Bicycling Vietnam

---

I will have to make my travel blogs shorter. The computers here are very slow and I do not have enough time to do my journal entries . . .

Feel free to double click the pictures for a larger view . . .

After Halong Bay -

The next morning we drove 2.5 hours south of Hanoi for our scheduled 2 day bicycling tour in the areas known as Ninh Binh and Tam Coc. This area resembles Halong Bay, but without the sea. The region is full of large limestone rocks surrounded by verdant rice fields. This part of the tour provided us with the opportunity to get off of the tourist trail and into some rural areas of Vietnam.

Our first day, we bicycled 3 hours into the town where our hotel was located. Our second day of biking included biking through numerous villages. Ma decided to take a break during the second half of our PM biking tour. It was during this time us boys had the opportunity to bike through a handicraft village. This handicraft village specializes in carving stone. The villagers are very skilled in creating statues and other large motifs made from marble and limestone. The hours spent toiling under the sun in such extensive labor, some still using chisel and hammer, is mind boggling. They are artists continuing a way of life that existed when the Vietnamese would build temples and pagodas for their emperors. Today, they have the assistance of technology using hand powered tools, but even this is laborious.
We also were invited by an older Vietnamese woman into her home for green tea. We all risked drinking untreated water, but none of us got sick. Our guide, Khan, provided interpretation as we discussed the differences of our cultures.

Our biking tour ended on a positive note. We continued to be blessed with good weather, although humid.
The time spent riding through the rural villages will be most memorable. So many of the Vietnamese children biking or running after us - smiles, laughter and yelling. And the variety of odors - invisibile, yet birthing a mosaic pattern into our cerebrums - of smoke from food or burning brush, animal dung or rotten fruit baking in the sun after falling from the trees above.

Again, not enough time to describe much more. . . Our second day ended with a drive back to Hanoi for domestic flight to the city of Hue. Martyn departed, after 9 days travelling with us, back home to England.

---

Photos

Hang time
Watching us tourists on bicycles

Ninh Binh
The beautiful terrain in which we are biking

Ninh Binh
All them rice fields

Tam Coc area
Continued biking scenery

Martyn . . .
"This map of England is not very helpful . . . I may be lost"

2nd day of riding
Biking through the pineapple farms

Dogs in a cage
Off to be prepared for meals

Comments

[Ma and Pa Sala]

Trip of a life time
This was truly a trip of a lifetime and what great memories we have made. We felt like we were reliving every single moment reading your travel blog. We totally agee with everyone else you are an amazing writer not to mention an amazing son! Let's plan another trip real soon! Love you lots!!!

[PowMow]

Thanks!
Thanks Mom. Costa Rica would be fun - beaching and some sight seeing. This would be for a more relaxed vacation, but with some adventure. On the other hand, another adventure for different cultural experience with beautiful scenery and history would be Ethiopia.