– ODO- 17677 – 17811km
– Location- Thanh Hóa
– Weather- 22-28 Showers in the morning cleaning towards the coast
In Laos the spirit was Lao-Lao. A liquid the colour of a thin whisky, proffered to me in re-used orange juice bottles along the highway. Here in Vietnam there is a similar spirit. I’m sitting for my daily lunch of Pho in an open metal roofed road side stop with clean concrete floor. An old man in a hammock wakes to check if there’s any tea left in the pot before climbing back to doze. The men around a table to the right offer me cigarettes first then a small shot glass of the spirit. Clear compared to Lao-Lao’s brown. Cheers and I’m offered another. One man is in a security guards uniform. I thank him but choose to get back to the stormy road and the 70km I have left to ride.