Ride day 16: Huế to Lăng Cô
12 June 2016
After a very chilled out and fun few days in Huế with Andy and Janice, it’s time to head down the road to Lăng Cô.
We join Andy and Janice for our usual breakfast in the hotel, and then pack up in time for their car arriving at 10 a.m. We load up all the bags in to their car (with same driver as our trip to the DMZ) and get ready to leave. As I do the pre-ride checks on my bike, I notice the fuel filler is slightly open, but don’t think too much of it and just close it up.
We set off out of town, back past the hectic market from a few nights previous and on to the QL1. It’s busy with both local traffic, trucks and buses. Despite this we make good pace through town and on to the open road. There are a lot of intersections and traffic lights on this section and not that interesting to ride (potentially a turn on to the coast road would’ve been more interesting).
As we leave the outskirts of Huế, the road opens up a little and there are a series of arms and what looks to be very small wood fired stills with roadside shacks selling a yellow liquid. We later find out this is eucalyptus oil for cooking.
As we begin to wind up the hill about 40km in to the journey, there are a number of very slow moving trucks ahead. I drop in to the overtaking lane to go round a truck and come face to face with a hidden truck doing a snails pace. Hard on the brakes and come to a stop behind the truck, only to find my bike has cut out and won’t restart. I push to the side on the steep hill and try choke and then a cut over to reserve tank. At this point I spot the fuel is already on the reserve and realise that the slightly open tank from this morning was a result of someone draining my main tank leaving me just over a litre of reserve fuel! I push the bike to the top of the hill (only another hundred metres or so) and then begin to freewheel down the other side, hoping to be able to coast to the next petrol station.
Tracey rides ahead to check where the petrol is. As my bike begins to slow on the flat a young local bloke rides in alongside me and starts to push my bike with his extended leg. He gets me up to 40kmh and then pulls away and waves. That push was enough to let me coast in to the petrol station, just as Tracey was finishing fuelling up. Thanks Mr!
After fuelling up, we continue on the quick blast to Lăng Cô Beach Resort to meet Andy and Janice. The final stretch of the ride comes in over the small hills to north of Lăng Cô and then along the lagoon side. It’s a beautiful area. We ride up the main Lăng Cô street with a few small shops, restaurants and Nha Nghi’s before spotting Lăng Cô Beach Resort on the left. As we ride up to the front, I get a message from Andy saying they’ve just arrived. Somehow even with fuel stop we’re just 5 minutes behind.
The receptionist takes us for a walk down to see what an upgrade room would look like. Beachfront massive room with its own deck and 1 minute to beach or pool…. Sold! We take the upgraded rooms at a discount price, check in, and immediately hit the massive pool with no one else there. Andy acquires some ice cold beers from the restaurant, and we spend the rest of the afternoon in and around the pool floating on lie lows and drinking beers. No one else around! A large storm passed over in the late afternoon with lightning and heavy showers. We mainly stayed in the pool and enjoyed it.
When it came time to eat, we decided to take a wander round to explore the lagoon side. A couple of beers from the fridge and we set off. It’s a bit of a struggle to find a way through to the lagoon in the dark, but eventually we find an alleyway through. Using phones for torches we manage to navigate the very large puddles from the earlier storm.
When we get to the lagoon side we can see 3 or 4 restaurants out on pontoons. The one furthest to the right looks busiest, so we opt to head there. It’s an open sided restaurant on stilts over the water, connected by a wooden walkway. We’re greeted by a hostess who speaks fairly good English. After asking for recommendations, she suggests squid and prawns, so that’s what we order, along with some clams and rice. When the food arrives it’s fantastic, and the “squid powder” is phenomenal.
We enjoy our dinner and a few beers then take a walk down along the lagoon side and find a very locals beer shack for a few drinks and watch the Euro 2016 games, then home to bed.
Full days route here:
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