Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City

I'm flying up to Hanoi today ready to cycle back down for the annual H2H charity ride for children's charities here in Vietnam.

Here's the route we're taking complete with links to Map My Ride maps if anyone's interested. We'll be blogging every day on the ride, and I'll try and update the maps with a bit of detail. It's 1938.5km in 25 days with 2 rest days.

It's all been a bit hectic, because everything's only just reopened after Tet, meaning that we had 2 days to do all of the last-minute things, which for me, included moving out of my flat. And our flight has been delayed until 4:30. Hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Oh, and if anyone's interested in making a donation, drop me a PM and I'll send you the details. And if anyone's interested in joining the ride next year, do likewise.

Bit of a hateful first day. 2 punctures, 2 broken pedals (not me, the team), freezing drizzly weather, and this happened to our van.



But some of the scenery was nice.



Believe it or not, this is all from the road:



First puncture:



Hoping for a better days riding tomorrow.

Did the motorcyclist end up in the back of the van?

That looks a pretty cool trip, but as it looks rather wet I think I would have fitted mudguards

Yeah the motorbiker's head went through the window. I wish I had mudguards, although this is supposed to be the dry season. The afternoon was much drier than the morning. Mudguards would've done nothing to stop my trainers getting ruined though.

You and your bike will look a lot worse than that shown ing the pic, if you going cycle through the coal mining towns going North, if its not raining then you will need a face mask unless you like lungs full of Coal dust, if it raining well guess you and your bike is going take on a darker shade of Black.

What do you mean "hope?" We are arriving on 29th Feb.

Just got to the 3rd destination, Quan Lao. Pictures from the last two days to follow. Suffice to saw a mountain bike would've been nice at times. But the weather was much nicer.

From day 2:

Day 3 was fun. Got chased by a dog.

Days 4 and 5 were pretty miserable, because they were mainly on highway 1 (aka the smelliest, roughest, most dangerous highway in the world) and we stayed in a hotel that I assume had ran out of money halfway through construction. There was a beach and some of the best food of the trip so far though, so that's something.

Day 6 was difficult. It started out wet, stayed wet, had a headwind all the way, rolling hills, and thanks to someone cocking up, 86km turned into 108km. I don't know who's decision it was to organise this thing in February, but it was a terrible idea. Every morning, there's a mist everywhere, which makes everything damp and stops you from getting a proper view of the scenery. Plus because of the humidity, it's next to impossible to get anything to dry afterward. And because it's not proper rain, it just covers all of the roads with wet mud. There doesn't seem to be a time in the year where it's pleasant throughout the country though, because if we left in summer, it would be monsoon season down South, and if we left between the two, it would be monsoon season in the middle.

Anyway, days 7 and 8 were much better. Really short rides through great scenery, even though it was still wet.





Oh, and we did meet a tour group that were paying $2000 for a trip that was half the length, while we're paying $150 plus abut $5 per night on hotels, so that made us feel quite smug.

Everything was pretty straightforward for the last couple of days. We stopped at one of the big military cemeteries a couple of days ago.



After that, we stayed in a hotel that had a worrying number of short-term guests and some suspect stains in the rooms.

We had a Hawaiian shirt day as we were riding into Hue.



And I'm currently enjoying my first rest day, and I'm really excited, because we've just received our custom-made cycling tops from ABPro and they look great. Oh and a quick tip: if you've ridden for over 80km without any food, don't make your first stop an expensive French restaurant.

Looks brilliant and brings back memories. Did Saigon to Hanoi a few years back, remember a 13mile decent from Dalat to Nah Trang, fantastic views and big butterflies. Of course for you it would be an assent but Ive checked your route and looks like you miss this one but from memory your day23 will have a great decent down the road away from Dalat. Thats because I remember the climb upto Dalat on our draggy big tyred mountain bikes. have a great time. Terry

I should also point out that, when I was there we were stuck in Hoi Ann due to flooding, unforunately there were some crocodile farms that were also flooded and the beasties escaped, probably not a good combo growing rice in paddy fields and crocs. The people we met were fantastic and I have lasting memories of kids trying to speak english to me, what a great country, I'm totaly jealous of you guys.

I'm currently on my second rest day in Buon Ma Thuot. The first 10 days were designed to ease us into the ride. The last 9 days have been pretty difficult in places. By far the best, and most difficult, day was A Luoi to P'Rao, which was 100km over two mountains, with spectacular views throughout and surprisingly smooth roads for the most part. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking to cycle in Vietnam, although be careful what time of year you come, because for the 2010 ride, they went in November, and the roads were impassable due to mudslides. Speaking of impassable roads, we had to walk about 100m of one ride, because a lorry and car had crashed, blocking the entire road. On another thoroughly miserable day, we were down to about 20m visibility on winding mountain roads. But we're now back into the hot part of Vietnam, where I'm far more comfortable. The last few days have been a bit crap though, because of terrible roads full of potholes and traffic, and not too much scenery to speak of. We're passing near Dalat soon though, which should mean some more mountains and better views.

In other news, I've fallen off twice, landing on my chin once, and had one flat tyre in 1500km. I also have epic tan lines.

This truck was stuck.

They're very precise in Vietnam.









The occasional small obstacle on the road.

The importance of not driving like an idiot:



This is one incident btw.