well what an eventful few days we just had!!!! Haven't had reliable web access until tonight so will try and fill you in on recent events!

Day 10..................30/01/15

After an early morning rise and breakfast with our newly adopted family we head for the local fuel stop.  Nothing flash just a 60lt drum that pumps into a 5lt measure. I took 8 lts so the lady had to pump up another 5 lts from the 60 lt drum. The lady then began to fill Monty's tank as the son ask for 170,000 vnD. How much??? How much a litre?  20,000! But that's only 160,000? OK! Monty pipes up but we have only been paying 15,000 a litre! A short haggle and the lady accidentally (?) overfills Monty's tank and as he is sitting on his bike the fuel runs down to his groin area, soaks into his pants! OOHHLAALAA!! I knew where Monty was coming from as a teenager many years ago
i did something similar!! We rode out of P'rao on a mission to reach Phong Nha in a day, Monty a little red faced and red..........!! After 100k we reached A Luoi had a coffee and headed for Khe Sanh. I still hear the song haunting me as I add to this blog and I was never a big Chisel fan but maybe many years of Jim Smiths phone ringing has a permanent scar on my brain? Lunch in Khe Sanh market bought great entertainment to the locals as I dont think too many "round eyes" = westerners frequent the markets tucked down a back lane way. Next milestone from Khe Sanh is Tang Ky - about 95 ks! We were making good time as the was not a lot of traffic but we soon decided that Phong Nha was a little too far so we'll stop the night in Tang Ky.  15ks from Tang Ky Monty pulls up an says he has no gears!!?? Soon we were surrounded by villages of all ages offering advice, having a laugh and generally being entertained! After much discussion, excitement and frustration we decide to use Monty's pack straps as a tow rope and I tow him to Tang Ky. 15ks of up and down mountains, wiknding around blind corners at about 10-15 km/hr we arrive at a cluster of village houses, shacks, huts, dwellings....but no sign of a motorbike repair shop or hotel!! After visiting numerous shacks, broken english ans Vietnamese and charades we finally found somewhere to sleep and someone that would look at the bike!  I dont have the time or the right words to explain that evening but it is one niether of us will forget!!!

 Day 11............31/01/15

We woke early to the sound of roosters crowing, dogs barking and music that played all night! We met a Vietnamese scientist studying rare and endangered animals in the jungle hills surrounding Tang Ky especially using many of the 14 minority hill tribe people as reference points (ethno-zoology is the term scientist use to describe this type of research). The forest surrounding Tang Ky holds many endemic species some of which have not been recorded for 40 years plus and are possibly extinct!
I thoroughly enjoyed the hour I spent talking to...cant remember his name but I left my business card with him in-case he needs an assistant in the future! After a home cooked breakfast negations had been reached and the bike needs to go to nearest big city Dong Hoi. Bike is loaded into a van and Monty will accompany the drive and I will follow on my bike! Word had soon got around the village and we had 2 passengers taking the opportunity for a free ride to the city. Next comes some goods and chattels to be delivered along the way and also a lot of other wheeling and dealing that was far too complicated for us to understand. Again there isn't enough time or words to describe the events of the next few hours but we eventually ended up in a small town south of Dong Hoi called My Duc where a mechanic agreed to have the bike fixed by tomorrow morning. Found a hotel.......another long story....funny how things get misinterpreted and it costs you twice the agreed rate...add it to the cost of the experience! Bikes good to go and we're on the road once again. Short trip up to Phong Nha and found hotel, booked in.. scenery is amazing!



To be continued................!!