29 January, Cam Ranh to Tay Son, 59km
Hotel Chau Gia 250,000VND

We turned inland today, abandoning the AH1, which we will not ride again until we get west of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) en route Cambodia. It was more of a relief than we had imagined to leave behind the noise and dust and ride the hot hills on a quiet, rural road. Literally just metres off the main highway one enters a very different Vietnam. Slower of pace, less constrained by space, a Vietnam where pot-bellied pigs still forage on the verges, and shop owners loll in their hammocks awaiting clients. Each lamppost on the main road through Tay Son sports two red banners, one displaying the yellow star of the Vietnamese flag, one the hammer and sickle. No matter how often I see this latter symbol, like the swastika, it makes my stomach flip over. When I see it I do not think of labourers and peasants, of freedom and hope, but of oppression and violence, of millions upon millions of people murdered by proponents of a failed ideology. Tomorrow we climb... 

Between Cam Ranh and Tay Son

Old accident scene