Distance cycled: 13.5 km Ave: 18.1 km/h Max speed: 45.7 km/h Elevation gained: 97 m
We spent most of last night trying to figure out where we want to go for the next (last!) week, and how plausible it was to find a boat on the Song Da (black river) that might take us down to Hoa Dinh. In the end, we concluded that it was an uncommon request, and may have been really cool if arranged with more notice, and not during the holidays. So we cycled south towards the bus station with an idea of skipping ahead a bit. We were aiming for the Mai Chau district, but didn’t have a clear plan in mind.
We rolled up at the bus station and were immediately ushered to load onto a bus heading for Mai Châu in 6 minutes. We carefully put our bikes in stowage below, doffed our shoes to enter the bus, and climbed aboard.
Aboard turned out to be two tiers of race car recliner bunks that did requiring some climbing as we were instructed to take top bunks.It was surprisingly comfortable once we got used to the almost horizontal positioning. Our bikes were amazingly unscathed despite being restowed with a press of other luggage so tightly that the three bikes had to be extracted as a single unit and separated after. Everything retrieved, we rolled down into the valley of rice fields.We found a basic little hotel after our pinned homestay was still in holiday mode.We walked out to a delightful dinner, including chicken curry, braised eggplant with tofu, and caramelized pork shoulder. And glutenous rice cooked in banana leaves that you eat dipping it in a delicious sesame salt mixture. Finally, as of this evening, my gastro system seems to be settling down. I enjoyed the delightful dinner tonight AND had no knock-on misery, unlike meals of the past few days. Huzzah!
BC by Cycle 
Well that bus ride looked amazing. Why don’t they make planes like that?! It must be a relief to have the digestive system settling down!
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