Good morning SE Asia!: 07/10/13 - Cam Trung to Dinh Lap

Couldn’t get out of the hotel soon enough and left at 7am, no breakfast. We had a couple of soya drinks and cookies so we would stop somewhere. 100km today, up towards the hills on the north, and towards the China border. It was mega hot again but today the air was a lot clearer, less misty which is probably smog from the towns. We were really getting out into the countryside. Everyone says 'Hello!' at us, and all the kids go mad when they see us. They laugh and laugh when we say hello back to them. It is really great to see ll the smiling faces, it's not distracting at all. When we stop the mum's like to bring the babies over to us, probably as they have never seen big freckly red people before!

We stopped for lunch just before 11am and had another half chicken, spinach, rice and drinks for about £10. The chicken is quite expensive for what you get, they are quite skinny things and come just chopped into chunks with all the bones and head still on. Nice though, but might be better sticking to veg options. We are going to try pork next time and see how it is.

We get to Dinh Lap which again we don’t have a hotel booked in, hoping it's not a knocking shop area again. It's not which is nice but the hotel is an old run down government one, and although its got aircon and beds look ok, it obviously hasn’t been cleaned in a while. £5.50. We shower and go out. There are lots of roadside café/bar places with a few plastic chairs and tables everywhere with Bia Hoi signs. Like a pub really. We have a couple in one place and the lady is proudly showing us photos of her 20yr old daughter with some 50 year old Western man at somebody's wedding. We have a wander about and get some water for the morning.

Later on we go back out into the small main street to find some dinner. Just as we leave, all the lights go out in the hotel and everywhere else in the town! Power cut! Some places still have lights though and we find our way down to a restaurant in the town and sit down. Usually at this point they run about looking for someone who speaks English. They come back with a small kid who interprets for us that we want some fried pork and some rice and some cokes. His English is unusually good and I just wondering why, when his mum comes in and is completely fluent! So she asks us if we need any more help and just as we start talking, it becomes clear. A big Australian bloke comes in! That's his wife and kid, he has been living in this small town for 8 years, has a business here with an excavator and is something of a local entrepreneur and celebrity. As soon as he sits down the boss of the restaurant brings over 4 glasses of some dirty brown drink that reminds me of the stuff we tipped down the toilet. It actually wasn’t too bad and tasted more like honey. Home made honey schnapps that they call Ouzi. Few more of them with our food that we ordered, and Gary's wife is running back and forward the whole time bringing us other things from their house, 3 doors away! They invited us for dinner, but we had already ordered so she brought the dinner over as well! We get plied with a few more of the house drink, plus Gary brings over a teapot full of his own similar (but better) concoction. One of my shots from the restaurant comes with a big black blob of something in the bottom, like a half walnut or something. The restaurant manager fishes it out to prove its harmless and starts chewing on it, but spits it out after a few seconds with a disapproving face! We paid local prices and that was £3 for the whole meal, there was loads of people round our table and all sorts of things going on.

We were invited back to Gary and Lynn's house and had a few more beers with them in the kitchen meeting people, and later on the top floor balcony overlooking the little village. That guy has some stories. Left at about 22.30 (went for dinner just before 18.00) knowing that the next day was already going to be tough. The power was back on in the hotel when we got back.

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