We were honoured to be interviewed by travel pro’s Peter and Felice Hardy.
Here is a link.
We really enjoyed the discussion, and brought back great memories. Hopefully we will be able to create more soon!
Stay well.
Our home for 3 days.
Mill pond flat.
Going through a ‘hole’.
A real one. Sadly we can’t keep it. Unless we give $’s.
Home for fisher folk.
Ha Long bay. For some people the whole reason for going to Vietnam. UNESCO world heritage sight. Some people go to Halong Bay for the day. A 4 hour bus ride,as much fun as root canal work with no local anaesthetic. 4 hours around the bay, and then repeat the dental work. The area is huge, beautiful, quiet and needs exploring. 4 hours just is, well, crazy. We opted for a 3 day, 2 night aboard the Halong Phoenix Cruiser. In between sort of weather. A few days ago the area was covered in mist, and it would have been difficult to see much at all. We had mostly dry but rather grey, none of the bright sunshine in the adverts. Still, the scenery is spectacular with the vast limestone rocks rearing up out of the sea. Ha Long means ‘Dragon teeth’, or, rather, it may mean that. Our guide thought that loads of things meant all sorts of stuff. Sounds good, though. There are vast stalactite and stalagmite caves to visit, along with all the other tourists. Would be easy to spend longer and take some time to look around the largest island, Cat Ba.
It’s all very orderly in the Bay with all the cruisers and ferries stopping in the same places. Off-piste is strictly forbidden. However, with a kayak, we were able to explore the hidden coves and lagoons, away from the boats. We did manage one lunch with not another boat in sight, well away from the crowds. Exceptionally quiet and peaceful. We were amazed to see some wild monkeys. Maybe macaque monkeys. Our guide wasn’t sure. On Cat Ba they do have langurs, but are very rare and endangered. We were keen to support their conservation project.
Treated to some very good food with lots of fresh squid. Paul tried to catch some. Failed, but had a bit of fun with synchronised fishing with three Germans.
Would love to revisit the area again for even longer. Ideally when the sun is out and 10 degrees warmer.
Too much cycling, not enough food.
Our train was better than we thought it might be. Good chat with Arturo, bottle of wine and a pretty good night’s sleep. Even better, when we arrived in Hanoi, only 1/2 hour to get our bikes, in good condition and hadn’t been knicked. Phew! Happy Paul and Linda.
Then to our old friends at Hong Ngoc Hotel, wander around Fine Art’s museum and met up with Simon and Ha for supper, times 2. Thank you both for your hospitality. Great to see you.
Then to Halong bay tomorrow.
Scary.
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
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
It’s good, but is it art? No.
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).
To Quy Nhon
Great views, almost sunny for a few minutes.
Free drinking water at lunch stop.
Weather still grey, grim and windy but no way are we staying at Scandia for another night. Vietnamese tea definitely more quaffable than the Vietnamese coffee. Poor Paul is stuck with water for breakfast with his cold fried eggs. A quick clean of the rusting bike chains and off back down the mucky road.
At least the road is quiet. A back road for part of the way before hooking back onto Highway 1. As a major highway linking north and south Vietnam this is surprisingly light with traffic too. Mostly it is trucks carrying hundreds of live pigs – lost count of how many passed us. The smell lingers for a couple of minutes as the truck races by. Other road users are the small minivans, the worst, with their loud persistent horn blowing and habit of overtaking on blind bends. Second worst are the large green buses. Heads down, against the wind we stick tight to the hard shoulder. At least it’s not raining.
A nice detour through an unmarked fishing village. Daily food market on the street with fresh veg on the ground, then the fresh fish and an enormous pile of shellfish being cleaned off by half a dozen women, but nowhere to eat.
Have one of our best lunch stops at a roadside stall. Pointing and miming we manage to order large plates of rice with squid, prawn and veg on one and crackling pork and chicken on the other. With two Pepsis the bill was only around £2.50. Bargain and really tasty.
Wildlife watch today – Paul saw a large snake slither across the road. Linda was busy in the bushes and missed it. Pah!
85 kms and some good hills. We cycle down the very narrow village lanes to “Life’s a Beach”. A brilliant spot. An upmarket backpacker place and very well done. A gorgeous curved sandy bay and our room upstairs is a bamboo hut with a veranda overlooking the beach. The weather hasn’t cleared yet and still in the tail end of the big storm but the view is amazing and it is such a treat to sit watching and listening to the thundering waves crashing onto the beach.
Two days here we think, to hope the weather improves a bit.
Hard work day, Heavy wind, rain and over 115Km. Hey ho.
It’s wetter than it looks.
It’s still wetter than it looks.
1 Ox power.
The predicted storm is officially here. Up early to a grey day, raining and blowing a gale. Really don’t fancy hanging around the hotel for another day, so waterproofs on and pedal off. Did almost forget the passports being held at the front desk. Whoops.
A cyclist we had met in Saigon had recounted his story of flying down from Hanoi to Saigon on his road bike doing 200kms per day. This is possible because the prevailing wind is north to south. As we discovered. Add a storm, lashing rain and some hills and the effort was huge to do a measly 115 kms north to our “Scandia resort” hotel.
The weather was relentless for the 9 hours of our trip. We had a break for a pretty nice lunch en route. The usual fried rice and a couple of beers. Just good to get out of the wind for 40 mins.
If we had known we wouldn’t get to our hotel until 6:30pm in the dark, we may have been tempted to throw in the towel earlier, and book a proper hotel. What we didn’t know was that the hotel was 4kms north of town up an unfinished road which was now muddy and puddled. With no directions and no signage, not quite sure how we ever found it. But, the reviews had been tempting. It was deserted. We stumbled upon the open-air reception desk which was dark save for a television turned on. We were both exhausted and the thought of having to trace our steps back to town was a tough one. As we were about to pedal off again, a local lady arrived, speaking very good English. She thought we weren’t coming as it was so late – 6:30? And, the killer, it’s too late for dinner! But, she did have cold beers and yes, we could get breakfast there, not included in the price. She relented regarding dinner and offered up the worst Pho bo (beef noodle soup) and fried rice that we have tasted. The beef tasted of mothballs. It must have been bad as, despite being ravenous, Linda didn’t eat it all.
The five beers softened us a bit so we made the best of the place and climbed into the sandy sheets. Yuck. Not cheap enough, A review definitely going on Trip Advisor.
Paul and Linda Cycle 