Day 14: Rolling Hills and Roller Blades

It would have been impossible to predict the beginning or the ending of day 14 prior to our arrival in P'rao on Tuesday.  A conference allegedly titled "Local Products for Local People" somehow caused local hotels to fill up and with room keys snapped up like gold dust, we were forced to take the mini-bus the whole way to Danang in search for a bed for the night.

Another 3 hour journey back to P'rao in the morning wasn't the ideal start and with rusty, rain-drenched bike
chains and a lack of breakfast we set off on our 51km journey to Thanh My. The delayed start was immediately wiped from our minds however as we soon found ourselves curling around the mountainside once again, taking in the breathtaking views and beautiful sunshine.

Our gallant leader, The Steak, had assured us that today's climbs would be nothing like those experienced in the days previous but in hindsight we were fools to anticipate an easy ride.  "There are two big hills today", we were led to believe.  But two hills quickly turned into three and three hills turned into three and a half.  High-fives were thrown around at what seemed to be the peak of the last mountain before we turned another corner and three and a half suddenly became four.  Never again will I trust a man from New Orleans.

Stronger in both mind and body, we rocked up at our hotel in Thanh My in high spirits and quickly went on the hunt for dinner and beer.  Despite the village being perched on the top of a huge mountain in rural Vietnam where there are no shops or bars, it did have one thing to offer.  A roller disco.  Nothing could have prepared the H2H team for this and to be honest, the obscurity of the situation had me lost for words.  Then out of nowhere we were being treated to a flawless demonstration of modern dance by a local roller-disco veteran who is said to have won back-to-back Vietnamese free-dancing championships in 1981-82 and again in 1994-95.

Words/Photos: Rory