Jono Cane's Blog

Day 24 16/11/2009

Distance Cycled: 120km

I left the truck stop at 8am after having a good nights rest although it was a little damp, all of my things that were touching the walls of the tent were drenched, and that was most of my clothes. The sky looked a little overcast and about to rain, and rain it did… all day, although there was a small gap in the weather when I had lunch. I had perhaps the best pho ba (beef noodle soup) ever and it was a generous portion too.

Whist at the restaurant I fixed my bike a little… the back breaks were not working and especially in the rain I needed them to.

I had forgotten that I had put some audiobooks on my iPod for tree planting in Canada, so I started listening to The Hobbit. It certainly killed a lot of time, most if not all my attention was involved with the book and before I knew it was getting close to 4 but by then it was dumping down. All the clothes I was wearing were absolutely drenched.

I then pulled into another truck stop where they couldn’t have been any more hospitable, they let me stay in one of the their rooms and take a shower and hang up my wet clothes (I highly doubt they will be dry by tomorrow)

I was asked by the restaurant owner next door to cook a dish for him and a few others after he had found out I am a chef.

It was quite amusing to cook something else other than Pho (noodle soup) not that I had cooked it before its just stock with rice noodles, a few veg and some kind of meat, it’s the fact that it’s the food of choice all over Vietnam.

The restaurant owner stood over me watching my every move, although I didn’t have much in terms of ingredients nor did I have the proper equipment, but I made do. I cooked up a quick dry noodle stir-fry with beef, spring onion, bean sprouts and tomatoes. His reaction to the dish was surprising… it seemed he liked it and finished his plate but I then gestured to him ‘thumbs up’ or thumbs down’… apparently they don’t use this type of gesturing in Vietnam, so I don’t know whether he liked it or not… seeing that he had finished his plate im going to go with that fact that he enjoyed it. J

I then went back to where I was staying and then was fed fish, spinach and rice with a lot of shots of rice wine.

After at east 10 shots of rice wine I got a bit tipsy and set off to bed, wrapping my ankle with a bandage. It certainly was more painful than yesterday and was making a creaking noise every time I would stretch it. Hopefully tomorrow it will feel better.