Holy Cow and Dippity Dog!

H2H Day 5:

Good people, even by my own high absent-minded standards I may have excelled myself today: I actually managed to cycle into a cow! There I was after lunch, happily cycling along between Dien Chau and Do Luong, somewhere in North Vietnam, when I received a text. Thinking it might be an important directions update (it wasn't), I quickly went 'hands free' on my bike to read it and then looked back just in time to shout 'cow' (I don't know why!), smack into the midrift of a big brown road crossing cow and bounce off onto the tarmac to the delight of all the locals in the village! And the cow didn't even stop to help! As I laid on the road slightly dazed I then had my limbs pulled in various directions by the locals before the wonderful Angela helped me up and put some da (ice) onto my knee from a local cafe. After checking the bike and the cow we proceeded very steadily for the last 30km to our destination. The knee has now ballooned a bit so it may be a day in the van tomorrow but we'll soon be back on the bike and hey what a story to dine out on! I mean how often do you get to cycle into a real cow? Fantastic! Another cyclist Phong managed to hit a dog on his bike today as well, so we'll clearly have to look out for the animals. Dr Dolittle would not be impressed! And who was the mystery text from you may be wondering? Infact, from one of my English students back in Saigon. It read 'Mr Chris, how are you? I miss you, do you miss me?' I haven't replied yet. I thought I'd sleep on it first!

Still loving the ride though - beautiful scenery, amazing people, brilliant team, robust cows.

Thanks for reading,

- Chris