Monday: I started Monday with my usual Banh Mi – crusty roll with egg – in a small street food stall where I got chatting with Vietnamese family who spoke English…and who paid for my breakfast! It’s lovely when hospitality like that is extended to us travellers 😊
The ride was only short today on account of starting late due to a work related commitment but….it was an incredible day of cycling. After having noodles and omelette I hit the road – it was stinking hot 🥵 and the first 8k was straight uphill! But as I crested the climb, I was again greeted with another great vista….this time the mountains gave way to the sea. As I turned west towards Vung Tau the wind was on my back and the scenery just got better and better. The road hugged the coastline, which invariably meant some great descents but some stinkingly hard climbs, but with the ocean to my left and the wind on my back, I didn’t care. The road surface was so smooth and options for eating plentiful. I passed through some touristy towns with a growing number of international travellers on motorbikes, and countless groups of tourists using a popular option of a Jeep hire. I arrived at my evening stop very tired but utterly content, which was capped off by a sunset on the beach not 100 metres from the homestay I rested in for the night. One of those days when riding your bike is pure delight!

Tuesday: I had hoped today would be a repeat of yesterday, but I was disappointed. Whilst the route followed the coast for most of the 100k, it was drab and deserted, and kind of unsettling to see how Covid has wrought havoc to otherwise bustling resorts (one can assume they were pre Covid). I went through whole resort ‘villages’ which were bereft of any signs of life. Kilometre after kilometre the same story was retold, with half finished buildings and resorts, offering up a feeling of an unending ghost town. Maps.com also messed up again, this time sending me off down a road for a few kilometres to a bridge I needed to use to get across the river, only to find the bridge ….no longer in use 🤣…so back I went! It added another 10k in total to my tiring day but …you just gotta get on the pedals and ride!

And whilst it was incredibly hot today, so not a pleasant day for riding ….and you won’t hear me say this too often…I loved the cool sea breeze headwind, as it kept things reasonable, unless I was crawling up one of the countless short but nasty climbs when I was going so slow there was no wind!!

I met a couple of fellow long distance cyclists with fully loaded bikes – he was from the UK and she from the Netherlands (and thus declared she hated hills….I had to break some bad news to her!). They are doing south east Asia for a few months, then he was off to a supported bike ride across Norway….from one extreme to another! I’ve met surprisingly few long distance riders this trip but when I do it’s a real treat to hear about their journey, and swap war stories!

After the thriving resort towns of yesterday, to see the harsh reality today was shocking.

My final full day of cycling in Asia was a 70k coastal ride which pretty much replicated Tuesdays ride – in short, boring! Until I got to Vung Tau when the traffic suddenly erupted in to utter chaos. On far too many occasions I had too close a call for comfort…..to recall but one….a fully loaded moped on which the driver (assuming there was one) could not see behind him to check before launching in to the road….just launched in to the road completely unannounced. If I had been a car or bus he would have been crushed. That’s the idiocy of the driving here. Brain dead driving! With relief I got to the hotel after finishing my ride on the promenade….a beach full of tourists enjoying the evening sun. I met up with Tim, a guy I’d met three weeks ago at the cabins by the National Park….we shared a drink and chatted about our respective journeys.

Fast and Furious…
On Thursday I got on the Vung Tau to Saigon city centre ferry – a two hour fast ferry boat trip, infinitely less stressful than trying to cycle in to Saigon ….memories of Bangkok….! It was an amazing experience- it was a small ferry and trying to get Bob on to the ferry as it bobbed (excuse the pun) and bounced around on an equally unstable gangway was hilarious! Having cleared the harbour of Vung Tau the ferry powered its way up the estuary to the city centre, with the river traffic incrementally increasing in line with the emerging high rise and water rubbish….it stank! The ferry drops you right in the centre of Saigon….what a sight to see. Just as anticipated, the traffic was off the charts! But surprisingly it was actually perfectly ok to cycle in …..I have learnt to simply push through and ignore everyone else because….you snooze, you lose. I got to the hotel unscathed 😊. In the evening I met a small group of cyclists who took me go a rooftop bar to see a wonderful sight of Saigon at night.

On my final day in South Asia I got to the airport with plenty of time…,as it turned out I could have stayed in the city for a few hours more as my flight was delayed! Vietnam…..the gift that just keeps on giving!!

I arrived in Sydney 4 hours late but incredibly….so did Bob! Dave, my pal from school days, picked me up and drove me to his family home in the Northern Beaches.
I’ll stay with Dave a few days then I’ll hit the road to Adelaide via Melbourne. Some more testing days ahead but looking forward to it very much.

For the past week I was high in the central highlands at the Sivananda Yoga retreat. This was an experience which I knew would challenge me. All that was ‘normal’ would be changed – from the food I ate, to the structure of the day, to the chanting and sitting on the floor, being out of my own control and being ‘directed’ by others as to what I could do and when I had to do it. Each day started at 6 with an hour and a half of meditation, chanting and a ‘lesson’, followed by a bowl of rice soup or porridge. Yoga followed for two hours, then ‘brunch’ – veggies, tofu, soup, water. No coffee or tea. No sweet things. Then we have an hour of ‘karma yoga’ where we are assigned a task to do to help keep the Asram clean -Lu and I were assigned to keep the main yoga hall and chanting area clean. We had a bit of spare time then before some fruit, then a two hour ‘workshop’ on the core principles of yoga and meditation before a two hour yoga-fest. Evening meal was at 6 then the final hour and a half of meditation and chanting, lights out by 10:30. This was our routine for the 5 days. I rode to centre through an incredibly beautiful winding mountain road which curled around a lake. After the initial ‘shock’ of the transition to a ‘monastic’ life it was incredible how you get in to the rhythm of this life of silence, chanting, reflecting, and listening. Yes, it was a long day but it was immensely rewarding and personally challenging. I loved the chanting- I have always lived Gregorian chanting and this sounded similar. I didn’t do so well in the yoga 🧘‍♂️- for a beginner group getting us to stand on our heads on day one was a bit much. I bailed on the yoga half way as it was just too painful with my back and shoulder injuries. I started to ‘get’ the meditation after the second day and loved having moments of ‘thought-less-ness’- simply calming a noisy mind and not thinking or engaging in thoughts, just being still, quiet and undistracted. What I loved most was not having my phone on! I also liked how the core yoga teaching has so much resonance to IFS work I’ve been engaged in.

After the week of rest then a week of retreat, it was time to hit the road on Sunday. It was a shock to the system! I had a 121k ride which I had seen on the profile was predominately downhill. And a tailwind! The road I took to Da Lat was the first part of the ride but alas…..the mountain road had been ‘resurfaced’ in the two weeks since I rode up and it was in effect gravel! Aaarrgghh! I had a great ride on the main road – downhill and tailwind for 25k….effortless 😊. I stopped for an ice coffee as already the temperature was rising rapidly. I then turned off the road to a route towards the coast. Straight away the road disintegrated and I was really worried that I had 68k of this but after about 5k the surface improved. There was an inordinate amount of stiff climbing made more challenging by the intermittent road disintegration. Then …I crested a climb and boom,….the most amazing vista of the mountains gliding down to the sea, with lakes and forest as far as the eye could see. The descent was ….in theory… one of the best anywhere….but it was made very challenging by the road surface simply disintegrating, meandering cattle round every corner, the odd vehicle crash, and crazy head winds as it bounced off the sides of the mountains. But….that aside, it was simply amazing! I was however utterly smashed by the time I got to Luong Son. But a great recommencement of riding in Vietnam….especially not having too much traffic to fight with!

Tomorrow I’ll follow a very small track/road along the coast towards Vung Tau.

Excuse the long blog entry – been a while! It’s been a challenging week of riding followed by a chilled out week of relaxation before the retreat next week. I’ve basically hibernated!

Thursday
Today I think I cracked. At some point along the highways and byways of southern Vietnam, I realised I had done enough, that I had had enough. I had ‘done’ Asia, and I was ‘done’ with Asia. I’m tired of the danger, exhausted from the hyper vigilance you need just to stay alive, and I found myself increasingly pissed off with the utter moronic, death cheating driving. Too many times this week I have escaped by luck. I don’t feel lucky anymore! And I don’t want my lasting memory of Vietnam to be one of ‘never again’. I’m learning how to say ‘enough’ and do that with gratitude.

But as has been the way on this trip, just when things seem a bit bleak, something or someone comes along and things get better After pulling off the main highway (which I had to take as the other road was a dirt track!) I found this wonderful meandering road that took me gradually up hill towards my accommodation- Bamboo Lodge. On arrival it was sheer delight; a forested area with traditional huts on stilts, next to the river. It nestled on the edges of the Cat Tien National Park.

And wonderfully….English speaking travelers – Canadians, English, German, New Zealand, American. It was just simply lovely to talk and listen and actually understand, and be understood! It’s incredible how tiring it is to try communicate and constantly fail! There was a restaurant on site so ….after a day of surrender, it was a surreal way to end the day. I stayed at the forest hut for two days, spending most of it fixing and cleaning Bob….he was destroyed after the mud tracks and showing all the signs of wearing out. I put on a new chain and stripped everything down to regrease and reset.

Morons in motors
Saturday was an incredible day, as I eventually got in to the mountains. The road started to rise almost straight away in to the 92k ride, but what also started straight away was the scenery – gone were the endless flat roads with shops, traffic, dust, exhaust fumes and endless horn beeping, to forest, streams, waterfalls, and mountains everywhere. It was a tough climb but immensely enjoyable. That is if one sets aside the brain dead moronic driving, which significantly reduced the joy of the climb, and diminished the opportunity to actually look at the scenery to momentary glances. Words fail me when trying to describe the stupidity witnessed on the roads. What I concluded was that there is an ignorance, an arrogance, a belligerence, a ‘fuck you’ attitude which prevails. Nothing else can even come close to explaining what one endures when riding here – countless times I’d be going round a bend, trying to hold the bike upright at such a slow pace, only to find a coach or lorry on my side of the road overtaking on a blind bend, forcing me off the road. They would see me, and just keep coming. There’s no where to go. Whilst I accept that these people don’t give a jot about my life, surely they must have a modicum of care about their own life. Clearly not. It defies logic. They are seemingly prepared to play ‘chicken’ with their lives, the lives of their passengers and the lives of other road users who are on the correct side of the road.

Whinge over….I needed to get that off my chest! But over the past week I have found myself becoming more and more agitated and frankly, scared.

I made it to my evening accommodation, a small motel Lu had found half way to Da Lat. What was great was ….no aircon or fan as neither were needed! The temperature has dropped considerably to a very pleasant 20 something! After grabbing some food I crashed for the night, delighted to be in the mountains!

On Sunday I resumed the climb to Da Lat. In fact, I climbed all day. After a particular tough part of the climb my attention was drawn to the powerful (and delightful) smell of coffee coming from a small cafe roasting its own beans. The coffee I had was divine! I eventually got off the main road and continued on a smaller road which initially was in very poor condition, and I wondered whether this would turn in to another Maps detour to no where. But as the road meandered through the forest and clawed and twisted its way up the mountain, it was clear that whilst the surface was at times crap, it was delightfully quiet of traffic. I loved it. Eventually, Da Lat appeared through the clouds. Or rather. It erupted. Out of nowhere this humongous city appeared, wth towering and sprawling buildings clinging precariously to every inch of the mountainous valley. Quite extraordinary. From the quietness of the final climb came manic traffic and an explosion of colour.

I eventually found my hotel amidst hundreds of others. A quiet little oasis. Da Lat is a tourist town, very popular with the Vietnamese and a favourite place for weddings – so it’s utterly geared to the tourist dollar, but that comes at a cost of it having any genuine ties to Vietnamese culture …you can find that in the backstreets, but it’s been consumed by chic coffee bars, karaoke bars and pretend Rolls Royce sightseeing taxis!

I am resting/hibernating….perhaps decompressing is a better term. – here in Da Lat. I’m stopping completely for a week. I’m exhausted. Fatigued from the emotionality of living on the edge whilst riding. I need to take stock and refill.

I was reflecting with my dear friend Susan about why this part of the journey has been so emotionally tough and mentally draining. She commented on how I have relayed in my blogs my ability to use my time on the bike to reflect, to be in a zone, to focus on myself…,and it suddenly became clear that that was what I couldn’t do in Vietnam – I couldn’t relax.I couldn’t just be in my zone, in my head…but rather be totally consumed with staying out of harms way, being hyper vigilant and constantly trying to predict the behavior of the next moronic move. It probably also triggered something in me about that sense of being ‘unseen, unheard and unknown’. Of being dispensable, inconvenient. The parallels between my feeling on the bike in Vietnam, and feelings I am coming to name and understand in my life, are fascinating.

Having managed to get some Dong, I have been traveling north west to south east in southern Vietnam. It’s been incredibly hot and humid and has been a struggle to be honest each of the last three days of cycling. Day one proper took me in to rural Vietnam which I quite enjoyed – dusty, bumpy and chaotic, but all manageable. I went to the local ‘mountain’ which is a bit like Uluṟu in that it seems to have plonked itself amidst the flatlands of rural Vietnam. You can’t cycle up it as there’s no road but there is a track that takes you about a 1/5th of way up -around 200metres. I gave it a go! At times it pitched up over 20% but the whole thing is about 800 meters so the pain wasn’t too long! At the top was this most incredible oasis of calm with streams and forestry – just delightful. There was a plaque to cyclists there which I think related to what must have been a time trial event up that stinker of a climb!

I stayed in a ‘homestay’ farm – took me ages to find it such was it’s elusive positioning off the beaten track. The accommodation comprised of a mossie netted mattress in a shed, with an adjacent drop toilet and cold shower….and no aircon of course! But I really enjoyed the experience of seeing rural Vietnam up close and personal with the host family – sitting watching the World Cup with the owners outside amidst chickens, dogs and cattle was wonderful!

On Tuesday I headed for Vinh An, around 100k east. I hadn’t booked accommodation, chancing my arm in the hope of finding somewhere. A pretty tedious day of riding on main roads mainly bar some usual Maps screw ups! When I got to Vihn….no accommodation could be found. I rocked up to one final guest house but he was closed and the old units he used to rent out were derelict. But he took pity on me as I was shattered and told me I could stay in one of the disused ‘sheds’ for free. So…I pitched my tent inside the room…and stayed there! I didn’t sleep – it was disgustingly humid and hot, and at 2:30 the rooster started up its ‘morning’ chorus!!! But it was an experience for sure!

F$&k Maps
I may have mentioned it once or thrice but Maps as an App is shite! The ‘bike’ function has taken me down dead ends, in to car parks and peoples homes, but often it’s a matter of seeing where that stupid detour comes out, and just stay on the perfectly good road you were already on. Today, Maps truly screwed me over. To get from X to Y it took me through a gorgeous undulating forest road to a small town, then signalled to turn right, which I did. Soon the road became a track, then a quagmire. It literally was impassable. After 30 minutes of wrestling and walking my bike through streams, trenches and track, I made the decision to turn back -it was dangerous, hot and a little scary. I returned to the small town to regroup (and fix Bob!). It turns out that is the ONLY ‘road’ to where I was going. My only option was to cycle all the way back to where I started the day and take a completely different route tomorrow. I tried putting in the ‘car’ option in to Maps, and absurdly, it took the car down the same track!! I don’t mind the odd few hundred metres of deviation here and there to accommodate Maps.me idiosyncrasies, but to take a cyclist (or a driver) to a dead end after 40ks is monumentally bad!
So, having liaised with wonderful Lu, had a feed and water, and Bob mended, I retraced my ride back to Vinh An, where Lu had found me a motel which had – a bed, a toilet, aircon, wifi….

Today was an exercise in problem solving ‘in the moment’ and taking time to just stop, breath and be sensible! Whilst I did 80k and went no where, it was a good lesson in just being patient and being willing to adapt to what’s happening…I’m pretty proud of myself for handling it without a panicking -mind you, I think I would have panicked a lot more had I not had Lu to do much of the problem solving with me! Let’s try that again tomorrow….but on a different road!

They say things happen in 3s!
Friday….my last day in Cambodia. And it threw everything at me to ensure I remembered it! Not 2k in to the ride the road simply disappeared in to a slippery quagmire choked with frustrated drivers and mopeds….and me. Last night there was an almighty tropical storm that flooded roads and took the power out. The fall out was that this stretch of roadworks had become utter chaos – I tried to video it (see above) in its more saner moments. Bob was slipping all over the shop. This went on for around 5ks. I was stuffed when the tarmac resumed and needed a coffee to calm the nerves! The road, whilst now tarmac at least, was utterly wrecked and unrideable in places. This by the way is the main road to the Vietnam border!

I stopped in a town to see if I could buy a stand for Bob – trying to lean the bike up against things had already broken two mirrors and was always a struggle. Found a great clamp on stand which I got fitted and bingo – Bob could be freestanding! Well….so I thought! At my next coffee stop I threw Bob on the stand and went to order my iced coffee when….crash….Bob had crashed to the floor, with the stand clamp gashing the rear hydraulic hose. I think I said ‘oh dear’ or something like that. The gash was deep but didn’t rupture the inner pipe so I think I got lucky though it’s seriously compromised. $15US stand nearly blew the trip to smithereens! In the evening I did a bodge job on it and reassembled the stand clamp but….I’m not overly trusting the stand will hold Bob fully loaded. Live and learn! But wait…..there’s more! As I approached 10k to the border I started to look for accommodation but wasn’t having much luck, so when one ‘guest house’ offered a room I took it! Mistake! What a shithole! I’ve stayed in some rough places in my time but this one capped them all! It was only after paying that I realised my error – I could have just walked away, but I simply had no idea if there were any other options. A lot of people do what’s called the ‘visa run’ where they live in Vietnam but have to leave and come back in in order to renew their visa, so accommodation is scarce. So I stayed. I got my sleeping bag and crashed on the mattress on the floor – no wifi, no flushing toilet, no sink, no hot water….just like camping I suppose! Only smellier! All part of the travelling experience.

I awoke Saturday morning ready to get the hell out of ‘hell’. It was a short 14k to the border crossing. Because Cambodia Riel is not possible to exchange out of the country I quickly dispensed with what I had left and, as luck would have it, had a last minute thought to convert some to Vietnamese Dong. I was confident that they’ll be loads of options to get Dong in Vietnam but… ‘just in case’. See why that was a stroke of luck below 😊

Anyway….got out of Cambodia very quickly then queued for ages on the Vietnam side while people queue jumped ….mind you if you don’t understand what a queue is I guess you’re not ‘jumping’ it! Then I had to take everything off Bob to have it scanned – total nonsense but you play the game! Took an hour! So, Bob all loaded up again we set off in to Vietnam 🇻🇳. I only had a short 55k to my first stop, and was pleased to have an early shower. And then the fun started. I innocently asked ‘so, where’s the nearest ATM?’. 4K away came the answer. This is a town bigger than Adelaide! ‘And there’s only one’. Sorry, what! So off I stroll to the lonely ATM….which wasn’t working! So here I am in Vietnam with about $40 in Dong and no chance of getting any more! I was very hungry, very tired and very frustrated. I walked back and by pure chance found another ATM….which refused both my cards! I returned to the hotel deflated and confused – this was a problem I hadn’t expected or experienced before. I went to bed tired and hungry ….very hungry. I needed all of the Dong I had for the room! And I really felt quite lonely …not helped by the ferocious thunder storm that pounded the place for over an hour.

One thing I did find was an excellent article from another cyclist who posed 7 questions for intending long tour riders – and boy did he hit it right on the head! If you get time, have a read. It’s funny but 110% spot on!

Planning A Really Long Bike Trip? Ask Yourself These 7 Critical Questions First