• Wandering Again
  • Augie Brinker
Oct – Nov 2018

Vietnam

Augie and his Papa head to Vietnam. Read more
  • Trip start
    October 10, 2018
    View from the groundsNancy and Jacob chugging up the hillHans and Sophie on the Buddha bench with Buddha ottomanAugust messing around.

    Augie Gets an Idea

    September 24, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Several weeks ago Augie asked me if I wanted to join him for a portion of his 'gap year' of travel. "You want to meet me in Saigon and ride motorbikes up to Hanoi?" It took me about a millisecond to decide that I probably shouldn't pass this one up. Having been married for almost 30 years, and not wanting to repeat the same mistake made by Pop some 50 years earlier, I knew that I'd need to consult my spouse first. "You can't pass this one up," was Nancy's response. By the time I got back to Augie he'd already found my round trip ticket for $477 and found a reputable place to rent our motorbikes.

    So in two weeks we're off on a new adventure. So far Augie has made all of the arrangements. We're planning to stay in Saigon (yes, that's what most people still call it) to acclimate, visit a friend from his days at Hampshire College, and collect our motorbikes. The plan is to spend three weeks riding 'Uncle Ho's Road' up to Ha Long Bay. We'll then spend a couple of nights sailing on a junk and kayaking around the islands. The last day I'll fly back to Saigon and Augie will continue on into Laos.

    Should be fun. Will definitely be an adventure.

    Here are some links to a few of the sites he's used for trip planning thus far:

    http://vietnamcoracle.com/ho-chi-minh-road-the-…

    https://www.tigitmotorbikes.com/

    https://youtu.be/rLUp_wkkTYM

    http://halongphoenixcruiser.com/

    In the meantime we were able to get up to Bolinas to visit Sophie and Jacob in their new digs. They're settled in nicely in one of the most idyllic places on the planet with free housing and money thrown in. Sophie's already seen Francis Mcdormand walking around the Commonweal conference grounds where they work. Here's a link to the place and you can see some photos below: https://www.commonweal.org/program/nat/
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  • All the gear for a month of riding
    Dinner with Don and MaryPerfect conditionsShop vac dates and gravelNancy's Nespresso Pixie with Peets!Choosing my t-shirts for the journey.

    All Packed Up

    October 7, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Lots of hellos and goodbyes this week. Made it back to Quaker Men's Coffee, the Redwood Community, and Friend's Meeting. We also had some pleasant dinners with good friends. It has been nice being back.

    Augie and I got out paddling with friends Greg and Alexander. We headed out searching for Parasitic Jaegers and chanced into a pair of Humpback whales. I keep forgetting how much life there is out in the Monterey Bay.

    Spent a couple of days catching up with the yard work. Five hours using a Shop Vac to clean the copious dates from the gravel. One of those things one cannot possibly have imagined growing up in the Midwest. We've also set up a trellis for some new bougainvillea plants.

    Augie has been busy setting things up for Saigon and studying for the GRE. We now have an Airbnb with a nice balcony street view and parking for our bikes. $25 per night.
    https://abnb.me/X9Ayp6PpPQ
    We'll spend the first three nights there before beginning our ride north.
    Funny, the last time we were on motorcycles together was in Sri Lanka with Sophie and Nancy. We'll be missing them on this adventure. Here's a link to remember that epic trip!
    https://hansandnancy.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/r…

    Yesterday I surprised Nancy with a Nespresso machine. It is just like the machines we used in Amsterdam and Ghent the past couple of summers. We've been together pretty much every day for the past two years of traveling. I figure about 770 out of 780 days. It will seem strange to be on the road without her. We've grown dependent on one another as we've been traveling. I'm sure she's feeling a bit off being left behind too. Good thing I'll be traveling with Augie and at least she'll have really good coffee!

    Flights leave Wednesday out of SFO. Next note will be from Ho Chi Minh City!

    Tạm biệt
    Hans
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  • Things have changed
    Somewhere over ChinaChase Sapphire Reserve Priority Pass pays off!Hutong replica in terminal EView from the IbisA little bleary.

    27 hours later...

    October 11, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    A little bleary, worse for wear and tear we arrive in Ho Chi Minh City.

    Nancy drove us to SFO for our flights to Saigon. Augie and I had different itineraries as he'd made his reservation in mid-summer and he'd found mine just a matter of days ago. So. We texted one another from layovers in different Chinese airports as we made our way to the other side of the world. As usual the Priority Pass lounges were the best! Augie was even able to shower. The food in Beijing's lounge was special. (I promise to not take too many food photos) Beijing also had a replica hutong neighborhood right in the center of the main terminal. I guess they're feeling nostalgic now that they've pretty much razed them to build high rises. See photo...

    As I taxied along the runway on arrival in Ho Chi Minh City I was feeling a bit sick to my stomach. The images and footage of the last days before the fall of Saigon with people clamoring to get aboard the last flights out were running in my head. We ought to have played those tapes for the Iraqis and Afghans before they signed up to help us out. I was also thinking a lot about Dad and his brother and their trip here in '69 to treat civilians. Not to mention cousins Doug and Dennis and their considerable deployments here. Mind blowing that this is now half a century ago.

    Anyway, I arrived at our hotel at around 2am and Augie followed at 3:30. The view from the window leaves little doubt that we're in Southeast Asia. The Starbucks in the lobby was a nice touch this morning. Things have changed.

    This afternoon we're off to get a couple of sim cards before checking into the Airbnb.
    Tomorrow we pick up the motorbikes.
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  • Ho Chi Minh City

    October 14, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    Augie and I checked into the Airbnb and chilled for most of the weekend. We hit a few tourist spots and took a few walks around the busy city. One tourist destination allows one to go down into the caves that the Viet Cong used to undermine American efforts. My brother Will shared that when we bombed near the caves they would backfill the craters to get rid of the dirt dug from the tunnels. Vietnam has been a Socialist country since the end of-what they refer to as-the American War. It is sort of hard to tell this is a communist country as there seems to be more unfettered free marketeering going on than back in the States. Everyone has businesses and side businesses. The country has followed China's model of late.

    These days 8.5 million people live in Saigon. Like Amsterdam, they each own at least one two wheeled vehicle. The difference here is that they are scooters rather than bicycles. Scooters are ubiquitous. They have their own lanes and go by their own rules. Riders are frequently up on the sidewalks to gain the advantage of being at the head of the pack at a traffic light. At an intersection scooters take their left turns from the far right lane; cutting in front of the line of cars, trucks, and busses to get where they need to be. Crossing the street as a pedestrian is an act of faith. Somehow a person steps into swirling traffic and manages to make it to the other side. It all just sort of works. Pretty wild.

    Here is a video of the maelstrom that we took from the second floor of a burger joint.
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/tpsycCt3N7iLkBN48
    Here's a sped up version:
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/NGasUFTu3kMe6tPq7

    We hit quite a few restaurants and cafés during our stay. The coffee culture is amazing. Cappuccinos everywhere. Vietnam became a major producer back in the late 80s. That's part of what led to a worldwide coffee glut that undermined the Central American economies in the 90s. Farmers were left with little choice than to pack it up and head to the States for work. Did you all know that one of the biggest 'build that wall' proponents, Representative Devin Nunes, employs mostly undocumented workers in his family's dairy businesses? Go figure. We even visited a couple of brewpubs. East Meets West had pretty good food and an excellent Belgian blond ale. We noted that the same meal and brew would have been three times the price in San Francisco or Amsterdam.

    Augie was able to connect with his friend Minh from his college days. Minh now works in an architecture firm in the city. They went out for a traditional noodle soup. Minh's family also owns and runs a stall at the central Ben Thanh market.

    Saturday we visited the motorbike rental agency to set up our rides for the next month. They are semiautomatic Hondas with racks to carry our gear. When we arrived they brought down two brand new bikes. We pick them up first thing Monday morning. Don't think they'll look this nice at the end of our 1200 mile tour...
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  • Riding out of Ho Chi Minh to Cat Tien

    October 15, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We picked up our bikes and rode 200km to Cat Tien today. Getting out of Ho Chi Minh City was uneventful. Our experience riding in Sri Lanka two years ago really stood us in good stead. (otherwise we might have been a little freaked out) Several miles down the road we came to a river ferry crossing. Augie had done his research and we each had the correct fare tucked away. This kept us from holding up the boarding line too much.

    The first 100km was relatively urban. Just as in Sri Lanka the roads are lined with houses and businesses most of the way. We stopped for coffee about half way to our destination. The Café owner recommended a place for banh mi sandwiches. By the time we got to the place it was closed. Bummer. We rode on with empty stomachs. The second hundred kilometers the roadside transitioned to rubber plantations anf rice paddies. Much more pleasant. The last 20 we rode some nice curvy stretches up toward the mountains.

    At Cat Tien we pulled into our inn, the Spirit Garden Guesthouse. https://goo.gl/maps/WTC2PtgsDhG2
    The owner met us with a cold orange juice and led us to our riverside bungalow. It's a little buggy, but really serene. Plus at $13 a night, who's complaining? At dinner we met Nick, a Brit who has been leading motorcycle tours here for the past few years. He gave us some awesome tips in routes and accommodations as we head north.

    Over the next few days we'll try to set up Augie's Gopro to get some riding footage.
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  • Geared upSuspension bridge Dak Krong riverDray Tac Sap Falls

    One Week and 300 miles in

    October 17, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Two days of riding.

    Beautiful roads.

    Beautiful scenery.

    Beautiful people.

    One bad hotel.

    One good hotel.

    Not too sore.

    All is good.

    More photos and a couple of videos here:https://photos.app.goo.gl/MbemxJnouzKnwzyN6Read more

  • Augie does like a little luxury.
    WhatsApp with Nancy and SophieKon Tum RoomCafé IndochineWooden CathedralCoffee Break

    Long Slog and a Day Off in Kon Tum

    October 20, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Augie had warned me about this section of the trip. It involved a really long, highly trafficked, relatively geographically boring 220 km slog from Buon Ma Thout to Kon Tum. We started the day in a relatively modern 15 story hotel in Buon Ma Thuot. Augie took the following time lapse from our window.
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/YZMRmdDLyyNcAgpF8
    I took this one with a little more traffic noise.
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/rMMfQp5gKMiH1vCw6

    Along the way we stopped for coffee and a call home. Sophie patched us in with Nancy on WhatsApp, so for a little while we were all on the same page. BTW, we are pretty much able to communicate and take calls on WhatsApp all over the country. So if you want to check in in person, give us a call. Just make sure to double check the time difference first!

    Kon Tum was a bit more interesting. We stayed in a hotel that served as a hospitality training site for young people from the area's indigenous villages. All good in concept, but the parent organization and managers are French. I'm not sure if I've ever been in a restaurant, hotel, or shop run by the French that could be described as warm and hospitable. Sort of an oxymoron, unless one counts the wonderfully welcoming French who originate in Algeria, then all bets are off. Augie felt that everything was actually pretty well run and that I am being harsh and chauvinistic toward the Gauls. I have to agree that the young people in the program were trying their best and largely succeeding.

    The indigenous tribes in the central highlands were introduced to Catholicism by the French. Church buildings dot the landscape. The villages also sided with US forces during the war, which didn't turn out so well for them after hostilities ended. Every once in awhile there are demonstrations with demands for more control of area resources that are dealt with pretty severely by the government. The government believes that US and European entities are fomenting this unrest. Because of this it is not recommended for foreigners to visit remote Villages without a guide and a permit.

    In Kon Tum we were able to get the oil changed in our bikes, which took 10 minutes and cost a whopping $5. We also visited the architectural award winning Indochine Café. The use of bamboo as a natural building material was impressive. Here's an article about the place that brother Will forwarded to me: https://www.archdaily.com/392710/kontum-indochi…

    Tomorrow we're off toward the coast through the mountains. Should be a lovely ride...
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  • Kon Tum to Kham Duc to Hoi An

    October 20, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We spent a couple of days riding from the mountains to the sea. It was nice to get back on the bikes again. Beautiful, smooth roads through mist shrouded mountains and really green terraced valleys.

    We bumped into a couple of Bay Area guys riding bicycles north to south.

    Our overnight in Kham Duc was a pleasant taste of Vietnamese small town life. Not many tourists around. Place had been a major base for Special Forces during the war. Good to see it had returned to normal. The food was definitely 'farm to table'.
    Video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/VYHLg5wSNRSQzAsUA

    We took a side road into Hoi An through the Binh Dinh valley that varied from barely single track four lane highway. Again, a major place of battle during the war, actually in wars for a few millennia. Battles against the Chinese and battles between various Vietnamese dynasties. This area has again returned to normal with the exception of a lot of bomb craters and stone memorials scattered through the fields.

    A little side road took us over a suspension bridge.
    Video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZXw3x6KmP1jAFJqR8
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  • View from our digs
    Getting done up.Half way to a Mumbai weddingBan Mi SandwichAugie outside of the Bourdain placeFull Moon Festival Boat

    Hoi An

    October 22, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Hoi An.

    We've taken another day off from riding to rest and go into tourist mode. Hoi An is quite a destination. It is built on a delta with rivers and canals wending their way around and through the town. It's an old city with lots of old buildings and new trendy establishments for eating, drinking, and shopping. Throw in the beach (which we didn't get to) plus a ton of European tourists and it really is the whole tourist package.

    We checked into a four star place overlooking a verdant stretch of river called Riverside Villa Oasis. The staff has been super friendly. Plus the place cost $20 a night. Go figure.

    Hoi An is also one of the centers for Vietnam's clothing industry, so there are tailor shops everywhere. I was thinking that with a wedding to attend in Mumbai on the New Year, Augie and I should take the opportunity to up our game with some bespoke threads. So we did...

    For lunch and dinner we took a Grab (Uber in Asia) to old town to track down another place made famous by the late Anthony Bourdain. This one's called Phuong Ban Mi and it was busy and delicious. Here's a link to the back of the kitchen: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wBcG1JNfNF4yjfDx7

    At night the place lights up with quaint old paper lanterns reflecting off the water. Tonight was the Full Moon Festival which is extra special. Our friend Mary Howe is going to love this place...

    Tomorrow we're off on another ride up the coast to the ancient capital of Hue. Supposed to be magnificent.
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  • Beach at Da Nang
    Descending Hai VanClimbing Hai VanA little side roadSand Spit of Tombs

    Oh My God! What a Ride!

    October 23, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Yesterday we rode from Hoi An, through Da Nang, over the Hai Van Pass, through the City of Tombs, and into Hue, the Imperial City. What a ride.

    Da Nang is a hugh city with a beautiful beachfront. Third largest city in Vietnam after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. Getting through it was a chore. Once through it the main road A1 splits. One section enters a long tunnel through the mountain. Most of the trucks and cars take that route. The other, older route climbs up and over the mountain in a series of breathtaking switchbacks. The Hai Van Pass. Here's a link to a short video of our experience: https://photos.app.goo.gl/47nufLKydgxqqyM16

    The shot with Augie in his buff is taken where the guys in Top Gear stopped to take in the magnificence. Top Gear was a car show hosted by three British guys. In one episode they were sent to Vietnam to buy vehicles to travel the country. https://youtu.be/tMnPtQc2pok. The joke was that were only given enough Vietnamese dong (7,000,000) to buy used motorbikes. The main hack, Jeremy Clarkson, hated motorcycles. The Hai Van Pass is where he learned to love them. Enough said.

    After the Pass we split off the main road and headed up a sand spit running some 50 miles. The whole area is completely covered in tombs. Everyone in Vietnam seems to aspire to being interred in this place. Mile after mile. It is a bit creepy. The route is also a favorite of some of the bicycle tours that run in the area. We must have passed 100 cyclists in one 10 mile stretch. Good thing it wasn't too busy. One group of young travelers decided it would be a good idea to take some photos in the middle of a bridge.

    In the afternoon we arrived in Hue. Augie worked on his grad school applications and I took a nap. Not bad...
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  • Hue

    October 23, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    We stopped overnight in the ancient city of Hue. In the early evening we visited the Citadel and the old, walled Imperial City. The light was nice and the square kilometer place was nearly empty. We took some nice shots.

    Tomorrow we're off to Dong Ha and Quang Tri to meet with an NGO called Peacetrees Vietnam. This province, just below the 17th parallel and the DMZ was heavily bombarded during the war. Peacetrees does unexploded ordinance removal, trains elementary school kids how to stay safe, builds schools, and assists farmers with agricultural models to help them keep up with the changing global market. http://www.peacetreesvietnam.org/
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  • Our ride
    Two new PeacetreesPresentation by the De-mining team leaderThe Grace Kindergarten Khe Sanh

    Peace Trees Khe Sanh and Dong Ha

    October 25, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    This morning we woke early for a busy day with staff from Peace Trees Vietnam. Van Ahn Vu picked us up at our guesthouse in Dong Ha and drove us to their main in-country office just outside of town. Their US office is in Seattle. Along the way she explained that the organization has five main components.

    1. Clearing the land of unexploded ordinance
    2. Building and staffing preschool kindergartens and training school kids to be safe in the countryside
    3. Providing scholarships to kids or adults in families where the main breadwinner has been injured by unexploded ordinance
    4. Encouraging rural families to plant small vegetable gardens on their land
    5. Agricultural consultation with area farmers

    Their main headquarters doubles as an office and training center for area kids. She explained that the organization busses children from the provinces most affected by the presence of unexploded bombs, grenades, and mortar shells. These areas are concentrated in the two provinces closest to the Lao border and along route 9, the east/west highway most heavily defended by the US during the war. Van Ahn also asked us to plant two trees in the forest around the headquarters. It seems when they began, with the normalization of relations back in 1995 they asked all visitors to plant trees on the then barren land. Now it's a forest and we planted the two latest saplings. Now the kids who come to the training center also camp out in the forest. Pretty cool!

    After our intro we got back in the car and headed up to Khe Sanh where a demining team was busy clearing several hectares of land. The work area was adjacent to three previous US bases. The team used a sophisticated grid pattern and series of markers to slowly run metal detectors over the land. It seemed it would take them about one and a half days to clear about two acres of land. With the teams thay have operating at present Van Ahn noted that it would take about 300 years to clear the whole areas most effected. Seven years to plant the seeds of destruction and 350 to clean up the mess. I wonder how long it will take in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan. This doesn't even take into account the armies that we profit from selling weapons to. During our visit they found two unexploded bombs from a cluster bomb that had failed to detonate. Augie took a video of the detonation here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/G3aTnXtR4SEFGvAm8

    Fortunately our day wasn't over yet. Next we drove out into a village adjacent to Khe Sanh to visit a kindergarten. The money for the building came from a church on Bainbridge Island in Washington. Hence the name, Grace Church Kindergarten. Each kindergarten that they building has a main schoolroom, kitchen, bathroom, playground, and library. The kids attending are between three and five years old. Each kid gets a meal during the school day. Most of the kids are from local indigenous families and are not able to speak Vietnamese when the arrive. They are staffed by teachers paid by the government. So far the organization has built 10 kindergartens. If one is interested in funding a school, the cost is around 30k. A video taken during the visit is here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/44YG1mKP9vXrPtVv7

    All in all a pretty good day. Augie and I both think we've found a really solid place to send some funds down the road.
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  • Khe Sanh to Phong Nha

    October 28, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Khe Sanh to Phong Nha. Phong Nha is right in the center of some of the best riding on the Ho Chi Minh road. This section is very remote and mountainous. It is so remote that our small tanks were barely enough to make it between petrol stations so we had to carry coke bottles full of gasoline to bridge the gaps. Look for the bottles bungeed to the backs of our racks in the photos. The road is mainly one lane concrete and skirts the Lao border most of the way. People see very few foreigners here and most of the kids waved excitedly as we passed by. The way is absolutely gorgeous as rises and falls through mountain passes and unbelievably verdant valleys. Seemed like every turn brought another breathtaking view.

    Here are a some links to short videos of the day's ride:
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/dGR7RzobCPcHAy337
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZBSM25FrhEmWfAoGA
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/B7WBgUxnQniYH5Ne8

    Along the way we saw pigs, ducks, chickens, water buffalo, cows, cats, and dogs in the road. In these indigenous mountain villages no protein source is left off the table. I'm afraid Augie and I have eaten some suspect banh mi in the last couple of days.
    Also, as in most places in Vietnam, the seating is child sized. (see last photo)

    The route was so beautiful I've also included a link to the day's photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5AbXqZS4N5N2jFvZA
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  • Three long riding days
    Amusement hotel?Dry and dusty ridingLiverwurst included in the cup o noodles!Bun Cha KitchenI think my next home will look something like this...

    Slog North to Ninh Binh

    October 31, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We leave Phong Nha and the first 100k are much like the last. Beautiful.
    Masterpiece of a road here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NMdg9YJBqLHkPAfe8

    We continue north toward Hanoi. The landscape changes. Small towns breaking up the long rural stretches give way to long inhabited strips that seem to go on forever. The main road is in pretty good shape and we're able to log some miles. The side roads that we take for color are heavily populated, dusty, and broken. The riding is hard. My kidneys ache from the harsh, bumpy, pitted ride. Our eyes feel gritty from the dust and exhaust fumes. We stay in two hotels that are 'the best in the area' according to Booking.com, but they're really both just surreal. One is in the center of an off season amusement park, the other at a busy crossroad town on the road out of Laos. There are no other guests in these places as far as we can tell. The restaurants for dinner are bad enough that we opt for Cup o Noodles in the room. We can't read the noodle cup so we end up using the translator and pick out one that says 'ham'. Turns out it comes with an unrefrigerated tube of liverwurst...

    Things are looking and feeling somewhat bleak. Then we ride down a side street off of a detour and pass a sign saying 'Bun Cha!'. The place is packed with a lunchtime crowd; mainly groups of middle aged women. This has to be good. As Augie and I take off our helmets they all burst into laughter at our expense. The proprietor prepares our rice noodles, shredded pork, fresh greens, slices of mild ginger. All is wrapped in a rice paper and dipped in a fish sauce.
    Assembly video here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RUp8FfZHSbpjtKqj8
    It is delicious. She even comes over and slices up our rice noodles into smaller clumps when she sees us struggling with the chop sticks. Given the general merriment in the room I'm guessing this is what they do for little kids. Things are looking up.

    The last little side road we take as we approach Ninh Binh is one of the best yet. It is one lane of concrete smoothness threading along at the base of some beautiful forested mountains.

    Yes, things are looking up as we pull into our last stop before Hanoi.
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  • Breakfast on the terrace
    Bai DingNo photos allowedAugie on his way to the ancient pagodaEgrets returnSunset over the nearby mountains

    Tam Coc

    November 1, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Today we woke up in Tam Coc near Ninh Binh. We are spending a few days here just touring around. It's quite nice to stay put for awhile. We're staying at a homestay run by a very pleasant family. The room is $20 with a breakfast on the terrace included. Tam Coc is a World Heritage site based on its unique landscape and cultural history. It is described as 'an inland Ha Long Bay without the hordes'.

    We spent the day visiting the Bai Ding temple and pagoda. It is the largest Buddhist complex in Vietnam. We mainly hiked around the grounds and reflected on our experiences here. At one point we discussed my observation, gleaned over the past few years of near continuous travel, that tourists the world over seem to not be a happy lot. No one smiles. Very few people will initiate conversation to 'break the ice'. It's not at all what I recall from my pre old fogy days. It's especially evident in countries like Vietnam where the people do smile, are curious, and generally pleased to meet you. To have tourists generally walking around in perpetual scowls is quite the contrast. Augie thinks it's a matter of timing and context, citing the youth being more friendly in the hostels he's visited. He did note that they all seem to 'put on a serious game face' when out in the street. More to keep the people at bay, he says. We both agreed that it could be social media. People research an experience and expect it to be as it has been portrayed by countless others. Genuine contact and interaction with people may be anathema to the experience. Anyway, Bai Ding was quite nice.

    In the evening we watched the egrets return to their roosting sites as the sun set over the nearby mountains. Dinner was at a place called Chookies. Good wood-fired pizza and beer. Ahhh.
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  • Trang An Caves near Ninh Binh

    November 2, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Augie and I got up early yesterday to ride to the nearby Trang An caves. We needed to get there before 10am when the tourist busses come in from Hanoi. As it was, we saw very few other boats during the tour. It's pretty cool in these tour sites. There are perhaps a thousand boats, each belonging to an individual. It's much like in Phong Nha where each family in the area seems to have a boat and is able to share in the money coming in. We're told that here they filmed parts of the recent movies 'Indochine' and 'King Kong'. I don't think that we saw either film, but I'm sure the cinematographer had an easy time picking beautiful shots.

    We shared a boat with a couple from Prague who recommended Moravia and the villages along the Elbe as a destination for a cycling holiday down the road. Better start planning, only three days left in Vietnam...
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  • Successful Venture this Vietnam Ride
    Our Front StoopRiding to Dinner past the town burn pileOn our way upFrom the summitAugie made it!

    More Tam Coc and Ninh Binh

    November 4, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Spent the last couple of days just relaxing. Tam Coc Sunshine Homestay is the name of this place and the family that run it are some of the most thoughtful, nicest people ever. Augie's been working on his grad school applications and I've been kicking around. I was able to get a soak and massage at a recommended place called Huong Sen in the nearby city of Ninh Binh. Person was all of 4'6" and inordinately strong. Still feel rather relaxed as I write. Last couple of dinners have been special. Bun Cha here at the hotel, and wood fired pizza at a place called Chookies Beer Garden.

    Here are some videos from our recent rides in the country:
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/bSXBNVBxSWGtiiZa9
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/nKWwML26MRKy8LiW6
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/yvDdcnsUcnhd2VZ46

    This morning we woke and rode over to a place called Hang Mua. It is a 500 foot climb up to a statue of the Buddha. Sun baked. Both of us were winded and a little light-headed after the climb. Augie reminded me that riding motorbikes is tiring and takes some endurance, but it is not cardio!

    Can't believe we only have a couple of nights left here in Vietnam. Last night we had a beer and the host took our photo toasting to a wonderful trip and beautiful sunset on the veranda.
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  • Hanoi rental offices$5 for extra legroom!Seeing Hoi An from above

    Well. What a month that was!

    November 8, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Our last day riding was a microcosm of all the day's rides from the previous month; a little highway, a little dirt, a country lane, villages, small cities, beautiful landscapes, and one huge city. The day was also the most sketchy of our ride. Two trucks approaching fast, passing side by side and forcing us off of the pavement. Twenty minutes of rush hour on a single lane road with cars, scooters, and bicycles approaching and again leaving us little room for error. Becoming separated in Hanoi traffic (the first and only such moment of the whole trip) and making it to the rental offices on our own. Ending our day sitting in little plastic chairs by the roadside and toasting to the conclusion of a great adventure.

    I am so glad that our son invited me on this trip. One of the very best months of my long/short life.

    For a link to an epic riding video that Augie put together click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XWjSiI8HIQ91ut…

    For a link to all the photos and videos from the trip click here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8FYSak6LfHJyEmvd7

    Augie has moved on to Chang Mai Thailand and will be utilizing a live/workspace as he finishes up his applications for work and grad school. I'm now back in Santa Cruz. Yesterday Nancy met me at the airport with a kiss, flowers, and snacks. She fed me a delicious dinner, helped me unpack, and generally treated me like a king. This afternoon I meet with Don for lunch. This weekend we enjoy an outing in Elkhorn Slough with friends. Saturday we visit Alma to plan for Thanksgiving. Sunday it's back to QM. The nice routine.

    And next? A whole, new adventure begins just one month from today when Sophie, Augie, Nancy, and I meet in the Delhi Airport.
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  • Trip end
    November 12, 2018