We started the day early, as this is the longest we will be traveling, about 190 kms. We estimated it will probably take 8 hours,  as it seems we normally average 100 kms per 4 hours.

We wanted to avoid the busy truck saturated QL1, so we will be heading north on TL8, then cut onto QL 26 after. TL8 road doesn’t show as connecting to QL26 on google map, and doesn’t even exist at all on the paper map. So we will find out when we are there, hopefully there is a way.

The day started with delicious Bánh mi, that opens in the morning and after school hours. Lately, finding anything decent for lunch are hard to come by. Early breakfast and dinner have plenty of options, but most don’t open for lunch.

We also checked out a well known photographer Lonh’s gallery before leaving town. It has inspired me the to work on more high contrast black and white photography. He only uses traditional film, will have to see if digital camera can replicate the same feel. Else will have to pick up another camera..

This is what being off the map looks like, being in the middle of no where. On TL8 before making it to QL26. As for Black Sole, he is becoming Black Feet today.

This is the 1st time we have to head west, riding toward the sun throughout the day. As I haven’t been able to replace my trusty Ray Ban, riding with the sun can be blinding. We had to take many breaks along the way, had a hard time concentrating as the eye probably got sun burn.. Can that really happen? Black Feet got sunburn all over this face.

Had my left arm up for a long part of the trip, trying to keep the sun off the face. But end up taping this to the helmet, good enough creating just adequate shade:

Ahhhh, a typical drink of Vietnam, fresh sugarcane juice:

Ended the day with another thing I’ll have to deal with. By the end of the night,  the ATM machine ate my card!  After traveling for so long, it finally happened. The spare 2nd debit card finally came in handy.

Been having a lot of things I have to deal with within the short week:

Busted gearbox
Broke the website… Silly me
ATM ate Debit card
Broke Google map of the epic trip

Looks like it will be a busy week..