Click on the title above to open a map of Vietnam. We basically followed the coast all the way down as that was Highway no1.
Also click on any photo to enlarge it.
Iing the Asian Games at the time so everyone was wearing the national colours urging on their soccer team especially.
Hanoi is a fantastic city full of life. The old French architecture mixed with not so much of the Soviet style but more of the simple concrete block type building. The lake in the middle of the old town was full of balloons at the time. Surprisingly clean to boot. Oh and the musem celebrating their victories over the French and the Americans, complete with choppers & weapons.t was late November 2003 and we had just been the long way around to get to Hanoi. It was after the Arab Emirates biking tour then from Bahrain to Bangkok then Hong Kong for 24hrs then Hanoi, so here we are traumatized by the traffic.
Then buying a map off this guy at silly prices. He was wearing that red band like almost everyone because Vietnam was host
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Leaving Hanoi after a few days of Hotel cafes and a good look round, even as far as the dog restaurants the other side of town by another lake. We headed on a guided sort of tour to Haiphongs Halong bay as it was sort out of our way but well worth it as the bays had this eary feel about them with the fantastic rock formations and then to this newly discovered cave which they have added lighting to to add atmosphere and it really works. Many people living on rafts and working as fishermen.
It stays pretty calm most of the time so they can live like this. OK back on the boat and then the bus and back to our Hotel arriving really late then one more night in our Hotel and to collect the bikes and a 6am start the next day to avoid the throngs of traffic, mainly small motor bikes, then out of the city we go and later that day we arrive near Ninh Binh. Now these place names get really interesting because it becomes impossible to remember every combination of syllables. We wanted to see the area known as Cam Coc because we had heard how marvellous this area was and sure enough we couldn't be sure we had the right turn off by those signs so we carried on into town and the next day caught a cab to show us the way. That was a good idea because the guy became our tour guide really, and we could not have seen what we did without him.
Small boats would paddle through this cave and then out into this open area in what felt like another planet.
Once that was over we drove to an old Chinese shrine come pagoda area, crossing the bridge through the arch and up the hill that revealed a view over the valley below.
So back to Ninh Binh and really cheap hotels all the way as although we had our tent and cooking gear etc, there was simply no where to camp and with rooms in really nice small hotels at only $8USD a night, who could complain.
A new day and off to find Kenh Ga as it was not on our map but we heard all this about the floating village and people who shopped by boat and in fact the shops were boats, well it was not quite like that but in many ways it was even more dramatic and the pictures above can reveal this. Once again we had to get a taxi to get us there as god knows how we would have found it ourselves. There were no tourists at all!
The end of Kenh Ga and the next day it was to be many days of Highway one south as that was to be an adventure in itself. Normally a highway is a lonely place but in countries like this there are a mass of interesting things going on and just about everyone uses it for every purpose, even drying the rice on the shoulder was not uncommon. Now this town is Vinh we think but pretty horrible and messy so onward south. These massive boulders were being broken up using hand tools and the stones were sold off. One large machine could have done a better job but then what would the locals get to do?
Well there you are, the minute we stop anywhere the locals surround us with curiosity, especially the children.
But not so long and we arrive in Hue (pronounced way) well actually it was a few days cycling to Hue but then isn't it always!
Now Hue is a very famous place having once been the capital of Vietnam when the chinese had it. So it is large and built up and has an enormous river running by. It is so much more peaceful however than the likes of Hanoi or even the highway towns.
So with every significant place there will always be tour guides and this guy say "fy dollar" to get into the purple palace of the great dynasty but we lost him and went around the back and that was a journey as the palace walls are about 16kms in total. It was pure heaven though as although it was nearly wrecked by the French it has been somewhat restored and the grounds are neatly kept. Not much to see inside however but with all the wars that have gone on it is any wonder there is anything left of this let alone the whole country.
So every side of the palace has a caretakers type building like this one and they are slowly restoring them. It is probably a guard house really.
We thought our bikes were overloaded but the Vietnamese really know how to stack theirs and operate them like a shop.
Now everyone must have heard of China Beach, well it is actually an American name but is really just a lovely sandy beach south of Danang and just north of Hoi An which is where we are now as Danang was just another city to spite the Americans having alot going on there as it was the largest town just below the DMZ. Their is plenty of info about all this, on the web as many Americans have set up web sites about the American War, so we are not going to go on about that on this site.
Hoi An is an idyllic town that was not bombed or damaged therefore it has the real architecture from old Vietnam and how beautiful can it get, even though it rained the whole time we were there but it was winter afterall.
We know there were some really big mountain ranges to climb on the way south but am no longer sure exactly where they are but think we hit them from Hoi An to Tam Ky so there is Mary on the way down one of them, whoops then up another but then the view always makes up for it. Then back on the flat again and Mary chats with a lady on her bike beside the millions of paddy fields.
Well it is now Xmas day not that the guy on the bullock cares but we did, so it was further down the road that we found the place to have our Xmas dinner - OK Noodles then, oh and a bit of luncheon sausage but some really funny old people of which the grandmother could speak english that she learnt from the Americans during the war. She also knew some of that culture's crudities. Hence her laughing and having fun with us.
We liked the sound of Barbara's Backpackers by the beach at Qui Nhon. We were not disappointed as this was a lovely corner hotel built in the early 1900's French style with elegant woodwork and for a change some western food. The town is a typical busy place but the market was especially so what with cutting the throats of the chooks and all, and then these guys trying to load the new wardrobe onto the bicycle was fun.
A walk along the beach the next day, reveals a tank buried in the sand, a left over from the war. There are always reminders of that damn war. But after having a rest day it was off to Van Ninh further down the coast and we met Liam who offered us a place to stay at his folks house right next to the railway line.
Lots of bays and inlets along this section of coastline which was always cool and interesting. Then off the main road we head into Nha Trang, another famous place and rightly so as we really feel civilized with a hotel by the beach and what a beach!
Lying under the palm leaves brolleys being served all manner of fresh fruit from local sellers was a delight and when you spend so much time cycling up and down mountains and in the middle of nowhere for so long then we don't feel guilty to be pampered at the beach. Nha Trang is such a neat place that it would be worth just making a special holiday just here.
Enough of that now as we head off to Saigon and that was the real drag of a journey as you head inland and leave the seaside for ever. Now Saigon is every bit as busy as Hanoi but it is larger and more international than Hanoi. Perhaps not so cute in fact not cute at all. There are bits like Bangkok and other Asian Cities except for the masses who ride the small motor bikes by the million. The Hotels are much more expensive thatn anywhere else so it is not really the nice cheap life like the rest of Vietnam.
Yeap, we had to negotiate this traffic quite a bit and pretty hairy it was too. We did take an organized tour to see the Ho Chi Minh trail and the tunnels and get the opportunity to fire AK47's and M16's, the AK's are much better. We then were taken to the Mekong delta with all its off shoots of rivers and lagoons - it would have been pretty scary fighting the war here.
Well back to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and look out of our hotel room window at the sun going down over these buildings and start thinking about the next mission which was to visit Graeme and Jaz in Melbourne then head to NZ to visit Robert's Father probably for the last time and yes it was as he died June 2004 at 86yrs