January 30, 2017

 An early start to day as we had some miles to cover and a big climb as well. We started of with overcast skies and the surrounding hills hidden in the mist. It wasn’t very cold and we cycled out of dirty Ky Anh into the countryside. My sister, Nikki, had mentioned that it looked like a very clean country. It isn’t, it is disgustingly dirty. Most people sweep there patch of land in front of their house and then throw the garbage into the streets, or the gutters. At the end of most of the lanes or side roads there are large piles of garbage, it is awful.

After about 20 minutes of riding it started to drizzle. We stopped and put the covers on the bags and carried on. We decided not to put rain jackets on as it was quite warm. For the next three hours (60 kms) the heavens opened and we got very wet and a little cool. When it is raining it is difficult to take photos but I have Ralf’s waterproof camera in my pocket and I was able to take a photo of this heard of cattle wandering down the road. This road is of similar status as an A road in England or Hwy 11 in Ontario. These cows did not care, we saw a lot of meandering cows today.

We are surprised to see that a lot of the stores have still not reopened after the New Years holiday. It is a four day holiday for most people.

The scenery was quite nice in areas today, but because of the rain we kept riding.

At about 40 km mark I was expecting a big climb, the road divided and the main A1 road went to the right. I had read about the climb from another persons blog. He mentioned there was a tunnel but didn’t think cyclists could use it. We took the main A1 road and within a kilometer there was the tunnel, no signs to say we couldn’t use it. Most cyclists hate tunnels, cars drive way too fast and in this country I thought we would be taking our lives into our hands. However, due to the New Years holiday there are less vehicles on the road. We headed into the tunnel, it was only short about 500 metres. There was a raised sidewalk, which we took two-thirds of the way. It abruptly came to an end with a short staircase – not sure why. We cycled on the road for the last little section.

We didn’t have to do the big climb and as it was still raining, we would not have seen anything from the top.

At about 70 kms the rain stopped and slow but sure the sun came out. By the time we cycled in to Dong Hoi the sun had come out and we were dry when we got to the hotel, dirty but dry.

It is always fun hearing kids shout hello to us as we pass.  Sometimes when Ralf gets his camera out they have fun, other times they play shy. 

We found our hotel relatively easily, it is a nice hotel with a lovely room. The bikes are in a secure room at the back of lobby area.

After we settled in, I rinsed the merino wool t.shirts and Ralf hung the washing line. The laundry services here are a bit harsh with the drying of clothes. We have given them all the dirty cycling gear to wash. We had a great lunch in the hotel and then had a nice walk along the promenade. Dong Hoi is a very pretty town that has a great beach area and fishing fleet.

It was a lovely walk in the sun.

We spotted this bombed out Church steeple.

As we were making our way back to the hotel, a Vietnamese fella on a scooter with a little guy in front of him asked if we spoke German. We said “a little”, the fella lived in Germany for five years and is now living in Austria. His great nephew was the little fella on the scooter. He only spoke German and was very shy. We had a nice chat about Germany, Canada and Vietnam. As Ralf said the world is a small place.

A lot of the restaurants in the area are closed, we will eat in the hotel again. Tomorrow we will go out and eat in the neighbourhood.

One of the things that the Vietnamese love is Karaoke.  They play it really loud, and there are lots of Karaoke bars wherever we have stayed.  Sometimes there is a whole street full of them.

We met the two Dutch ladies again tonight, they are staying at the same hotel. They did a homestay in the National Park and then took a taxi to visit the caves. We have opted not to do the National Park. We had a nice chat with them about cycling. They have cycled extensively.

January 29, 2017

We left Ha Tinh at 9:15 and had a nice tail wind for most of the day. The weather was hot again today about 28 degrees C. The traffic has started to pick up again, but it is very manageable. A lot of other bloggers have commented on how bad the A1 is, we haven’t found it too bad. We have a wide shoulder and there are two lanes, yes the drivers can be crazy with their horns and when they are passing but on the whole I have felt safer driving along the A1 than I did cycling in Northern Ontario.

However, today, we saw our first traffic accident. About 1 km before the accident the police had blocked of the road with a large tree branch and were waving the car drivers to the other side of the divided highway! They didn’t seem to slow down at all and the cars that were heading towards them were flashing their lights. I am sure they had no clue as to why the cars were on the wrong side of the median.

The reason the police had directed the traffic was because of the traffic accident. As we came up to the bus I thought that his engine had fallen out onto the road. Unfortunately, it was a motorbike under the bus. The police waved us by and were busy measuring the accident scene. It did not look good.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, the same scenery of rice paddies, except one church that was being renovated and a small road side shrine.

We came into Ky Anh and I was expecting a nice town. It was a grubby town, garbage everywhere. We found our hotel, and the price had gone up from Bookings.com. We got the receptionist to reduce the price again and then she said we could leave our bikes in the underground area. There was nowhere to secure the bikes, the underground area was completely open. We didn’t feel comfortable leaving the bikes in such an insecure area.

We headed back onto the main street and stopped at a large hotel and asked if they had rooms. Yes, 250,000 per night, I went to view the room. The stairway was filthy, the first room she was going to show me was not cleaned and I noticed a used sanitary napkin in the doorway of another room. We went up another flight of stairs, the room was gross, dirty bathroom, dirty sheets. I thanked her and we carried on to the next hotel we could see from the road. The hotel was down a side street, the owner welcomed us and showed me the room, clean sheets, bathroom and a reasonable shower. The cost was 350,000 ($20.00) per night. We were going to stay two nights as we are due for a rest day, but the town is nothing to write home about so we are going to do the big push to Dong Hoi tomorrow. It is about 95 kms and one big hill to go over. The weather should be a little cooler tomorrow and we are going to start out early to beat the heat.

As we were bringing our bags in the owner offered us what we thought was a green tea, until she poured it into tiny shot glasses! It was a very potent liquor, it was very similar to the liquor we had in Cat Ba Island.

We settled into the room and then headed out to find some lunch. A lot of the restaurants are still closed for New Years. We found a corner store and bought some dried noodles, a can of ham and a couple of beer – that is going to be dinner. There is a kettle in the room and we bought our dishes and kfs. For lunch we found a café that was advertising sandwiches, similar to Hanoi. Unfortunately, she had no bread! But suggested sushi or some kind of dumpling. We opted for the dumpling, no idea what was inside it. We think it was wild rice and an egg of some variety, but really had no clue what we were eating. It tasted good and we needed the carbs from the dumplings.  The mix next to the dumplings was the usual hot sauce, but she added some mayonnaise to cool the hot sauce down.

We spent hours trying to find a room in Dong Hoi, too many options, prices and locations. Often we find something on-line that is affordable, then when you go on to the website it looks rough or the price has gone up. We are spending two days in Dong Hoi, so we want to be comfortable.

January 28, 2017

We got up later today because of our late night. Mr. Hau arrived to organize our breakfast and sat down to eat with us. He had prepared a “Canadian/European” breakfast for us, he also invited us to try a specialty of the area that the Vietnamese have for breakfast and is very popular in Vinh. The fried eggs with bread was nice to start and then out came the eel soup! The eel was dead and Mr. Hau was very proud to tell us that it was farmed eel not sea eel. Ralf will try anything once and has eaten eel before. I am not quite as adventurous, however, he had been so kind to us that I had to try it. It was lovely, not something I would normally eat for breakfast but I would definitely eat it for lunch or dinner with a good hearty bread. The broth was quite spicy with chilli peppers and the eel tasted like a very mild fish. Celeste, I am honestly not trying to make you gag, knowing how much you love fish.

Mr. Hau also gave us a gift of a package of food it is a sticky rice wrapped around minced pork, wrapped in a large green leaf. You can eat it cold.  Ralf had tried this for breakfast yesterday and didn\’t like it.

We headed out after fond farewells and Mr. Hau telling us that if we got into any trouble in Vietnam to call him, he has many friends and family throughout the country. He worked for the government for 20 years and still has friends in high places.

On the road by 10:00, with wet gloves and wet shoes, they quickly dried in the warm weather. We had to find the Ho Chi Minh Square for some photos. We were about to cycle closer to the “great” man, when we got stopped and told we had to leave the bikes at the entrance.

I waited with the bikes while Ralf wandered off to take photos. The square is huge a whole city block and is totally scooter and vehicle free. No bikes either. It is a large square with gardens and a small kids play area. There were motorized vehicles for the kids to play with. New Vietnamese drivers in the making.

After Ho Chi Minh Square we headed out to the A1 and the large monument depicting the war against the French in 1930. There were some nice gardens surrounding the monument.

It was easy to find our way out of the city after the tour with Mr. Hau last night.  We crossed the river.

We came to a roundabout and I saw the sign that said left to Ha Tinh, Ralf thought we needed to go straight on. He was right, I was wrong, we only went about 4 kms in the wrong direction.  There was a bit of a head wind today.  Ralf took the lead for the last half of the ride.

The A1 was very quiet today, more cars than scooters. The small towns and villages we went through were a little busier with people going from house to house visiting family and friends. It is unbelievable how many people you can get on a scooter. If we can we will try and get a photo of a family of 5 on a scooter. Dad driving, one child on his lap, two children squished between Dad and Mum who is hanging onto the children and the scooter. Sometimes you only see one child between Mum and Dad, then you spot an extra pair of little legs – there is another one squished in there.

Everybody was shouting Happy New Year to us as we cycled through the towns and villages.

We arrived in Ha Tinh with no reservation for a hotel. We had looked on Bookings.com and only found one under $25.00. We decided to risk it and stopped in a few places to ask the price and see if they had a restaurant. Most of the ones we stopped at were about $30.00 and no restaurant. We found the hotel (the White Hotel) that we had seen on Bookings, it was over $30.00 and no restaurant. The receptionist told us to try next door, it was cheaper.

The Ha Huy is a new hotel, the room is $28.00 with breakfast. The room is lovely, I could get used to this type of bicycle touring. We asked about dinner, we could have dinner and because we are the first guests of the New Year it is free. Of course, we have no idea what we ate.

Ralf headed up to the roof to get some photos of the city.

Subdivision from roof

After we had settled in to our lovely hotel room, we headed out for a short walk around the town.

We came across a new “subdivision” with a large tower block attached, Ralf had seen it from the roof.

We asked the two young security guards if we could go in and see the gardens. One of them followed us around and then indicated he would take our photo. Of course he also wanted to take a photo of us with him!

Shortly after us wandering around, an agent showed up and wished up Happy New Year. We asked about the development. The subdivision has about 160 units with a cost of 21 million per square metre which is about $1,235 per sq metre 80% of the property is sold. The second phase, which is well under way – is a 36 floor tower block. The lower five floors will be commercial and offices, the remaining 26 floors will be a hotel.

Every where we go we have seen small community gardens.  If there is a spare bit of land they plant a community garden.

When we arrived back at the hotel we asked what time we could have dinner. We suggested 6:15. As we were about to leave our room our dinner was delivered to our room. Not sure what it was, another specialty of the area – there were about eight deep fried fritter things, sticky rice with chick peas and mystery meat. It tasted good, the accompanying salad was rather spicy with some chilli peppers.

An early night is in order, although tomorrow our ride isn’t too long, then we are looking for a rest day.

January 27, 2017

What a day we had today. We left the hotel at 9:15 and had decided that we could get of the A1 today. When we left the hotel, Ralf was given a red envelope with “lucky Money” in it for New Year. It contained 10,000 vnd about .59 cents. It is very symbolic. Although the traffic was greatly reduced and a lot of the shops were already closed for the holiday celebrations.  There were still a few selling gifts.

We were leaving Hoang Mai and came across three other touring cyclists chatting at the side of the road. Of course, we stopped and joined the conversation. Two Dutch ladies traveling together and one Irish man. The Irish man talked to Ralf while I chatted to the Dutch ladies. The Dutch ladies are heading south as well, but only have four weeks. They are heading towards Hoi Ann and then will decide which way to go from there.   The Irish man arrived in Bangkok in December and is travelling south-east Asia until April 1, 2017. It is always nice to chat to other cyclists.

The weather to day started nice and warm, but then turned showery and a little cooler.

At the 36 km mark we started the adventure! We headed towards the coast and followed a raised paved road for about 10 kms. All of the shops and cafes in the beach area are closed for the season, it is too cold in the north to enjoy the beach at this time of the year. A fella on a motor bike invited us for tea at his farm, but we had just started on the detour and new we had some kilometers to go without knowing what the terrain was going to be like. We politely declined his invitation.

There are a lot of catholic churches in this area.

Then things started to go pear shaped. The road disintegrated to a rough road and then to a rough partially paved track. It was hard going, it reminded us of Cuba.

It was an interesting route, we went through some large villages where everyone welcomed us with Hello, hello. When we responded the children giggled and would shout hello again. We seem to be an anomaly in these smaller towns. They don’t see a lot of tourists and certainly not many touring cyclists. It was nice to be off the A1, very quiet we could hear birds and the air was clearer. However, the roads were really rough.

However, we got to one area where the road went to a red dirt track and our bikes, bags and the two of us were covered in red clay mud.

We eventually found a route away from the dirt track and back onto a paved road. There were some nice beach areas and one fancy resort.

There were some little hills.

A scooter rider came along side and was chatting to us about where we were from, where we were going and we should stop for something to eat. We were cold and dirty and just wanted to get to the hotel. He told us which road to take to go to Vinh and said it was 15 kms. It was so nice to be back on paved road with a wide shoulder. Then to top the day of it started to rain.

We arrived at the hotel at about 3:15, dirty, wet and cold. The owner of the hotel welcomed us to his hotel, I think he had been waiting for us to arrive. We had pre-booked on Bookings.com and said we would be arriving at about 2:00.

We said to the owner “we are very dirty and asked if they had a hose that we could rinse the bikes”. We were surrounded by four workers and the security guard who proceeded to help us remove the panniers from the bikes and then the security guard rinsed my shoes to get the red clay dirt of them, fortunately the Keens are “waterproof”. He then sprayed my legs and started to rub my legs clean, like some old horse, I couldn’t stop laughing. He then did the same to Ralf making sure that we were clean before going into the hotel. They proceeded to spray the bikes with water and then scrubbed the tires with soap. I took over cleaning my bike, drying it off and oiling the chain and pedals. The disc brakes were rubbing so I made sure they were clear of grit as well. Then I dried Ralf’s chain and oiled it and the pedals.

I think we gave all the staff a good laugh and entertained them for half an hour. They were surprised that I was the mechanic.

Ralf asked if the restaurant in the hotel was open for dinner. Mr Hau, the owner, asked what time we would like dinner. We decided on 6:30 to give us plenty of time to wash, change and relax a little. Then we asked what time his staff would be going to their families, we don’t want to keep them away from their families as New Year’s in Vietnam is a family occasion. He said that the family celebrations start at 11:30 and he would like us to attend his family’s celebrations.

He showed us to our room and then asked us again if we would like to join him for New Year’s celebration. We accepted and he is going to pick us up to take us to his house.

Before we left for the evening at Mr. Hau’s house the waiter and receptionist came to our room, with more lucky money envelopes (5000 vnd about 03 cents) and asked for our photo. Ralf now has two more facebook friends. The receptionist gave us some wafer biscuits.

By about 10:30, I was fading and wished I hadn’t accepted the invitation, but I managed to stay awake. At promptly 11:00 p.m. we went downstairs and Mr. Hau was waiting for us. The Vietnamese are very prompt people. Mr. Hau drove us around Vinh and showed us the sights.

Vinh has wide avenues with trees down the centre and on the side walk. It is a nice City of 500,000 people. Mr. Hau showed us the Ho Chi Minh Square and a monument that commemorated the war against the French in 1930 – the war was unsuccessful. He also drove us to a large market area, a rabbit warren of stalls on the outside selling fruits and vegetables and local products, the larger interior hall sold goods from China.

Ho Chi Minh came from this area, about 14 kms north-east of the City.

We arrived at Mr. Hau’s house and met his father and mother who live with them. Up until three years ago there were four generations living in the house. His father was 84 and had the most awesome face. We didn’t take our cameras, as we thought that might be rude. However, we had our photos taken regularly. When Ralf got chatting to the nephew of Mr. Hau, he asked him to take a photo of his grandfather and send it to him – another facebook friend.

The evenings celebration was a very simple affair. All the family get together and toast the New Year with brandy and have some small snacks and desserts. Mr. Hau’s English was good although he was out of practice. His sister’s sons spoke very good English and we chatted to them about bicycles, scooters and travelling.

It was a really nice evening. At promptly 1:00 we were taken back to our hotel. We had asked for breakfast at 8:00 a.m., but changed it to 9:00 a.m.

Once again we are in awe of the kindness of strangers.

January 26, 2017

We left our guest house at 7:45 and headed back out on to the A1 through town. We said our goodbyes to the guest house owner and I took a picture of their New Years Tree, the owner encouraged me to take a photo of the small shrine with offerings. I had already taken one in the room where we had stored the bikes.  The offerings include fruit, beer, cigarettes, flowers and money.

She asked me how old I was, I told her and she smiled she was 56, she looked really good for 56.

The New Years tree is a branch from a qumquat tree, they are being sold everywhere along  the road. They have small pink blossoms on them. The other tree they decorate at this time of the year is a clementine tree.

This monument was in Thanh Hoa – a similar monument was in Hanoi.

Today\’s ride was a little more relaxing as there are already less vehicles on the road. I think tomorrow will be really quiet as everyone will be with their families and everything closes for the day. We already noticed that some of the street food vendors are closed.

The scenery is getting more rural and there is a bigger separation distance between towns.

Again, we stopped regularly to hydrate and eat the Cliff bars today. At one stop, I asked Ralf if he wanted some pineapple, there was a small vendor with all sorts of fresh fruit. “How are we going to cut it”? I do have my handy dandy Swiss army knife but I figured I could ask the vendor if he could slice it for us. As I looked at the pineapple I noticed it wasn’t very ripe, so I suggested Dragon Fruit. I mimed cutting the fruit and the owner took it to the small house behind the stall. He came back with a plate and a huge carving knife. He gave us two little chairs to sit on and I sliced the fruit in quarters. It was heavenly, really sweet. In the meantime we were surrounded by children. The oldest Thi Ly asked me in very clear English “What is your name”? I told her Jacqueline which she attempted to pronounce, and then I asked her what her name was. I attempted to pronounce her name and we giggled. “I am 9 years old” this is a prompt for me to tell her how old I was. I told her, but she didn’t quite understand! Then she asked me “If I was Vietnam?” I understood this to be where are you from so I told her I was not from Vietnam but from Canada. We had quite the conversation, although you could see her trying to ask more questions but couldn’t think of the English words. Even so at 9 years old she was doing very well. She told me what Dragon Fruit is in Vietnamese, and when I didn’t pronounce it properly the first time she was very firm with correcting me, thanh long – the th is not pronounced as in the, but as in tea. Her little sister kept pestering to ask more questions, but she brushed her away.

We thanked the family and headed away, about a kilometer down the road I kicked myself we should have taken photos of the family.

We saw our first road marker for Ho Chi Minh City today 1550 kms, about one months ride.

During the New Year celebration people buy new things, clothes, phones and furniture.  Just because you only have a scooter does not mean you cannot take your new furniture home with you.  We took this photo and then saw him going down the road – with a table and another chair on top of the bench that was already loaded.

We saw a nice shrine along the side of the road.

I was a little concerned about finding food tonight and tomorrow because of the New Year celebrations. We came into Hoang Mai and decided to stay at a hotel with a restaurant to ensure we get a decent dinner, blow the expense.

The first hotel on the outskirts of Town didn’t have a restaurant, the second was a deluxe hotel that we thought we would have to take a mortgage to stay at. However, next door was a supermarket that we could buy some provisions for tomorrow. I entered the very large lobby of the Muong Thanh Grand hotel and asked if they had a room and how much it would cost. Yes, they had a room and the cost is $53.00, including breakfast, unbelievable. The place has a swimming pool, tennis courts, soccer pitch, restaurants, and karaoke bar. We booked it, our bikes are outside at the back of the hotel with a security guard watching over them. We locked them and covered them with our cover.

Although, I do not think things get stolen from tourists in places like this. Everyone has been very careful giving us the correct change and very respectful. In busy cities you will get the ever present pick-pockets and scam artists but in smaller cities everyone appears to be very honest. As Ralf found out yesterday when he went back to the café and they still had his glasses and watch.

I have no idea why there is a big hotel in this town. There are no big tourist attractions in the area, that I could find on line or in the Lonely Planet Guide.

After settling into the hotel we went next door to the supermarket and bought some lunch for today and provisions for tomorrow. We got quite the grocery bag full – bread, cheese, tomatoes, liver pate, 2 bags of chips, 2 bottles of water and some more milo for under $10.00. 

A relaxing afternoon in the hotel, Ralf was checking out the route and booking another hotel for tomorrow night in Vinh. After the New Years celebrations we should be able to go back to cheap guesthouses, everything will be open again on Saturday and we can get back on budget. Although, we are technically on budget, it is just that if we save money in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, we can spend a little more in Korea.

Room with a view.

January 25, 2017

We were asleep very early last night, as soon as it got dark we were in bed and sound asleep. A good sleep in the very firm bed. We woke to rain on the roof of the guesthouse. We were awake at six and needed to clear the room by 8:00 a.m. We had our cereal for breakfast and then headed out in the rain.

It was a little cool to start and we had our heavy rain jackets on. We kept them on throughout the ride, as it didn’t really warm up all that much. We arrived in Thanh Hoa at about 12:45, average speed of about 20 kms per hour.

We managed to stop and take a few photos today.

We decided to stop every half hour or so to make sure we stayed hydrated. Last time we were on the Grand Adventure Part One, we had VeloHydration packs on the back of the bike with a tube running from the top tube, similar to a camel back but it sat on the back rack. It made it very easy to drink regularly.

The scenery was a little different today there were some gaps between towns and the countryside was primarily farming rice paddies.

We could see some Karst Mountains through the mist and gloom of the day.

As soon as we can we will try and get off the A1 and head into the countryside, we should be closer to the coast and may be able to find some guest houses along the coast.

Cycling today there were some rest stops for buses that we could have stopped at. Which we might have to do in future days to get some food. We did bring some Cliff Bars with us and they came in handy on the road.

We found a nice guest house in Thanh Hoa.  It is slightly away from the A1 but close to the downtown for getting something to eat. We could see the sign from the A1 but when we got to the place it looked closed, we were just about to walk away when the owner arrived on her scooter.  We asked all the questions or at least pointed to them in our Travellers Phrase book – hot water, wi-fi, how much, can I see the room?  She took me up to the room, very clean pointed out the air conditioner, t.v. and the hot water heater in the bathroom, a little bit more expensive than yesterday at $17.00.  It was clean and she had our bikes locked up in the room next door.

We are struggling to find food when we arrive at our location at the end of our ride. Yesterday we walked back into town about 2 kms and found some Pho. Today we wanted to find a sandwich for lunch and then go out again for dinner. That didn’t work out, we were hoping to find a café but cafés only sell coffees and not food.

We stopped in to see the menu at a large restaurant near the guesthouse.  It looked like a good place to have dinner.

It was pretty expensive, but other than street food there were no other restaurants to speak of in this huge city. We told the waiter that we would be back. We noticed another place and went to see their menu, but it turned out to be the micro brewery for the Cowboys restaurant.

The waiter we had spoken to found us and told us that unfortunately, the restaurant was closing at 7:00 for the start of the New Year celebrations. We decided to eat dinner mid afternoon again. The waiter recommended hot pot which consisted of a spicy broth with vegetables in it and then along came the food – cook your own dinner. Not quite, we had a very pretty waitress cook for us. Chicken was added first, then some mushrooms, lettuce, water cress, vermicelli noodles. We were served into little bowls and the food kept coming and coming. Eventually we had to stop eating, it was very good.

I asked how to say Happy New Year, in Vietnamese – she literally said \”Happy New Year in Vietnamese\” which is Năm mới hạnh phúc trong tiếng Việt. Easy for her to say.

When we got back to our room, Ralf couldn’t find his glasses. He has his watch attached to the case and figured if anyone found it they would keep it. He thought he might have left it at the place we had a coffee. He went back and they had kept them behind the counter for him.

Another early night tonight although. the planned route tomorrow is only about 67 kms. The weather forecast is for 24 degrees, pleasant and warm.

January 24, 2017

 Happy Birthday Richard.

I had a nervous nights sleep, as I usually do before riding in a new country. I was very apprehensive about riding out of Hanoi and several people had warned us about the crazy A1 – the road we would be taking south. I managed to eat breakfast, a very nice omelet with bread and some fruit. We headed out on the road by 9:30.

After a few wrong turns getting out of Hanoi we were on the A1 south.

What an amazing first days ride in Vietnam. Not because of the scenery, it wasn’t much to look at, but because of the sheer volume of traffic, noise and people. I am not sure how many photos we are going to be able to take, because the volume of traffic means you have to concentrate on the road and the ride rather than the scenery.

We did pass an area of marble carvers, it was an area that stretched along the road for about 1 km.

We also passed this huge building, we have no idea what it was.

The sheer volume of scooters was incredible. Not only do we have the regular traffic to contend with, but we have holiday traffic to contend with as well. In two days time is the start of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebrations and people who work in the cities are heading home to their families in the countryside.  There is a wide shoulder for cyclists.

I hadn’t realized how good my bike handling skills were. Ralf stayed behind me and I think slightly out in the road to protect me as best he good.

It would appear that the horns are used for notification. I am idiot and I am driving towards you on the wrong side of the road, please avoid me. Or, I am an idiot and I am going to overtake and drive on the opposite side of the road into traffic, please avoid me. Or I am just going to merge without any indication. Or I have a horn and I am just going to keep using it. I used my horn, which is 96 decibels it sounded like a kids bell compared to the noise of the scooters horns. I used it when a vehicle pulled out in front of me or looked as if they were going to do something, just to let them know I was there but I don’t think that is part of the rules.

We saw a funny traffic sign, max speed for trucks and buses 80, max speed for cars 70 and maximum speed for scooters and bicycles was 50. Something doesn’t add up – the motorbikes and scooters outnumber the trucks and buses by about 100 to 1. On one section of the road Ralf said to me there is a car, a couple of scooters and a transport be ready for the transport to pass. We cycled for another 15 minutes and it never did pass us, there were just too many scooters in front of it.

Ralf was wearing a jersey that had on the back of it Share the Road, well people sort of of did that.

We stopped at 20 km and drank some electrolyte drink and water. While swigging down the electrolyte I noted the head of a cow on a chair about 2 metres in front of me.

The lady on the other side of the train track was selling the meat. Road side advertising!

At about the 30 kms mark I just couldn’t believe I was cycling in this mayhem. Scooters everywhere, coming on the inside, overtaking trucks and heading on the other side of the road. I kept in my lane and just pedaled, every one went around us. It was chaos but for some bizaare reason it works. Nobody got upset, they just went around you.

At about the 40 kms mark we stopped again to eat our bananas and more electrolyte. The road is very flat.

As usual on these trips you get some strange looks from people who pass and some encouragement from people – thumbs up and shouts of something similar to vite vite. Or of course it could have been get of the road you crazy people. It would appear we are the only white people on the road.

We arrived in Phu Ly which is the capital of this province. It is a large city with a highway running through the middle of it! It is incredibly noisy. We found a small guesthouse on the outskirts of the town. It costs 170,000 vnd about $10.00. It is very basic, double bed, t.v, air conditioner and fan and I think we provide our own sheets! There is a bottom sheet and some blankets but no top sheet. No food is included but they directed us back into town.

We had a shower that had very little water pressure but the water was hot. We then walked back into Town and had Pho for a mid-afternoon lunch/dinner. We bought some milo – like a chocolate malted milk drink to use on the cereal we bought for breakfast. We also bought more water and some buns for a snack later.

Our plan is to do about 60 kms per day until we get our cycling legs back. Today was exactly 60 kms. Looking at the maps for tomorrow, it looks like it could be a longer day. We have noticed that the guest houses are in most towns. Although there may not be a Town on google maps, we have not seen very much countryside between towns. All the Towns and Cities merge into each other.

I cannot connect to the internet, I will post this tomorrow. An early night is in order.

January 23, 2017

Although we had a late night last night, we were both awake by 7:00 a.m. We had another good breakfast and then made a list of things we had to do today.

The people at reception are always very helpful with directions and the best places to get things.

We headed out at 10:00 a.m. with a map and list in hand. Bank, Sim Card, supermarket. Some of the sights of Hanoi are very funny, this dog with his jacket on did not look impressed.

We are millionaires again. The exchange rate is 16,893 Vietnamese dong (vdn) to 1 Cdn dollar! One million dong is $58.00! It makes it hard to try and work out in your head what you are actually paying for something, we bought a cheap and cheerful Casio calculator for 125,000 vdn – about $7.36.

We went to a local supermarket, we decided to take some food with us on the road just in case we can’t find anywhere for lunch or breakfast is not included at the guest houses. We bought some muesli and a jar of nutella – the peanut butter was not what we are used to – ingredients included sucrose and palm oil – yuck.

Near the supermarket they were setting up a small fair with rides for kids. Although Ralf is convinced that this is where they train their construction crews.

We got a sim card for the iPad with 7 gbs of data on it – we will only need the data if there is no wi-fi. However, the wi-fi is supposed to be really good across the country.

We decided to try and find a paper map to supplement the garmin and google maps. We headed into a very posh shopping mall – six floors of big name brands – Rolex etc. However, there was no Indigo or Chapters bookstore selling maps.

We could only find one store that sold maps – they only had one and it only showed the main roads. I think we will stick with google maps and maps.me which we can view off-line if necessary.

We had lunch today near the lake, which was expensive as it is a touristy area. Two coffees, a ham and cheese toasted sandwich with some fries $18.00. 10% service charge was included, but if you didn’t like the service you didn’t have to pay.

Also from this area you can get Domino\’s Pizza delivered. I am not sure how much they were.

Ralf almost bought some Keen sandals for $44, but they didn’t fit quite right. His look a little ratty and every time we pass a guy who fixes shoes they try to stop Ralf and glue them for him. They don’t need gluing they need sewing.

There are a lot of hawkers trying to sell to tourists. One scam are the ladies who sell small donut type treats. They offer you one to taste and then charge you a ridiculous amount of money for it.

We heard on the first night that they can cost over 150,000 vnd for six small balls – that is over $8.00. We politely refuse all the offers of “donuts” pineapple, fruit etc. However, there was one clever lady who very quickly put her “yoke” on Ralf’s shoulder and encouraged me to take a photo.

Of course we both knew we would have to pay for this privilege. She quickly put a bunch of bananas in a bag and a sliced pineapple and hung it onto Ralf’s hand. Ralf asked how much 50,000 vnd about $2.50. Ralf offered 15,000 vnd about .83 cents. She took the 15,000 and the bunch of bananas – muttering to herself. Very enterprising but not quick enough for two savvy Canadians.

Tomorrow we head out on our bikes.

January 22, 2017

A much more relaxed day today. We had breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and at 9:00 we were taken back to the harbor to board the boat.

The boat left from the opposite side of Cat Ba Island. We headed out to the Bay again and were directed upstairs to the top deck where we had a cooking class. We made Vietnamese Spring Rolls. They were so easy to make, we can do them at home. We made some for frying and some for eating cold.

All the ingredients were already prepared, for the fried ones we had to mix the ingredients of egg, cooked chicken, carrot, and cooked rice. We then all had a go at rolling the mixture into the rice paper and the Cook fried them for us. I must say they tasted really good.

The cold spring rolls were easy as well, julienned carrot and cucumber, lettuce, rice noodles and then what ever protein you wanted to add – shrimp, sliced pork or sliced chicken.

Thuy made the first one and wanted a volunteer to eat it – Ralf very kindly volunteered me. The spring roll was very good.

Again we all had a go at making them and eating them.

By the time we had finished the cooking class it was lunchtime.

We saw two hawks on the way out.

These little boats ply their wares to the bigger boats in the harbour.  It is hard work for these women who row from boat to boat.

As I said it was a relaxing day we were very shortly back in the harbor at Ha Long and were disembarking and waiting for our return bus to Hanoi. The sun came out and we all sat in the sun relaxing and chatting. The other guests on the cruise were really nice and I think all of us agreed that a small cruise was much better than a large cruise.

One of the things that both Hailey and I commented on was the fact that we didn’t speak any other language fluently. Whereas the rest of the group 4 from Denmark, 2 from Germany, 2 from France, 1 from Portugal and 1 from Slovenia all spoke English very well and possibly another language. I know I felt woefully inadequate but was incredibly pleased when everyone spoke English so that the three English speakers would be included in all the conversations.

Again we had a break at a tourist stop.

On the way back to Hanoi, Ralf and I chatted to Thuy about life in Vietnam. The average wage is about $160.00 per month, they do not pay personal income tax. Only business owners pay taxes. The average apartment in Hanoi to buy is $40,000.00. You don’t have to pay property tax. When we explained to him about property tax after buying a house he thought that was o.k. because it went to maintain infrastructure.

Thuy’s boss was on the bus, Thuy spoke freely about the company and the business. Fantasea Company has hotels in the south, and the north of Vietnam, they own two cruise boats and are planning to expand. The owner went to Russia for five years, on his return in 2006 he was able to start the Company and it grows every year. The bus dropped the owner at his new villa in a gated community just outside of downtown Hanoi. The villa was new and he paid approximately $900,000.00. It looked like a very nice community.

Thuy talked about planning for his future, he is saving to buy a flat in Hanoi and when he retires he will sell it and move back to his village in Central Vietnam and live comfortably. There are no old age pensions in Vietnam unless you work for the government or if your children died in the war. Thuy’s grandmother gets a pension from the government because one of her sons died in the war. He also told us that he has friends who are married and have recently had a baby. They come from the same area he does in Central Vietnam, they work in Hanoi because they can earn more money. Their parents are looking after the baby and they go to see the baby every few months. How sad is that?

We asked about the industry, Thuy told us that there are some big industries in Han Sung Province – Samsung, Canon, making electrical components. The big companies like to hire electrical graduates from Hanoi University and their starting salary is $500.00, three times the national average. Thuy’s brother is at Hanoi University studying electrical engineering and Thuy is going to encourage him to work at Samsung.

He told us that in Hanoi the government was offering $100,000.00 for a plan to reduce congestion in the Old Quarter. Easy – make the Old Quarter a pedestrian zone with electric City buses.

We had to ask if the scooter drivers had to take a drivers license. At 18 they have to take a drivers test it consists of 15 questions and they have to get 13 or more correct. The practical part of the test consists of driving around a figure of eight. The track is about 30 centimetres wide (he didn’t say how long) and they have to stay within the lines otherwise they fail the test. That does explain an awful lot about the scooter/motor bike riders in Hanoi. They can maneuver the scooters very well, but have no clue how to follow the rules of the road like entering a main road, stopping at intersections, stopping at red stop lights!

When we got back to the hotel we had another welcome cup of tea and after being “encouraged” to fill in Trip Advisor about the hotel and the trip we were allowed to go to our room. We have now stayed on every floor and every room with a balcony!

We went out for dinner to Pizza 4Ps – Scott and Sara told us about the place. We blew the budget here – $25.00 for two pizzas and two beers, but it was really good pizza.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the Night Market. We were in the neighbourhood and decided to wander down the street. It was heaving with people. All I could hear in my ear was my friend Celeste telling me “ No stopping in crowded markets, no chasing royals and no camping”. Sorry Celeste.

Tomorrow we will finalize the packing, making sure we are evenly balanced, pick up a sim card for the iPad, go to the bank and check the bikes again.

January 21, 2017

Another busy day on the Ha Long Bay cruise. An early start to the morning, we had breakfast at 7:00 this morning so that we could be at the first “activity” early. Our first activity was Ti Top Island and a climb to the top to the pagoda where we could see the whole of Ha Long Bay.

There were approximately 460 steps to climb. It was well worth the view when we got to the top.

We had time to go swimming but the water was a little cool, Hailey and I went for a little paddle instead.

The Island was renamed to Ti Top Island after the Russian cosmonaut, German Ti Top came to Vietnam and hiked up this mountain with Ho Chi Minh in 1962.

After Ti Top Island we had a short cruise to Cat Ba Island where we entered the National Park. There are a lot of endangered species in the park and we hiked up a \”beejeesus\” hill to over 280 metres. It was a tough hike but I made it to the first peak.

I didn’t need to go to the next one as I only have my Keene Sandals with me and they are not really suitable for that kind of hiking.

Ralf always has to stand on the edge of the mountain!

Going down was very interesting, although after the first section it was a lot easier.

After the mornings excursions we settled in to our hotel room and then had lunch. No rest for the wicked we headed out again in the afternoon to Monkey Island for swimming. I don’t think anyone really wanted to go swimming as it was quite cool and the water was not that warm. However, we did see a lot of monkeys.  Apparently they like to steal cans of coke and fanta from the tourists  and will also go for handbags and cameras.

I don’t like monkeys very much. I kept my distance while Ralf got a little closer to them.

I had a nice walk down the beach while Ralf headed up another climb to a look-out point.

Cat Ba Island has a population of 500,000 people. I thought maybe Thuy had got his numbers mixed up, but apparently 300,000 people live in the floating fishing village which is very close to the harbor at Cat Ba Island harbour.

We had two hours to spare before dinner and I was hoping to post yesterdays blog, but the internet was really slow. It will have to wait until we get back to the hotel tomorrow. As will this one.

After a very nice dinner the whole group decided to go for a beer. There was a small bar across the road called Le Pub. We all headed in there and reorganized the furniture. The poor man had just opened a new bar/restaurant and was not expecting 13 thirsty Europeans. We ordered beer but it was warm, so he headed down the street to get some cold ones. Before we left the owner came back and offered us a special drink for coming into his bar. We gathered it was some kind of home-made liquor, made from wine and then with extra things added into it and “fired” again, then stored for a year. It tasted like a harsh brandy. However, the men who had wives or girlfriends with them got a full shot glass of this and their partners only got half a glass. It was as if this stuff was going to give the guys extra strength!!

We had a good evening and headed back to the hotel early. Tomorrow is a little later start 8:00 a.m. for breakfast.

We didn\’t go to this bar, maybe they do not know the \”tradition\” dropping your pants and showing your bum.