Scary.

Lost in the garden

Big urn

Impressive.

Great trees.

Lovely

Our train. Luxury.

The day started with some sadness, or rather anxiety. We are planning on a train journey back to Hanoi, some 550km. The bikes have to go on a separate train, or at least in the guards carriage. We have to trust the Vietnam Railway. Hmmm. Not sure this is a wise / good idea, but most people say it should be no problem. Admittedly, these are usually Vietnam Railway employees, and they don’t actually speak english other than to say ‘No problem’. We will see.

Back to the hotel for breakfast and pack up. We left the trip around the Imperial Citadel for today, although neither of us have much energy for another old building, especially as it’s not that old. 1820’s at the earliest.

Having arrived there it was interesting. The Emperor was treated as god. The whole building complex, which is huge, was devoted to his pleasure. Housing for 104 wives, more concubines, eunuchs and officials. A grand place, but we kept comparing with Angkor Wat, even though we really tried not to. Angkor was over 1,000 years older and seemed to have more magic about it. Glad we saw it, as it represented the most powerful dynasty in Vietnam from around 1820 to 1945. Doesn’t surprise us that there was a revolution.

Nice lunch, and Paul decided it was too hot and had a haircut. Always interesting having haircuts in different countries. This one was 40mins, of which 25 mins was a head massage. Great fun, although the results are, um, a bit Vietnamese. They will grow out.

Supper was lovely but the food took for ever to arrive. A bit stressful as we needed to buy important food for the train journey. A bottle of wine.

Boarded the train, found our sleeper carriage, and better than expected. Clean, comfortable, a bit slow, but all good. We hope our bikes are being treated as well.

Met Arthuro, Mexican travelling around on his bike for a year. Jealous, although $20/ day might be a bit little for us. Finished the wine, sleep and hope tomorrow is kind to our bikes.

Happy Birthday Linda!! xx

Tomb cycling.

A lovely roof

Different types of ginger.

Huge market

Great carrot decoration. And yummy food.

A Garlic bird.

Cycling, with no effort from us.

A birthday in Vietnam.  Pretty special.  Took the bikes out for a little tour around the temples dotted around out of town alongside the Perfume River. Nice name for a river, but not accurate. Sun shining and a glorious day, if a little humid.

Discovered the large market selling anything and everything and after some firm bartering from Paul, managed to spend many thousands of dong on a crap lacoste copy shirt for him and a flimsy half a dress for Linda.  Our posh togs for a birthday night out on the town.

Back in time for massages at the hotel.  First massage on our trip and jolly nice too.  Paul’s neck, back and shoulders sent him to sleep.  An hour massage is never long enough, especially when it only costs around £15.

Dinner at Le Jardin de la Carambole, next door to the Imperial Palace, in a French colonial building.  For a french restaurant, unusual that the menu listed pizza and pasta as well as vietnamese and western food.  Opted for the vietnamese beef steak in peppercorn sauce with fries. Great detail with the use of garlic on top of the veggies. Very yummy. Wine an unusual treat.

We managed to be outrageously overcharged for a cyclo ride back to our hotel. We even knew at the time, but it was such fun, and as cyclists, we felt a bit of empathy towards the cyclo rider.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our trusted bikes. They have been great. Hope we don’t  loose them.

To Hue, over Hai Van pass.

Hai Van Pass. Great road.

Great views, except for cloud. At least it’s cool.

Salangane’s home. All for bird’s nest soup. Yuk.

Top marks to Orange Hotel.  Only a 3 star but really nice little touches, like, astonishingly, complimentary beers.  Wow.  Really comfy bed, always appreciated and the most attentive, friendly and helpful staff ever.    We were recommended a great local Thai restaurant and to hang out downtown to see the dragon bridge breathe fire.  Danang is an interesting town, definitely on the up with its smart riverfront and lots of coffee shops.

Headed for the Hai Van pass.  A 10 km, 500 m climb up and 10 km down.  We had anticipated it to be harder based on reviews we had read.  It does give the most glorious views of the coastline below as you wind your way up the beautifully noiseless road.  Cars and buses take the tunnel, thank goodness.  As we slowly pedalled up we sort of expected the smell of wild thyme or mint? Pine trees? Maybe exotic lemongrass? No. The all pervasive smell from the common pastime of peeing on the side of the road. Took the edge off it. Probably better after a good rainstorm.

A great route, down the hill and off the awful Highway 1 onto the coastal road, skirting around the lagoons and peninsular of land.  Quiet and lovely.  And, more and more tombs in the sand.  They go on forever.  There are more dead than alive here. And they take up so much space.

Finally, we understand about the loud bird calls from the concrete buildings.  There is fierce competition to attract the salanganes,  a local swift-like bird that builds its nest from saliva.  The nests command $1,000 per kilo.  Historically, the nests are collected from the steep sides of the islands off-shore, accessed from bamboo scaffolding towers.  Hazardous.  A young Vietnamese graduate having studied the birds, came up with the design of the concrete house.  It has been hugely successful and without any current legislation, it appears that residents in town are attaching towers to their homes then turning up the volume for the bird calls.  Very lucrative.

Have to say that the approach to Hue was disappointing.  Had anticipated another Hoi An, which is delightful.  maps.me and Paul’s dexterity manipulating his phone whilst cycling took us to the door of The Serene Shining Hotel after our last full day of cycling on this trip. Feel quite sad.

To Da Nang.

Dragon bridge, with fire.

A gentle day, only 25Km needed so we decided to have lunch at An Bang beach before our fairly brief bike ride. We needed one more fix of Hoi An’s coffee house so a brief wander around looking for nice coffee. Too many to choose, but settled on a great place. Same as yesterday, in fact. Met a nice Dutch chap, who promised us that his next trip would be on a bike. Great to inspire the next generation. Linda bought our only physical souvenir so far – 4 small paintings. Hope they survive the trip home.

Cycled the coast strip to Da Nang. We are getting used to great white beaches, partially developed massive resorts and topiary. This trip was a bit different as many of the resorts were actually finished. Some names we recognised, Sheraton, Vinpearl, Hilton. Didn’t stop. Our hotel, The Orange, particularly lovely. Small and perfect. Da Nang is much bigger than we expected. A brief thought about cycling up monkey mountain, but tomorrow will be a hard day, so a beer instead.

Nice Thai restaurant in the city, recommended by the staff at the hotel. Busy, a bit crazy but the food was great. We got back about 8.30 and a girl on the reception said ‘Are you not watching the dragon?’ Told us about the dragon  bridge which spits out fire and water on sat and sun eve. A great way to end the day.

Big day tomorrow and we have pre-ordered our breakfast for an early start. Usually the pre-orders get lost. We will see.

Tourist day to Hoi An.

Hoi An old town

The peddlers need to swap with their passengers?

Fishing, nets.

It really is this colourful

Bananas give you energy

Waterfront

It’s good, but is it art? No.

Some translations are just plain funny.

Great food at Lantern’s restaurant.

I can swim!!

Oops, no I can’t.

Am Bang beach. The tourist end. Still jolly nice.

We like An Bang, a lot.  We also like Hoi An, a lot.

The weather is perfect, high 20’s, a soft breeze and the most gorgeous, stretching forever beach.  What a difference the sun makes.  Today the little suburb of An Bang is glorious, with lots of interesting little cafes and restaurants.  Have had more variety of food in these 2 days that the last few weeks in Vietnam.  We are trusting the salads now as there are many tourists here. Might be a mistake. Time will tell. And the loo.  A delicious shrimp and mango salad one day for lunch and a very interesting chat to the 24 yr old “bead lady”.  She reaffirms all that we have noticed and already been told.  The men spend a lot of time “thinking and drinking” and the girls do all the work.  However, to get the girl the men have to “make the money, or no honey”. Only lasts until the girl is ‘hooked’, then they return to drinking and thinking. And chain smoking, and playing cards. Sounds a good life.

Hoi An, completely unexpected.  Really interesting architecture in a faded, colonial sort of way.  It’s clean with an overwhelming variety of great restaurants to choose from.  It reminds us, a little, of Luang Prabang in Laos.  An oasis in a fairly desolate desert of gastronomy.  Cycling up this coastline, we have travelled many kms through villages and struggled to find water, let alone any food.  Some villages have had 2 mobile phone shops but still nowhere to buy anything to eat.  It’s such a pleasure to drink Italian coffee and to eat chocolate cheesecake.

Tonight we will be eating BBQ fish, fresh from the ocean, pre-ordered yesterday, in a lovely little restaurant around the corner from our homestay.  Everyone knows everyone here.  The owner of our homestay is a young Vietnamese who used to work with the owner of the seafood restaurant and is great friends with her younger brother.  Even the lady on the beach selling trinkets knows Duc from the An Bang Homestay.  A great little community and a much easier lifestyle for those prepared to work rather than being a fisherman or working in the paddy fields.

Tourism is on the way up here with huge cranes on the horizon constructing an enormous resort complex. We probably couldn’t afford to stay here, when it opens. Come and see An Bang Beach soon! It’s lovely.

Now a fish with our name on it. Hope it isn’t fried in salt. (see photos).