At the same time, the sights of the day were amazing, and helped balance out the tough parts. Riding out of Tuy Hoa, we had the joy of one last city ride, then we crossed a series of bridges over a wide delta. Lots of ox-pulled carts crawling along amidst all the car and scooter traffic.  At our first rest, we actually got one of the carts to stop and let us get some pictures with the uni in the back of the cart.  Once we were done, we got to see the "accelerator pedal" for the ox cart, which consisted of the driver giving the bull a swift kick in the testicles. Despite the challenges of the day, I was very glad to be pedaling a unicycle and not pulling a cart. Cattle do not have it easy here in Vietnam. Other interesting occurances...one Vietnamese man "flashed" a group of our riders, pulling down his shorts and waving himself around for all to admire.  Very strange, and out of character with the general behavior we've seen.  That said, I think there is also mutual agreement among the riders that people have become more aggressive toward us the further south we've come.  Lots more swerving in front of us and laughing, a few ass-slaps as we've ridden by, and in my case, two guys that deliberately dropped a 4" x 4" piece of lumber in front of my wheel while I was riding, forcing me to hop off suddenly.  I'm pretty sure my two-word English response translated to Vietnamese.

But back to the sights. Lunch was accompanied by another stunning view of the sea, and then after a brief climb, we had a spectacular 5k long descent to a fishing village at water's edge, where the villagers were drying large quantities of smelt or sardines by the side of the raod.  It is amazing to me the variety of things they dry by the side of the highway...I'll never think about dried chili peppers the same way again.

Despite the sights, it was a struggle for me to get through the ride.  I think yesterday I was borderline heatstroke, which came back the same way even quicker today.  At every stop, it was all I could do to dissipate the heat and try to bring down my core temperature.  Shade was a rare commodity, as was breeze.  My trusty MS bandana came in handy for soaking my head and cooling my face and shoulders.  By the last 10k, I needed to stop about every 2k just for some quick saddle relief and shade.  It was my luck that Jason H and Andy C were riding pretty slowly and talking, and I paced to them for the final stretch.  Not sure I would have made it otherwise.

So the tour is over, and after a rest day in Saigon, it will be time for "re-entry shock".  I'm quite happy in that I met my two primary goals for the event: 1) Have a GREAT time, and 2) ride the whole thing on my unicycle without having to resort to riding a bike or the bus.  In that regard, I was very lucky, as there were some stronger riders than me who ran into food or heat issues, and had to take some time off of the unis. It can happen in a flash. I have to say I was amazed at all the riders, and consider myself privelaged to have been able to do this tour with them.

After dinner tonight, a bunch of us were relaxing over beers and comparing our highs, lows, personal banes, and learnings from the tour.  Here are mine:

High: The city riding out of Hue, transitioning into a surreal rural landscape full of burial mounds and water buffalo in the mist. 

Low:  Losing my photo card with all of my first two day's worth of pictures, including the videos from leaving Hue and riding through the burial mounds. 

Bane: The triple combo of Heat, Horns, and Noxious Fumes on Highway 1.

Learning: How to better pace myself on the big climbs so I don't burn out early.

Tour's over...time to shop.  That's all folks!  

Today's hotel is the "fewest stars" on the tour, but it is right on the beach and it was fantastic to be diving into the waves just minutes after finishing the long day of riding.  Tomorrow promises to be another scorcher, with 70 km to the finish.

Today's ride was another scorcher, both in terms of heat, and in terms of (relative average) speed. This was the flattest day so far, with the majority of the roads paved, which made for a good pace. It was also a good learning day for me from a skills perspective on the short 110 cranks.  I didn't have much of a chance to practice on them before the tour, and today we had a 8 km plus "construction zone", which was basically a dirt road in very poor condition with lots of potholes--or whatever the dirt equivalent of potholes is--and whoop-de-dos.  It would have been easier to stop and switch to a longer crank setting, but from a challenge perspective I wanted to see if I could make it through on the shorties.  Physically it was hard work, but it was actually more challenging mentally because you had to pay constant attention to what the road was doing. The 110s don't allow for much leverage or fast adjustment, so you have to keep your eyes riveted on the road conditions so you can see what bumps are coming. Several riders opted for bikes during this section, and one creative rider actually hitched a ride on a passing motor scooter, paying the local 5,000 dong (about 33 cents) to transport him and his uni across the torn-up section.

Maintaining hydration and nutrition in these conditions is critical. We had over four hours of actual pedaling time today, and in addition to the big lunch, I went through three 100ml bladders of water, six electrolyte/salt tablets, a clif bar, and a couple packets of energy gel.  I'm finding you have to consume something at every dismount, definitely a salt table each time plus some sort of food or goo.  It took me a while to figure this out, which is probably why my energy level was so up and down on earlier days. Today I felt strong all day, and finished relatively close to the front of the pack. Not an indication of skill by any means, but more an indication of being able to continue on with relatively shorter rest breaks.

It was also a day for realizing how quickly fortunes can change.  I had a very-near-bad-crash experience, which I fortunately walked away from. But one of our riders had a more serious fall, and spent the rest of the day on the bus.  A couple other riders--who had been really strong just one day before--came down with stomach problems, and also had to spend much of the day in the bus. 

My near-bad-crash was my own fault, as I was tailgating my roommate Cristoph at a pretty good pace, when he hit a pothole and came off. All of a sudden his wheel was on the ground right in front of me...visions of falling on it and breaking my ankle flashed through my mind, so pretty much on instinct I just launched forward off my pedals just before hitting his wheel. I cleared it and landed running on the pavement, and my uni hit his wheel and went flying. The landing was a bit of a shock to my left knee and ankle, but I was otherwise okay and lucky. I think if I hadn't launched, I would have had a much worse fall.

To me, the last 6 km of the ride was the highlight. Just after all the torn-up road--which really felt like a "middle of nowhere" experience, we got on a brand new 3 km long "bridge from nowhere" to cross over into the city of Quy Nhon. Surreal.  Vietnam has been investing recently to build up its roads and infrastructure, starting with new bridges in key locations.  This is the second example where we've gone from a very low traffic rural rode directly onto a new, wide, high-capacity bridge with no traffic.  But the traffic pattern changed as soon as we got to the other side of the bridge, and it was right back into the chaos of city riding, with the scooters and horns and weaving about.  It's un-nerving, but also a lot of fun and I got a couple good video clips of all the little kids that were chasing us on bicycles.

After breathing dust all day, the cold beer from the mini-bar when I arrived at my room may have been the best tasting one of my life.  A good thought to stop on.  Next ride is 100 km, longest of the tour. Time to rest!

The riding too was all delta...flat, sandy on both sides of the road, eventually giving way to more fertile soil and the accompanying farms and small villages. After a short rest at 17km, we switched to dirt road for the next 20 km. I was glad to have had some practice on the iron Horse Trail back home. I made the mistake of switching to my longer 150 crank setting. which was too long, too much work. After 8 k of that, I stopped and switched down to 130s, where I stayed the rest of the day. Before long, the view of the sea emerged on the left, and the nature of the houses and villages shifted from agriculture to fishing. We had a nice lunch of canned tuna (in oil!), mayo, tomatoes, under a covered pavillion about 50 yards from the sea. This is one of the most unique pieces of geography I've ever seen...we were riding on what was essentially a spit of land running between a large river and the sea. To the left, it was 50 yards to the salty sea, and to the right, 50 yards to a freshwater river filled with fishing nets.

After the ride, the afternoon took on a more subdued mood. The ride stopped 60km short of our hotel, so it was back onto the busses for the long drive. NOTHING goes fast on the roads here!  About 10K before the hotel we took an hour-long side trip to the village of My Lai, which was the site of the famous massacre of civilians during the Vietnam-American war. The 16th is the 40th anniversary of the tragedy, so the memorial was bustling with preparations for the commemoration. The main building relates the full story, complete with quite graphical photos of the event and the aftermath. On a full-wall plaque inside the entrance is the name, gender, and age of every victim killed. Really sad to see so many numbers like 72, 6, 3, 1, 80. Old men, old women, moms and their kids...  The memorial sits on the actual site, and much of the grounds consists of the cememt foundations of the original huts, which were torched by the US troops.