Jan.30/08 Hai Phong-Hanoi 110km 16.5km/hr. We both found the ride a bit long to Hanoi. The road was flat though and you're separated from the road traffic by guiderail most of the way on a dedicated bike/cart lane. G was still just fighting her cold and my tank just felt a bit empty. We got away late from Hai Phong so couldn't afford to take many breaks. We met a nice young French couple cycling out of Hai Phong! Alexis and Charlotte were 4 months into a year-long journey around the world and were on there way to Halong Bay. We rode with them until the fork and had some nice chats and photos! Anyway, Hanoi has been a blast! We're staying in the old quarter-lots of winding streets with people selling anything that you could ... read more

Jan.26-27/08 Cat Ba Island (no riding) Took a 4hr. tour/ferry to Cat Ba island which was awesome cruising through the karsts with stops to visit a really cool cave and a floating fishing village. Met some really nice other tourists on the boat(strange seeing other tourists all over the place after not really seeing any since Hong Kong!)-- some grad students from the UK who were teaching in China and were on a break and Eveana and Julie from Oz who had been in Thailand and were not digging the cold dreary weather here too much-lol! Mr. Son from the hotel who'd arranged the tour told us that we'd be arriving close to Cat Ba town on the island ("a short bike ride") but in reality it was a 2hr. hilly 30km ride away and we ... read more

Jan.24/08 Mong CaiTien Yen 88 km 15.9 km/hr Really nice relaxed ride today along hwy 18. Although on the map it looks like a sort of coast road you never really see it that much and if you look closely you're actually probably anywhere from 1 10km along the way. It was also a lot more hilly than we'd expected with lots of 10% grades but really fun as none of the hills are very long and you're usually rewarded with a fun downhill! Relatively early on in the ride it's tea country-really nice rolling hills of plantations! We came up over a hill into a little town that had all sorts of tea vendors/cafes and at one of them they were really waving and calling us over so we decided to pull in as it ... read more

The riding from Siuxi towards Hepu was good. Mostly smooth roads(hwy 325) but still very overcast and cool(10°C) with heavy morning fog. Lots of waves and honks of the bike horn as usual as we are quite a spectacle going through little villages and towns where they would rarely see western tourists at all-let alone on bicycles! We didn't get quite as far as we'd anticipated as I once again had rear tire issues :(. We pulled over when it sounded like I had run over something. Sure enough there was about three inches of wire sticking out of the centre of my tire. It hadn't flatted it yet and didn't seem to want to pull out easily so we just snipped it off. A few mins. later there was more wire and upon closer inspection ... read more

So, we've spent the last three days exploring Hong Kong and find ourselves pleasantly surprised at how much we've enjoyed it! It's easily one of the easiest cities to get around via public transit that either of us has experienced in our travels. Definitely lots of boat travel with ferries etc. They have an excellent pre-paid card (octupus) that can be used for most forms of public transit (other than taxis) and can be re-charged easily. Any remaining balance can be refunded before you leave as well-so charge that thing up and explore!! Some of the highlights were: checking out a little fishing community on Lama island, taking a cruise through Victoria harbour on one of the last remaining authentic wooden sailing "junks" in HK, taking a bus up to the peak mall high above the ... read more