Vietnam

Vietnam first impressions, hot, sweaty, lush green, with friendly gentle folk everywhere.

As you cycle through the cities you battle with scooters, cars and pedestrians to get to where you're going. The traffic moves continuously in an unbroken stream, parting to get passed you, like water around rocks in a river, you never slow down, you just dodge each other, looking left, right, in front and behind, as you wend your way to get across, "stay sharp" I heard myself say - a real hoot.

Villages are equally exciting, especially at school closing time. Hundreds of bikes ridden by kids dressed in crisp white shirts with red neckerchiefs, heading towards you, on narrow dusty roads lined with all manner of stalls spilling goods and people into your path, whilst trucks, farm carts and, scooters with their drivers balancing enormous loads, hurtle up behind you - there is a constant buzz of horns and people shouting!

The wiry, sun tanned villagers sit squat by the roadside, cooking and mixing giant pots of steaming broth, chewing the fat, repairing scooters, welding broken farm equipment, playing cards look up to say hello.

On the sleeper train, as the sun shone through the window in the early hours we drank tea with condensed milk out of plastic cups, followed by chocolate muffins.

A nine hour delay from Manchester meant I missed my Doha connection, arriving in Ho Chi Min city twenty four hours late without my luggage - agh no cycling gear!  After two overnight flights and endless hours in airpots I was pooped - my luggage arrived four days later.  In the interim I bought a pair of shorts and a teeshirt, not the best fit, they're not big blokes in Vietnam.

Two, 100 klm days, over high passes was great fun.

The first over the stunning Hon Giao Pass (2026 m) took us into lush vegetation where at the top the low cloud shrouded us in heavy rain.  But worth it the down hill was fantastic - 25 klm's all the way down. Leaving the rain behind it opened up into panoramic vistas of distant mountains, passing tumbling streams and waterfalls as we flew down hill.  Dropping it down a cog I peddled frantically to catch Colin and Randall, but they were too quick as they leant their bikes over to get round the hairpins at speed.

The second long day, over the historic Hai Van Pass, included a 500 m vertical height gain mountain in 10 klm, to take us to an American bunker used during the Tet offensive. The guide said the record was 30 minutes, so with the bit between my teeth I dug deep and peddled hard all the way.  I did it in 43 minutes not bad considering 30 mins was for elite riders on road bikes.

The days flowed seamlessly into each other as we cycled, singularly, in pairs or as a group. We soaked up the sounds, the smells, the noise, the views and the people like as  sponge - cycling gets you into what a country is really like.

Exploring beautiful cities like Hoi An, Saigon and Hanoi, walking through the markets to buy stuff, eating in tiny little places drinking the local beer '333', 'Saigon' and 'Huda" - it was all great fun.