Day 89 - Time to Spare
I didn't like my 6am alarm, but I didn't hate it either. Having the bike all ready the day before, I just had to make and consume my oats and pot of tea and I could be off. We had separate plans today - I was off quick to divert to go via some Viet Cong tunnels, and Emma was planning a less time pressured day on the direct route.
Is that how hydro is supposed to work? 😬
It was an overcast and windy morning, but that wind was behind me on a nicely sized, perfectly tarmaced road! With the addition of my audiobook I'd covered the distance to the tunnels before I knew it, and had only got a bit wet (thankfully the rain didn't set in). This was a much more reasonably-priced tourist attraction than the caves yesterday at 1.30 euro for entry and 10p for bike parking and I was able to leave my panniers with the ticket office so no stress while visiting which was nice. Travelling with a bike is a lot of watching out for that bike and never fully relaxing when it's outside a cafe/shop/border; as that incident in Turkey proved all too well.
The tunnels were very shocking, and very creepy down there on my own. This is recent history and bomb craters still litter the area. You descend down the one lit path with unlit branches left and right, until you pop out of an entrance directly on the beach to a wild sea. It would be easy to get lost as the tunnel branched and branched again. Whole villages lived down here and went between tunnel systems by a massive series of trenches which they'd move themselves and livestock through. As you went down the lower levels had a lot of water running through them too - I could have sworn the toilet still smelled!
I finished up, politely declined all of the hawkers and got back into the groove. It was very nice to be ahead of time for once - I had plenty of time, including for and stops and would arrive around 4pm despite the distance and tourism! It was a pretty route up the valley, which made a change from the fast and beautifully tarmaced, but lesson interesting big roads along the flat. Mind you, I did catch up on a lot of texting people back while riding those roads which is handy!
Emma had been sending me pictures of nice drinks all day, and my bubble tea attempt earlier had failed into an incredibly strong expresso with ice, so when I passed a cafe near the top of the final hill with time in my pocket I settled in to look at the view with a fancy drink!
The options for hotels in the border town were dire and the best of the worst was exactly as it came up in the reviews: and old Soviet building, in a very, very noisy area that smelt bad (musty mixed with cigarette smoke). Although our toilet flushed so we were better off than Pete403 😅. It was sadly the worst place we've had for a while and the earliest arrival to "enjoy" it, but hey ho, I got my core workout done and a bit of admin and then Emma arrived. She had the last of the cash we wanted to spend so I'd waited for dinner.
The options were again, meagre, and we ordered everything veggie (and all deep fried) from the only open place - a drinking establishment where groups of young people were sitting around drinking through boxes of beer, throwing the cans on the floor when finished! Border town vibes...
It did the job and we could finally go to sleep to the sound of thumping bass and terrible, and I mean terrible, singing!
Food spend today: 21.43 euros
Tea consumption: 6