Pale skin? Not me.

Pale skin? Not me.

We are 1,500 kms through Vietnam now, and we have a week left until we cross into Cambodia. Today is our second day off, and our bodies and bikes need it. Our bikes are filthy, and my wheels need trueing from my crash I had  5 days ago. Our bodies need a break from the constant sun and heat, and from getting sunburnt. And we need to give our bodies some decent food. We have lost weight, well size anyway, and have foregone any lunch since our first day out of Hanoi, only eating ice creams and / or yogurt when we can find it. If we can find both Coca Cola and ice cream, then we make ‘spiders’ by mixing them and they go down a treat.

Cooling off after arriving at our hotel each afternoon.

 

The women here are obsessed with being as pale as possible. They cover themselves from head to toe in hoodies, with hats on top, and sunglasses, long sleeved tops, with woollen gloves (  no matter how hot it is), longs, with socks under their jandles. I am constantly told to cover my arms and they shake their heads at my burnt arms. I saw the ‘Miss Vietnam’ programme on TV, they were all very white. I know it is healthy to be white, but I like having a tan, as most white people do. It has nothing to do with being  Muslim and everything to do with cultural norms.

Drying fiber on the road side. I guessing it is for weaving into mats.

 

There are some things that really annoy me about this country, the mistreatment of animals and the constantly being tooted and blasted at by trucks and buses, for no reason, all day; but there are some things I really like about Vietnam. I like the way the women are all treated as equals with the men. They definitely are not subservient. They are hard workers. I  saw an old lady using a pneumatic bolt remover of truck wheels the other day.

 

The other thing I really like is their prowess at growing food. They are the best Horticulturalists I have seen, I suppose it comes from years of providing food for their families in tough times, but I bow down to their skill. I think every rural house has a rice field, as they are drying their rice on the sides of the road and in every driveway and even the intersections of roads.

using the interections to dry rice.

 

And, as a flower lover, the Vietnamese also love flowers. There are Florists in every village and they are skilled flower arrangers, something I totally approve of. I often see scooters laden down with enough flowers to fill several shops. Actually the laden down scooters are a constant source of amazement.

This load was particualrly amusing as we cycled by, do you see Niel?

 

We saw our first other cycle tourists a couple of days ago. They were Dutch, and had a child with them. Now the ladies here - would have been horrified at how brown they were. They really would have attracted attention skimpily clad, brown as berries and white blond hair. Whenever things were not up to their standards though, they just put all of their stuff on a bus, and went somewhere else. Never the less it was great to see them and to compare notes.

A bit of coastline for the first time.

Adventure or is that Mis - Adventure

A truck load of dogs of to the meat market.

Sometimes no matter how hard you try, things just don’t go according to plan. I’m really happy with how I’m cycling and I was thinking that all I have to do is loose some weight and everything will be perfect.

Harvesting the rice by hand.

 

I must have eaten or drunk something that Niel didn’t, and I got the dreaded travellers’ diarrhoea. After some antibiotics and anti – diarrhoea, I felt better, but lost my appetite, and couldn’t stomach any unfamiliar food. Next day, all was going well, we had made it to our destination in good time and we were looking for a hotel. Niel said don’t stop at this one, so I rode slowly by, when I turned around he is nowhere to be seen. I wait about 5 or 10 mins, and head back to the hotel I last saw him, where he told me not to stop. Meanwhile he had given up waiting for me and ridden on as he thought I had gone on without him. We didn’t see each other as we passed on opposite sides of the road.  I waited 3 hours for him to come back to the “last place we saw each other” (our golden rule), He went 30 kms on to the next town, realised I could be anywhere and came back the 30 kms back to the place where we last saw each other. He was livid, that I hadn’t looked back to check he was behind me, so it was all my fault, what do you think.  The next day, it rained all day, very heavy at times, and a few kilometres before our destination, after a day of rain, we were bumping along a very rough road, full of pot holes. You couldn’t see how deep the holes were, and I hit a very deep one, I went over the handle bars. I hurt my knee, right on the spot where I had had key hole surgery a few months ago, and fainted. So there I was sitting on the gravel and mud in the pouring rain with my head between my knees trying to remain conscious, while Niel fixed my bike. Thank god the next day – nothing untoward happened.

Me with my bloody knee.

 

On the plus side, we have completed our first 1,000 kms, and we are half way through Vietnam. We have also reached the touristy part of the country, so there is more people that speak English, and more Hotels.

At the top of our biggest hill so far looking down to Da Nang.

 

Tonight we are in a 5 star hotel and in the lap of luxury.

Animal Cruelty.

Animal cruelty has turned me off meat.

 

As an animal lover I have been shocked to the core by what I have seen here. I know they eat dogs, but do they have to torture them first. The only animal they treat with any respect and attention is the cows. Even the atrocious drivers will slow down for the cows on the road, but not for anything else. Even Niel got hit by a truck while walking alongside the road – on purpose. The driver was aghast when he realise he’d hit a white person. However if he had been a dog , he would have been ignored. No, Niel wasn’t hurt. What I find the hardest to bear is the dogs approximately 10 to a tiny cage, all pushed in so tight that there is bits of dog body pushed out through the bars. They are dehydrated and salivating to try and reduce body heat in the 38 degree heat. These cages are on the back of scooters.

 

There is nothing I can do about it, except bring it to the worlds attention.

 

How to keep cool.

In the first week of cycling, we have worked a few things out. We now know that the word for ice cream is Kem. We now know the way to cool down in the oppressive heat is to use the hose at petrol stations and completely soak ourselves before letting the breeze cool us off.

 

They might have no respect for animals, but they love their children, and are generally  very friendly.

Today we are having our first day off from cycling as I have the runs, combine that with the 38 degree heat, left me very drained.

The only other white people we have seen is an American group here to reclaim lost bones of old vets. We haven’t seen any other cycle tourists.  We have heard of so many people that come here to go cycle touring, but where do they go, we haven’t seen anyone. Lei - the lady here who speaks English says they don't get tourists here, that is why we are constantly stared at, followed, touched in shop queues, and said hello to all the time.

 

Actually I have discovered a great ploy. When you get sick of the people cycling beside you or scootering beside you and you can't get rid of them, you put the brakes on and they go flying past. It works a treat. 

 

 

Coping with heat

Coping with heat.

Pineapple shelters - yum

35 degrees and  85 % humidity, is hard to cycle in. We have noticed that we need a break every 20 kms to cool down or you feel quite sick. It’s too hot to eat, so we drink copious amounts.
although we’ve discovered the shelters that cut up pineapple for you today.  That was excellent. The “sugar lump” karst limestone hills and islands around Halong Bay were very beautiful, although it was hard to get a decent photo as they were sort of misty with the humid air.

Halong Bay

 

At one point the road ended in a inland estuary and all the scooters and bikes had to cross by ferry, incidentally a little later we had to cross a large bridge coming into Haiphong. There was no cars at either of these crossings, where did they go ?

Waiting for the Ferry.

Karst Limestone hills from the Ferry.

Cycling into Haiphong.

We are hoping in the next few days when we get next to the sea, that we can go for a dip in the water. That would be awesome.

Hanoi Madness

Hanoi madness.

I dropped an unhappy Bob off at the cattery. It breaks my heart leaving him, but he’s safe there.

After finishing the chores around the house, Niel and I cycled off to the airport. He decided not to use a helmet in this trip ( I am), so we had to stick to the cycle ways so that the powers that be, don’t issue him a fine. Everything went to plan except for our gear being overweight. Our on board bags were under weight, so we spent half an hour trying to reduce our weight and juggle things around. Niel tricked the ticket lady by holding some of the weight off the scales so that we got within our 23 kg weight restriction.

$200 NZ = 5000,000 Vitnamese Dong

 

It was hot when we got to Kuala Lumpar, and we spent our time looking around the terminal shops and took the sky train, to and from the terminals 3 times to entertain ourselves.

 

We thought KL was hot Hanoi was stifling. Over 30%C, and humid.  It was fine though and not raining. We took a taxi the 40 kms into Hanoi. It was total madness. 4 million people live in Hanoi, and I think all of them are on scooters. No one gives way to other traffic, people merge and swerve all over the place and constantly toot at each other. It is total chaos and very noisy. It was unbelievable the loads these scooters and bicycles carry – everything from whole families to huge loads of say bricks or even whole carcasses of animals. We saw one scooter with 3 pig carcasses on the seat in front of the rider, it was so overloaded the trotters were almost  dragging on the road.

Scooters galore

 

We tried to get some sleep in the afternoon, but it  was almost impossible with the nonstop noise through the open balcony door. It’s night now, but the noise and traffic hasn’t abated.   To be honest, I’m not looking forward to cycling out of Hanoi tomorrow, but I am looking forward to the country roads.

 



crazy wiring outside our balcony window.

Hotel Reception has warned us about a storm that is coming in a couple of days, they have closed all tours of Halong Bay when we will be there. We will just have to play it by ear, and take it as it comes.

I've come full circle.

This time last year I was in such pain, that the only way I could carry on cycling was to take the cleats off my cycling shoes, and take my clip - in pedals off and change them for toe strap pedals without the straps. One year has passed, two operations endured, and I have put my cleats back on my cycling shoes, and now ride with clip in pedals again. This has obviously made me very happy. Not only can I ride again without pain, but my operations were a success.

All three bikes with clip in pedals and a coating of winter mud and grime.

It has cost all my savings, but been well worth it. Thank God for 2 years worth of holiday pay owing, or I wouldn't be having a holiday in 2 weeks.

It has rained almost constantly for 2 weeks now. It is cold and dreary, but we know we will be rained on in Asia so we have been out in the rainy muddy conditions training, and getting used to being wet.I am sure the warm tropical rain will be much nicer than winter conditions, so we should be well prepared.

Asia here I come. I have been looking through my photos, and reading the diary of our trip around the US in 2010. It has helped me get in the right mind set. All the ups and downs - literally. Cycle touring is a roller coaster of emotions. It is also amusing to watch me slim off. I lost 20 kg cycling the US. I'm sure in the tropics I will lose weight again, from sweat as much as from exertion. You will need to follow my progress to see.

Extra daylight hours.

I seem to have been very busy lately. I know, I know....... who hasn't. The short days of winter restrict the use able hours down to between 11am and 4.30pm. Getting things done in these hours are a bit of a rush. When out on a bike ride, you know you have to turn around and head home no later than 2.30 or 3 at the latest, or you get caught in the very cold and dark of early evening

The setting sun a few kms from home.

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I had to make a rushed trip to Christchurch last week to see the surgeon for my post op check up. It was lucky I managed to get there. Both highways out of Nelson were closed due to flooding and mudslides. The powers that be, managed to get the northern then eastern route through Blenheim and Kaikora opened just in time for me. It was very dramatic with paddocks under water and debris stuck in the top rungs of the wire fences. The river was huge and wild. There were still patches of flooding to drive through. There were uprooted trees and forestry logs all over the road and 3 expensive looking cars who had tried to cross the flooding and had floated away into the paddocks and into the edge of the river. All of them were festooned with debris and mud. On the way back home again the other road was open again, so I went that way via Lewis Pass. The paddocks were muddy quagmires with no blades of grass left. There were a great many mudslides. The bizarre thing is how localised it was. Nelson was unaffected by the rain, and the east coast was warm and sunny.

My little rental car and the warm and sunny Kaikora coastline.

The top of Lewis Pass with my walking stick.

The normally placid Maruia falls after the flooding.

My trip was followed by a full week of work, covering a work colleague on holiday. It's been a busy month, no wonder my leg's are more swollen than they should be. Never-the-less, I am cycling well, doing good distances and plenty of hills, I would like to get strong enough to ride off the saddle.

Yesterday Niel and I did a lovely ride of 90 kms in perfect winter weather over 12 hills of various sizes. I'm feeling strong and the important thing is I have no pain what so ever, which means the operations have worked. I can now use the ball of my feet again. I can't wait to see what I will be able to achieve now.

Niel and I having a break at our turn around point, Riwaka wharf.



The view behind us - looking across Tasman Bay back to Nelson.

The days are definitely getting longer. But in just over 3 weeks we will be in S.E. Asia and back to short but tropical days.