Gordon Head

And we’re off again! On Wednesday, 8 February, Mike and I are headed to Vietnam for a couple of weeks. We were a little late off the planning blocks for this trip so what started as my vision of luxury cruising somewhere exotic in Asia has morphed into 2 weeks of cycling in Vietnam. Vietnam certainly was on our list of places to visit . And we considered a bus-style tour but thought cycling would put us more “up close” to the sights. Cycling around Europe self-guided is no problem but Asia is a bit different where absolutely everything from language, to customs are very foreign so we are booked on an Exodus tour for this adventure.
Our schedule,once on the ground, includes 4 nights in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and approximately 2 weeks with a group seeing the sites and cycling. We leave from Hanoi. Vietnam is 1600 kilometres north to south and only 50km wide in some places – looks like an appendix, for the medical types. So we have a lot of kms to peddle. Looks like we take a van for longer stretches and then bike the more scenic parts. The trip is fully supported meaning there is a van and driver in the near vicinity ready to transport our weary bodies, as needed. This is very appealing given the expected heat, humidity, long rides and terrain on some days. I am booked to have an e-bike – which I expect will be quite popular given the average age of participants on Exodus trips. Mike is on a regular bike ( noone is surprised, right?) but he swears he plans to make liberal use of the van if the riding gets too tough.
As we prepare for the trip my thoughts turn to plumbing – mine and theirs. On my last trip to these parts, I had an unpleasant 48 hours after taking a drink with ice. Mike insists he never gets sick because he always chooses a safer beverage- beer. I’ve pre-loaded my suitcase with water bottles with special filters, Pepto-Bismol tabs – recommended by CDC as a good preventive measure - and a range of other pharmaceutical remedies. In truth, probably the greatest risk to life and limb will come from the traffic. We are packing bike helmets and I will take a mirror which helps when weaving in and out of people, cars, tuk tuks, animals etc. An Exodus policy is that everyone must demonstrate they have comprehensive travel insurance – not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.
We know a number of good friends who have been to Vietnam recently and they rave about the wonderful people and the food. So it should be another great adventure. First up is an excruciatingly long flight from Vancouver through Taipei to Ho Chi Minh City. We lose a day going. We fly with a new airline, Eva Air and have been told that they are very good so if I can’t fly KLM (Mike said we could, in fact, fly KLM but it would take 4 days to get there) then Eva Air seems to be a good option. The Vietnamese currency is the Dong and it is 25,000 dong to one US dollar. So I’ll will spend some on the long overseas flight practicing my “25,000” times table.
Concerns about COVID seem to have receded. We worried a great deal about COVID when we traveled in the spring and never caught it. Then we ignored it entirely in the fall and Mike caught it. Oh well. C’est la guerre.
A quick administrative note. If you are registered with Find Penguins, you may get this twice – once from me and again directly from the website. Please let me know and I’ll take you off my email list.
More to follow from Ho Chi Minh City……. Heather (Mom)Read more