Into the Mekong

Well, after a long hard ride, I've made it into Viet Nam. It was my longest day to date - about 130 km. Moderate roads in Cambodia (by Cambodian standards), but they twisted and turned quite a bit, making navagational a little difficult. They were side roads, so pretty much no traffic. Which made weaving amongst the potholes possible. Fortunately, I didn't get lost much. Just had to ask for directions a lot and take them all with a grain of salt.

The last stretch out of Cambodia was along a levee amongst huge swaths of rice fields. After arriving in Viet Nam (and fending off a moto driver who somehow thought I needed a ride) the road became much more congested. Lots of motorcycles here. I finally arrive in Chau Doc just as the sun was setting. Interesting little town with a huge market area. Looks like lots of fresh vegetables and fruits - much more variety then Cambodia.

So now I work my way through the Mekong delta towards Ho Chi Minh City. Should be a four or five day trek and then a few days of rest.

On the bike front, my seat post (not the part attached to the seat, but the extension out of the bike that it fits into) cracked. I was able to get a jerry rigged fix up in Kampot, but it's now completely broken. At least my seat is still kind of working, albiet halphazardly. I also had a flat tire about five kms outside of Chau Doc, but only about 100 m from a road side tire repairman. He was able to get two punctures fixed in about 10 minutes. Didn't even charge me as I hadn't converted into dong yet, and they aren't suppose to take dollars.

In better news, I will soon be a millionaire. Converted $20 here into 300,000 dong, and my trip to the bank tomorrow will see me with over 3,000,000!!