We spent yesterday finding bikes. We met a dude that spoke English fairly well named Son. He’s an awesome guy and a total hustler. Son proffered some pretty sad looking bikes. We told him we weren’t interested. Being an excellent salesman he told us he had better bikes at his shop. All we had to [...]
Yesterday we hit up a mechanic to get new rear tires and various mechanical problems fixed. Mechanics here are everywhere and very cheap –a typical repair costs about 20,000 Dong (US$1).
We rode north east and then south to Vung Tao a resort town that caters to Vietnamese (not Westerners).
The ride was excellent. The roads varied [...]
So far the greatest distance we’ve ridden in one day was about 230km. We were in Pleiku yesterday and Hội An seemed just within reach about 350km away. We could theoretically do it if we really got up early, pushed hard, kept our breaks short, remained foolishly optimistic, and had no mechanical trouble. It would [...]
Hội An was a great town although a bit touristy. The waterfront is very beautiful.
We all went to the tailor’s and got ourselves some custom suits made overnight. The tailors in Hội An do not sleep.
We left Hội An yesterday morning for a relatively short 120km ride to Hue. Almost immediately we got separated. My [...]
We left Huế and engaged in another death march of about 350km. This left us in Vinh which is generally described as a overtly centrally planned, decaying communist industrial complex by the tourist books. The map Grady had brought showed a ferry going from Cừa Lò (about 20km away from Vinh) to Hải [...]
On our first morning in Hải Phòng, we asked the receptionist where to grab the ferry to Cat Ba island and headed off to the appropriate place.
As soon as we got there someone in a booth next to the road flagged us down and tried to sell us tickets to the ferry that was leaving [...]
