Day 15: P'rao to Thanh My

After yesterday’s epic 103km uphill ‘evil bitch day,’ spirits were high this morning with a relatively meagre 52km ahead of us to Thanh My. Even Patrick was smiling and dancing as usual despite having a smashed phone and bruised bum from coming off his bike to avoid a collision with a rogue goat the day before. Classic P. Wiggles with his positivity and selflessness re. sacrificing his own bum for a goat’s!

P’rao is a nice little town, which has a Laos-Vietnamese vibe as it’s quite close to the border and is home to the Co Tu ethnic minority group. There was the usual morning hive of activity with people setting up their stalls, eating Pho on plastic chairs and lots of dogs milling about half-heartedly chasing people and each other.

At about 7am (‘lie in’ today -yay!) I embarked on the usual breakfast-foraging mission. I would have liked to say ‘good morning, would you mind pointing me in the direction of somewhere I can buy an egg butty for breakfast?’ - but alas I am limited by my Vietnamese abilities and had to settle for ‘banh mi opla o dau?’ - translating to ‘where is egg sandwich?’ I bet I sounded like a cave woman with all my incorrect tones, and it possibly came across as though I had lost an egg sandwich and was looking for it. (I’m imagining the local headlines- ‘Search Continues for Crazy Big Haired Lady’s Egg Butty’...) Anyway, to help get across my meaning I accompanied my cave lady request by rubbing my belly and miming eating a sandwich, which was met by lots of tittering and some pointing in the direction of the market. Communication success! I continued on and found this friendly banh mi lady as well as a place to get some café sua da. I also impulse bought some grapes from a little fruit stall. Good decision! Mission complete.

Friendly banh mi lady

Coffee place (I paid in dong not Bitcoin!)

Me and mum sat on the front step of the hotel to munch our brekkie with one of the DHL drivers, Thang, and the lady who owns the hotel who stared at us intently, in a smiley yet incredulous-you-seem-like-ridiculous-humans kind of way. It was a nice place to sit and say mornin’ to the other riders who were off on their own brekkie foraging missions. Mum rated our banh mi a disappointing 3 out of 10 due to the eggs being cold; brutal. Zak found a much better one - a solid 6/10 - in the other direction. Nice work Zak. #GreatBritishBanhMiOff 

We spotted a bakery across the road and started to envisage some kind of sweet bready delights, so I went to investigate. Unfortunately they only sold wedding cakes. After briefly considering wedding cake for breakfast number two, I dismissed the idea (probably just a tad too elaborate.) However I did run into Thao and Tarky having Pho, and Patrick with his DIY oatmeal.

There was a Buddha adorned with Christmas lights behind them, next to the wedding cakes- nice.

Breakfasts foraged for and munched, we did our usual stretching routine and group huddle. I’m enjoying my role of Official Stretchytime Leader but I’m by no means a professional so my instructions include made up terms like: ‘side bum stretchy stretchy,’ ‘boobs to the sky,’ and ‘sumo squat a-go-go.’ Hopefully no-one minds! 

We huddled for our team pep talk and directions. All our phones pinged in unison to reveal a surprise picture of Zak’s mooning arse in the group chat. Lovely, thanks Zak! 

Group huddle, all looking quite serious... or perhaps just recovering from the shock of the bum pic!

The directions for today’s ride were basically go right out of the hotel then keep on pedaling ‘till you get to Thanh My... and that’s what we did! It was HOT, and very sweaty, with some relentless hills. 

During my ride, I ...

• Picked 8 flies off my mum’s sweaty face (see video below)
• Stopped on a big bridge to admire the view - it looked very Jurassic Park-ish - I could just imagine a pterodactyl swooping over.
• Marveled at all the butterflies! (... They look so beautiful but it’s not so nice when they try to flutter into your mouth as you’re cycling along...not the kind of surprise extra protein I want!)
• Took sweaty shade breaks with Kacey and Thao after lots of hill climbing
• Got waved at and helloooooed at by lots of kids
• Stocked up on water at the DHL van and had good lolz with the drivers
• Listened to some nice upbeat tunes to power me up the mountains. Highlights of my Spotify soundtrack today were ‘Happy’ -C2C, and ‘While I was playin’ fair’ - Grammatik. Tuuuuunez. 

Tarky getting a wave upon leaving P'rao: "Hello! How are you tomorrow?"

Squad riding up to the friendly beacon that is the yellow DHL van for water refills and a shade break

Lolz with the DHL ladz

Jurassic Park bridge

Imaginary Pterodactyl territory

Not a lucky day for Zak in the puncture department! #roadsiderepairs

Views! I look very sprightly here... must have been pre-hills!

Bangin' scenery

Made some fellow cyclist mates

Shade break with Thao and Kacey in the gutter

Sweaty Betty

A very sweaty Kacey

Helloooooo up there!

Almost there, waheeeey. 

Dennis and his well-earned lunch. Even though we eat rice, vegetables and egg at least once every day, it still tastes soooooo good after a long day cycling!

An exhausted but ever-cheery legend, J. Gradderz 

Despite the heat, seemingly interminable hills and a couple of punctures, everyone persevered and arrived in Thanh My in time to eat a late lunch and have some beers at a decent roadside rice place, which I returned to for round 2 in the evening after the usual daily scrubbing of self and kit to remove sweat and oil. Justine and I acquired some chocopies which we munched on a step outside the hotel, then it was time for a quick team meeting and early to bed. 

I’m feeling very thankful to my lanky legs, my trusty bike and my brilliant team mates for getting me this far. The H2H ride is such a special thing to be a part of and I’m trying to soak up every minute of it. Makes it extra-special having my mum here to share it with me too. With the help of a few ‘emergency jelly babies’ she’s absolutely smashing every mile, and I couldn’t be prouder or more in awe of her when I see her emerging round a bend powering up the mountains. #lifegoals #supermum 💪🏽❤️

Thank you to anyone who has read this far to the end of my very waffley blog post, and to everyone who is supporting our fundraising efforts. 

Over and out, Leanne. X