The Long & Winding Road
Three days on a bike
Good morning! Welcome to the latest edition of the Vietnam Weekly exclusively for paying subscribers, written by Ho Chi Minh City-based reporter Mike Tatarski.
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Today’s newsletter isn’t the usual news deep dive: it’s a reportage-style travelogue of the three-day, 400-kilometer cycling trip from Đồng Hới to Vinh I did with a group of friends last weekend. If you’re curious about the exact route, check out my Strava profile. This account includes some diversions into energy, real estate, and tourism.
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The trip began with a flight to Đồng Hới last Thursday - the first of two days of national mourning following the death of General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng.
I saw this period characterized in some international media as Vietnam “coming to a halt,” but that wasn’t the case. Other than signs commemorating Trọng - some incongruously placed - and flags at half-mast in front of government buildings, most carried on as normal.
The funeral in Hanoi did look impressive, to be sure.
Đồng Hới - the gateway to Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park and its spectacular caves - is a pleasant little city. I hadn’t been since 2017, when I visited to report a Mongabay feature on the rare co-existence of tourism and conservation in the park.