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!
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| "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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Greenness |
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| Saigon to Dalat... in graph form! |
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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
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