Day 49 - Sam Son to Vinh (October 14)

So How is the Cycling?

Vietnam is perfect for cycling for a variety of reasons. For one, everyone cycles in Veitnam, so there is little worry about cars or vehicles. The cars, motorbikes, and trucks are aware of the cyclists and yield to them. At first, watching the traffic on Vietnam's Highway 1A might seem harrowing, but there is a rhythm to it. The trucks don't want to run into the cars, the cars don't want to run into the motorbikes, the motorbikes don't want to run into the bicycles, and the bicycles don't wat to run into the pedestrians.

Along Highway 1A, there is constant activity. There is always someone moving along the highway, whether an ox, a peasant, a vendor, school kids cycling along, etc. This is a real change from my cycling earlier this summer in the Intermountain west. There I could ride for 10 minutes without seeing a automobile. Here, I'm not alone for more than 15 seconds. Even when I think I am alone, I hear someone yelling 'alo (i.e. "hello"). Wearing lycra and riding a fancing touring bike, I really stand out. Terry sticks out even more - being over 6 feet tall.

Another day of riding alone. I met Terry 20 kilometers before the end of the ride. Along the way, I stopped for lunch at Mai Giang Bar. I don't have a clue about what town I was in at that point. I did the best I could with negotiating food. This involved walking into the kitchen and pointing out what I wanted. Fortunately, they had tofu. A group of gentlemen in the corner stared. I would too, I was wet, tired, and dirty. They wanted me to drink with them. Since I still had a little more than half of the ride to go, I decided to skip the drink.

Today was a long ride.

Day 49 - Sam Son to Vinh - 104 Miles

Day 48 - Ninh Binh to Sam Son (October 13)

A Photomontage - Travelling on Highway 1A, Vietnam

In Vietnam, everything that would be transported by a car or truck in the United States is transported just the same, although not in a car or truck. The bike is the most common form or transportation. Bicycles are ridden by students (who can't ride a motobai yet), by teenagers (who can't afford a motobai), by adults, and by the grandparents. Since stuff needs to be transported, the Vietnamese use the only wheels that they have and those wheels (of which there are only two) are bicycle wheels. Or maybe two motobai wheels.

Taking the Birds to Market.

An Umbrella Can Be Used to Protect from Rain or Shine.

Another Design - The Basket Bike. Useful for Carrying Fruit or Fish.

Two Basket Bike Buddies Breaking.

To my eye, Vietnam was a dirty place. Terry reassures me that this is typical of third-world countries, but I'm not reassured. Typically, the Vietnamese throw their garbage on the curb and the municipal sweeping crew comes by once or twice a day (typically at 2 a.m.) and picks up the garbage. But in the villages and countryside there is no one to pick up the garbage, but garbage is still left on the side of the road or just about anywhere.

Having an environment covered in garbage doesn't mean that other aspects of the country are dirty. The Vietnamese seem more "in touch" with their environment. By more in touch I mean that there is more dirt and more wildlife, more vegetation. This earthiness, as I will call it, caused a culture shock in me. I realized that I expect a cleaner environment, actually, compared to Vietnam, my environment back home is sterile. Cleanliness is taken to such an extreme that we have sterilized much of our Western world.

Regardless of the lack of sterile environment and the fact that goods are transported by bicycle (and motobai) instead of automobile, people are still the same. Some people like to party, others want to work. Some people are farmers and others work behind a desk or in a store. Some people are teachers and others are soldiers. Some are slobs and then some very organized.

For example, take the following picture. This vendor has a very well organized bike. Her washing and cooking pans are piled up on the tap of the back rack. The vegetables are placed in her left back basket, while the right basked contains meat and seafood. Hanging from the handlebars is a rubber bag containing today's newspaper and other items such as a rain slicker. She is wearing her hat and has a very comfortable riding stance. In all, she is ready for a good day of cooking and selling her goods.

In the next picture, you will notice the old man with his hunched shoulders. But did you notice the woman riding the other direction (i.e. she's riding the wrong way)? Most people would ride on the correct side of the road following the same driving convention as United States drivers - riding on the right hand of the road. But, when one wanted to turn off of the road, people would just aim towards their destination. If that meant that they would turn early and ride on the wrong side of the road(or motorbike or...), then they would have to ride against the traffic for a few yards. During each day's ride, I would have to navigate around these cyclists (and motorbikes) who were using the wrong side of the road. I never had a problem, but it was disconcerting at first.

Compare and Contrast: Western Cyclist and Vietnamese Ox Cart.

The Road Seems Calm and Quiet Right Now, but Wait...

...Wait Until a Bus Passes.

Fortunately, Highway 1A has a very wide shoulder. As you can see in the previous picture, a bus can pass other vehicles, yet there is still plenty of room for the bicycles and scooters on the edge of the road. We typically rode on the part of roadway (that is slightly dirty) betwen the dirty shoulder and the central part of the road, but we sometimes swerved off into the dirty shoulder when vehicles passed from the other direction. We had no other choice, unless we preferred being run over by a noisy honking bus coming the other way.

Sitting in the Grassy Highway Median.

Most Vietnamese now wear bicycle helmets, though not all do.

During a typical day's ride, we pass 20 or so communist monuments. Typically these monuments are rememberance of past battles or struggles to become an industrialized communist country. They all were bland, most included both a male and female character, and I never saw anyone inside the monument grounds.

Statue of the Vietnamese National Hero (and former Emporer), Le Loi (taken as we Turned West Towards Sam So'n)

Vietnamese language is often written piece-by-piece on billboards. Instead of shortening the message, using a smaller font, or using a square billboard, the message is written out in large letters. This means that the communist billboards containing words often stretch and stretch. Some might stretch for a large part of a city block.

Terry Repairing a Flat as Many Watch.

These rocks have special powers because of their unique shape.

Today's destination was Sam S'on. A typhoon had come through town a week earlier. The fishing boats were moved by the storm inland. When we arrived in town, some of those boats had not been moved back to the beach.

When shopping for a hotel for that night, I saw this excessively cute puppy. In some parts of Vietnam, it is common to eat the family pet. Hopefully this guy has a full life and a natural death. Almost every house we passed had a family dog.

Day 48 - Nihn Binh to Sam Son - 53 Miles

Day 47 - Back in the Saddle - Hanoi to Ninh Binh (October 12)

Hanoi to Ninh Binh. Culture Shock and Riding Shock.

I didn't initially have culture shock when I was in Hanoi. It seemed more like a dream, but getting on the bike and riding really made it clear that I was not riding in the United States anymore.

Getting used to traffic in Vietnam starts with walking across the street. Slow and steady, look both ways, but don't expect that once you step in the cross walk that the traffic will stop for you. Instead as you steadily cross the street, the traffic will weave around you.

Cycling is similar, but the traffic comes at you faster. It is not uncommon for someone to make a right turn from the far left lane.

A few miles from Dan Que, we hid in an empty unpainted building to hide from a storm. Unfortunately, it didn't stop raining, so we had to continue in the rain. This was a touch of what was to come as the remainder of the riding in Vietnam which would include many hours of steady rain.

Terry saying hi on our first day of riding.

The Bike Before Being Covered in Dirt and Mud.

View from the Road.

Entrances to Houses Typically Have a Ramp Along the Middle for the Motorbike.

As we came into Ninh Binh, I wanted to turn and visit some caves and grotoes - Thien Ton Cave, Vua Dinh Temple, and Bich Dong Cave. But it was raining very hard at this point. So we stopped at a restaurant at the corner. It was nice to be able to step out of the rain. It really started to come down at this point.

Wet, wearing lycra, and being American, I felt awkward entering the restaurant. The few patrons that were there stared at us. One of the patrons spoke English. We were dumbly trying to figure out what to do. I wanted to keep riding, but I was hungry and thought it might be nice to eat dinner. So this began our first food negotiation while riding in Vietnam.

Kids' Toys. What are These?

In my reading up on the subject, I had learned that saving face was very important in the Vietnamese culture. I had also read that most things with a price were negotiated - food, produce, water, and room rates. What I didn't realize is that negotiating for food might conflict with my personal need to save face.

Since there were no menus and we couldn't communicate what we wanted, we did the next best thing, we walked into the restaurant's kitchen and pointed to what we wanted. The patron who spoke English also helped us with ordering and negotiating for a price, but we wanted a lower price. We ended the negotiations when we didn't get the lower price. As we were walking away, the cook swore at us or at the very least called us hairy pigs. The gentlemen who helped us looked at us as though we were stupid for not buying reasonably priced food. He shoook his head. To me this was almost too much to bear. I was embarrased, wet, and I was still hungry. Later on I would realize that the price that she offered was within the normal Vietnamese meal price range.

So we continued on to Ninh Binh in the pouring rain. Arriving in Ninh Binh, we began the hotel routine that we would use through out the trip: we visited three hotels and then made a decision. I had been clutching my guidebook for dear life throughout my trip so far. Altough I was warned not to, my guidebook became my safety blanket. What I would learn is that businesses change quickly in Vietnam. This was especially true for restaurants, but also was partially true for hotels. The guidebook gave a good overview of each city and its environs, but it couldn't be relied upon. After using the guidebook to get the lay of the land, we still had to find where we were going to lodge and eat by ourselves.

In Ninh Binh, I wanted to look for one of the hotels listed in the guidebook. So we kept riding south until we seemed to be leaving the city. I had a hard time focusing because I was worn out from the botched restaurant experience, the rain, and the fact that it was hard to find the street names. Eventually we passed a hotel sign. So we stopped to take a look. The Xuan Hoa Hotel (at 31D Duong Pho Minh Khai) looked nice, had clean rooms, a few foreigners in the lobby, and had western food. We then went and visited a few more hotels, finally returning to the Xuan Hoa. We ate some food at the hotel and later walked around the town, stopping at a Karaoke Bar.

Entrance to a Karaoke Bar.

Day 47 - Hanoi to Ninh Binh - 94 Kilometers