28 November 2022, Monday

We had an early start to the day, with breakfast being served at 6am. However, the food wasn’t really to my liking so I only had a French baguette, some eggs and a glass of orange juice. As more members trickled down to the dining hall for breakfast, they told me that they liked the highlights reel (that I sent over our WhatsApp group last night) very much. They said the short video clip provided a good recap of what happened in the day, and asked me to continue making it for the rest of the trip. I was happy that the video was well received and it felt good to be contributing positively to the team.

I think they appreciated the clip because it allowed them to focus on cycling and fully enjoy the experience, without having to worry about stopping every now and then to take photos or videos of their own. From then on, I made a conscious effort to capture more video footage so that the clip wouldn’t be just a photo slideshow. As I got to know more people over the course of the trip, it was also less awkward for me to approach them for photos and videos. In fact, I received many requests from various members to include footage or photos of them in the clip, as they would send it to their friends and family members each day. No pressure then! Armed with this “responsibility”, I did my best to feature everyone, without over-stressing myself.

We checked out of our rooms before 7am and loaded our luggage onto the coach bus. We then retrieved our bicycles and geared up. This involved putting on my cycling gloves, affixing my water bottle to the bottle cage and mounting my GoPro camera onto the handlebar. Next, we did our usual routine of warm-up stretches, roll call and prayer chant to bless us for a safe ride ahead. At 7:15am, we set off directly from our Nhà khách tỉnh Trà Vinh hotel. This was the only time we would begin the ride from the hotel.

During our briefing last night, Mr Hun told us that the scenery for today would be spectacular, even better than yesterday’s. As such, I harboured high hopes for today. I’m glad to say that he delivered his promise – the scenery, especially in the morning, was breathtaking indeed. For the first part of the morning, we cycled past endless rice fields, banana and vegetable farms. Where we encountered dense coconut plantations and many more local houses in close proximity yesterday, the view today was more open and expansive, with some of the largest rice fields stretching as far as the eye could see. The weather was beautiful too, with clear blue skies and puffy white clouds hanging low in the sky. Together with the warm sunshine, crisp early morning air and light breeze blowing against our faces, it was pure bliss cycling through the countryside.

At around 8:45am, our progress was halted as we encountered a stretch of dirt track that was completely filled with mud. I made the mistake of trying to cycle through it. Unsurprisingly, my wheel got stuck and I tumbled in slow motion onto the muddy ground. I wasn’t injured but I ended up with mud on my gloves, legs, shoes and bicycle handlebar. I picked myself up and enlisted MJ’s help to retrieve wet tissues from my bag and wipe off the worst of the mud.

Having learned my lesson, I pushed my bicycle slowly through the path, taking care to avoid the deepest and muddiest spots. After conquering this section, our bicycle tyres were caked with thick mud. We rattled our bikes to shake off the loose mud, and used a tree branch to scrape off as much mud as we could. Looking back, this was actually one of the most memorable events from the entire cycling trip.

At 9:25am, we stopped for a break in front of a temple located beside a busy main road. As usual, our supply van was there so we had lots of fresh fruits, cold drinks, potato chips and biscuits. What was supposed to be a half-hour break stretched to over an hour, as we waited for all our bicycles to be washed. One of the shops nearby had a water hose, so we paid the guy to hose down our bicycles to get rid of the mud. Besides being gross (with the mud splattering around as we rode), the mud also added weight to our bicycles and made our cycling speed slower. I also got the guy to wash the mud off my shoes, which was great but it left me with soggy feet. At 10:35am, we finally resumed cycling. Just in time too, because we were all getting restless from the waiting, and the sun was getting hotter as well.

At 12pm, we stopped for lunch at Quán Cơm Ngọc Linh, an eatery located in Cầu Kè district, Trà Vinh province. We had covered about 45km by this point. It was a large eatery with plenty of seats and tables. Thankfully, the food was pretty good so I filled up my tummy to make up for the dismal breakfast this morning. The other cycling group that we met at our hotel last night had stopped here for lunch too. However, we didn’t see them the entire morning, so we surmised they must have taken a different route to get here.

At 1:10pm, we resumed cycling. It wasn’t long before we took another break about 14km later, at 1:58pm. Besides the usual snacks and drinks, our support staff had also bought a bag full of sweet mangoes so we feasted on them. Shiok ah! (“Shiok” means “pleasurable” in Singlish, a.k.a. Singapore English)

After resting for 20 minutes, we resumed our journey. We cycled for another 11km and reached Trà Ôn at 3:03pm. A ferry was waiting at the pier and we cycled up the ramp onto the ferry, which was shaped like a barge. Besides us, there were many locals on motorbikes carrying an assortment of cargo and baskets.

The ferry ride across sông Trà Ôn (Trà Ôn River) took just eight minutes and we arrived at Lục Sĩ Thành at 3:18pm. After disembarking from the ferry, we chilled out at a drink stall beside the pier as we waited for the rest of the members who had missed the first ferry to board the next one. Once everyone had made it across, we continued riding.

Lục Sĩ Thành is a small islet formed by sedimentation at the confluence of the Măng Thít and Hậu rivers. The constant supply of fresh water and rich alluvium deposits resulted in the soil on the island being very fertile. Coupled with the cool climate, the conditions were ideal for growing all kinds of fruits. Hence, there were many orchards on the island cultivating banana, rambutan, pomelo, longan, mangosteen and even durian.

As we cycled through the island, we passed by many nice houses with colourful flowers in their gardens. It wasn’t necessarily so that the houses were nicer in design, but they gave off a nice vibe. The gravel roads were well maintained and everything was neat and orderly. The village feel of the island reminded me of our very own Pulau Ubin in Singapore. The entire Lục Sĩ Thành island was very lush and pleasant. I really liked it.

At about 4:10pm, we stopped at a little house/café for a break. As it had been a very hot day, we ordered Cà Phê Sữa Da (Vietnamese iced coffee) to cool down. There’s nothing I love to drink more than iced coffee whenever I’m in Vietnam, especially on a hot day.

I would have loved to hang out even longer and explore more of Lục Sĩ Thành but unfortunately, we had to rush off to catch the last ferry departing the island for the day. From the café, we cycled for five minutes and reached the pier at 4:37pm, just in time as the last ferry departed two minutes later. The ride across the Hậu river took another eight minutes and we reached Bến Phà phú Thành (phú Thành ferry wharf) at 4:47pm.

Our lorry and coach bus were waiting for us over here, so this marked the end of our cycling for the day. In all, we covered about 80km today. This would be the longest day of riding for the entire trip. We loaded our bicycles onto the lorry and gathered by the roadside for our cool down session.

At 5:07pm, we departed by coach and made our way from Hậu Giang province to our hotel at Cần Thơ. Cần Thơ is the largest city along the Mekong Delta region, with a population of around 1.3 million people. Its nickname is the “western capital” of Vietnam, having been developed by the French and later, the Americans. I was rather glad we took the bus because the traffic en route was very heavy and it wasn’t very scenic.

After navigating our way through the rush hour traffic, we arrived at our Ninh Kiều Riverside Hotel at 5:43pm. It was a rather nice hotel, with a large Christmas tree in the lobby adding to the festive mood. We were also given welcome drinks – always a good sign that the hotel is of a certain standard. As before, I would be sharing a room with GK, so we made our way up to the room together after getting our keys.

The room was much better than the one yesterday at Trà Vinh. We each had a large, queen-sized bed, with two soft and fluffy pillows. A cushion and a sash across the bed proudly displayed the hotel’s four-star status. The bathroom was spacious and nicely furnished. The only thing that didn’t make sense was the blinds inside the shower cubicle, which would get wet whenever someone showered. Many hotels try to be too fancy or “sexy” by having see-through glass instead of a solid wall between the bathroom and the bedroom. To me, it’s an unnecessary feature because most people would have the blinds down most of the time anyway.

After showering and feeling clean and refreshed, we gathered at the empty restaurant on the ground floor at 7pm for our usual post-cycling meeting and briefing for tomorrow’s programme. It was a short one, and we were out again 15 minutes later for dinner. From our hotel, we walked along Ninh Kiều wharf to Sao Hôm Restaurant, just 10 minutes away. The walk was very pleasant and we saw many locals enjoying their stroll by the riverbank. The walking street was lined with trees and flowering plants, with ample street lights and benches creating a vibrant, and even romantic waterfront setting for lovebirds. There were also a few floating restaurants aboard the ships docked at the wharf. I really liked the vibe here at Cần Thơ.

A long table had been reserved for us at Sao Hôm Restaurant. It was evidently a popular restaurant with Westerners and tourists. I took my seat beside DP and GJ, with AC, UK and JNV seated around me. It was a seven-course meal and everything was good, especially the fish. Throughout the dinner, I chatted with the others and had fun teaching DP and JNV to hold chopsticks the correct way. It was a very enjoyable dinner as we were all relaxed and in a good mood, perhaps aided by the beer.

Upon finishing our dinner at 8:40pm, we had free-and-easy time to explore the town. I saw many hawkers selling street food opposite Cần Thơ Market so I walked over for a look. I wasn’t really hungry but was just interested to see what they were selling. I then bumped into AC, JNV and DP, who were looking for ice-cream. I told them that I saw a shop selling ice-cream, so I led them there, and decided to join them for dessert.

We each ordered a cup of ice-cream for 25,000 dong (S$1.45), and it even came with Oreo cookies. As was commonplace in Vietnam, all the seats and tables were plastic and they were half-height. I was accustomed to this but it was AC, JNV and DP’s first time in Vietnam and they were tickled by the “Hobbit”-sized furniture. So much so that we asked the staff to take a photo for us, much to their amusement. The plastic furniture is really practical because it is light yet sturdy, and it can be stacked and stowed away easily, taking up minimal storage space. Ingenious.

After ice-cream, we headed back to our hotel. Along the way, we popped by 7-Eleven (to see what local food items they carried) and visited a rooftop bar at one of the restaurants nearby (for the fun of it). There was a fancy-looking karaoke place near our hotel so we decided to check it out, even though we had no intention of singing. The manager was kind enough to entertain our request. AC et al were impressed by how big the karaoke room was. I think such over-the-top KTV joints are not very common in the US and India, but they are fairly common in Southeast Asian countries.

We were back in our rooms before 10pm. If this was the last night of our trip, we would definitely have stayed out late singing karaoke and getting drunk. But alas, we had another early day tomorrow so we needed to rest early. After packing my stuff, I started working on the highlights reel for the day. Just after midnight, I finally felt like I had put together something decent so I sent the clip across to our WhatsApp group, and tucked in for the night. What an amazing day it had been!

Looking back, this was my favourite day of the entire trip. The cycling was great, as the scenery was truly breathtaking and the weather was beautiful. The muddy section was a bummer but it made it all the more memorable. Lục Sĩ Thành was lovely, and I wished we had spent more time there. It was also the longest distance we covered in a day so there was a sense of accomplishment there.

But more importantly, apart from the cycling, I think this was the day when I felt like I really bonded with the other members. For the past three days, I was crawling out of my shell and slowly getting to know the others better, and vice versa. I think with the sharing of yesterday’s highlights reel and the positive reception it received, I felt like I was finally contributing and that I belonged to the group. The informal conversations while cycling, over dinner and ice-cream also helped to forge the bond and friendship.

And that’s the end of Day 4. A lot more to come, but in the meantime, enjoy this extended cut of the highlights reel from Day 2 of cycling!