Day 6

If yesterday was boring then today would get two words--chaotic and serene. The day started off with a massive wrong turn and some miscommunication. After the 10k detour was finished and we were on the right road things couldn't have been better. The HCM highway is amazing. I call it the autobahn of Vietnam because the quality is so good. The road surface is top notch and new, there are switch backs with normal, human inclines and usually there is a guard rail on both sides. Though the highway is more then just the sum of its physical parts. There are very few buses or trucks, there aren't massive piles of kids in the road either. Usually, there is just terro and straw drying on the shoulder and an ox cart or two putting along. The sounds are not of horns and fast moving vehicles but of crickets and birds. Just today I saw a fox, a salamander the size of my arm and at least ten of what appeared to be red wing blackbirds (or their Asian cousins) at different times. Will be on the HCM highway for a little longer before we bailout to highway 1 again for our day off in Hue.