devoncycling's Journal

More from D&U in Vietnam
Sat 1st March:
Hi everyone
here are just a few of the things we have seen being carried on mopeds: 4 people,10foot ladders (sideways), 8 foot panes of glass,wardrobe (2),20 foot lengths of steel,about 20 boxes of 30 rolls of toilet paper,16 piglets ,8 dogs,blocks of ice,a bicycle,small tree and assorted large cooking pots.
In addition because of the pollution most of the women and a lot of the men wear face masks so you get 3 million Michael Jackson lookalikes speeding around on the pushbikes and motorbikes.
Love Ursula and Derek

Fri 29th Feb:
Apologies for repetitions to those of you who got the earlier versions.
We set off from Saigon but were not able to take the ferry because bikes have been banned since last year so had 100 or so miles to do to get to where we wanted to start. Sweltering heat didnt help gale force head winds slowed us down somewhat but what really buggered it up big time (scuse my French) was that nearly all the place names have been changed since thay printed their most up to date maps which we got off the internet so all our route on the GPS made absolutely no sense with regard to the signs we saw on the road. In fact we never knew if a sign was a place name or something like 'queues ahead". we set off at 6a.m. to get some time in before it got too hot (about 10) and had to stop about 12 so the milage not impressive. We have learnt a few things e.g. you dont get sheets on beds here except in swanky places. We dont do swanky much.Eventually we got on a bus to Nha Trang (still called that) and then to Hoi An (ditto because Unesco paid them a lot of money to keep them like it). We met some German cyclists who have also taken the bus for the same reasons. It seems that climate change is happening in a big way here. We spoke to some Lancashire tourists to day off a Cruise ship and who said they havent seen the sun on their whole trip from Hong Kong Taiwan and China and its freezing cold and wet just north of here. So we are off to enjoy the cold and wet the day after tomorrorow. We will try and do the whole trip on the bikes to Haiphong. Regards to you all