DAY15 Bo Trach-Quang Ninh

Day 15, I naturally woke up before 4am.

Today's temperature is 18-24 degrees. It gets hotter as I go south.

It's been raining and it's been chilly, but soon I'll be in southern Vietnam.

I'll be entering the tropical climate. I've been getting weaker and weaker lately.

I started before 6am. Today the main route was the Asian Highway again.

I soon crossed a mountain pass. That said, it was only a 30m hill. It was a long, gradual climb.

I ran 26km and entered the city of Dong Hoi, and took a break at a cafe.

It was sunny and a little hot.

I was grateful for a cold drink. The coffee here was not too sweet. 

I alternated it with hot tea.

There was a lot of traffic in the city, and of course the horn war was fierce.

Today I saw a two-lane road jammed, and a truck behind a car kept honking its horn, but the car just kept driving slowly. The truck next to it was also moving slowly. The large truck kept honking its horn. Was this some kind of revenge for the tailgating?

It is common to see large trucks driving through groups of motorbikes in the city.

After that, I had lunch at a restaurant just after crossing the Nyat Le River.

Today I had rice. It was topped with spring rolls, deep-fried tofu, meat, and shrimp, and came with soup.

The rice was dry, but the seasoning was suitable for Japanese people.

If I eat just this, I can't move for a while (lol).

These days, I basically only have one main meal. The rest is fruits like bananas, nuts, and flour-based foods.

On the way, I passed a resort spot called Regal Resort. It was deserted. Some parts of the hotel had been demolished.

It must have been a very prosperous place in the past. It's not like the Tale of the Heike, but the bell of impermanence sounds.

Just before 3pm, I ran 41.7km and checked into a hotel in Quang Ninh.

The weather was just right, not too hot or too cold. I was allowed to use the washing machine at the hotel. It cost 300 yen for 50,000 VND.

*Today's distance: 41.7 km 

 Total distance from Noi Bai International Airport: 519.3 km

*Today's photos are here

*YouTube video playlist is here

DAY14 Ky Anh-Bo Trach

I started at 6am. It had been a while since I last had a rain-free day. I could run on dry roads with dry shoes.

I was amazed at how good it felt to have dry shoes inside!

However, when the road is dry, dust starts to fly up.

This is the second week of my trek.

A day spent running on the Asian Highway.

15 degrees in the morning, 22 degrees during the day.

It's a coastal area, but it's mountainous.

As usual, there are a lot of large vehicles such as trucks and buses.

It looks like there will be no towns or shops for a while.

There is a tunnel just after I enter Quang Binh Province.

Tunnels are quite scary places for my buggy.

With large vehicles coming and going, it's always a scare.

There was a sidewalk, but there were stairs along the way, so it was a disaster.

I carried the buggy down and then dashed down the road for about 50 meters.

It was thrilling and so scary!

The bun bo I had at the food stall was also delicious. As I passed a local restaurant, an old man at the restaurant recommended something to me.

He said, "Just stop by," so I accepted.

Today I had bun bo instead of pho. Unlike pho, which has flat noodles, bun bo has round noodles. The taste of the soup and the hardness of the noodles vary slightly depending on the restaurant.

Children often called out "Hello!" to me.

I replied with a smile. Just knowing that made me feel happy.

3:30 p.m. Today was 45.2 km away. I finished at the hotel in Bo Trach.

Just like yesterday, I took a cold shower.

I kept the tap running to wait for hot water, but it was only a little lukewarm.

Well, I guess it's better to be able to take a shower.

This shows that there aren't many countries in the world where I can drink tap water and take a warm shower whenever I want.

*Today's distance: 45.2km 

 Total distance from Noi Bai International Airport: 477.6km

*Today's photos here

*YouTube video playlist here

DAY13 Cam Xuyen-Ky Anh

It was drizzling when I started at 6am.

In the end, I wore my rain suit and ran in the rain for four days in a row.

The insides of my shoes had never been dry in these four days.

I ran 40 km south on the Asian Highway in silence.

The rain stopped around 8am and the road finally dried up.

Even though the maximum temperature was 20 degrees, it was chilly with the wind. 

The wind was mostly at my tail.

There were puddles here and there, and the scariest thing was when two large vehicles came running side by side.

My heart always started pounding when someone honked at me.

There were towns periodically so I could get drinks and food anytime.

Today, I ate pho at a local restaurant around 10am and had Vietnamese coffee at a cafe in the afternoon.

Pho is healthy because I get vegetables, meat, and rice at the same time. I can also drink the soup to get salt and water at the same time.

Sometimes I was barked at and chased by free-roaming dogs.

Speaking of free-range animals, I can often see chickens and buffaloes along the highway.

3pm, 40km today. Finished at a hotel in Ky Anh.

*Today's distance: 40km 

 Total distance from Noi Bai International Airport: 432.4km

*Today's photos here

*YouTube video playlist here

DAY12 Can Loc-Cam Xuyen

Day 12, the last day of March.

Only one month left of this trek.

At this pace, it will be pretty difficult to get to Ho Chi Minh on my own.

I intend to go as far as I can, so I continue heading south today.

Rain is forecast to continue into the morning. Maximum temperature 19 degrees.

I started at 6am. My freshly washed shoes quickly got dirty with mud.

There was heavy sideways rain at times, but the sky turned cloudy in the afternoon.

It was a gloomy day. It was as if the dry season had turned into the rainy season.

I ran 20km to the town of Ha Tinh. Took a break at a restaurant.

I ate pho at a local restaurant again today. 50,000 dong = 300 yen.

Strangely, pho is always good no matter where I eat it.

I realized that I only had a little cash left. I withdrew some cash at the bank.

It's a bit inconvenient that I can't use my card much for shopping. I'm finally starting to understand the types of Vietnamese banknotes.

Almost all the way along the Asian Highway. I cleared a few large roundabouts.

I drove 35km and still had 14 to go. My current location is Cam Xuyen.

The rain has finally stopped, but it's windy and chilly.

I took a rest on a bench in the park in front of the temple.

I was constantly sleepy while running. I thought I was sleeping well, but...

I avoided a big puddle on the road and just moved a little bit to the side of the road when suddenly, a horn sounded from behind.

I was surprised and tried to move back to the shoulder of the road, but I fell into a deep puddle...

I guess I'll wash my shoes again tonight...

48.4km from Can Rock to Cam Xuyen. It's been a while since I've been able to extend my distance.

*Today's distance: 48.4km 

 Total distance from Noi Bai International Airport: 392.4km

*Today's photos are here

*YouTube video playlist is here

DAY11 Nghi Loc-Can Loc

It was cloudy when I started at 6am, and drizzle when I entered the center of Vinh town. Then it started to rain, so I put on a rain jacket.

Every time I run through a puddle on the road, mud splashed up on our shoes and socks.

In addition, the buggy was covered in mud from the mud splashed up by the large trucks and buses that passed by.

I wonder if the weather will be similar tomorrow and the day after tomorrow?

As I entered Vinh town, the number of large roundabouts and intersections increased. This is inevitable in places with a large population. Therefore, the number of motorbikes also increased. In Vietnam, there are more people riding motorbikes than walking people.

The fact that there are many Winmarts is proof that the town is large.

After crossing the large river, the Ca River, I left Vinh town and entered Hong Linh town. There were almost no shops and only private houses for 16 kilometers until I entered Hong Linh town.

The scenery of rice fields spreads out, and a four-lane highway runs north to south.

When it rains, I can't take a break unless I have a roof to shelter from the rain.

If there was a shop, I could go in and take a break, but if there wasn't, I had to stand in the rain to rest.

When I passed Hong Linh, I ate soy and chicken (400,000 VND) at a drive-in restaurant. A girl who spoke English served me.

A large number of people from a tour bus came in. They must have made a reservation for lunch. Most of them were families (whole families?).

Oh, it was Sunday today. Tomorrow is the last day of March. When I'm traveling, my sense of time gets messed up.

At 2pm, after running 37.2km, I checked into a hotel in Can Rock.

This hotel was 400,000 VND, about 2,400 yen. The hotel I stayed at yesterday was a newer and nicer building, and cost 250,000 VND.

I've been checking into hotels lately on a whim, but they're hit or miss. Online reviews are not very reliable either.

*Today's driving distance: 37.2km 

 Total distance from Noi Bai International Airport: 344km

*Today's photos here

*YouTube video playlist here

DAY10 Dien Chan-Nghi Loc

It's raining in Vietnam in the dry season.

I started at 6am, thanking the hotel owner. He's a man of few words, but he's always smiling. He asked me to shake his hand when I left.

It was a light rain in the morning, but as I started, it gradually became more serious.

I run 12km and took a rest at Winmart to take shelter from the rain.

The rain made the air a little cleaner.

There was no dust, but mud and water splashes flew every time a large truck passed by. People drive more recklessly on rainy days.

It was forecast to rain until 3pm, but I wore rain suits almost all day.

The maximum temperature was 23 degrees, which was cool and I was grateful. I hardly sweated.

I followed a road along the sea to avoid busy Asian Highway 1.

It was raining heavily intermittently.

With 8km to go, I returned to the Asian Highway.

It was hard to find a place to shelter from the rain, so I ran almost nonstop for 35km. I finally sat down to rest at a restaurant with 5km to go.

And today I eat pho again...

The proprietress of the restaurant kindly prepared a refill for me.

I thought it would be impossible, but it went down surprisingly easily.

This is my breakfast and lunch. I always drink up all the soup.

I reach the hotel in Nghi Lock just before 3pm. 

The girl at the front desk has come to Japan for work in the past and can speak some Japanese.

My feet are muddy. My shoes are soaked. I'll wash them all in the hot shower.

*Today's driving distance: 40km 

 Total distance from Noi Bai International Airport: 306.8km

*Today's photos here

*YouTube video playlist here

DAY9 Off@Dien Chau

DAY9, I woke up at 5am.

From around 2am, I could hear the chickens crowing.

Large vehicles were passing on the Asian Highway even in the middle of the night. In addition, long freight trains would occasionally pass by on the tracks.

I must have been tired, because I went to bed at 8:30pm and slept soundly, barely dreaming.

Today's maximum temperature was 32 degrees, just right for a day off.

It's supposed to cool down from tomorrow onwards.

Even on sunny mornings in Vietnam, the blue sky is rarely visible. It's always a hazy white sky.

I asked the hotel owner for my clothes to be washed, and they were dry overnight. Every day my clothes were muddy from the dust and sweat.

The owner brought me some food.

Deep-fried glutinous rice (apparently a Vietnamese food called banh tet).

Hot, crispy and chewy. It felt quite heavy.

I'm currently 40km north of a town called Vinh.

I'm heading to Vinh tomorrow.

I travel at a slower pace than planned.

The course was mostly flat, but it was more humid than I expected.

I look forward to a run from tomorrow onwards when it cools down (it's forecast to rain tomorrow).

I went for a cup of cofee at a roadside cafe. 

The girl working there spoke a little English, so I chatted with her. 

She seemed interested in Japan, and wanted to visit the country someday.

When moving becomes a normal part of daily life, not moving feels unnatural.

When a traveler is in travel mode, their mind is always moving forward, never stopping.

I think that a traveler enjoys the process of moving, whether they have a destination or not.

Next, I went into a local restaurant and ate pho("Pho"to above).

Apparently the owner's son is working as an engineer at Toyota in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

This father, who is a Japanophile, said he would like to visit his son and Japan someday.

I heard the news of a major earthquake in Myanmar. It was just around the time I was eating pho at this restaurant.

It seems that nothing happened in Vietnam, but in Bangkok, Thailand, high-rise buildings under construction have collapsed.

Regardless of whether an earthquake comes or not, it is important to avoid being underground or inside high-rise buildings.

I hope that everyone in the area is safe.

*Today's driving distance: 0km 

 Total distance from Noi Bai International Airport: 266.8km

*Today's photos here

*YouTube video playlist here