Sage on sail

These two places are the most significant places in Cambodia if you are interested in old temples. Siam Reap is the tourist town that feeds the people into Angkor Wat. More on Siam Reap later.

One of the smarter things we have done, and we haven’t been that smart in our travels, was take a local taxi in from Siam Reap’s new airport to the main centre and our hotel. During this 45 minute ride we got talking to the driver and ended up negotiating our schedule for our 5 day stay. We’re only on our second day and so far our arrangements are working.

We headed out to Angkor Wat this morning at 0830hrs and visited only 2 temples, Preah Khan and Preah Neak Poan . We decided to start our exploration starting with the smallest and visiting the biggest and main temple on the third day when we plan arriving for sunrise at 0600hrs!

What we were not prepared for was the scale of Angkor Wat. The immensity of this old civilization is awe inspiring not only in its complexity but also in its size. It’s truly awe inspiring and clambering through the ruins and seeing the work that went into building the temples boggles the mind at the amount of resources that were needed to bring this place to reality. It is actually the worlds largest religious building. There is absolutely nothing to compare in its scale.

I don’t do it justice with a few photos but I can only say that if ever get to this area of the world stay and enjoy this place.

The picture above is Mr. Met, our driver for the next 4 days. The jitney we will buy off Mr Met at the end of our trip and bring back to drive tourists through Oak Bay!!

Tomorrow? Another day digging through temples. I won’t say the whole day because we ourselves are old temples and in mid 30 degree temperatures we’re almost done by 12 noon and plan on retreating to some air conditioned facility to ourselves to some cold umbrella drinks. See you tomorrow

We escaped the madness of Ho Chi Minh city after a couple of days and headed down to the Mekong and Can Tho. Glad to get out of the city and into a smaller less insanely intense environment. The hardest part about Vietnam for the tourist and, I imagine, the resident, is the constant barrage of sound and the intense commercialisation of everything.

One has to admire the success of Vietnam. It’s only been about 45 years since the end of the American war yet the economy seems to be booming, the Vietnamese are buying scooters by the truck load and everyone is an entrepreneur. There’s not a place in the country that looks different than the place one just left behind. The same stores and markets selling the same stuff and, some of it, made in Vietnam. Every street bustles with small shops selling everything from children’s toys to fruits and vegetables to e-scooters. It’s ubiquitous from one end of the country to the other.

Along with all that is the madness on the streets. Scooters going everywhere all the time weaving in and out of buses, cars and trucks. Here’s a video taken while sitting in the barber shop waiting to get my hair curled!

Yeah we had just returned to Ho Chi Min from Can Tho and Connie figure this was a good place to get my haircut – took him literally 2 minutes to finish the job. Kind of knew what was coming after watching two previous customers get stripped! Wow…however my main reason for posting this was that the next pic is a video of the traffic outside the barbeshop at rush hour – phew (big blank here trying to figure out how to get a video taken from Connie’s apple phone on to my tablet – aargh – I did it finally)

Okay, so how did we get from Can Tho to Ho Chi Minh – amazing – they do have this incredible bus service on ‘sleepers’. They are double decker buses with lie down beds similar to a business class seat on an airplane. For $15 we had a 3 hour sleeper to take is from Can Tho to Ho Chi Minh City. The following day we were headed Siam Reap.

Here are a couple of photos of the sleeper – why can’t we have these in Canada?

There are hundreds of these buses going everywhere in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Okay on to Angkor Wat

This museum is in Ho Chi Minh City and I took pictures of some of the pieces I liked. Here are a few of them. I do have photos of the markers for each piece with the name of the artist and title of the piece. Most of the pieces are lacquer but there is one done on silk and one done on aluminium.. Can you guess which they are?

Yes, I’ve neglected posting for a while but it’s been busy, busy, busy.

We finished the marathon cycling. I say marathon as but the time we made it to Hoi An the temperatures were starting to climb and by the last day coming into Ho Chi Minh temperatures were  in the mid 30’s and the humidity was high, high, high.

Usually, we cycled 15-20km before there was a break. Breaks consisted of lime juice, fresh fruit,and nuts. This was all supplied by the tour company. In the high temps and humidity,  it was great to get a break in the shade, but once one stops then one becomes drenched in sweat. It’s a relief to get back on the bikes and feel the breeze generated by biking but still….

Finally, after the last day of 65km, we were bused in to Ho Chi Minh city,  and after a farewell dinner, it was all over. I have to say it was an amazing group. There were 12 in all; 7 Brits, 2 Americans/Quebecois, 2 Canadians (ourselves) and 1 Austrian. We all enjoyed each others company, had no major issues, and all lead by Son a great leader.

We’ve been on our own now for a few days and have made it as far south as Can Tho in the Mekong Delta. In a few days it’s off to Siam Reap and Angkor Wat.

Here are a few pics:

Breakfast has been included and every hotel we have stayed at and here are some of the choices:

Just wanted to clear the air on some misconceptions that might be out there.

Yes, we are in Vietnam – that’s the first one. Secondly, we are not  cycling every kilometre between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Yes, we are cycling bits and pieces of the highway between these 2 major cities. Intrepid (the company we used for this trip) has done an excellent job on giving us an overview of Vietnam. We are sometimes on the bike and sometimes on a bus which basically follows us for the journey and also sets up break stops for us with drinks and snacks.

We have had a really good selection of places to cycle. Most of the routes chosen by Intrepid have been back country routes interspersed with major urban centres.

We’ve been to places such as Mai Chau, Ninh Binh, Hue, Hoi An, Quy Nhon and Nha Trang. We have stayed in homestays and hotels with each and every one of them having been well chosen to satisfy the needs of everyone. No one has complained about the accomodation.

One more misconception I want to mention is that yes, we are riding electric bikes. It’s not a misconception that we are the oldest ones on the route but we have cycled in every instance and in every condition and every mile.

Our last adventure was to cycle up the Ha Thanh river. It was an incredible day of cycling covering 100km!! It was also amazing because in one of the last typhoons of the season it was devastated not only by the typhoon itself but by the flooding that came after. There was ample evidence of the destruction from ruined farmland to debris scattered not only on the ground but in the hydro lines, in the bamboo, railway bridges and in the trees.

The 100km day has been our longest and we were very glad to have our 2 days in Nha Trang. Here we are now. We spent the day with the group out on the water on a local fish boat, eating, drinking and enjoying the day.

It’s now dinner time!!

Phew! Am I ever glad the day is over. Leaving Hue after only one night, we were warned that it was going to be a long day.

On the road at 0730hrs and everyone groaned but complied! We were gathered at the front of the hotel and instead of a trip on the bus to get out of town we mounted our steeds right on the dot of 0730hrs –  no laggards suprisingly enough.

The day included cycling out of Hue, a cycle though the rice paddies then a 10 km ride around a lagoon followed by a 10km straight uphill section with no breaks and then 10km downhill where we would be picked up a dropped off at the hotel in Hoi Ann. All together at 90km cycle ride and an elevation gain of 500metres!

Oh god, are we all going to make it! Slow ride out of the city through the rice paddies and the shrimp farms

A stop at the market

Lunch and then a trip around the lagoon.

And then the gruelling 10km straight up hill – unfortunately no pictures of the group at the top. With 5 on ebikes and 7 on pedal bikes everyone made it. Everyone got cheered as they completed the uphill grind. I was too exhausted to get up off the ground but the thought of 10km downhill got me excited and up off  my ass.

Finally arrived at the hotel at 1900hrs with everyone stumbling off the bus and staggering up to their rooms to get ready for dinner and bed. Thank god we all chose a restaurant only 500 metres from the  hotel.

And here are a few odd pictures from around Vietnam

Our day started with a departure time of 0730hrs. That meant get up early enought to pack the bags, have breakfast and pay any outstanding bills!!

Departure 0730hrs

1.5 hours of bus travel

16km of cycling till coffee break

another 16 km after coffee and then a break for lunch

phone dead

2 hour bus drive after lunch

another 20km and we reach the homestay. Pile out, unload luggage, sit around and chat with a beer or….

Find the bed — one big room for everyone! 12 of us sleeping together. Yes, our one homestay, then back to hotels.

Of course we missed our afternoon nap and we’re ready to crash but dinner at 1830hrs so have to be patient and am sure will crash soon after.

Tomorrow – repeat. Yes, first a bus trip of 1 hour, cycle for four with a coffee break then lunch. Another 3 hour bike ride till we clamber back in to the bus for another 1 hour ride in Ninh Binh and our hotel.

They keep us working – never a slow moment and we’re exhausted already and have another 7 or so days.

A few pics from the previous 2 days.