Bicycle Touring Vietnam - 1998 - the
Friendly Country
Lesley, Tony and David's bicycle tour to Vietnam December
1997/January 1998
We felt that we were prepared for our trip to Vietnam. We had
read lots of guide books, stories of the wars and the peace and novels by Graham
Greene and Marguerite Duras. Lesley had spent a year trying to come to grips
with some of the intricacies of the Vietnamese language and its pronunciation.
We had talked to other people who had cycled in Vietnam. We didn't expect to be
surprised. The immigration police lived up to their reputation for being rude
and abrupt but everyone else was so friendly and helpful that it was almost
embarrassing. Only a relatively short time earlier our country had been involved
in a bloody war with these people and they were welcoming us with open arms. It
took us by surprise.
Our trip started in Hanoi where we stayed at a small hotel in
the old town and played tourist. We visited the spectacular and beautiful island
studded Halong Bay, the Perfumed Pagoda, the Ho Chi Minh museum, etc. We enjoyed
being in Asia again. We even rode our bikes. Traffic in Hanoi was a seething
mass of bicycles, cyclos and motor scooters with a small number of cars and
trucks thrown in for good measure. What road rules that exist are ignored;
people ride on the wrong side of the road, ignore red lights and no entry signs.
It was hard enough to walk across the road. Would we be able to ride safely in
the chaotic maelstrom of Vietnamese traffic? It was easy really. The traffic
doesn't move very fast; you just join in and move with it. When you want to
turn, you just start turning and everyone makes way for you. No problems!
Misty mountains near the Perfumed Pagoda
After a week in Hanoi, we took the Re-unification Express
overnight train to the old Imperial capital of Hue. Our bikes had travelled on a
freight train a day earlier we were all relieved to find our bikes waiting and
un-damaged at Hue. We spent two days enjoying the sights of this lovely town and
adjusting to the heat and humidity of the south.
We left Hue for the small seaside town of Lang Co at the foot of
the Hai Van Pass. It was good to be on the road. The cars and buses gave us a
wide berth and we raced the children on their old rusty bikes along the road.
High school students often have to ride 15 to 20 kilometres to get to school and
as there was a morning session and an afternoon session of school, there seemed
to be students on the road nearly all the time. The boys acted like young boys
everywhere and the girls looked beautiful and serene in their brilliant white 'ao
dais' as they pedalled sedately along the road.
High school students on their way home from
school in Hue
On our second cycling day we climbed Hai Van Pass. We were up
early and had breakfast by seven o'clock in an attempt to take advantage of
the cooler morning temperatures. The road started climbing as soon as we left
the town and climbed steadily for over ten kilometres. Within minutes, our
clothes were wet through from perspiration. The sweat dripped from us as we
slowly made our way up to the pass. Eventually we reached the top and were
greeted by food and drink sellers who made sure that we were well refreshed.
After a long break, we quickly sailed down the other side of the pass and made
our way to the attractive old port city of Hoi An. We had a rest day here and
took a bus trip to the impressive Cham ruins at My Son. This area was heavily
sprayed with Agent Orange and even though it was over 25 years since the end of
the war, it was still devastated. There were only a handful of trees amongst the
low shrubs that cover the mountains. In some areas, they were putting in
eucalyptus groves as they tolerated the poisoned soils better than other
trees.
Vegetable sellers in the Hoi An market
We headed south to Quang Ngai. Every few metres along the
road we were greeted by someone calling out "hello" to us. Voices
calling greetings accompanied us throughout the day. Every time we stopped at a
drink stall or market to buy anything we were surrounded by people wanting to
know where we were from and where we were going. With the help of her phrase
book and dictionary, Lesley managed to have long and often involved
conversations with people. In Quang Ngai, we felt that we were not very welcome
for the only time during our stay in Vietnam. This seemed to be a much poorer
town than the others we visited and it had been bypassed by much of the
development which had taken place during recent years. It had also been a major
communist stronghold during the 'American War' but doesn't seem to have
benefited from this. We were pleased to leave the place.
Most days we rode quite long distances with many days over 100
kilometres. The length of the day's stage was determined by the availability of
a hotel which was allowed to accept foreigners. Despite the freeing up of the
economy, there were still lots of regulations restricting accommodation. Many
new privately owned hotels were being built in areas which were on the main
tourist stops and these offered good value and good service. In other towns we
were forced to stay at government owned and run hotels. These were much more
expensive, overstaffed and gave poor service. In Qui Nhon the government owned
hotel had staff sitting and standing around everywhere but there was no one
available to make a cup of tea or sell a beer in the bar. We generally ate our
evening meal in small cafes and restaurants and rarely paid more than five or
ten dollars for the three of us. Often we couldn't finish all the food we were
given. For breakfast we tended to have bread, jam and eggs while lunch was
bread, cheese and bananas. Vietnamese bread is based on French recipes and
is delicious when fresh.
Vietnam is a long thin country with high mountain ranges running
the length of it. As we rode south we had views of the jungle clad mountains and
bright green rice fields all the time. Where the mountains were close to the
coast, we had long hot climbs to get over the passes. We passed numerous
beautiful beaches which were deserted. Riding was pleasant in the mornings but
by midday it became hot and unbearable. We tried to start riding as early as
possible and to reach our destinations in the early afternoon. Roadside drink
stalls often sold fresh coconuts. When the top was cut open, these made a
refreshing cool drink which only cost a few cents.
Seaside village on the way to Nha Trang
When we reached the popular beach resort of Nha Trang, we had a
couple of rest days. This gave us the opportunity to replace some broken spokes
in Lesley's rear wheel. She had broken two spokes in her rear wheel but we had
been unable to remove the rear cassette to replace them. For some time she had
been riding with our emergency kevlar string spokes in her wheel. It took the
mechanic and Tony and I on a metre long piece of pipe to get enough leverage on
the cassette tool to release the extremely tight cassette. We went on the outrageous and
extremely good value 'Mama Hahn's Boat Trip' around Nha Trang harbour. It was
just what we needed to relax after the hard cycling of the previous week.
The road to Dalat started climbing as soon as we left Phan Rang.
After 40 kilometres, we reached the start of the main climb to the pass. It was
extremely hot and humid and Tony and David climbed very slowly. Lesley seemed to
be thriving in the conditions and easily out-climbed the two men. We stopped for
lunch when we reached the pass. The road then dropped into a valley before
starting to climb again. We reached a road junction with a sign to Dalat. We
asked a number of people if this narrow rough road was the main road to Dalat
and were repeatedly assured that it was. The road climbed very steeply up and
down over a number of mountains and became progressively rougher and rougher.
Our progress was very slow. We had climbed to over 1,500 metres and we could see
the
road climbing steeply ahead of us. It was getting late and the sun was going
down. There was still 30km to go to reach Dalat. We couldn't get there
except by riding into the night without lights. David felt very dehydrated in
spite of having drunk 12 litres of water during the day. When we reached a small
village, we arranged for a small station wagon to take us and our bikes the
remaining distance to Dalat. We found out the next day that we had taken the old
road. It was shorter but climbed up and down all the way. The new road followed
river valleys and was much easier but was a few kilometres longer. If we had
stayed on the main road we would have easily reached Dalat in daylight.
From Dalat, it was all downhill - well it was downhill except
for a number of long climbs on the way. When we reached Dau Gaiy we rejoined
Highway One. We had already travelled 125 kilometres that day from Bao Loc and
felt as though we had come far enough for one day. The nearest hotel was 10
kilometres away in the wrong direction. When we made enquiries we were told that
there was a motel in town just near the crossroads. The "motel" turned
out to be a couple of wooden beds covered with thin mats. The beds were
separated into "rooms" with thin curtains. It was relatively clean and
very cheap at $US2.00 each. The owners made us very welcome. Unfortunately, the
noise from the heavy traffic along the highway continued all night and we didn't
sleep very well.
Only 100km to go to reach Ho Chi Minh City
The next morning we were on the road well before seven. We had
a fast trip although the highway became increasingly busy as we approached
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Just before the bridge over the Saigon River we
stopped at a roadside restaurant for a drink break and to build up courage
before we tackled Saigon traffic. Everyone we met who had been to Saigon had
warned us about how bad the traffic was and we were more than a bit apprehensive
about it. After our drinks, we had no more reasons for any delay and headed out
into the traffic. There were a lot more cars and trucks on the road but there
were still lots of bicycles and motor scooters. We had determined to ride in a
positive manner and went for it. While the speed of the traffic was faster than
in Hanoi, we tended to be riding faster than most of the people on the road.
Through a huge roundabout, right onto one of the major boulevards, then a left
into one of the smaller roads and we were soon at the hotel where we planned on
staying. In reality, riding in Saigon was not much different than riding in any
other Vietnamese city. We had cycled 1,265 kilometres since arriving in Hanoi.
The cycling part of the trip was over. We now had 6 days to play
tourist in Saigon and the Mekong Delta. It had been a great trip.
Gridlock in the Phong Dien floating market in the
Mekong Delta
(For another Vietnam cycling story, visit the Bicycle
Fish website.)
Day
Town
Distance
1 to 7
Hanoi
35km
8 to 9
Hue
52km
10
Lang
Co
67km
11
Hoi
An
69km
12
Hoi An
13
Quang Ngai 123km
14
Sa Hunyh
66km
15
Qui Nhon
117km
16
Tuy Hoa
114km
17
Nha Trang
123km
18
Nha Trang
19
Nha Trang
20
Phan Rang 106km
21
Dalat
82km
22
Dalat
8km
23
Bao
Loc
114km
24
Dau Gaiy
125km
25
Saigon
67km
26 to30 Saigon and the Mekong Delta
