Vietnam update from beachy Nha Trang (cycling day 3)
Seriously, I can't type because my left hand is numb from bicycling. A million hours on the saddle does that to you. It's been fun so far, in a rather strange way. We were lucky enough to get on a bus to Bao Loc only three hours after arriving Ho Chi Minh City, and were thus on our way to Da Lat early Friday day morning. 110 km of fun and pain. Grand finale: eight km of steep climbing up to Da Lat. Why on earth are we hurting our bodies purposely? Anyway, we managed yesterday's 110 km quite well. Da Lat to Phan Rang is in fact a very nice and varied trip, including for instance 16 km of winding descent with truely amazing scenery.Today however, turned out less successfully. We would never have managed the 109 km to Nha Trang on our own. The wind set us back approximately 10 km an hour: I didn't manage more than 12 km an hour no matter how hard I tried. After about 30 km, boyfriend turned down one bus on it's way to Nha Trang. I couldn't believe him. Especially considering I had less trouble than him and was moving faster. We jumped on the next bus though and had a nice and crowded bus-ride the last 80 km: the bus filled with Vietnamese people, five or six goats and two other cycling tourist defeated by the wind.
Am I still enjoying myself? Certainly!
Bicycle-tour tip: don't try to get a nice tan cycling, you will only get hurt (yes, I did use lots of high factor sun lotion.
2 Comments:
...biking up to Dalat! I did that by motorbike - the engine nearly broke down. I hope your bikes have as much stamina as you have - the last time I rented a bike in Vietnam it broke down after 5 minutes...
BTW, we're thinking about (comparatively very short) bike excursion on Pulau Ubin, an Island in the Straits of Johor, between Malaysia and S'pore, on the 20th.
You'll probably be in Quy Nhon soon (or am I too late telling you this?) - a few km before the city, you'll pass the Life Resort (right hand side, there's a gate and a guard, then a very steep road down towards the beach - you won't see the hotel from the street, only the gate). If you have time for a short break, this is a nice place for a tea or a lemon juice, or a swim. cheers from Hanoi - stå på...
Too bad we'll now be starting from Quy Nhon, we might not feel like stopping at the Life Resort having just started our last day on our bikes (not counting Pulau Ubin-trip, we definitely up for that!).
Well, that's the future. We still have a few km to go...
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