Day 5 - Tan Ky to Pho Chau

Day 5 of H2H 2015 and it's flown by already!
After our daily stretches,  a  team photo was taken with Becky Chmiel´s H2H top as it was a year since her accident. Back in Saigon Becky was going to be having a ´Celebration of Life´ party and we wanted to show she had our support. You´re awesome Becky!


Today we would be cycling 90 kilometres from Tan Ky to Pho Chau. Our second 90k two days running.The weather happened to be rather misty and cool- a perfect day for cycling! I tried to set off at a fast pace but it was not to be as  I got caught in conversation with one of the locals. We chatted as she zoomed along on her motorbike. Her English was actually very good, of course much better than my Vietnamese. Very soon Kim (my cycling buddy) and Keith arrived and we let Keith do the.talking.

There´s nothing like whizzing up and down the rolling hills, especially with such beautiful countryside. We thought it was rather reminiscent of Scotland. All the locals we passed were so lovely and everyone stopped to say hello or to get a high five.

The bingo challenge still needed to be competed so Keith and I took a paddle in a random lake ticked off a square that required us to enter a natural water source.This was under the surveillance of Chris Rolls who swiftly phoned Mike to inform him of the joyous news that Keith had completed the h2h bingo challenge (I´m sadly still several squares behind). It turned out that Chris Gallet was also a winner, though I´d like to point out that that paddling deserves much more credit than just dipping one finger in the water!

The others had been trying to complete the challenge too, along with taking sexy photos (don´t worry I won´t include those here), touching livestock and riding a school kid´s bike. 

Instead of Jack riding a school kid´s bike, he let one of them ride his. It unfortunately ended in them treading on the rear derailler. Ouch.

Oh, and we passed a skate park along the way. Only a few were brave enough to conquer it.

Mike in action.

Towards the end of the ride we got caught in a bit of drizzle but thankfully made it back to Pho Chau in time before the real rain began. After meeting the rest of the team we all piled into a restaurant serving Bun Thit Nong that and probably gave the staff a run for their money. I´m not sure they´d seen so many customers in a long time! 

An entertaining culture night was lead by Chris Tran so we were introduced to a Vietnamese gambling and most of us said goodbye to our spare dong.

Words: Bex Richardson

Photos: Bex Richardson, Chris Tran

Hanoi to Ha Tinh Province.  This is the distance we´ve cycled in 5 days!