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We woke up early from our nice hotel room to get gone early for a hard days ride so we weren't riding in the dark. Unfortunately due to our short stop over in Hue we didn't get the chance to explore it at all. The imperial palace and tombs sounded pretty good, but we felt we couldn't sacrifice any time to walk around the ruins. We struggled out of the havoc of Hue and soon hit some really nice road on the way to Phong Nha. We had a serious amount of distance to cover so slogged out some hard hours. The scenery we passed was absolutely incredible and were basically the only people on the road. After some hard riding we were crossing over a river when Tom pulled up suggested we have a quick break and look at the river as we were making good time. We pulled off into a little side road that went down towards the river. As we reached the bottom we stopped on some really sticky sand, that felt like it had been mixed with tar. The bikes sunk a bit into this and made it hard to get going again. I was grabbing a drink while Tom was walking the bikes out of the sand. Tom made it out the sand with my bike and started to walk it up the slight hill of the dirt track back towards the main road. As he was revving it slightly to get to the top, the bike suddenly lost and then regained traction which threw the bike around and him over the top. He grazed his leg pretty badly and bent some of the bike parts. The footrest, gear pedal, handle bars and gearbox took a hit and bent to various degrees. Fortunately we were both ok and managed to ride into the next village where we found someone to straighten out and to weld my busted foot rest. After some questionable repairs and dangerous looking welding we were back on the roads and eating up the miles again. Once we were about an hour out of Phpng Nha my bike suddenly lost power and died, refusing to start again. Fortunately I was directly outside a mechanics when it did. We took the bike in and had it looked over. The mechanic decided to change the spark plug and with a bit of fiddling the bike was starting fine. We set off and about 3 minutes in the bike died again in the same fashion. Tom towed me the short distance back to the mechanics and went back in to see what the problem was. When the bike refused to start he had a quickly look over before checking the fuel intake. On opening the fuel tank it was completely dry. I had the Sahara desert as a fuel tank. And queue the most embarrassing moment of my life. The locals found it hilarious. Tom found it hilarious. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Tom went a few miles and picked up some extra fuel for my sorry self. With fuel back in I went and filled up properly and then we were back on our way. With the time spent on repairs and accidents we were arriving into Phpng Nha slightly behind schedule. It is the best slightly behind schedule I have ever experienced as the sun was setting beautifully as we rode in amongst the most incredible scenery. Huge rock columns protruding from the earth with beaming rays of orange light coming between them. We arrived in Phong Nha just as it was getting dark and pulled into our Hostel 'Easy Tiger'. We had a quick look round the place before meeting up with new and familiar faces before getting some food, beers, trying out their swimming pool and going to bed.
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