Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City: Day 2: Cho Ben to Cam Thuy ( 80km)

Today was a great and " fun" riding day from Chợ Bến to Cẩm Thuỷ. The terrain was flat and easy for the first 40km then as I was starting to feel my legs, the hills started. It was a good warm up for our next few days and before heading down to the central highlands. The roads started out really good with beautiful scenery of the rice fields but busy with traffic. We cycled past Cúc Phương National Park which is called the Ha Long Bay on land. I did enjoy the ride very much because the weather was so good compared to the heat of Saigon and the views were spectacular! The local kids were very friendly, almost every kid I passed by waved and said " hello" because they thought I was a foreigner! A few people on scooters rode alongside me and we had a quick chat about the purpose of me doing this trip. It was very funny that an old lady on a bicycle even tried to pass me ( she couldn't) and I loved it when some little kids read out loud the words on the back of my jersey and discussed about it.

Cẩm Thuỷ is a district of Thanh Hoá province in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. The town is a pretty popular destination among domestic tourists with majestically natural scenery with high mountains, long rivers and a huge forest. It is a quiet and lovely town with a famous God Fish stream. It is famous for a unique and special type of fish that often swims densely in the stream. Nobody knows exactly what type of fish that is, but it is called God Fish due to many mystical stories on the special creatures. The locals believe that the fish can bring misfortune to those who dare to catch and eat them. Therefore, they protect the fish carefully and never dare to catch them. I heard many stories about this stream but it was a shame I didn't have a chance to visit.