Finally, some news from Hue

Hey everyone,

I know we haven’t been very good at posting some news about our trip, but thats due to the fact that we didnt have time, nor had a place to do so.

Last news were posted from Hanoi, 10 days ago or so, here is what we have been up to.

So we decided to rent russian motorbikes (details: Minsk 125cc, 4 gears, no speed indicator, no tank indicator, basically a good old engine set up on 2 wheels). As i had never been on one (well, not with gears anyway) it took me a little time to feel it and get used to it (and the clutch) , an hour in Hanoi’s crazy roads did it. We finally left Hanoi mid afternoon, and headed towards Hai Phong in the evening. We had a small night there and were up at 5 to catch the “slow” boat to Cat Ba. Theres only one boat a day were we could get our bikes on, no speedboat for us. Getting our bikes on the boat seemed pretty eazy, getting them off though, was a different story, but some local people helped us gladly for some little cash.

In the afternoon, we rode into the island on nice and empty roads (gave us a good training for going uphill, downhill, hill starts …) in a beautiful landscape, and we sorted out our 3 days and 2 nights “cruise” on a small boat with a dad and his son. The cruise was great, sailing among all those small islands, taking a swim every few hours, eating onboard, sleeping on the deck, visiting some caves, etc.. It was just great!

As we came back late afternoon to Cat Ba (3 days later) we had to spend another night here to catch to (even earlier) ferry back to Hai Phong. Once there, we took a good breakfast, and got on the road, heading to Nim Binh.

Only spent a day and night here, but enough time to visit the temples and old citadel of Hoa Lu, along with the beautiful landscape of Tam Coc. The next day we headed inlands towards the National Parc of Cuc Phuong were we spent the day, had nice walk in the forest, met 30 teenagers on vacation, spent a couple hours with them chatting in the evening. As we woke up, a quick visit to primate center, then we were on the road again, but this time, heading south west to catch the Ho Chi Minh highway.

From there onm we knew there wouldnt be much to visit along the day, so we needed to get as far as we could. But the scenery was amazing, rice fields, mountains, all the way, we did quite a few breaks just to enjoy the view. At some point we thought we were low on gaz, therefore started seeking a station, and what a surprise to have my engine just stop at the top of the hill in the shade ! We lost on hour there, to go get some gaz, but we were back on the road pretty fast, and ended up in a small town called Tan Ky ( which doesnt appear in any of our guides, but is there on the roadmaps we had bought before leaving Hanoi ). We filled up the tanks, and the found the unique hotel. First thing we did afterwards was to cross the street to get a few Bia Hoi ( local cheap beer ). We met a bunch of friends there, 2 young guys ( our age ) with their wives ( and kid for one of them ), they paid us a few rounds, showed us their house, and invited us to a local restaurant. We had a great evening, it’s good to see cool people after facing the crowds in the cities trying to sell you a ride on their cyclo or bikes, or selling postcards.

We left the next day around 9am and started a real trip down to Hue, i wasnt convinced we’d be there the same day, but we finally did it, arriving 12 hours later in the dark.
We drove in the mountains, barely crossing anyone along the HCM highway (which looks more like a “departemental” by the way), but we did cross some workers, coming our from nowhere in their truck, ending just in front of me, had to grip my brakes as hard as i could, but i did finally crash into the back of it, slightly bent the front light of the Minsk, and got a little burn (from the exhaust pipe) on my leg, but i was riding again 10 mins later.

We finally arrived in Hue in the evening, we had a “no bike day” today, visited the citadel on foot, refused all means of transport other than our own legs.

Tomorrow morning we should visit a few more temples in Hue, then head down the coast accross Danang to reach Hoi An were we will spend a night or 2 before moving on again.

I know you are all waiting to see some photos, unfortunately i seem to be having difficulties uploading our photos from the net cafe we are at at the moment, i might try from another later.

Cheers everyone !

About to leave Hanoi, heading to Halong Bay

Quite late here, drinking a last beer, with people we have met here. We have just spent a day in Hanoi with the heat, seen some really nice places.

We should be leaving Hanoi tomorrow, we’ll see how that goes ;) Not much to say right now, pretty tired, but here are a few photos to keep you going until next time !

Arrived in Hanoi

Just a little message to say i arrived to Hanoi in one piece with Mitch, we are still waiting on Pit, he should be with us soon. Last message we got from him was he landed in Hanoi and was waiting for his bag. Unfortunately phones arent working that great, so we might have some difficulties meeting up, but i’m sure we’ll eventually catch him.

Apart from that, we’ve already spent a day and a half here, and it is very nice. To compare, as hot and sticky as in Thailand (which i love so much !! right) a lot less dirty than what i’ve seen in India, and traffic is bit difficult, but still less dangerous and crowded than India.

Thats it for the first impression, we haven’t done much yet, been mainly wandering around in the streets (as most of the things that can be visited are .. closed on mondays :/ )

Well we should be meeting Pit anytime soon hopefully (within less than 1 hour i hope). We bought tickets for a puppet show tonight, but its already started so i guess we’ll be trying to go again tomorrow.

Almost on the road again !

Hey Everybody,

Just a little news to start this new trip site, we are leaving Paris on May 14th around midday, and should arrive in Hanoï early sunday morning after changing planes in Hong-Kong some time during the night.

We are group of 3 friends (again), but 3 men this time, Nicolas (aka. Mitch), Pierre (aka. Pit) and myself (Anthony aka. Yogin).

We will be in Vietnam for 1 full month, so we should be back in France early morning on June 13th.

I’ll try to post some news on our trip as often as possible, along with some photos, as if you were with us!

As we are all excited about this trip, this last week of work is going to fly so fast (as we have loads of stuff to organise before we leave) but slowly at the same time as we would like to be there already ^^

Anyway, next news will be posted from Vietnam !

See you there.

Some quick news from Sri Lanka

No, i have NOT been lazy not to log in and write some news, but its more like internet is too lazy to come to me, sort of :)

Ok, so last time, we were leaving India, arrived at Colombo airport and went straight to Negombo for the night, its a nice small fishmen town, sort of peaceful as we didnt want to hit Colombo to start with. So we spent the night there, and went off to Kandy by train the following day. Trains are slightly less hectic than in India, a bit more comfortable, less crowdy depending on the hours, but bloody hot, oh, and cleaner too :)

Arrived in Kandy, with the rain, yep, its the Mansoon there, 2 mansoons a year, soaking wet, still hot though, quite painful. We found a nice guest house, where a nice family holds the place, its like a big home, ‘its your home’ they said. We spent a few days there, visiting the Tooth temple. We then decided to take a driver for 3 days to go round the Golden Triangle above Kandy. Our driver was the ‘daddy’ from our guesthouse family. A very nice guy.

So, we did a few cities in the triangle, Mihintale, Anapurana, Sygiria and a couple more i can’t remember right now, but i’ll fill in the gaps when i get home.

Some very nice historical sites, but mostly destroyed by the time, but they are working on clearing it all up, amd they better be, seeing the cost of that entrance ticket to all those sites hehe, yes, Sri Lanka is very expensive compared to India and Nepal. So then we were back in Kandy, at our guest house, we went to the botanical garden in the afternoon, little shower (rain) as we were leaving it hopefully, and went to see a traditionnal dance and music in the evening. Very nice.

Then we decided we could use a few days on the beach and went down the west coast staying a night or two in a couple places on the way, until we reached Mirissa, a beautiful place, nice beaches, barely anyone around, just what we needed. Though the sun did catch us, and we all caught the sun at some place or another, but its cooling off now ;)

Well now we are in Colombo now, and about to spend a day or two here before going back to India.

Hugs to all

Tony

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