28 December 2011 - Ho Chi Minh
First full day in Ho Chi Minh City we went for a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels which were an extensive tunnel system used by the Viet Cong in the American War. It was interesting to here about the history of these tunnels and how people lived in them for years.
The tour also Cai Dao temple which is a mix of a bunch of religions and was cool to see the temple as well as get to witness the service where the choir is very haunting and beautiful.
29 December 2011 - Ho Chi Minh
Went to Ben Thao Market to wander and to have lunch. Talked to a french girl who has an internship in Hanoi and was just down for a couple of days.
Then headed to the Reunification Palace. The palace had amazing furniture! I was enamored by it. Wandered by and around another building but don't know what it is...it's a pretty yellow french style building.
30 December 2011 - Ho Chi Minh
Went to the Post Office, Cathedral, Opera House and Town hall in the morning. Only went into the first two. Then headed to the history musuem hoping to see a water puppet show but they only perform if there are 10 people and we only had 5 so no luck. I then went in search of the Jade Pagoda but didn't find it. Pretty sure it was on the other side of a 6 lane roundabout and couldn't muster the motivation to cross.
So I went to the microbrewery I had read about. Had a dark beer. Good substitute for a pagoda!
31 December 2011 - Ho Chi Minh
Today was New Years Eve got up and ran some errands since it was the last day in the city. Then headed over to Chinatown. Both John and I felt that we had to ride at least one cyclo when in the city. So today was the day. We negotiated a price and were off. It was fun to be able to just enjoy the city slowly while not worrying about traffic! No crossing the street while walking or negotiating traffic while biking. Nice and relaxing. We got dropped off at the market prior to realizing that we didn't know where the market was! So we started to wander, just as I had stated that pagodas do not exist (I believed they were made up so you would wander by all the food stalls and stop) we came across a mostly demolished/refabbing pagoda. My theory was wrong. With hope revitalized we found a beautiful pagoda with the roof covered with beautiful sculptures depicting different scenes.
We then took a city bus back to our neighborhood and relaxed with a fresh fruit juice drink prior to decompress in the room for a couple of hours. We headed out for a burger...as we don't know the next time we with have the opportunity and then went to the corner stall for cheap beers. It was a great location to sit and watch the scene go by! The little “bar” normally had 9 or so tables and could fit 20 people....tonight the bar kept expanding until they ran out of chairs. This meant that people were soon sitting in what was once a vehicle lane! This was happening from both sides so it seemed that the number of scooters and cars had dramatically increased but most of it was that the lanes had reduced by half.
The street vendors were walking with silly string and what looked like shaving cream so you had to watch your drink so it was covered in foam. The nice thing was that as the bar expanded we ended up being in the middle instead of on the curb.
1 January 2012 - Ho Chi Minh to Dalat (Bus)
Took the bus from Ho Chi Minh to Dalat. This morning I finally figured out what the ladies in the guesthouse were doing! They had lights that they shone on what appeared to be dried fish and were picking tiny bits of black out of it to leave a clear jumble of tissue. When we were paying I looked at the cabinet that I took up the entire wall across from the ladies and in big letters it declared “Birds Nests”...they were cleaning birds nest for consumption! Never guessed that one and didn't notice the sign earlier because I would always be looking at the strangeness making it a game of what it could possibly be.
All of the bus employees thought that putting the bike under the bus was quite a thing! Once they were safely aboard the security guard gave me a smile while shaking his head in disbelief. I found out this morning that my chain was not only dirty (which I knew) but had rusted...so getting off the bus I needed to do some quick lube to allow the chain to move freely and then we started into town.
We knew that there was a flower festival going on but since most budget hotels aren't listed on the internet we took the approach of just arriving and finding a place. As we biked into town I was astonished at the amount of people! It seemed like we were in Ho Chi Minh for NYE again! A german man tried to call his hotel for us but it wouldn't go through so he suggested a street for us to go on and gave us directions. After searching a few places we found a little hotel for a reasonable price.
2 January 2012 - Dalat
Went to the “Crazy House” today and it was amazing. Pretty much what I dreamed of for my dream house. The only problem is that the railings for the stairs are below my center of gravity which I couldn't have...but it gives it a prettier look. The main buildings are built to look like trees. They have little cubbies everywhere. You can actually stay in the rooms of the different houses but I don't think it would be relaxing because it opens for tours at 7:00 am. Each room has a theme and the new pagoda style house will be complete in 2015ish.
It was a lot of fun to wander through this architects vision.
One of the tree buildings
Staircase on new temple building
looking at the ox head
Me at the front
Creepy Kangaroo stove in one of the rooms
John showing how low the railings are...looks good but doesn't feel good
Beehive bathroom
Then headed to the old King's palace. Personally my favorite part of the trip was the ice cream prior to entering, along with the creepy bunny sculpture, and being topped with me being UNDER charged! I felt this was karma telling me that it was okay to get swindled every now and again
It started to threaten rain so I spent time reading and doing bike maintenance prior to heading for dinner.
After having soup and a delicious hot soy milk with a pastry we headed down towards the lake. There were tons of stalls showing their flowers. It was amazing how many different orchids they had displayed! There were feathery orchids, green orchids, small, large, pink, red, purple, spotted, white with pink, yellow, and many others. Along with the orchids there were pitcher plants, cactus, bonsai trees, and roses. The bonsai's were in bloom and had cute white or pink flowers.
As my allergies have caused me to lose my voice and make it harder to breath we are waiting another day to leave so we should be able to see more of the flower festival and see the train station.
3 January 2012 - Dalat
Went around the lake. Was going to go into the flower festival but it looked unshaded and super busy so I went and sat in the shade to look at my map and realized how filthy Mabel was so I had an impromptu cleaning session prior to heading up to the train station. Then went to the cable car...which I failed at getting a ticket as I didn't understand what was going on. I believe that the next return trip was at 1:30 and it was prior to 11:00 but am still not quite sure. Since I was at the top anyway I took pictures of the surrounding area and headed back down the hill to eat a picnic lunch at the lake.
It was a pretty day and even though the lake is an odd shade of green it was nice to sit in the shade and have the ice cream man come around and get my favorite treat.
Then headed with John to a cafe as both of us lost ambition to go do our planned afternoon activities. Then had a major bike maintenance session where I found out that my front brake wasn't working!? Luckily another cycle tourist showed up at our hotel and had seen a bike shop (located at 329a Phan Dinh Phung). I went down and found him and pointed to the problem and stated that my brake didn't work. He immediately saw the problem and went to work fixing it....it was awesome to have bikes as an international language though he did speak a fair amount of english. Highly recommend his shop as he was awesomely nice!
Tonight was the last night of the flower festival and we once again headed down to the Central Market to see what was going on and grab dinner. We had another type of soup and this time I had a peanut milk which was great.
As we walked around the festivities we noticed a new set up and went to look at what was new. There were free samples of Dalat wine available. We tried a couple but as none of it was exceptional we watched the pop star sing for a bit, received lyrics and music to the festival song, and then headed back to the hostel since we were getting up early to start the ride.
4 January 2012 Dalat to Phan Rang - 110 km
Starting in Dalat I was surprised at how much pollution there was as I hadn't noticed it in the days prior. Now that I was on my bike and with a chest cold I could feel it a lot. Started the day with some climbs. Stopped at this cute little cafe which had a courtyard underneath and there was a litter of puppies running around. As we climbed we entered a beautiful section of mistiness with the pine trees turning mysterious and a lady walking on the opposite side of the road in a rice hat. Great visual.
Continued climbing and started a descent when John got a flat. We fixed that and then were preparing for the last major climb of the day when we continued to descend. It turned out we didn't have one more climb but the descent wouldn't be easy! It was on a road that switched from paved to bumpy gravel with mostly switchbacks so going was slower than on normal descents. Needless to say it was a beautiful ride as we went through the pine forest and could see the open rice fields with a hill jutting out in the middle. Not much traffic so we could enjoy the gravel without too much dust. One of my favorite things is that all the motorbikes turn off there engines for the descent so it sounds like more bicycles coming by and then you see it's a motorbike.
Pine trees
Random mountain shrine
/View of the road we will be snaking down
John riding ahead
Stopped at a cute little food stall and had delicious rice dumplings in a sauce and one of the ladies tried to convince us to get spring rolls but I was stuffed and couldn't fit anything more in
As soon as we were back near the rice paddies the heat set in and the last 20 km were pretty but I was ready to be off the bike.
Back to the rice paddies
We stopped at the first hotel we saw to look at the room and John said it was dingy and windowless so we went on a hunt for more. We had plenty of time so we went over the river but that ended up being an industrial area. Prior to the river there was a hotel but it looked nice so we were hesitant to go to it but we decided the worse they could say was it was too expensive. As John went to look at it I made friends with the local girls playing in the park. John came back and with good news...same price as the other but great view and awesome bathroom! We tried to get my friends to let us take a picture but they we shy and scattered in giggles when we made actions of photos.
All in all probably one of the top 5 days of cycle touring. Great scenery, lovely people, really can't ask for much else.
5 January 2012 - Phan Rang to Nha Trang - 100 km
After yesterdays awesome riding and people adventure I was in a great mood though a little tired this morning as we headed out for another long day. As we started we had a massive headwind! Even with the wind and being on Highway 1 it was a beautiful ride. Seeing the mountains in the background with people working in the rice paddies and passing ox and pony driven carts it brought a whole new appreciation to Vietnam for me. Especially as people were intrigued by our riding bikes. Also, until about 45 km out of Phan Rang Highway 1 was not very busy so was a pleasant ride.
Cham Tower along the way
The wind died down a little after a few hours but was still present throughout the day. In Cam Ranh we turned off hoping there was a bridge to the airport...luckily there was. As we turned onto this road we could see the sea again and there were little fishing houses scattered in the bay with the mountains in the background.
Fishing huts near Cam Ranh
The rest of the ride was on an eery road as the road was built prior to any development. To the point that there were 2 drink stands for 40 km. The road was a 4 lane highway with a manicured median but no amenities. It was very interesting to ride on and look at the access roads to the beach with nothing around! Needless to say very little traffic was on the road and it was a peaceful ride.
Big road intersection to nowhere
Got into Nha Trang and John picked another amazing hotel. On the top floor (w/ elevator) with an amazing big balcony looking out at the sea and the other side to the city. Plus it actually has 3 beds. I have already used the balcony multiple times and we just got here today.
Anyway, we kind of starved ourselves today due to no amenities on the last road so when we got into town and saw a sign for a cheap cheeseburger and fries we were sold. Greasy, fatty, calorie ridden is exactly what we needed.
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