It’s great to be back home in Australia after two weeks cycling around Vietnam. I always love traveling off the beaten path because it provides opportunities for great adventure and gives me an immense appreciation for how good our standard of living is. Trips like this one to Vietnam puts everything back into perspective.
Any cycling trip takes heaps of planning and this one was no different. There’s one man to thank for this and he goes by the name “Dear Leader”. He’s a good friend who grew up in Vietnam (which is an amazing story on it’s own) who loves to cycle. I’m not sure how we would have pulled this trip off with so few dramas without him.
I’ll be honest with you, our trip through Vietnam wasn’t all a bed of roses. There were heaps of crappy roads, bad traffic, constant honking and unsanitary conditions for us Westerners. I’m not sure where the Lonely Planet got the idea the that the World’s Greatest Cycling Routes includes Vietnam’s Highway 1. There were a few excellent sections but we were relieved whenever we found our way off it. That said, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It was the experience of a lifetime.
[read more…]
Just a quick update on the “Shut Up Legs” t-shirt order. The suppliers have informed me that they’ll be shipping the shirts to me early this week and I’ll be distributing them as soon as I get them. I’m aiming to have them in your hands before the weekend (international orders will take more time for shipping. I’ll email you folks to let you know that it’s been shipped).
It’s taken slightly longer than anticipated and I thank you for your patience. The supplier tells me they look awesome and I’m excited to get them out to you.
I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. I’m certainly enjoying getting back into the swing of things in Australia.
We’ve made it. We rolled into our final destination this afternoon and it feels great to be done. We couldn’t have timed things any better. This cycling vacation was just long enough to get into the rhythm of things but not so long that we were at each other’s throats. I’ll definitely be leaving wanting more which will guarantee that I come back to Vietnam sometime soon.
[read more…]
Climbing the 30km, 1600m ascent to Da Lat
Over the past few days we’ve ascended and descended some high mountain peaks in the highlands of Vietnam. This past weekend we arrived at this mountain town called Da Lat. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we rolled in. DaLat used to be a French resort in the early 1900’s and still has the colonial villas, boulevards and charms in amongst the chaos of Vietnam. There were times where we thought we were in Paris. It’s a surreal place high up in the middle of nowhere with some terrific riding.
[read more…]
Today we rode from Tuy Hoa to Nha Trang. It was the most magnificent ride we’ve done so far. Much of the 150km’s was along twisting coastal roads off the main highway.
We’re now in Nha Trang which is a tourist city north of HCMC. I’ve been quite excited to visit here for a while now because everyone who’s been here raves about it. I guess that raised my expectations too high because it looks like an emerging Surfer’s Paradise to me. It’s the first touristy place we’ve visited and I’m quite keen to leave and get into the mountains tomorrow. I’m really glad we’ve been able to see lots of rural Vietnam without much Western influence because a place like Nha Trang doesn’t do a good job at representing this amazing country.
I’ll keep it short today because internet access is painfully slow, but I’ll leave you with a few pictures of our ride today.
Enjoy your weekend and ride safe. If you don’t hear from me much next week that means that we’ve gone deep into the jungle and there’s no internet to be found. Over and out…
[read more…]
We’re now about 650km away from our final destination HCMC, but in a couple of days we get to the deciding mountain stages. This is where I’ll unleash my assault and take the yellow jersey. I’ve been playing the food poisoning card up until this point and the peloton will suffer once we reach the high peaks of Da Lat.
Today we had an extremely enjoyable 100km ride along the coast from Quy Nh’on to Tuy Hoa. It all started with a stupidly steep climb up a 20% gradient that I had to get off and walk! I wasn’t going to be soft and use my little ring like the other guys ;-) A couple of our hardmen made it all the way to the top without stopping which was very admirable.
[read more…]
After about 650km ridden in the past four days it was definitely time to kick up and relax. That didn’t mean that we stop logging more kilometers though. It was scootertime!
While the rest of the guys were in their comfort zone sipping cafe sau da on the beach Pikey and I ventured into the unknown armed only with a camera and 110cc’s of raw horsepower. It was time to graduate from boys to men.
[read more…]
Well we’ve completed day 4 of our cycling tour around Vietnam and all I can say about today is that it was EPIC. By epic, I mean that it was long, hot, humid, 3 crashes, 4 punctures, headwind, etc. How the word “epic” ever got associated with such punishment is beyond me. However, the final kilometers we rode into the city we’re staying at (Quy Nho’n) made it all worthwhile. I’ve never seen such a busy place with narrow roads in all my life. Not exactly a peaceful experience but we’re getting used to riding in this type of traffic and it’s quite amazing being amongst all the action. If there were a ProTour of Scootering, this place would be the Tour de France.
[read more…]
We’ve now completed stages 2 and 3 of our tour of duty in Veitnam. Yesterday was one of the most fun days on the bike I’ve ever had…
[read more…]
Hue to Danang with mountain climb Hai Van Pass. GPS file here
After a long journey we’re finally on our bikes here in Vietnam. We rode today from a small city in the center of the country called Hue to a nice little beach town outside of Danang. From the second we got here I could tell this is going to be one of the best vacations I’ve ever taken.
[read more…]
