Author: bethstapleton0201@gmail.com

We have a two day riding break now as we are shuttled to our ship “AU CO” below. We spent an overnight on board with a quick kayaking the next morning. At night, we shared a dinner on board with Graham and Chris from Australia.

The next day, we were shuttled back to Hanoi to catch the overnight train to Hue . We had dinner in Hanoi first in a hot restaurant on the third floor. We had “Bun Cha” (soup with meatball & beef” )and “Nam” (spring rolls). Loved it.

On the overight train, we shared Cabin 10 with Graham and Chris. We were joined by Elena (CA) and John (UK) as we polished off 3 bottles of wine and some Tiger beer. Everyone kept poking their heads in our doorway as we were quite loud. A couple guys from New Zealand stopped by and gave us some moonshine (29%) they got at one of their homestays. Beth and Elena tasted it and after that it was time for bed.

Today our guide decided to scale back on our miles. We only did 45K. Although there were no big climbs, we did do 1500 feet in elevation but it wasn’t hard compared to the last 3 days.

We arrived at the Emeralda resort which was a pretty cool place with a huge pool, etc. Before dinner, we did a quick boat ride to see limestone cast cave. We are all pretty beat up at this point. Tomorrow, no riding. We head to Ha Long bay.

Today started with a hour long boat ride across the reservoir to our next starting point. We did another 68K. The steep climbs continued today just not as many as yesterday. We did travel through some nice backroads. The rice paddy field below with the mountains behind it was spectacular.

We took a quick stop to see a chopstick factory where they make them out of bamboo. The amount of manual labor used, the incredible speed and the mind numbing monotony was unbelievable.

The day ended with another insanely long steep climb.

Our day ended at the Pu Luong retreat where we enjoyed a nice dinner and rewarded ourselves with many glasses of wine.

Fun fact: every where we ride we are greeted with little kids smiling at us from the side of the road or from inside their house and saying “hello”. If I was to count, I would say this has happened about 600 times already…….and we are still not tired of it.

Today was the hardest day I’be ever had cycling. It was one “long” “steep” climb after another. Although this group looks old, half the group are very strong cyclists. Not everyone was able to ride the whole way this day and used the van for some relief. I did well until the final steep climb of the day broke me and I had to walk my bike up (the walk of shame). I think it was around 68K. I don’t know what the elevation gain was but it was brutal.

We all stayed in a Muong long house for the night along the reservoir. All of us slept on mats on the floor in the same room.

Hopefully tomorrow won’t be so hard.

Today we pull out of the outskirts of Hanoi and head northwest to to the Ba Vi resort. Riding with the cars and motorscooters was a little unnerving but didn’t feel unsafe.

We had a delay at the bike shop waiting for Beth’ s and Chris’s ebikes to arrive. Beth had trouble adjusting to this e-bike as she felt it was pushing her when she started to go. No better place to work out the kinks than the city streets of Hanoi.

We stopped for lunch at a forgettable hole in the wall restaurant and had fried rice noodles.

Stopped in a rice paddy field to get a lesson on growing rice in Vietnam by our guide, Cuong.

Our ride finished with a steep 4.5 K climb to the Ba Vi resort. It was the hardest climb I’ve ever done. Felt like 12%+ grade the entire climb. Total miles today was 68K.

We finished the night with our group dinner at the resorts outdoor restaurant.

Today we have the day to ourselves until our 17:00 meeting with World Expedition’s cycling tour group. Our quest is to see the “Hanoi Hilton” that Senator John McCain was in and to also find some rambutan fruit.

Mission accomplished (including finding a rambutan) Had a good morning exploring (getting lost) in the old quarter of Hanoi. We got pretty good at crossing in traffic too. Fun fact: traffic lights, one way signs, etc are just a suggestion here. The most people we’ve seen on a motor scooter at one time has been 5 so far.

We had our group dinner tonight outside of Hanoi Centre at a family that does cooking classes in Hanoi. The group is mostly from the UK and Australia. At our table was Elena from Canada, plus Graham and Chris from Australia.

Headed to Hanoi today. Excited and tired. The Japanese are so polite. They make you feel like royalty. I’m going to miss that. I’m also going to miss my friend “Pepper”. He gets me.

Looking at the photo below, I know what you are thinking…….I want to party with those two! Actually, we are not real doctors, we only play ones on airplanes…….get me 750 milliliters of “Pinot Grigio” STAT!

Finally arrived in Hanoi. Checked in to our 3 star Skylark Hotel. Fun fact: when you approach a roundabout in your motorscooter, you can go to the right and follow the traffic pattern or turn left and go against the traffic. WTF!

We spent the night walking around the Old Quarter of Hanoi. We had our first taste of Vietnam tonight. I washed it down with a Tiger lager. Last time I had a Tiger beer was in 1979 when I was in Malaysia. Still good.

We initially had a non-stop flight from Newark to Hong Kong and then after spending a day in Hong Kong we were scheduled to fly to Hanoi. Those plans changed 2 days before we were to leave (due to the coronavirus and flights being cancelled because they were not full). We thought we dodged the bullet when we re-booked to a Newark-Tokyo-Hong Kong flight. Then 1 day before leaving our Hong Kong to Hanoi flight was changed and was no longer an option. F#@K!

We then spent a half day re-booking to avoid Hong Kong entirely (I’ll spare you the details). We think we are now set to get to Vietnam (although neither of us actually think we are going to be able to get home as our return flights need to go through Hong Kong!).

After a 14 hour flight we are settled in and looking forward to a 6 hour flight to Hanoi tomorrow.

Today we rode along the Vecht river in the province of Utrecht along bike paths.  We saw canal boats, beautiful homes as well as high speed cycle groups go flying toward us. It is totally flat. We rode around 35 – 40 miles today. We even got to ferry across on section of the ride.

Along the way there was a 200 year old windmill that we got to visit.

 

We stopped for lunch (and a tour) in the Muiderslot Castle.

 

Riding into Amsterdam was interesting. Luckily for us, it was Sunday. It can get pretty chaotic when the bike paths are crowded. Tonight we have our final dinner on ship as well as a canal boat cruise.

 

Today was a 23 mile ride along the Rhine river from Bohn (home of Beethoven ) to Cologne.  We are now in the beer part of Germany. We had lunch in Cologne with the local Kolsch beer served in small glasses (not the big mugs you see in the Bavarian region).

The tradition (started in Paris) of putting locks on a fence when a couple gets married is everywhere  in Europe.

The cathedral in Cologne is the third highest holy building in the world. We stopped to say a few prayers and light a candle for Brian. They started to build it  in the 1100’s and it took 600 years to build.

Tomorrow we ride to Amsterdam.