really good procrastination i guess. now its 11.30am and about 35 degrees. just cycled 50 km, got another 50 to go till we get to na trang and a curry. might have a sleep and wake up this arvo when its a bit cooler. just bought 2 icecreams for about 15 cents. not like our ones, they make them with coconut cream not milk, so they taste really coconutty. not bad when you get used to them though.and cold! the ride this morning was awesome. up the 'dreaded' highway one, which is better and wider than pretty much all combodian roads, in the direction of na trang. rugged hills this morning and flourescent green rice paddies. as we ate breakfast this morning on the roof of our hotel a couple of migs (i think mig 27's) took off and cruised over the town playing around burning gas. they accompanied us, circling around for the next 30 km before we outdistanced them and they disappeared in the haze. prolly the coolest sendoff and ride out of town yet. just looked at the turoa snow report, all 5 days are snow!!! havent seen that before, you guys must be hgaving some reeeallllly shit weather. haha.
aux the midnight landscaper
