Vietnam Cycle Tour - Hoi An to Hue

Days 22 to 27 - Hoi An

Hoi An is one of the main destinations on the Vietnam tourist trail, and so we were surprised to discover it is a small town of only 120,000 people or so. However, most of those people do seem to be involved in tourism. After riding in through quiet rice fields after several days in the country it was something of a shock to be met with touts and overpriced coffee again! On the road we often have hot meals for around 30,000 dong (85p) - however upon entering Hoi An, one fruit vendor tried to sell Jon a handful of bananas and lychees for 150,000 dong (£4.30) - and told him this was 'normal'! He bargained down to 40,000, still a bit much but she let him pose with her baskets so I suppose we'll let her off.

Hoi An - Quaint and efficiently designed to squeeze money out of tourists

The main attraction is the UNESCO heritage listed 'old town', in which 16th-18th century shop houses and communal halls remain in startlingly good condition from the time Hoi An was an important port. It was home to whole communities of international traders, including from China and Japan, and the architecture (such as the famous Japanese covered bridge) reflects their influence.

This area has several museums and preserved houses to visit, and we also saw a brilliant traditional music and dance performance at a lantern workshop. At night it is lively and colourful; the streets are decorated with silk lanterns and filled with the smell of fresh doughnuts (so wonderful), and each full moon evening mopeds and fluorescent lights are banned and traditional folk games are played in the streets. All very much for the tourists, but beautiful nonetheless.

The Japanese covered bridge, old town alleyways, the river and Tan Ky old house

Hoi An by night

Hoi An is also world famous for high class tailoring, although with the rise in popularity it seems a lot of new businesses have got in on the act and now every other shop is a tailor or shoemaker's. We were frequently asked on the street to come to somebody's 'family business' - apparently they will take you to wherever pays the most commission!

In the end we decided to get something made, not a tailored remake of a catalogue item but something really custom, just for fun. We decided on shoes and after a lot of scribbling in cafés we came up with the following design:

If you can't tell... it's a penguin sliding on ice

After a bit of tripadvisor research we took the bit of paper to Friendly Shoe shop, who indeed were very friendly and thought our design was hilarious. I didn't think they'd be able to do it, but they brought out material to choose from and measured my feet and said we could pick them up the day after tomorrow. This was the result!

Chuffed to bits!

While in the town we spent a lot of time eating as there were just too many good cafes and restaurants to pass up. The local specialities are Cau Lau (thick, slightly chewy noodles with pork and fresh leaves) and White Rose (steamed dumplings folded like flowers). Both are lovely but my favourite is Mi Quang - noodles made yellow with tumeric and served in a little bit of chicken broth, with fresh herbs, peanuts and variously pork, prawns and boiled quail eggs. It is the best.

To try and get some of the food culture to take home we also went on a cooking course at Baby Mustard restaurant, which was a fantastic morning of fresh food. We started off with a market tour, where we picked up some mackerel, beef and chicken plus some vegetables for our chosen recipes. Next we picked the herbs we needed from the restaurant's extensive garden based in Tra Que village, famous for its herbs. Then we had a fun few hours cooking and eating three meals - well worth doing!

Cuisine

Having decided that we needed another month to complete our cycle tour, we applied for a visa extension while we were in Hoi An. While we were waiting for our passports we had time to explore outside the town, and we had a good map of the little trails so we did some very sedate riding around the countryside, through Tra Que village, past the water coconut groves and to the lovely Anh Bang beach. We didn't go for a swim though because the waves were a fair bit more enthusiastic than back in Nha Trang or Mui Ne!

Ride about town

Day 28 - Hoi An to Danang (48km of flatness)

With only a short ride planned to our next stop, Danang, we didn't go through our usual routine of a 6:30 start and breakfast 20km down the road. Instead we took our time, went to the post office to send the penguin shoes back home and had a decadent breakfast at the Cargo Club restaurant. As we later cycled off along the beach road, the sky had turned decidedly grey and started to spit - the first rain we'd seen in months! Fortunately we had planned for the eventuality, and stopped to get raincoats out and fasten ponchos over our bags.

By the time we reached the Marble Mountains, just outside Danang, it had brightened up again and we stopped to look around. There used to be just one mountain, but relentless quarrying for marble has left 5 peaks behind, one of which has a cavern filled with bizzare statues, tunnels and a stairway to the summit where there is a pagoda. The streets round about are packed full with statues small and large (and massive), depicting lions, Buddha and mythical beasts.

After a quick explore and a toilet break (slightly awkward as the lady demanded to know if we planned on No.1 or No.2 - the latter costing 3,000 dong extra), we pedaled on to the city, past a string of plush resorts on the beach side (they had staff outside cutting the grass - by hand) and a rather drab looking bit of waste ground on the other. Once in the city, we stopped for lunch and thought about attempting Hai Van pass that afternoon. On cue however, the clouds rolled back in, it started to rain hard and we decided to turn back towards town for the night. The seafront was deserted and eerie, but further in the roads were busy and cafes filled with people watching the English premier league on TV.

Breakfast, raincoats and the Marble Mountain

Day 29 - Danang to Hue (96km with the Hai Van Pass)

We were glad we waited a day - the weather was ideal as we set off for the Hai Van Pass, the bit Mr Clarkson called 'one of the greatest coast roads in the world' in the Top Gear special. Although not our hardest climb, it was still tough at close to 500m elevation. It was quiet - most traffic now goes through a tunnel under the mountain - and had really marvelous views down to the sea and the railway line, which snakes along the edge of the land. At least they were marvelous until we reached the top, where we were suddenly enveloped in thick fog. There is an old American bunker up there, but as it was impossible to see we just had a victory coffee and headed down the other side.

The fog continued most of the way down the descent and it remained overcast from then on. We had read that the hills crossed by the Hai Van Pass do create cloudy, drizzly weather to the North but weren't expecting quite such a stark effect. It did make the lagoons and fishing villages along the way rather atmospheric. We had a further 70km to go after the descent, a long ride after a steep climb, so by the time we arrived in Hue we were well and truly knackered.

- Kath

Victory coffee - Hai Van Pass

Elevation map of the 145km from Hoi An to Hue

Vietnam Cycle Tour - Nha Trang to Hoi An

Part three of our ramshackle cycle tour was a coast cruise up Vietnam from the busy seaside of Nha Trang to the ancient port of Hoi An.

Day 15 - Nha Trang to Dong Hoa (111km with hills)

Leaving the city of Nha Trang at daybreak was a battle through hordes of early morning market traders and indecisive mopeds. After some cajoling of the GPS we found Highway 1 and were reminded of the ear shattering chaos from weeks before when leaving Saigon. Each little bit of progress saw the road to be quieter and quieter, though, until the roads were lined with bright green rice paddies extending past the horizon. With little in the way of shade, and no corners or hills to break up the journey, this did eventually became tiring. The late morning coconut stop was rather welcome.

Our grasp of Vietnamese still being poor saw us accidently order a sleep inducing heavy beef stew for lunch instead of a light sandwich. During the gluttony we were gesture-quizzed by the curious restaurant owner about marriage, age and children - in which we may have got a little mixed up - she was quite tickled to hear we have 26 kids.

In the afternoon the road ran alongside a coast of turquoise water bays and small fishing villages, with unusually shaped islands sitting out at sea. As the sun was setting we still had a tough cliffside climb and a long descent inland - and then another hour before we finally found a hotel.

Laundry in the sink. Ate some food. Slept.

Day 16 - Dong Hoa to Quy Nhon (105km with hills)

Foggy were the first few hours which is good for covering distance if not for the soul. It lifted in a graceful fashion to reveal a cinematic landscape of mysterious hills and ponds of cute little ducklings.

The day continued in an aesthetically pleasing fashion - even the lunch stop at a service station had a surprise white sands beach! The afternoon ride took us past coastal fishing villages and cordoned off seafood farms with little water wheels keeping the water oxygenated.

We became rather confused as the road signs and maps started giving us different feedback regarding the road we were on - and became worried that we might be way off course. It turned out that our map had two roads when there only ever was one - so when we saw the turnoff onto the archipelago of land towards Quy Nhon, our relief was palpable.

We nearly always get cheers on uphill stretches (thanks, Vietnamese people!), but the large hill at the end of the day took the last of our energy which could not be replenished through cheer - and so we flopped lifelessly into the city of Quy Nhon ready for a proper mug of English tea.

Day 17 - Quy Nhon (Rest Day)

Barbara's Backpackers do a proper mug of English tea. It's really the only touristy place in town and is little more than a greasy spoon cafe. It was our temporary home.

Quy Nhon is a strange city which like most of the surrounding coast is predominantly fishing based. It has 300,000 residents but is a relatively quiet place. We were kindly treated as welcome guests in the city and on two occasions vendors would not even accept full payment for foods!

It is off the tourist trail but then again there isn't a great deal to do apart from eat, drink and wander about anyway. It certainly isn't a great place for a dip in the sea as there is a conspicuous sewage outlay right on the beach (we thought it seemed quiet). So we instead indulged in various baked goods at street side stalls. One find was a vietnamese style Scotch Egg - pastry with a little mince and a whole boiled quails egg. No idea what it was called but it was amazing!

Day 18 - Quy Nhon to Tam Quan (102km with baby hills)

The road eased away from the coast and threaded through farming towns where seeds dry by the roadside and ox-carts abound. It was a little overcast which made for pleasant riding weather. Amusingly, all the children in this district have bright yellow helmets so overtaking them is like swimming through a bobbing sea of fluorescence.

Another curious restaurant owner today brought her family to stare at us over our breakfast noodles and point at our big noses! It made for a rather self conscious eating experience. At lunch we had a similarly inquisitive chef but we ended up drawing stickmen and using google translate to discuss plant watering and the hotness of chilis. A lot more fun.

Day 19 - Tam Quan to Quang Ngai (74km with baby hills)

We ambitiously wanted to cycle for three days in a row, but upon being destroyed by the first tiny hill it became apparent we needed more rest for our weary legs after today.

A little research into cuisine meant we could look for something lighter for lunch than half of a pig - and found some bánh tráng trộn, which is a tasty rice paper and green mango salad. Goes lovely with a plate of fish balls (cá viên chiên).

A sad note about today is we saw a dog wagon, that is a large van of howling dogs stacked in cages destined to be used for meat. The worst aspect is that they transport the dogs in the hot sun without cover, which is gut wrenchingly inhumane and quite hard to deal with when the wagon passes you.

Day 20 - Quang Ngai (Rest Day)

The internet told us on no uncertain terms that the city of Quang Ngai was cold and impersonal - but we found it to be friendly, busy and completely non-touristy. The kids here were really funny and would shout "hello" and show us the peace sign, laugh with each other and chase us down the street to practice their English (which was really good).

Our hotel room was unfortunately a mosquito colony (or so it seemed) so we had to cleanse the place with some enthused flamenco dancing mozzies murder. While trying to ask to have some laundry done here, there was another gesture misunderstanding in which I was taken down the road to a tailor who was rather shocked that I wanted a whole bag of clothes altered! A couple of significantly better gestures later and there was relieved laughter from the hotel manager, the tailor and a confused me.


Day 21 - Quang Ngai to Hoi An (113km of flatness)

Not our most pleasant ride. Seemingly the entire road is being ripped up so there was a lot of dust and a lot of noise. It was entirely flat so we could go fast but this also meant there was no freewheeling down hills - so when we finally stopped our legs were still going round and round.

The highlight of the day was seeing a kestrel swoop down and catch a mouse not 20 meters from where we had paused to stand in awe.

The final turn off to Hoi An was a GPS win. It suggested the shortest route which turned out to be down some tiny paths through rural villages, not big enough for a car (even though the GPS was in driving mode) and past some rusty canal locks.  A few gulps of fresh clean air were very welcome and we arrived happily in Hoi An ready for a few days away from the road.

- Jon

Elevation profile of the 507km from Nha Trang to Hoi An

Vietnam Cycle Tour - Dalat to Nha Trang

Days 9 to 11 - Dalat

Our first impression of Dalat was that it is a very pretty town - in a slightly sugary, pastel-shaded kind of way. It's famous for its flowers (which are everywhere), candied strawberries and as a honeymoon destination for Vietnamese newlyweds. It reminded me of France a little, as many buildings are European style and the mountains around are covered in pine forest. The fact that the town is gently hilly with curving streets also made it feel pleasantly different to pretty much every other place we've stayed - everywhere is usually so flat!

We stopped at a guesthouse just outside the town centre, which turned out to be run by the most generous people ever. The owners didn't speak any English, but they offered us tea every time we came through reception - along with sweet corn, carrot juice, an avocado milk drink (bơ xay) and toasted yams; basically fawning over us the whole time we were there. They also refused money for laundry and upgrading our room. It got to the point that we were actually a little afraid to go back - perhaps they were planning to keep us as pets..?

Dalat

Thankfully there was plenty to do in the town so we could stay out all day. We went to 'crazy house', a surreal, overblown fantasy building (several buildings in fact) built by a lady who seemingly wanted her own Wonderland. It's all brightly coloured concrete in twisting shapes, with staircases and bridges everywhere (really - even over a third-story roof), and there are plenty of giant mushrooms and spider webs and so on. It took a lot of exploring, at some points extremely cautiously. There is no health and safety in Vietnam.

We took a brilliant cable car trip as well (we felt safe doing this because it was built by an Austrian company, and they have lots of health and safety there). The cars travel picturesque-ly down the mountain to a lakeside Buddhist meditation centre, where there are temples and more flowers and it's all rather beautiful.

Crazy beautiful

Wine is produced in Dalat and bizarrely we ended up having tea with the new CEO of the Dalat Wine company as he is a friend of our lovely guesthouse hosts. He told us all about how they grow grapes near the coast but make the actual wine in the Dalat factory as the alpine climate helps. He also told us how the business was growing, of which we understood embarrassingly little. At any rate they're doing very well. We think.

Jon had ordered contact lenses to Dalat's poste restante, but to an out of date address, so we had to do a fair bit of running around to various post offices, at none of which people understood much English. But, with a couple of lines from the phrasebook and perseverance, we managed to eventually track the box as far as the centre for misaddressed mail, at which one member of staff luckily recalled seeing it in one of the many piles of paper and parcels. Win!

Elsewhere in Dalat

Day 12 - Dalat to Nha Trang (133km down a mountain)

The rest in Dalat meant we felt refreshed for the next stage of riding - down to the seaside city of Nha Trang, 130km away. We decided to do the whole journey in one day so got an early start through Dalat and quickly out into the countryside of the plateau. The map has virtually no villages marked, and although there were a few tiny ones in reality, surrounded by coffee farms and flowers in greenhouses, most of the first 60km is forested mountain road.

The road was the quietest we've ridden, although we did see a couple of other cyclists, all on guided tours doing the same route as us (though they get a support van and are driven part of the way. We're hardcore, you understand). There was a fair bit of climbing to be done, nearly 3,000m, but it's one of those places that's so pretty that you don't care so much.

Forest road

The highest climb was the last one, peaking at 1,670m. We had checked the elevation profile in advance and knew there was a big decent after, but weren't quite prepared for the sheer scale of it. Immediately after we went over the crest of the hill we were greeted with a view right down the cliffs of the mountain, and across the lowlands all the way to the sea. We were looking down to see other hills, way below us! Mind blowing. We hadn't realised how high the Dalat plateau actually was until that moment. After that it continued to be awesome for some distance as we freewheeled down, passing occasional altitude signs (1,500m, 1,000m, 500m) and giggling.

The view from the top!

Near the bottom of the mountain we could feel the change in climate - it was noticeably hotter and more humid. The pine trees also petered out and were replaced by bananas and palms. Up on the plateau the cooler air had definitely helped us on the climbs, but we started to feel pretty knackered once we stopped going down and still had another 40km to ride. We cycled past sugar cane and rice paddies, ate all our emergency peanuts and arrived at Nha Trang after dark, around 12 hours after we had left Dalat.

From the mountains to the sea

Days 13 to 15 - Nha Trang

In Nha Trang we saw a far greater number of foreign tourists (it's especially popular with Russians) and tourist orientated shops, restaurants and bars. Most are concentrated near the seafront, which feels quite like a Spanish resort town with a wide sandy beach, sun loungers and big hotels. It is an easy place to relax for a few days, and to stock up on things like aloe after sun, which can be very difficult to find off the tourist trail.

There's plenty of fresh seafood to be had, all caught in local waters and available steamed, grilled, barbecued and raw. We mainly spent our time consuming as much as possible, but also fit in a day of snorkeling to see some pre-dinner fishies. In the bay there are lots of tiny islands, of which our tour boat visited 3. We didn't land but dived in straight from the boat (well, slowly descended down a ladder - the water was surprisingly chilly) in our masks and flippers. We were startled by the variety of colourful sea creatures and the clear water. The area is top for scuba diving in Vietnam and I could see why, but we couldn't justify the cost of lessons. However, splashing about in a snorkel mask is still a huge amount of fun.

- Kath

Nha Trang

Vietnam Cycle Tour - Saigon to Dalat

So we had decided to cycle tour in Vietnam from Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) up north as far as we could before our visas or money ran out.

Day 1 - Saigon to Gia Kiem (73km with baby hills)

Got up bright and early and had the first proper go at bungee-cording our bags to the bikes and successfully perching the guitalele (affectionately known as "little git") on top. Leaving the ever crazy Saigon we passed a surreal early morning concert outside the opera house, got a bit lost, then found our way onto Highway 1 which, for the first 50km or so, is unfortunately a ramshackle dusty free-for-all Asian version of the M1.

Even with all our bags we were still somewhat unburdened compared to the average Vietnamese moped, which we have witnessed carry anything from a family of five to twenty cages of chirpy parrots. Still, we got a lot of confused smiles so we must look quite strange. Some kind lorry drivers would even blow their 120 decibel horns next to our heads and proceed to cheerily wave out of the window at our bewildered faces. Which was nice.

Thankfully, the turning towards Dalat onto highway 20 was immediately greener and quieter. We are not very fit, nor experienced tourers so we were pretty tired by about 4pm and looked out for guesthouses signs ("Nha Nghi"), and saw one just entering the little town of Gia Kiem. We only have one set of bikey stuff each so laundry was done in the sink and dried on a makeshift string washing line. By 6:30pm we were hungrily stalking the streets and only one place was kind-of open so we would probably have to be quicker about grub the next day!

"It's not an adventure unless you need to use a map" - Kath

Day 2 - Gia Kiem to Ma Da Gui (64km with hills)

Gia Kiem in the morning was like a long dusty town from a western - with spirited live chicken bartering at the side of the road. Soon the ride became rural and hilly, and this really took a toll in late morning. We had set off a bit late so didn't get far before we had to stop due to the unfriendly tropical heat from 11:30am to 2pm. Clearly we needed a much stricter routine.

The road is way off the tourist trail, so cafes and eateries only cater to Vietnamese. This makes ordering food tricky. We can recognise many written words but find them difficult to pronounce - so with no menu we ended up leading people out of a shop to gesticulate wildly at a sign. Gesturing for a wee is particularly awkward.

A highlight of the ride was the surreal tropical town of Dinh Quan - with massive boulders perched precariously at the side of the road and a Disney style cathedral. We stopped riding 5km south of a town called Ma Da Gui in a deserted looking Shining-esque service station motel.

Ruralness

Day 3 - Ma Da Gui to Bao Loc (46km with big hills)

Woke up aching with a bike ride not being that appealing. A pleasant morning breeze helped though, and soon we had 2km of fast downhill with beautiful forests whipping past. Great way to start the day.

Lots of cheery hellos were shouted to us. This was nice until the roadside drinks shacks stopped and an evil uphill slog started. The road is an amazing curved thing overlooking lush hills, but it was really tough - a buzzard circled ominously overhead. With nowhere to stop we were out in the peak sun time for about an hour until we came to an unexpected Virgin Mary statue complete with drinks stand. This spurred us on for the climb, but once we sweatily arrived in Bao Loc city we called it a night in early afternoon.

Hilliness

Days 4 to 7 - Bao Loc City (Rest days)

We had seen some billboards advertising a theme park built around Dambri waterfall 18km away, so we found a couple of motorbike taxis (xe ôm) who took us there. The small park is fairly new, but has an antiquated and abandoned vibe, helped by tinny classical music played over the tannoy - and felt wonderfully like the theme park from the film Spirited Away.

The waterfall itself was a bit tired in the dry season, but around it is a rider controlled roller coaster which, quite disconcertingly, has signs informing you when to brake. We daren't disobey! Elsewhere were vintage swan pedallos, ancient fußball tables, a skate rink, fairground rides and, most importantly, ice cream.

Later while wandering Bao Loc we got invited for free tea at a restaurant, where the owner was interested in our little journey and lent me a guitar to strum while she told us about dramatic recent developments in the region. In fact quite a few Vietnamese people came talking to us at length, but not normally in English. One little girl in a cafe did hilariously sing me Happy Birthday though. Only a few months late.

Unfortunately, Kath was getting a cold, so we bought some medicine and holed up in a hotel for a couple of days.  Upon recovering somewhat, our hotel receptionist and English student Hien took us out for a tasty noodle swirl salad dinner (bánh cuốn), introduced us to her family around town and then led us to a popular outdoor bar for some milk (sưa). It's such a different nightlife culture to England.

Fun and Games

Day 7 - Bao Loc to the middle-of-nowhere (75km with hills)

Kath was still sniffling, but it was a none too strenuous pre-breakfast ride of 40km to Di Linh town where we had the usual energy rich Phở.

The road was surrounded by rolling hills of tea and coffee plantations, in the morning being watered by scores of people in conical hats. We mostly resisted kodaking the moments as we needed to get a move on. Even so, we hadn't quite made it to Lien Nghi town before we needed to stop, and ended up in a strangely kitsch motel with angry dogs.

Sure enough nearly everything had closed by the time we hunted for food, so dinner was fatty prawn cracker things and a weirdly sweet bread from a small shop. Vietnamese people seem to be rather kind, though, and we were offered a lift in the dark from a guy who pulled up on a moped. We declined being unsure how we would return.

Is that a peace gesture?

Day 8 - Middle-of-nowhere to Dalat (36km with über hill)

This was the most beautiful ride. Before the climb to Dalat there is a long farming valley covered in brilliant greens, flowers and waterways. Many different crops are grown in neat rectangular patches, with a rabbit-friendly lack of fences. At one point a group of children waved at us, and one ran up to say "How do you do?" in a spot-on posh English accent before running off giggling.

The pine tree coated mountain on which Dalat lies was about a 600m above where we started the day. It was definitely a tough steep climb with our heavy bikes and bags, but a cafe at the top had some life-affirming smoothies with a side of amazing view.

Greenness

Saigon to Dalat... in graph form!

It had taken a lot longer than expected, but even with illness and distinct lack of fitness we had finally made it to Dalat!

- Jon