2014/15 Biking Southeast Asia Daily Snippet

22 January, Hoai Nhon to Binh Dinh, 74km
Hotel Trang Anh 200,000VND

The Cham empire flourished in south-central Vietnam for over 14 centuries. They were Hindus whose prosperity came from trade in sandalwood and slaves, and probably piracy. In the 1600s the majority of the Chams converted to Islam, influenced by Arab merchants who stopped along the Vietnam coast en route China. The area occupied by the Chams was annexed by the Vietnamese in 1720 and many Chams fled to Cambodia, Malaysia and China. They left behind religious structures of red brick, which still dot the countryside. Today we photographed one Cham temple on a hill, from a distance, and visited another just 500m off the AH1 and easily reachable through a village and rice paddy and cemetery. Cycling the AH1, especially when there are roadworks, can be stressful and tiring. It’s the endless battering-ram noise, I think, the constant need for vigilance, and the dust. The upside of cycling the AH1 is that it is endlessly interesting. Today, for example, we saw a woman chopping manioc root on the roadside and laying it out to dry in the sun (and dust and car fumes). We watched a husband and wife make crisp rice breads, placing them on bamboo frames to dry in the sun (and dust and car fumes). They worked smoothly together, making two breads at a time. The wife scooped a soup ladle of ready-prepared mixture from a huge pot and spread it thin on a flexible surface heated by a fire tended by the husband. He removed a lid covering the first bread and placed it over the second, while she fanned the first. He then used two wooden spatulas to lift the first sticky bread off the heated surface and place it on a bamboo rack, while she scooped the next ladle... We saw incense sticks laid out to dry and later collected into bundles and taken home. We saw two men transporting a windscreen on a scooter, their cargo invisible to drivers needing to overtake them until the last minute. And a woman manoeuvring single-handed through traffic, her left arm bent behind her to firmly clip a toddler to her back, her left hand holding his sleeping, lolling head. And a man transporting living goldfish, each fish swimming in a plastic bag of water secured to a frame on the back of his autocycle. Gotta love this country.