Leaving Frankfurt by Train
The Steinerne Brucke in Regensburg
Danube Travel Choice – Bike or Boat
Rad Weg (Cycle Path)
Birds on the Danube
Passau
Coffee and Strudel
In Austria
Melk
Wachau Wine District
Egon Sheile
Berm Cycling
Sturovos from Esztergom
Last Ferry before Budapest
Budapest – Hungarian Parliament Buiildiings
Sept 2 – 9, 2017 Frankfurt to Vienna
(no photos yet)
Ringing their door bell at 7:00, I woke my Frankfurt Warm Showers hosts, Anne and Jan Schwarz, a bit too early on this Saturday morning. They were expecting me but I am sure they still would have enjoyed another or hour or so of rest. Anne commutes to Berlin every week and so must be thankful for some extra sleep time on the weekends. Anne and Jan are not yet experienced bike travelers but have motor biked from Cape Town to Germany and have hosted other bike travelers.
In my sleep deprived stupor it took twice as long to get my bike together as normal and then Jan lead me to a close train station where I purchased my train ticket to Regensburg. He then sent me to the central station to look for a sim card for my phone, and I found one that would work but naturally I didn’t bring my passport. The sim card has still not been purchased.
Back at the apartment I dozed for a few hours; Anne and Jan were out for the night. I woke about 11:00 and then tossed and turned, read a bit and fretted about imagined problems until just before I had to be up.
Jan made me a bit of breakfast and I was the station about 7:20. My first train arrived exactly at 7:35 as scheduled. Each of two other trains were as prompt. Each train was different, but all were immaculate, quiet and fairly fast. It took me five hours to get to Regensburg, about three underway. Each got a bit busier as the day wore on, and at each station I had to get my bike down off of the arrival platform and up onto the departure platform. I carried the bike up and down the first two until I discovered elevators were at the far end of the platforms. The cars that had bike space had a bike painted on the outside. Fast trains do not have these cars.
In Regensburg I fiddled around a bit finally finding the Danube and the 900 year old “Steinere Bruke” that took me across it for the first time. I needed something to eat but left it too late and so had to use a McDonalds on the outskirts. It was now after 2:00, but I had hopes of getting part way down the river before I ran out of gas. Mostly the “rad weg” (cycle path) followed the river and so it was not hard initially to stay on route. Mostly the trail was paved, but I had about 10 km of nice gravel. The trail would be on the berm beside the river or below it sometime wandering off through the fields. I saw quite a few tour boats right from the beginning.
At the start of trips I often run on excess adrenalin. It only took me an hour to catch two cyclists who were ahead of me when I stopped to eat at McDonalds. I pulled into Straubing, my most ambitious target for the afternoon about 5:00 as it started to rain. Sunday, the information centre closed; the hostel apparently terminated; the first hotel I asked at quoted me 99 Euros, more than twice my hope. The hotelier took in my dripping bedraggled state and phoned around and got me into a Gasthof for 56.
Showered, beered, fed and the eye lids gave up on me. But I was wide awake at 1:00 so again I tossed awhile and then read for a few hours before getting an hour or two before breakfast.
The second day was very hard. I got out of Straubing on the wrong track and it kept going wrong. It was overcast all morning and again I had some gravel roads, whether on course or not I will never know. I had a nice Goulash at a little kiosk on a part of the route that was car free. I was passing about 4 or 5 people an hour at this point, mostly going the same direction. Two young one-pannier riders actually caught and passed me. Silly to be going so fast. After yesterday’s experiences with route finding (good) and accommodation (poor) I had made a hostel booking at Passau and so that was my target. Going through two small cities I lost a lot of time looking for the route signs and missed eating or drinking. For a while I was on a busy road, obviously off track. Finally as I got into the Passau outskirts I was now pretty punchy and so hit a road bump too hard and my rack, too heavily loaded, collapsed on my wheel. In Passau I found that the hostel is in the old castle, lovely. But it is at the top of a long, steep, cobbled road, horrors. It took all my remaining energy to push my load up. I had to have a beer and a rest before I could drag my stuff up two more flights to my room.
Not all is bad. The ride is wonderful, the miles of quiet tree lined trails soothing. The Danube started big and gets bigger with every new river joining it. I have seen swans, sea gulls, ducks, crows, rooks, many little flitters I can’t identify. I am not going into every advertised attraction, but I didn’t plan to. I the meanwhile the jet lag is killing me
Passau is where most people begin their cycle trip. They will rent their bikes, all hotels will be booked and they will ride to Vienna in 5 or 6 days. The trails are well developed almost the whole way on both sides of the river. I have seen all manner of people doing the ride. Please, if you have gained a little weight and your old team logoed spandex was bought some years ago, don’t wear it. The 100+ page cycle-path description is filled with useful information. One surprising note is the three or four pages listing e-bike stations, where you can charge up during the day. Perhaps 40% of the now 100s of cyclists I am seeing ride rented e-bikes. And the vast majority wear appropriate clothing.
The days unfolded. I was on both north and south side, crossing by bridge, on dams but mostly on little bike ferries. The paths were mostly pretty quiet but only periodically for a few kms were they completely car free. This would happen when the route went through a park or protected area. But when we were on roads there would be at least 10 times as many bikes as cars. It sound bike busy but I was often alone, particularly early. I would stop mid-morning for coffee and strudel. I had some good meals, mostly soup, and some hit and miss other things because I didn’t know what I was getting.
My next night after Passau I tried to get a place in Linz. I was again quoted 90 E and up so I headed on down the road and in a much smaller place I found a Gasthof for 30 E. Stay away from big places. Another poor sleep but a bit better.
My second day I promised myself I would not go past Melk and I found a 36 E place right away. But I got ripped off for a 6E coffee in the main square. I have been paying no more than 2 E. Stay away from tourist squares.
Third day out of Passau and Vienna is only 120 km, but I don’t want to get stuck coming into a big city with no reservations so I will stop early. I can’t get a sim card and the wifi connections are not working for me. I think the world is moving to data cell connections. The morning was slow but lovely. Riding the north side I went through and area called Wachau, a wine area. The route was on quiet roads connecting little towns or wine estates every 4 or 5 km; a lot of slowing down and dodging people on wine tours. A good thing I’m not going far. I stopped for a coffee about 11:00 but should have had wine in the middle of this richness. A glass of wine is half that of a small coffee as well. I had tasted both red and white grapes from the side of the road and need try the wine.
Back on the south side the path again enters quiet forests or river side berms where I cranked it up a notch. Lunch was a bit more upscale than normal and so I had a glass of white wine with my chicken and mushroom spaghetti.
My day’s stop was at Tulun, about 30 km from Vienna, and I found a campground that advertised wifi, which also did not work. I think the days wore me down a bit and I just started to feel terrible. When the wifi connected for me I reserved two nights in Vienna. Expensive, but I need a short day and a longer rest.
The hotel has been great; two nights in one place has helped. I have suffered stomach issues as well and much of my time here in Vienna has been in bed. Today I got to the Leopold museum where I got a better appreciation of Gustav Klimpt and Egon Shiel. The day is lovely and all of Vienna is out walking. Unfortunately my energy level didn’t take me far.
Tomorrow I will move on down the line towards Bratislava, which is an easy day’s ride. We will see how I feel and where I will get.
It has been a year and a half since posting travel experiences on this site. I am sorry for that and have no excuses. In the months that have slipped by I have hiked in Iceland and Norway that should have been shared. There have also been numerous birding trips to new destinations resulting in a host of new birds in my repository, some of which are interesting enough to share. But, that is water under the bridge and I am committed to try again.
My first foray into Eastern Europe, as a cyclist, was on the back end of my trip around the Baltic in 2004. Leaving Scandinavia I fought the wind and rain from St Petersburg out of Russia through Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Kalingrad, Poland and East Germany on my way to Copenhagen and the end of that adventure. As challenging as the cycling was tasting a less modernized and unhurried Europe left me with a hunger for more. I’m not sure why a return did not make its way to the top of my travel priorities before now but at last I have booked a return. This time I will be heading for the confusion of countries in the south east part of Europe. I am flying into Frankfurt on Sept 1 returning 60 days later.
One of my favourite travel writers, Patrick Leigh Fermor, as an eighteen year old in 1933 struck out from Britain to walk to Constantinople, largely following the Rhine and Danube Rivers. It took him a year and a half to get there and a further 30 years to write the first of three books reliving his experiences and observations of an unsettled Europe between the two world wars. To some extent I will be cycling over Fermor’s steps now 85 years erased. It is not only his foot-prints that have been eliminated by time and happenings. I have little expectation of being hosted by Hapsburg nobles or ambling along quiet roads beside a wild Danube as he experienced. WWII, the Soviet occupation, multiple power dams and the modern world has dealt the Europe of old a blow. In search of the remains of a quieter world I will be heading for some of the more remote parts of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, … It will be impossible to resist Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, Bucharest,… but the quiet roads call more urgently.
I will likely start this adventure by hopping a train from Frankfurt to Regensburg on the Danube. The Danube Cyclepath is one of the popular car free cycle destinations in Europe. As I have never been successful in sticking with a cycle path for long this time I am going to attempt to deal with my impatience with slow routes and convoluted navigation by following the Cyclepath , possibly as far as Budapest, about 1000 km. My inclination, as I flit from maps to books to the internet here in Calgary, is to leave the Danube in Budapest to begin a wander through Hungary into northern Romania finally reconnecting with the Danube at its Delta on the Black Sea. If that works out I will turn and head up the Danube this time, possibly into Bulgaria, Serbia or wherever. At some point I know I will run out of time; I needed four not two months to taste SE Europe even superficially. So I will likely need to bus and train back to Frankfurt at some point.
Along the way I am expecting to savour the regional food, beer and wine. After all, one of the reasons for leaving my lethargic life in Calgary to travel by bike is to be able to eat and drink whatever I want. I expect to tent a little, use homestays, hostels and small inns by preference. I will touch on a few birding destinations, hopefully catching some of the fall migration. Alas, since buying a nice birding lens a few years ago I have been spoiled for bird photography with smaller lenses. But my big one is just a bit too bulky, heavy for long bike rides. However I do hope to get some nice travel pictures and will have to be happy with that. Fitting in some day hikes is also on my wish list. Hopefully I will not get in such a rush that I forego that pleasure.
I leave a week today to spend a night with a “warm showers” host in Frankfurt so if I am diligent with my communications job I will do a further update in a couple of weeks… ‘til then.
Feb 20 to Mar 1, Hanoi
During this time I was in Hanoi for six days, with trips to Halong Bay and Sapa interspersed. In all I will have spent eight nights in Hanoi and have come to really enjoy the city. One big benefit for me is that the weather has been cool, sometimes almost cold.
I have headed off on my bike on three of those day and on those rides I went out from the central part of town. The nicest ride was around West Lake that is said to be 17 km, most of on quiet car free roads. On that same day I headed in another direction looking for a museum but never did find it which meant that I had a long meander through a range of different kinds of districts unlike anything that you see in the tourist frequented areas. Another day I rode over the oldest bridge circa 1900 over the Red River. Now cars are not allowed; train tracks run down the middle with a motorcycle lane on each side. On one of my rides I stopped to remove my jacket which meant removing my camera bag containing my passport and wallet. I rode off without the bag but stopped at the end of the block to have a look at my street map and a lady came running up with my bag. Very scary but with the side benefits of making me more attentive to what I am doing and making me feel even better about Vietnamese.
Red River retaining wall
Along West Lake
West Lake
Mostly though I walk the streets. The Old Town has 36 market streets. They are named Hang ___, with the Hang meaning roughly market and then the word following was the name of the goods traditionally found on that street. That is why the street names change every couple of blocks. The goods now found on the streets is rarely the same but you still find groupings. There are streets where fifteen shops sell glasses, another might be where you get tin boxes made and another will be wood products and so on. Tourist stuff can be found interspersed throughout. As I head out for a walk I purposely choose different routes to sample these different streets.
Modern Wiring
Socializing
Drinking Bia Hoi
Hoan Kiem
One interesting activity here is drinking Bia Hoi, fresh beer. It is served and drunk almost on the day it is made, always at street vendor places. I costs between 30 and 60 cents, about a third of normal beer. One day I sat with a doctor having Bia Hoi. He comes to visit with tourists to practice English.
I have immensely enjoyed staying at the Rendezvous Hotel. They have arranged all of my forays and I have returned to stay here in four different short segments always feeling like I am coming home. What makes it so nice is that everyone knows who I am and we talk about all sorts of things. I have helped some of the young ones who are working on their English and they help me by giving suggestions for my travels.
On Hoan Kiem Lake
Rendezvous Hotel
Rendezvous Staff
In all my trip to Vietnam has exceeded all expectations. What an ideal time to visit this country. Things have progressed significantly since I was here twenty years ago, but no one is jaded by an overabundance of tourists. My knee problems have put a damper on some of the things I wanted to do, but que cera cera. I leave tonight in a couple of hours.
All until next trip, Ken
Feb 26,27 Sapa
A taxi brought me to the Train Station at 7:00 for the night train to Lao Cai. A bit nicer than the soft sleeper from Ho Chi Minh. I had a full complement of sleeping companions and after some fussing around everyone was in bed. The American girl and her Spanish boyfriend slept together on the narrow bunk, rather than up down. It must be nice to be so young, supple and in love. The narrow bunks are just wide enough for me. Perhaps with a tiny Viet bt these two were full sized caucasians. I was on my way north to near the Chinese border to a small mountain village called Sapa. It is famous for its hill people, its rice paddies and for the trekking possibilities.
The train got in at about 5:30 a.m. and I followed some other back-packers across the square where fifteen minutes put us on a public bus to Sapa. It was still dark but I could tell we started climbing seriously so I turned on my altimeter. We climbed 1200 m over the next hour into moderate rain and cold 3C temperature. I had a room reservation, but once out of the bus I was so cold I just found the nearest café that was open and advertising a fireplace. This became the trend for the rest of the day.
Gloomy start to Sapa Visit
Huddling away from the rain
My room, which I did not get into until 1:30, had only a small space heater for a large three bed room. While in the room the only way I could get warm was to crawl under the comforter. I scurried around in between rain showers to see the town but spent a lot of the time in coffee shops, none of which were very warm. The town is hung on the side of the mountain and seemed to have grown too fast for the infrastructure.
Ornate buildings and Garbage
Probably vegetables not rice
The hill tribes in the region, I think possibly Red and Black Muong among others, are noticeable in the dress of the women. They are a very small people, I think the women may average 5 ft tall or so. Walking around town they are constant companions selling their goods or trying to get you to go trekking with them. It certainly bothers me to see these people hawking goods like this, particularly when they enlist their often very young children to help. Signs around encourage you not to buy from any of the street seller but to use the kiosks instead. This doesn’t seem to discourage the practice. 
Child Vendors
Children playing, not selling
My big disappointments are the very cold weather while I was here and my bad leg with precluded any notion that I had that I may be able to go on a good walk. There are stairs everywhere as the town tumbles down the slopes. After a while I found that I could walk up the stairs but that I would follow the streets the long way around, rather than hobbling down the stairs. My second day the rain had stopped and the sun came out a bit which made all the difference. I did walk to the next town which took me painfully down a fairly steep road. I went with the idea that I could always get a motor bike ride back but the walk up the hill felt good. I took most of my pictures on this walk. 
Working Women
Traditional House
It is too early for the rice paddies to show much; they haven’t even planted rice yet. Near HCMC they have already have had one harvest. I went with the idea of staying two nights, but that idea went out the window when I found that I couldn’t really walk very well. I took a mini-bus back down to Lao Cai late in the day so that I could see things as it was dark when I came up. It takes a good hour to do the 40 km as the road is very steep and windy as it plunges down through the rough terrain interspersed with rice paddies. It would make a wonderful bike ride, down not up.
The train back was another overnighter depositing me for my final two days in Hanoi.
Feb 22,23 Halong Bay
As I start this note I am sitting with a bottle of wine looking out at the cliffs of one of the 2000 Karst pinnacles sticking out of the South China Sea in the UNESCO World Heritage site called Halong Bay. I am at a table in the dining room of my Cruise boat. It is comfortably warm while outside it is quite cold and damp as it has been a bit drizzly the whole day. My wine, the first of this trip, is a Chilean Sauvignon that tastes very nice to my uneducated palate. In the normal scheme of things my first wine here would have been from Dalat but I never got around to trying wine here yet and on this boat they probably would never offer something like that unless it was pretty good.
I am on the second day of my three day – two night Halong Bay tour with Swan Cruises. The tour began at about 8:30 in Hanoi when I was picked up from my hotel joining 13 others for the four hour bus ride to Halong Bay. Our guide Trang (Linda for the westerners in the bunch) did a good job of creating a community feeling among us by telling stories, often humorous. We were ferried out to our cruise boat for a welcome drink and snack. A few minutes in my assigned room confirmed that this would be the extravagant experience that I do not give myself very often. Meanwhile the boat was cruising through the incredible Karst Pinnacles. The grey day did not detract much from the magnificence of these rugged formations. Grey rocks heavily streaked with black water stains, all seemingly lashed together with green vines and bushes that must grow out of every available crack.
Early Mist on Halong Bay
Guide Trang
Stateroom – Swan Cruises
A five course lunch ensued where I sat with the other two single males; Stephen (35) from Australia and Stefano (29) from Italy. Our other companions were from the US, Australia and Israel. Soon after lunch the program had us heading out for a kayak trip. I was paired with Stefano who was a bit wild for this water-challenged invalid although not as wild and the young male/female cousins from Israel who zig-zagged in gay abandon the whole time out. Our ride took about 2 ½ hours and included a beach stop where we did a little beach combing and swimming for those so inclined. After settling Stefano down some and realizing we were not going to capsize I began to enjoy the privilege of gliding along at water level in this very special place.
Limestone cliff and beach
Kayaking
Kayaking
A hot shower and an hour of listening to my music on my new Bluetooth speaker looking out from my room to the ever startling visual feast was followed by an 11 course dinner feast. As much as I have enjoyed the food on my solo meander through Vietnam you cannot really appreciate the breath and quality of the food until you are included in a larger group experience. My only other such experience was in Van Gia thanks to Dam and his family who included me in their family celebrations.
Evening Approaches Halong Bay
Boats at Anchor
In the morning Trang led us in Tai Chi before our breakfast buffet. Our first excursion took us to a pretty nice cave. These mountains, if I can call them that, must be laced with caves. I left the group I came in with at that point as they are all on a one night trip. I will join another group coming in later in the day for my second night.
Cave – Halong Bay
Tai Chi
My new guide Luong (Linda), took me out for the rest of the day. We toured a traditional fishing area, run now almost at a heritage village and we had a pearl farming demonstration and the opportunity to buy some nice pearls. We had one more kayak trip, just the two of us, but it didn’t last as long as it was starting to drizzle somewhat.
Some Fishermen Left
Cultured Pearl Beds
Fishing Village
Fishing Village
Guide Luong
After my nice afternoon in the big boat; drinking wine, listening to music and writing, my new travel mates came in from their kayak trip and we had a second evening with another fine meal. In the morning of my final day, while steaming back to the harbour we had a cooking lesson and then a final five course meal before disembarking for the four hour bus ride back to Hanoi.
I enjoyed the whole thing more than I expected. Yes there are no end of boats and people out among the Karst Mountains, but they are so extensive that you are usually alone and the peacefulness is significant. You must be protected from the wind and waves from the open sea. It is the magnitude of these formations that probably most hit me. They seem to be almost infinite in scope. The high-end service and friendly people of the cruise company (Swan) that I was with also made a difference. In particular my two lovely young guides seemed so genuinely interested in every one and provided a nice insight into the experience. I was close to not coming here, but am glad that I did.
Swan Cruises – Halong Bay
Endless Peaks – Halong Bay
After yet another cool day in Hanoi I am off to the northern mountains where it is cold.
Feb 18-20, Train Saigon to Hanoi (31 hrs)
I took a cab from the Spring Hotel to the Train Station at about 9:00 pm. The train pulled into the station at about 9:50; it had about 20 cars, I think all soft sleepers. The cabin was indistinguishable from those I have used in China. Two sets of upper/lower bunks in each cabin and even a plastic flower on a little table between the bunks, like I had in China many times. There were western and eastern toilets at the end of the hall and towards the end of the trip the western one was permanently closed just after it ran out of toilet paper. This practice also seems to have trickled through from China.
My cabin was almost always full. I started with three female room mates and ended with a young Chinese couple and a rotating group of single males in the other lower bunk. The Chinese couple were on a two week visit to Vietnam and they had come completely by train from Guangzhou and were now on their way back the same way. The both spoke excellent English and had visited a number of countries in a similar way. They expected to never have more than two weeks holiday which was more than normal.
I basically ate from the food carts that were pushed up and down the aisles. I had hot coffee and noodle bowls the same as you find all over the world. The air conditioning was always just a little too cold and so there was no need for cold drinks.
The big happening for me was that my knee completely reverted to dreadful. During my bike ride south my knee seemed to get stronger and stronger. After a few days I had no concerns. And the walking I did extensively every day in Saigon just made it even better. At least that is what I thought. On the train, particularly at night, my knee seemed to get worse and worse. There was nothing unusual about my bunk. It was long enough and though not as wide as the beds I have been used to certainly adequate. By the time we got to Hanoi I could hardly hobble down to the toilet.
Feb 20,21 Hanoi
The train pulled into Hanoi at 5:45 am and by 6:10 I had found my bike and set out to find my hotel. It was still completely dark at that time but the streets were not yet real busy. I zig-zagged my way towards where I expected to find my hotel. After about 15 min I ended up at Hoan Kiem Lake which gave me the landmark I needed. I had a coffee to let things wakeup and then continued on the 4 blocks or so to the Rendezvous Hotel, my home base here. My knee problems meant that I had trouble bending my knee enough to cycle well and so I am glad I didn’t have far to go and that the street were still relatively quiet.
It had been my intention to head immediately to the northern mountains, likely starting at the town of Sapa, to try to get a two or three day village-to-village trek. My knee issues killed that plan. I decided to spend two nights in Hanoi to get a handle on what I could do about the knee. I had to keep going though and so I booked a high-end boat trip to Halong Bay where the prime activities will be pushing my shutter button and bending my elbow. I will spend two nights cruising around Halong Bay and then I will come back to Hanoi for one night. My trip to the mountains, at least at this time, will be another overnight train trip, then two nights in Sapa in a hotel, followed by another overnight train trip back to Hanoi, gawd I’m dreading what that might do to my knee. I will walk as much as I can while in Sapa, but it doesn’t at this time look like I will be able to head into the hills very much. Once back in Hanoi I will have one more night before my plane flight home.
In my day and a half in Hanoi I continued walking the streets of the old town. With the two days before I left for my bike trip I have become quite familiar with things, although there are many more streets than I have not touched yet. My knee agonies come and go; I walk about 45 minutes and then the pain comes so I have to find a coffee shop to sit down in for a while. I have been living on Ibuprofen and have got some relief by massaging and moving things around until finally the pain recedes. I can live with this process visiting in and around town.
Hanoi and Saigon couldn’t be more different. Saigon is a big modern eastern city with broad boulevards, big hotels and lots of business towers. Hanoi is still mostly narrow congested streets with thousands of vendors. I really enjoy both cities and if my plans hold I will have spent seven nights in each city. Hanoi is probably for me more photogenic and I still have two nights here and will share more when I have done those.
Tomorrow it is off to Halong Bay.
(No Photos this time)
Feb 11-18, Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) 40 km
Arriving in HCM on the 11th a bit after noon and leaving late in the evening on the 18th gave me a good week to get to know this city of 8.25 million. I guess when you look at the population and time the active verb should be “sample” rather than “get to know”. Still, compared to most tourist agendas I think I had a pretty good run at my visit here. My visit was also complicated by a couple of other personal factors. I had just gone through three weeks of getting up at 6:00, moving out of what was always a comfortable hotel followed by five or six hours of cycling followed by a search for another hotel before the heat of the day fried my onto by bike. In Saigon (I still use these two names interchangeably in my mind, as do many of the locals I think) the main attractions were not moving for a whole week and having a nice attractive place I could come back to when I felt the need of a cool place of tranquility. This latter factor was what led me to choose the Spring Hotel in district one, rather than heading for Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker mecca, that is likened to Khao San Rd in Bangkok.
In spite of myself I began to enjoy HCM. By choosing to give up my southward voyage on Thursday last week, rather than continuing on down to the Mekong Delta, I hit the tail end of the Tet celebrations in Saigon. Nguyen Hue is a double road, separated by a wide paved boulevard running from the Hotel d’ Ville about five blocks to the Saigon River. It runs through the heart of the high-end part of the city. The big international hotels (old and new) and fancy new office towers border Nguyen Hue. After a leisurely breakfast on Friday morning I was informed by my hotel people that I had to head towards Nguyen Hue, two blocks away. By the time I got there so had some 10s of thousands of people, mostly families with young children or young people; the girls dressed to kill in Ao Dai or modern equivalents.
Nguyen Hue and the streets leading into it had been closed to traffic and filled with flower displays of an incredible variety. I added a few photographs to the millions that would have been snapped during my time there. I don’t do selfies and didn’t ask anyone to capture me in front of any of the displays, but I am sure I got captured anyways. It was very difficult to make my way down this lovely corridor without interjecting myself into someone’s composition. I walked the length of Nguyen Hue slowly and along the Saigon River for a ways before making my way back to the boulevard to have a coffee and watch the people from a seated position.
Nguyen Hue
Nguyen Hue
Nguyen Hue
Saigon River
Nguyen Hue
Nguyen Hue
While having coffee I was asked to make a lucky wish. You write your wish out and hang it on a tree with hundreds of others. I have been a good boy on this trip. Like a good Buddhist I have not killed anything as there have been no bugs of any sort. I have only cursed a few of the people who cut me off on the road and in general have been appreciative of the people and my fate. So I filled in my wish and I think I have a good chance. So if we shortly have “World Peace; No one in poverty or slavery; No child without family or love” my wish will have been granted.
I went back Friday evening to capture some of the night time lighting to find that it was so busy that I couldn’t really walk very much of it. By Saturday morning when I walked by again, vehicular traffic was flowing again and all of the flowers and displays were gone. As I said, I lucked into that one.
My strategy, to meet both a moderate tourist agenda and my personal need for an easy few days, was to visit or do one thing each day and to do them before noon so that I could retreat to the cool of a pleasant tea garden or my hotel.
The Reunification Palace was built in 1966 to replace the Norodom Palace that had been built in 1871 to house the French Governor of Indochina. The original palace had been largely destroyed in 1962 during an assassination attempt on then South Vietnam President Diem who had taken the palace as his residence. The current palace was the residence of President Thieu during the American period until 1975 when the regime collapsed. Thieu fled to Taiwan and the US airlifted out of Saigon as the north’s troops advanced upon the city and the south. The Reunification Palace is the most important symbol of the reunification of Vietnam after 1000 years of conflict. Mostly what I saw during my visit was a lot of 1970s style furniture and photos from the end of American War. The grounds are lovely and I sat in a tea garden for my iced coffee listening to traditional Vietnamese music instead of motorbikes.
Reunification Palace
I went to the Ho Chi Minh City Museum because it was built in the 1800s also to house the French Governor General. But this one still exists, old and musty but very French. It is also called the Gia Long Palace with some nice gardens and old cars. The museum it houses relates more to the city than to the country but still has its American War remnants.
French 19th century architecture around the city melds in with the big modern hotel and office towers. Many of the streets are wide boulevards, decorated for Tet. Walking the streets was my primary activity in part due to the shade from the tall buildings and trees. I could choose between streets with modern office activity or street level vendors. Things were not too hectic and sidewalks usually had enough space so that people could walk on them, even if you did have to watch for the odd motorbike avoiding a congested street.
Shaded Streets
Saigon Opera House
Book Street
I cycled to the train station, to find that I would have to send my bike back to Hanoi on a separate train which I did two days before I would leave in the hopes that it would be in Hanoi when I arrived. I also cycled to the Botanical Garden and it was a Zoo, literally and figuratively. The gardens are actually gardens, zoo and fair ground and on this Sunday teeming with families. Again photo taking is the hot activity followed by chasing young kids and by picnics. I spent some time there as I enjoy watching families having fun and my strangeness is a magnet to the very young, eliciting either tears or laughter depending I guess upon the child’s affinity for the unusual.
Saigon is quite expensive compared to life on the road but still reasonable for those who come here directly from abroad. I chose my places to eat and drink coffee or beer carefully. In many ways I prefer life along the road where choice is limited and the people and prices have not become habituated to tourists. It is not that I am cheap (or maybe it is), but it bothers me to feel “taken” because I am a foreigner. I think that a two-tier price system, even if it is informal, creates an added separation between me and the people I am trying to get to know and makes the connection that much more difficult. At any rate, with thousands of places to try I am finally finding a bit of my way around. And I have had some great food. The variation is incredible.
I found my way to the Ben Than Market. At one time it would have been the primary food market in town and there is still some food but it has become hundreds if stalls selling tourist kitsch. Still it is fun chattering with the very outgoing vendors as they try to guess what you might bite upon.
Ben Thanh Market
I also found my way into the backpacker area where I found that you could rent a motor bike for $5-6 a day but only for use in the city. Backpackers who want to take one on a trek about the country usually pay $3-500 for a used one and then try to sell it again when they finish their travels. I have not talked to anyone who plans on or has ventured out of Vietnam with their motor bikes. New motor bikes cost $1-3000. I am not sure about insurance or licensing costs or processes.
Pham Ngu Lao
As much as the heat get me (35-40) there are aspects of the tropical environment that really appeals to me. In particular I enjoy the sounds of cicadas and the smell of plumeria (fangiapani). The former have not appeared for me, but I am at the tail-end of the plumeria blossoming period here. Perhaps they will still be in season when I get back to Hanoi which is quite a bit farther north. The primary flower colour for Tet is yellow; I have been told it is red or pink in the north. One of the striking plants that I have been experiencing is a tree with yellow blossoms usually planted in a big bonsai type pot. I am told it is an Apricot Tree. Apparently the blossoms are controlled by plucking the leaves off at a specific time that then stimulates the blossoms in time for Tet. As Tet is now over, many of these trees are now losing their blossoms and I see the pots being carted off somewhere where the process will begin again for next year.
Plumeria
Plumeria
Plumeria
I decided not to take a one day tour into the Mekong Delta because of my distaste for bus type tours I do have to take them, as I did in Hue and will likely do in the north, but the independence of just street walking here seemed to satisfy me.
And so I am off for a two night train ride to Hanoi.
Feb 10, Gia Ray – 115 km
Leaving Mui Ne at 6:30 was pleasant and cool. Being a beach area there was very little traffic; it seems beach communities are late night not early morning places. But soon I was coming into Phan Thiet and the normal busy street activity began. I had a long ride through town until I found hwy #1, which I was now joining again after being away from it for a couple of days.
Interestingly, now as I got inside 200 km from HCMC the divided four-lane with good shoulder road that I had been riding since Hanoi dropped down to two-lane, not divided with a shoulder that acted like the extra lane. And it would last until I finally left hwy #1 40 km from HCMC. I also began to notice high numbers of 2-4 people on their motor bikes. This would be a couple with one or two young kids, with a small piece of baggage tied on as well. I think that I was joining a large number of people, going both ways on their way home from Tet holidays.
It did not take long on this day for the heat to get to me. It felt like I was going up-hill much of the day. By 9:30 it was well into the 30s. I stopped a few times as always for drink stops. At one stop I asked for a coke. I also pointed to a plate of noodles that another customer was having. I was brought my coke with a glass of ice, a glass of cool tea that was topped up. A plate of noodles was followed by some sweet cakes. I was charged 10 k dong, about Cdn$ 0.66. The lovely elderly woman indicated that all she was charging me for was the coke. At my next stop I had a cold lemon tasting soft drink and was charged 20 k. I guess it depends upon whether they feel sorry for this old red-faced fool or not.
My hotel in Gia Ray was quite nice and so welcome that I had to have a seat in the lobby for a few minutes before venturing up to my room. I pulled in about 1:30, late for me, even though I had not ridden that far. My almost inevitable procedure is to get in my room, get the AC going, have a long warm, not hot shower and then lie out on the big double bed that I always get. The AC gradually gets my body temperature lower again. I will drink quite a bit of cold water or cold beer, depending upon what is in the room fridge. As the outside temperature lowers a bit, I will venture out for a very short walk to a tea-house and have a relaxing drink, possibly reading or doing some internet research before finding a place for dinner. On this night my dinner was Pho Bo at a roadside vendor
Feb 11, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), 110 km
My plan, leaving the hotel, was to leave hwy #1 after about 40 km onto a major road that would enter HCMC on the SE corner and then to the bus station that serves the south. I would then try to catch a bus that would take me into the Mekong Delta. I would spend a couple of nights there and then ride back north into HCMC. Google supported me in this plan by giving me the route I would take.
My riding started out pretty well, it seemed to take longer to get real hot on this day. Unfortunately when I got to my junction the road I was to take was off-limits to bikes, motorbikes and such things. I coasted under the overpass noting no vehicles at all passing along this freeway. It did knock the wind out of my sails a bit, as I continued along.
Sometime later, about 40 km from HCMC, I took an alternate road that looked good. The new road was divided and four- lane. I was concerned that there were no km-posts with HCMC on them, but it was heading in the right direction and so I continued along. The divided part has been fairly important to me, as illustrated by the last day and a half of non-divided road. On this part of the ride I had to watch much more diligently the traffic coming towards me. Without the divider it was not unusual for the two lanes to be filled with big truck/bus traffic coming at me, often overlapping into the shoulder I was on. The shoulder going both ways was still filled with the normal motorbike traffic and so it made for a very hectic situation. Much higher stress levels may have led to my exhaustion on these days.
So the divided four lanes became divided six lane with a further two lanes each way just for us bikes. So as I was crossing the bridges over the Saigon River entering greater HCMC it was about ten lanes of highway, four for motorbikes; quite a luxury. I stopped at a shaded tea house about 15 km out. There were a few of the motorbike families there when I stopped. They were having a good rest before continuing on into the city. At many of these places there are hammocks hung under the roof and they are well used; it seems motor bike travel is tiring as well as leg bike travel.
Now I had a big decision to make. It would take me a couple of hours to get through the city with the hope of finding the bus station and then to hope I could get find a bus that would take me and my bike to one of the towns in the Mekong. I think it was a combination of the heat exhaustion and the spectre of riding back to HCMC in a couple of days that helped me make up my mind. I had done my ride after all. I rode into the centre of town. When near to what I thought might be the centre, I had left the big highway by now, I pulled out my guidebook and my google maps and found that I was a block from The Spring Hotel, a highly recommended hotel. It is pricier than I normally choose, but they offered me a bit of a deal if I stayed for a few extra days. Again it might have been my exhaustion that kicked in, but I agreed to stay until my train trip north.
My bike ride is finished, although I do not expect to stop riding my bike, and I have seven days to use in and around HCMC.
(No photos this time)
Feb 3-5, Nha Trang -70+20km
After the hot exhausting day riding into Van Gia it was very pleasant leaving. I got away at about 6:30 into a dark, windy day. I was a bit worried that it may rain, but it didn’t. It took an hour before I stopped for Pho Bo and then I relaxed and coasted along. The threat of rain disappeared and the wind was solidly with me. I followed a sign to Nha Trang away from the highway that added almost ten kms to my trip. The quiet road snaked up and down, in and out around a peninsula, until finally Nha Trang came into view. I stopped in a tea house on the edge of town at 9:30 to make my plans.
I chose a recommended little hotel/hostel called Mozjo. It was squirreled away in a little alley a couple blocks away from the beach. I had ridden about ten kms along the big divided road leading past the big international hotels and I could see that this was a significant tourist draw. After showering and having a sandwich in the little rooftop restaurant I wandered down to the beach to soak up a little wave action.
I decided on a high-end tea house that charged about 3 times normal prices. It had comfortable easy chairs where I sat for a few hours over coffee and then beer. The waves crashed heavily and only a few of the many beach visitors ventured out into the water. I came to understand that the majority of tourists here were Russian. Apparently there are direct flights from cities in Russia to each of the major Vietnamese beaches. Interestingly in my hotel there are mostly young budget travellers from all of the usual countries including Canada. Dam, from Van Gia, called my cell with the message that he had come into town to do some business and I had him come to the restaurant I was in so I could buy him a beer. He was horrified by the prices.
Back at the Mozjos I took part in the free beer hour where I sat with and talked with girls and guys from Britain and the Netherlands. Each of my three days here had me visiting a different collection of people. My last night it was five Canadians sitting together, including a 72 year old doctor from Toronto. Mozjo also had a breakfast included with many choices, all good.
My second day here was a bike day. I rode back up to the edge of town to visit Po-Nagar Cham towers, a nicely restored Champa site set in peaceful gardens. I followed this by fighting through some very thick city traffic to get to Long Son Pagoda a nice Buddhist park. The large Buddha that topped to site had images of the monks who burned themselves during the protests of the Diem regime in the sixties.
I gave myself a third day in Nha Trang during which I walked the beach, drank coffee in the coffee gardens and continued eating from menus that had English translations. I ate some western and some Vietnamese. My long stay in Nha Trang was in part to fiddle away some of the many days I have left before my train ticket back north. I only have about five days of riding to get to HCMC and I had about ten to do it.
Po Nagar Towers
Nha Trang Beach
Sleeping Buddha
Buddha at Long Son
Long Son Pagoda
Feb 6, Phan Rang – 100 km
After a final Mozjo breakfast I was on the road out of Nha Trang by 7:30. These sound like early times, but the streets are active by 6:00. Again I had about 20 kms of quiet hilly ocean front road before merging with Hwy 1. Into the hills I saw two other bike tourers struggling up hill into the wind. I, knock on wood, have finally chosen a ride which is down wind.
Out on hwy #1 I was rocketing down the highway in top gear. There was very little traffic, possibly because it was Saturday before Tet. So I could cruise along at good speed still looking around and appreciating life around me. That is until the road turned a bit and the winds hit me cross ways. Then it was a bit spooky at the speeds I was going, but mostly the wind was directly behind me so it was good.
I turned about 7 km away from Phan Rang to head for the beach area called Ninh Chu. There was supposed to be some better hotels along the beach. I cruised along the beach strip passing a few large resorts and the odd little Nha Nghi, but mostly empty lots.
I finally chose an old place that must have been something in its day, which was quite some time ago. There were some hundreds of rooms spread between about five buildings. A couple of swimming pools and a tennis court. There seemed to be one car there when I arrived. But they said they had a restaurant, which was something I had not seen in my ride down hotel strip. After showering I found a cavernous dining room with about thirty tables, none with chairs. The wind was blowing dust through. But someone came out and we agreed on something that turned out to be fried beef and white rice.
I walked down to the beach and along a nice beach walk, never seeing a soul. I passed a large teahouse resort complex but no-one was home. And I was exhausted, I’m not sure why. Back at my place I had a beer and flopped back on my bed. I woke four hours later at 6:30, in time to get another one dish meal in the big empty restaurant.
Saturday before Tet and no one was here. No idea why.
Feb 7, Phan Ri – 90 km
My start up ride today took me through the heart of Phan Rang, which turned to be teeming with motor bikes, narrow streets and endless markets that spilled out onto the roads. I connected with hw#1 and stopped right away for breakfast, which today was two fried eggs, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. Not bad, but not really as sustaining as Pho Bo.
The wind was just as helpful as yesterday and today (Sunday) the roads even less busy. I can’t stop wondering how I got so lucky with the wind. I stopped at one point and took some rice harvest shots. It seemed like only a few days ago that I was taking rice planting pictures near Hanoi.
In Phan Ri, the road seemed to bypass the main town, so I cut back in to find a hotel. Using Google I rode back north on a minor road about 5 kms to a hotel to find that it was nicely set in the countryside but with no restaurant. Back in on the edge of town, I went up-budget at a place with a few nicer features than normal. I showered and ate in their extensive garden area. I went for a walk along the water-front. No beach access at all here. I had a long afternoon teahouse stop with about 50 locals, and then back in the nice garden area, now under a myriad of lights of all colours, for a light dinner.
This the night before Tet and I don’t see any sign of things going on here. In the big tea-house type area at my hotel there were about 15 servers and maybe three tables of customers. Mind you I do go to bed before most revellers would arrive.
Fishing Boats
Night in Tea Garden
Road side Coffee Stop
Harvest
Feb 8,9 Mui Ne, 70 + 15 km
Today is Tet. My ride began with an escort by the hotel owner through Phan Ri to a bridge that put me out of town onto a new road. Today my whole ride would be on minor (not Hwy #1) roads. Some minor road. It is brand new; four lanes with a big median down the middle. It set out through a semi-desert area. The problem is that I did not have anything for breakfast and there didn’t look like any possibility of hitting the little service strips that are almost continuous on hwy #1. Oh well, I had some water, it was only about 60 km, and it was early enough to be almost cool. The wind had stopped though, so I wasn’t getting the 5kph help that I am now almost addicted to.
After riding on the new road for about an hour and a half I joined an older road and soon found a place where I could buy some peanuts and juice. The road then began to hug the coast until a final climb into the village of Mui Ne. I was heading to Mui Ne because it is billed as one of the beach areas and so I expected to find lots of food choices. I had made a two night reservation online because of Tet.
In the village, expecting to find a tourist strip by the sea, I got into a maze of narrow streets and rode up and down for a while before using my google maps app that pointed out that the tourist spots began about 5 km along the coast. At any rate, I arrived at my hotel at 10:00. My days end earlier and earlier. I have been in the habit of having lunch when my ride is finished for the day. Today I had breakfast to finish my riding day.
Mui Ne is a very different beach experience than the big city – big hotel Nha Trang. Here, at least where my little hotel is, there is a busy narrow road running along with most of the nicer hotels on the sea side of the road and all sorts of restaurants shops and cheaper hotels on the other side of the road. Possibly I will see some bigger resort type places down the road when I head on. In the afternoon of my first day here I walked along for a couple of kms, picking a little restaurant/bar that had squeezed out a beach front. I had a beer and read for a while, watching and listening to the waves pound the retaining wall.
There are lots of places along here to eat, but it looks like I will just stick to my hotel restaurant. It seems to be the most popular spot and there is no end of choice. I walked into one of the fancy resorts and one couple was eating.
After breakfast, my day here, I rode my bike back along the road to Fairy Creek. With about 1000 people I walked in the creek bed up a red and white sand canyon for about three kms. I thought of walking Paria Canyon with George Kinnear. We also walked most of the way in the water and the walls were a deep red. Mind you there we walked three days, today I walked 3 kms. And where I was walking along with countless people, in Paria there was a limit of about 3 parties a day.
I did a further ride back and forth along the strip for a while, finally finding an ATM that topped up my cash. Most bank ATMs here won’t do that.
Fairy Creek
Beach Life for Me
Mui Ne
New, Empty Road
I made a mistake today. I had had no bike trouble at all. But I decided to clean some of the gunky oil off my chain and put new oil on. My tires had not even had a top of the air pressure so I did that as well. Then when I came back from lunch I saw that the rear tire had gone flat, probably too much air. So I had to change tubes. The ones I brought are pretty narrow for my tires and so the first one I put in popped when I was close to the pressure I wanted. I then had to go back to patch the one that was originally in the tire to try to make that work. Now I am spooked. I will be checking things all the time for a while.
I am two days away from HCMC, but I don’t actually want to get there for a few days longer than that. Tomorrow I will begin to hit some junctions that if all goes well I will be able to work my way around the outskirts of HCMC and get into the Mekong Delta without stopping in the city. I have had a real problem finding road junctions within cities here and so that my not work. The problem is that HCMC sits on the Saigon River and I need to find a bridge not too far into the city. We’ll see.
kenmyhre 