Settling some misconceptions

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!!