3 Months Cycling in Vietnam - North to South

So here we are sat in the Lazy Gecko Guest house in Phnom Penh, having spent the last 3 months in Vietnam cycling most of the length of the country. 

Cambodia already seems like it will be a sensory overload, so there is no time like the present to expunge my brain of the details of our trip so far.

Trying to keep things as brief as possible...

Chapter 1 - Around Hanoi

We landed in Hanoi with no Taxi ride at 11pm and decided to ride along with another traveller. The driver was more than happy to take our money before telling us he only had a 4 door sedan. The two of us, along with our bikes, were given the rear two seats for the duration of the 45 minute ride. 

Cozy

Hanoi is hectic, and it took us a short while to adjust. Once we acclimated we realised that the 2 week stay we had booked was significantly too long. We got in with the locals and enjoyed a few (too many) beers and some excellent games of pool (these guys were semi-pro) on a daily basis, but had itchy feet before too long.

We did of course do the obligatory 2-day-1-night trip to the (deservedly) famous Halong Bay. Absolutely spectacular, and would highly recommend a trip to Vietnam even if just for this alone.

Chapter 2 - Trains and Tourists

The next section of our trip saw us squeeze ourselves into a roach-ridden train for an overnight journey to Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam. More here: Roaches on Rails

Having come from England, where our castles are as weathered as the cliffs, and lived in Japan, where though re-built every couple of years the temples date back millennia, the Vietnamese definition of 'ancient' was a little different to ours. Hue was the capital of the country until around 200 years ago, and there were photographs of the old emperor/king on display. 

The guy on the right is not a king, but a BOSS

Still, seeing that such a traditional lifestyle was a reality of recent history was an interesting experience.

Though Hue was nice, the vendors were a little pushy, so we moved on to Hoi An after only a couple of days. This saw us ride over Hai Van Pass, a scenic 500m mountain road of Top Gear fame. This was Akane's first real hill, and she handled it well, despite more than a few complaints along the way (little did she know what was awaiting us a month down the line).

A couple of days spent in Danang was a welcome break from touristy areas. Danang is a vibrant young Vietnamese city with a lot of investment going on - it seems that everything there has sprung up in the last 10 years and you can really feel the energy behind the country's current economic growth.

We spent the evenings in the ocean. The Vietnamese locals would join us at 5pm when their work finished. Friday night, 5:30pm, watching a butterfly drift overhead and feeling the waves lapping against my body I had something of an epiphany; when did I lose this sense of simple pleasure and replace it with frantic Friday night boozing sessions aimed at wiping the memory of the last 5 days?

Riding down the coast and throwing in a brief visit to marble mountain, we headed on to Hoi An.

Hoi An was fantastic, as everyone we've met agrees. A charming little town with real character, well preserved from its trading days. Extremely touristy, but not in a bad way - prices are usually set (so not too much haggling) and people are friendly. Plus the beer flows at a cool 3000 dong per glass. That's 15 yen or 8p.

Chapter 3 - On the Road

Hoi An to Nha Trang was around 500km. Most of it own Highway A1, the busiest road in Vietnam. This is where we saw the country for real. It's also where we had the most scares. 

About 50% of Vietnamese roads are under construction, while 100% of them operate according to playground rules. The biggest bullies are the express busses. It's not unusual see them overtaking 4 back-to-back trucks on a blind corner at the top of a hill. Kings of the road.

We dubbed them Bustards.

Despite this apparent danger, Vietnamese drivers have exceptionally good control over their vehicles, and we did not see one accident in all our time there. Thankfully we didn't experience any either.

Nearly losing the bikes off the side of an apparently improvised ferry on a choppy river, we arrived in Tam Ky where we promptly bought a guitar as an early birthday present (for me). This has proven a great investment, and has since been subjected to various decorations of debatable taste by yours truly.

During our ride to Nha Trang, we literally didn't see any other foreigners for over 2 weeks. 

We did:

- See our chicken lunch while it was still alive and kicking

- Stay at a relatively high-class yet somewhat spooky resort where the only other 'guest' was a caged monkey

- Ride some beautiful coastal roads, only to have the sky open on us. We're talking god's hosepipe, not a light shower

- Stay in a university town where they had deep-fried banana doughnuts for 1000 dong (5 yen, 3p)

- Get woken up at 6am by resident kids in one hotel, and 6:30am by obnoxious trance music played by staff in another

Here chicky chicky chicky

These 2.5 weeks took us through places where most foreigners never go, and we were surrounded by children shouting 'hello' at us, old women giving us the 'peace' sign, and cows. Lots of cows. Many of the places we rode through were featured in the Saigon war museum too, which made the gravity of the atrocities these people were submitted to hit home even more.

We were never so happy to see a legion of Russian tourists as when we arrived at Nha Trang - seeing the real country is great, but we were ready for another holiday.

Chapter 4 - Birthday, Beaches and Booze

We stayed in Nha Trang longer than intended. 9 days in total. Cost for the hotel = $70. Almost every day spent on a glorious beach relaxing, and almost every night spent out playing pool and eating good food. 

It's a hard life

We went on a Funky Monkey Booze Cruise for my birthday - one of the most ridiculously enjoyable days we've had for a long while. Live music, lots of beer, snorkelling, floating bar, and a clear divide between the rather somber Korean guests (who I think got on the wrong boat) and the intoxicated westerners who insisted on singing Chumbawumba in their general direction and displaying our best Gangnam Style horsey dance to the unamused people who created it.

That's about it for Nha Trang. It was great. We both loved the place and could imagine living there for an extended period. If any of you in the UK are tired of your job, you could go there and work in a bar or teach English, and live like a king.

Chapter 5 - A Big Hill

120km ride from Nha Trang to Dalat, with 1500m climb. Google informed us there was a hotel on the way. there wasn't. You can read more here: Not-so-easy-rider

I have ridden 180km including the climb up Mt Fuji before - 3000m vertical in total.

This was harder. 

Not least because of the weight of the bike. I took Akane's bags as well as mine (a total of 6 panniers, a guitar, and a gradually fattening triathlete) for a total of about 140kg climbing 30km at a solid 7% incline. 

It hurt. And it got dark and cold and rainy at the top. We had to flag down a bus to hitch a ride for the rest of the way.

Shortly before my hamstrings snapped like sunbaked rubber bands

Without a doubt the hardest ride of my life. I don't think Akane would like to do it again either (and kudos for her performance on the day). Still, the views were spectacular.

Less than halfway up...

Dalat was cool according to both definitions of the word. Former residences of the French colonists, it has a heavy European architectural influence and temperate climes.

Akane fulfilled her lifelong wish of riding a pony and I got to drag her out for a day of canyoning in return. Few things beat sliding down rapids abseiling down waterfalls and launching yourself off 10m cliffs.

Wheeeeeeee!!

Moving on, we rode to a famous waterfall which was still quite impressive despite the hydroelectric dam limiting its water supply, and down a very long hill which didn't feel as long as the one we climbed a few days prior, to reach Mui Ne, another beach town. The ride took us through indigenous settlements with people living very rural lifestyles and plenty of piglets littering the roads.

Mui Ne saw us staying at a beachside resort with hammocks, sun loungers, pool and pool table for a whopping 8 dollars a night. Kick ass.

Chapter 6 - Into the Jungle

Vietnam used to be covered in jungle. America put an end to that. 

Agent Orange was an experimental defoliant sprayed all over the country to destroy crops. It did this very successfully. It also caused extremely widespread deformations in the next generation of Vietnamese people - infants being born without eyes, with enlarged craniums, with twisted, conjoined limbs, and with things just generally being the wrong shape or in the wrong place. Truly horrific, and you see plenty of people who survived their deformities dragging themselves around the streets trying to make a living by selling lottery tickets to the day.  Most affected didn’t survive.

Anyway, we decided to go and see the plants. Cat Tien national park is one of the few remaining lowland jungles, and was a couple of hundred clicks away. Day 2 of the ride saw a perfect asphalt road deteriorate into what can only be described as a quarry. One serious puncture later and we were standing in the back of a truck, bouncing our way to the next town.

Next morning I got a hug from a girl I’d never met before - Nelly Ngo. Exceptional English, and very friendly to boot. Akane seemed not to get jealous though as Nelly was only about 12. 

Staying in a bamboo hut, we crossed the river to get to the jungle and promptly walked to ‘Heaven Rapids’. Some truly fascinating insects along the way, but we soon discovered why everyone else was wearing leech socks. 

The following day we came better prepared. We were aiming for ‘Crocodile Lake’. Kitted out in our borrowed gear, we strolled confidently for the first 12km before realising we had gone in the wrong direction. Oh well, always tomorrow, and we did see some interesting wildlife (deer, butterflies, ants the size of your thumbnail and what looked like a flying peacock).

I'll call him Drogon

Crocodile Lake was a 36km hike in total, with much of it through the jungle. Huge Tung trees, roots taller than me, and redwoods over 700 years old. 

This was just a shrub

Vines upon vines upon vines, 5m wide bamboo thickets bristling with thorns, and leaves you could use as a golf umbrella. 

We had time to kill before meeting our friends in Saigon so we decided to head to the Mekon Delta, via Nelly’s hometown. We met her family for lunch. Her father, a doctor, drove home especially for it and joined me in 1 or 2 or 5 beers before getting back on his motorbike and going in for the afternoon clinic. Good times! 

And he knew how to sing!

Chapter 7 - Time to Kill

Still about 2 weeks to go, but only 150km, we decided to detour around the Mekong Delta.

First we headed to My Tho, where we had a private evening cruise around the river. Fruit was consumed, coconut candy was bought, a sunset was enjoyed and fireflies were caught. There were some more crocodiles too. $15 well spent.

Akane trying her hardest to run us aground

Going back the way we had come, we headed to a Mangrove Reserve called Can Gio, south of Saigon. High hopes, but this was probably the most boring ride of the trip. The road was too perfect, and the mangrove too inaccessible. We did however stay at a 3* resort for around £10 for the night, before we headed into Saigon / Ho Chi Minh to meet our friends.

Chapter 8 - The Big City

Though not capital in name, Saigon is the economic centre of Vietnam. The city is modern and people have money. I even saw an iPhone 6, while most Vietnamese people are using Samsung Galaxy. Pfft.

Our friends arrived from Japan and we spent time in expensive rooftop bars, inexpensive street-food dives. We ate chicken embryo and smoked sheesha. I twiddled my thumbs raw while waiting for 4 girls shopping.

The place that stood out was Cu Chi. Cu Chi is where the Viet Cong guerrillas lived. A brief history would be:

- Cu Chi is a nice farming community

- America invades

- Cu Chi residents build over 200km of underground tunnels and traps

- They live completely underground for years - even having babies in the tunnels

- Cu Chi win the war for Vietnam

Masako leads the way

Here a brave few of us crawled through the old tunnels - teeming with bats, cramped enough for me to have to be on elbows and knees, and completely void of light and sound - and I shot a few rounds of an M1 Carbine (and thanked my lucky starts I became a recruiter rather than a soldier).

Kana-chan, pictured, is around half my size...

Chapter 9 - Upstream

‘Stream’ is probably not the most apt way of describing the Mekong. It’s the lifeblood of at least 2 countries, probably 3. It’s a very big stream.

At this point we have 1 week left on our visa and decide to make the most of it. We head towards a town called Can Tho, which is famous for its floating markets.

06:00 and we’re on the boat. Just the two of us again, with a seasoned Vietnamese lady at the helm using a combination of standing oars and a propellor-on-a-stick to take us down the river while the sun rises behind us.

Hundreds of boats piled high with fruit and veg are waiting for us - we traverse the crowds and pick up a couple of watermelons (5kg for 150 yen, 80p) while also stopping at a floating noodle stand to have our morning Pho. Great experience, and the 2 hour ride back through small canals where you can see people going about their daily life is something else. I could do this type of this every morning.

Blending in...

After this it was a 2 day ride north to Chau Doc, where we boarded a speedboat to Phnom Penh. And here we are.

Strutting our stuff

In summary:

Of all the countries I have visited I would say that Vietnam is right up there with the best of them. Though the social infrastructure is still being built, you can practically feel the economy growing around you on a daily basis.

Vietnamese people are some of the most honestly friendly people I have ever met. They are open with their emotions and will quite happily talk with people they have never met before - even fellow natives. No nervous ‘what will people think’ like I have come to accept as the norm.

People are genuinely curious about you and what you are doing. Every time I fixed my bike I had an audience. 

Some people will try to rip you off. Not many, but some. Beware the smiling middle aged women. We have only been grossly overcharged once or twice, and that would have been easily avoided if we’d kept our wits about us. And ‘grossly overcharged’ here means having to pay $7 rather than $3, so I think it’s safe to say we can let it fly. They probably need the money more than we do.

If you can handle haggling on occasion, are looking for energetic and genuinely happy people, and want to see a country which has come out of a senseless war with a smile on its face and a spring in it’s step, go to Vietnam.

Headcount:

16 punctures

2 spokes