Hue, where your born a communist and you die a King

Hai van pass to Hue

Oh my god, today was absoloutly crazy.  After a gentle 30 km warm up cycle to the bottom of the pass 

we filled up our water bottles to attempt to climb from the beach to 500 m above sea level over 10 km !!!  These were the longest 10 km in my life.  It was noon and the sun was baking.  I had to stop several times as I wasn't feeling 100% for the last week and was ready to give up when Chi cycled past us and meant we were nearly there....long story short we made it...what an achievement. 

my first stop....still smiling

Alex was so happy to be back on the bike and not having to sit on that bus for another day

Our group shoot,  funny we all realised after in front of which grotty cement map we got photographed...

...when you got this beautiful valley on the other side of the road..

All smiles..

The nice thing about cycling up a ridiculous mountain is the down hill on the other side...a beautiful 10 km. Alex took it very slow this time, it seems he learned from his experiences..

....yes it seemed that he did, in fact more than learned...because that downhill actually scared me. For the first time in a very long time the adrenalin rush of going downhill scared me a lot. The crash had made me uber-cautious and Julia at one point could be heard shouting complaints as I put the brakes on right in front of her causing her to slow down. Oh dear!

The ride UP the hill was bizarrely fine. Definitely a feature of the trip so far - midday heat taking its toll on Julia, but not affecting me so much; which meant her superior fitness wasn't so obvious :) Once we got to the top there were lots of people photographing the idiots they had passed in their coaches (us!) and strangely enough, we met some of them the morning after in the lift at the hotel.

Once we got back down the hill it was a 10km cycle along a lake which would have been perfect if it hadn't been for the searing heat affecting Julia. The views were magnificent and in a way it was what we had both hoped the whole trip would be like. Still, not far to go and when we arrived and put the bikes back into the van then climbed aboard the bus for a quick transfer to lunch, we all had big smiles.

cycling along the bay..

this is an oyster farm, to grow pearls

Lunch was at an empty resort on the sea - so good to see the beach during the sunny early afternoon.  Listening to the surf and waiting for lunch we began to dream of what we would really like to eat.  Funnily enough "fries" came up more often that not...then appeared!  Yes, the Vietnamese Cycling Gods had listened to our prayers and served us up some fries.

Back on the coach again for another short transfer then everyone was back on their bikes.

lunchtime 

Back on the coach again :)  the cycling hadn't done much for my knee (surprise surprise) so I elected to sit out the next 20km.  Cycling over a long bridge onto an island then continuing on for a fairly long way, with my knee dribbling......not so much.  So I fell fast asleep.  Lovely.

I came to as we arrived a couple of km from a cemetery.  Which seems kind of weird when you read about it here - you know, driving to a cemetery.  However this wasn't just any old cemetery.  Highgate has Karl Marx, Paris has Jim Morrison, but nowhere does mausoleums like the district of Hue.

If you were to advertise the place you could easily say - "Hue, where your born a communist and you die a King"  - just take a look at those beautiful tributes to the dead family elders below.  Some of them can cost up to $25,000 and when you consider the average wage is around $12,000 it puts into perspective the value they place on their elders.

Simply beautiful and so diverse

Apparently there is a local cottage industry for "Mausoleum Designing"

Just behind the cemetery was the coast and what an amazing gem it was.  Miles and miles of unspoilt sand stretching straight away into the distance on both sides.  The surf was high enough to make a beautiful soundtrack to a moment of peace and solitude - of real happiness.  After the crazy last few days it was such a treat to come here even for a few minutes.

So after 80km, we were back in the bus and then a short trip to Hue, where we disembarked and checked in to yet another hotel.  Hue was the old Capital of Vietnam, back in the days when the Kings of North Vietnam were in charge.  In a bid to change all this, the King back then had moved things South, but Hue still retained some of its pomp and pride.  Tomorrow was to be a city tour, but tonight we went to a western style restaurant and gorged ourselves on pizza, wurst, fries and other such delicacies of the western world....mmmmmm.  Tonight was also the last night of the tour with our fine friends that were Mr. Can (aka Vodka, the Cycle Truck Driver), Mr. Nahn (our bus driver) and Mr. Li (the mechanic).  

It was also Julie's birthday.  Julie, Dave, Julia and I had become good friends over the trip and it was lovely to be able to celebrate with her and a few drinks :)

I was nominated to present the "Thank You Tips" to the departing team and tried to keep my thank you speech as simply as possible for Chi to be able to translate without too much effort.  They looked uncomfortably happy, which is I suppose what you are trying to achieve when you say a genuine thank you for the amount of effort these boys had put in; plus their unwavering good moods and smiles. 

Our cycling was almost at an end, but we still had one more day on the bikes and then what was to be a really cool train journey to Hanoi.

Thank you very much to Messrs. Can, Nahn and Li