Heavy Sweating People

 Today our riding was almost surreal; the day came in two distinct pieces.


The first piece was a morning ride by the ocean, the winds refreshing but not a deterrent, more bright bougainvillea flowering, stretching sands to admire: the choir was singing that old-time favorite, "Bicycle In Paradise." 
See those looming red hulks dotted in green in the distance? Those are the sandy hills....




Our road led us up away from the ocean, and into this extraordinarily barren, strange land of sand:

Red sandy soil, wizened scrubby plants, viscious wind, blasting heat. We were in Arizona; we were in the Australian outback; we were in sub-saharan Africa.

This was the most desolated 20 kilometers I've ever bicycled in my life. Here, in Vietnam, the 14th most populated country! The wind ripped and whipped us, due to the lack of trees, so strong that some unidentified component on my bicycle was whistling.

We climbed a steady, yet unsatisfyingly imperceptable hill, for approximately 7 weeks through this eerie land. Maybe all of one motorbike passed us; just the scrubby trees and the wind and the baking sun. Keeping to even 13 kph was a struggle and I was becoming stoic and single-minded, sweat dripping from both eyebrows at regular intervals. We pulled over in a rare piece of shade under a rare tree for a break and, out of curiosity, I stood on the road in the sun holding our Always-Check-A-Fever-Because-Just-In-Case Thermometer.

It read 33.6. Which is 92 degrees F. Wowh.

I opened one of my saved electrolyte packets from Thailand.

The packet said: "Suitable for the whole family during your good time such as playing sports. Plcnic, travelling, and heavy sweating people."

I was certainly a Heavy Sweating Person.

Then we eventually, amazingly, reached the top of this hill and taxied and launched and flew down the other side, the view spread out like a picnic (er, Plcnic), the wind and speed refreshing. I hit 57 kph on this descent, probably thanks in part to the weighty (and mystically powered) dragonfruit I was lugging. At the end we were delivered, with little introduction, into a bustling town. What a contrast to be among such human activity after desolation.

And so there we ate Pho.