Vietnam

The bikes are resting today and so are we! We are in Hoi An today, a lovely beach side town. It is a Unesco site and it really is great town to wander in. It is also the hub of tailors - so because we are now getting comfortable with bargaining (Vietnamese style!) we have begun purchasing some custom made clothes! It is really fun...you try on what you want and pick the fabric and they measure you and make it by the end of the day!

So that has been our day today. We have been on our bikes since Monday. The first two days were short...just 30 km or so around the towns of Hanoi (countryside) and outside Hue (to see a tomb of Tu Duc, former King, and to the Citadel). The riding was fun but wet as it has been raining at least part of the day everyday since Sunday! We bought new ponchos (to decrease the skunk marks up our rears!) and we were good to go. Unfortunately neither of us really packed riding gear for this weather and so we have been layering! It is unusually cold in Vietnam (in fact livestock and people are dying due to the cold).

The first real day of riding saw us go 79km from Hue to Lang Co. We stayed of the #1 highway as much as we could and traveled through little towns where the children would run out of their houses or schools to say "hello". People were surprised to crazy foreigners riding fancy bikes in their streets! The day was good with only a few harder climbs. We were quite speedy as we arrived in town earlier than expected (Huyen, our local guide spent most of the day in the bus b/c he thought we were "too fast"). Since we are a pretty small group the pace is pretty even.

So I think that I will defer to Ted for the rest of the trip details! Hopefully it will stop raining soon!!!!

The weather outside has not changed on this, day 9 without sun. It rained yesterday and remains cool in Hanoi. The great new, exciting news is that Sunday night we began the bike tour across Vietnam. We have booked with a small company called Grasshopper Tours. They booked us into a swankier hotel than we were accustomed (ie. it has heat).

We met up withour tour group last night over a Hanoi Beer (very good I must say). After being in 2 larger tour groups in the last month we were concerned about the large number of people and what that will be like on bicycles. It was no need to worry as the group is Jen, me, Andrea (a nice lady from Melbourne, Australia) and our leader Adam. 4 people total plus our local vietnamese guides.

Today, we got on bikes and rode around 4 villages around Hanoi, away from the honking and insane traffic. We crossed the Red River by ferry and rode on the narrow levees through rice fields. It was an awesome 27 km ride and it was great to see local agricultural practices up close. Followed by another great meal above a travel agency to warm up afterwards.

Because there have been some "train broken" issues, we are flying to Hue instead of taking the overnight, Reunification Express. The group is of mixed opinion on experiencing the train (possibly sleeping on a noisy, cold train) vs. flying and staying in another heated hotel. Guess we'll see.

Also had the good fortune to run into my old friend Rocky Boyko and Kurt Gibb for a beer in Hanoi. Rocky lives in Regina and happend to be in the neighborhood. It was cool to run into someone from home so far away.

Should have more pics up in a few days as there is no working USB port here today. "USB broken" issues are common here.

Hope the deep freeze at home relents soon!

Well from Jen's last entry, we headed out for a 2 night/ 3 day stay on Ha Long bay and Cat Ba Island. We rode on a bus for about 3 hours to the port of Hai Phong City. Along the way we stopped for a bathroom break about halfway out at a workshop for handicapped children. See Jen smiling.

It was a tourist stop as every tour bus to the bay stops there to encourage shopping. We bought 2 coffee's to go and they are served in plastic bags with a straw. Pretty cool as the garbage packs up to nothing. Starbucks could learn a thing or 2.

It was cold in hanoi and even colder on Halong Bay. We boarded a junk and Jen tried to sunbathe but with cloudcover and clothes, we decided to retire indoors. The food was awesome and we had a couple of Tiger beers with a guy from Germany and his 2 friends from Spain. We enjoyed their company then we got off the boat to explore some exciting caves for about an hour before getting an opportunity to do some sea kayaking around the rocky islands. That was awesome to get out and do some activity and warm up! After the paddle, supper was served on the boad and Jen and I were given a beautiful stateroom in the all-teakwood vessel. Our room had a heater and private bathroom. We retired early as it was our first oppportunity to get warm in days.

The next day we got dropped off at Cat Ba Island National Park and rode some touring bikes and did a short trek through the jungle. It was really cool to walk and see some caves similar to those that the Vietnamese used to fight the USA in the war. Our guide also shared some knowledge of bombings in the bay and his village during the war to make it seem a bit more real. After the brief on land adventure, we got back on the boat. They served lunch on the little boat then took us to this small 100 foot wide stretch of beach to "look for monkeys sometime here" the guide said. We got off to the beach surrounded by over 100 foot high cliffs on 3 sides and water on the 4th. The boat pulled about 150 feet from shore where it sat for about 50 mins while they did dishes and Jen and I sat on a rock. The view was gorgeous.

And we were happy.

The weather was cool, breezy and cloudy when we saw the wild monkey.

We were surprised to see this kind of wildlife here.

After we quietly and awkwardly boarded the boat with our brave european companion, we headed to the main port to spend a night in a more luxurious hotel with heat. We spent the rest of the day and night in the room getting warm again and me getting over my stomach flu issues.

On the boat ride home, we saw more beautiful islands and got back to a much warmer Hanoi.

We returned to our hotel in Hanoi where we were told there were no other rooms so he was sending us some where else. 2 guys on motorbikes showed up, we threw on our big packs, small packs and grocery bags, jumped on the bag and they rode us through the busy, cramped, noisy, streets of Hanoi like a couple of locals. It was fun and the hotel was actually in a better location than the last. We also paid 3$ more for heat. Totally worth it.

Ted and I bought toques and mitts to help us survive the boat trip and tour to Halong Bay on Monday! Yep, it is that cold...only 11 degrees! We arrived on Sat. and instantly put on everything we owned - even socks (that was a first for me!). Hanoi was a ghost town on Saturday because it was the end of Tet - Chinese New Years - Happy Year of the Rat!

When we arrived on Sat. we struggled to find something open for lunch - we almost ate at the street vendors but since Ted and I were both getting over the stomach troubles and it would be our first meal in Vietnam we decided something a little less exotic may be slightly smarter. We had our first amazing cup of Vietnamese Coffee at a little cafe on Hoan Kiem Lake.

This city is noisy, fast paced and very chilly! It is really cool though. There are millions of motocylces, vespas and such whizzing around. Everyone honks to tell others to get out of the way. The town really celebrates the new year so there are a lot of red flags up and stores closed or only selling "New Years" gift baskets. We spent Sat and Sun. wandering around, drinking coffee and admiring the colonial buildings. oh, and cuddling to stay warm at night! We stayed in a little guest house that was facing the alley (no good window seals) with no heat! Every morning around 5 am you can here the old ladies chopping vegetables in the alley outside our window. We are staying in the Old Quater. A lively part of town. It is fairly easy to navigate. There aren't as many services (ie., convenience stores, internet places etc) but you can definitly feel the "socialist", french feel to this place. It certainly is "cool"! We haven't found any yoghurt but I guess if that is our biggest problem we are in good shape!

We've also had a bit of a Visa problem. We only have a 15 day visa. So we had to hand in our passports to the Guest House guys to get an Visa extension (b/c we could only get special 15 day passports in Bangkok - due to New Years). But here we find out that we need an entirely new visa and they say it takes five days! We are a bit skeptical but I guess we'll have to trust them. We have spent a lot of money to stay here - it better be worth it!

On Monday we headed up to Halong Bay for 3 days - We'll put pictures up tomorrow and update that component of the trip!