They were smaller before the bee stung me TK

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Cheers, SB

 

This is the weather for where we are headed today!



And we will be leaving Hoi An Friday.

Looks like it is going to be wet. 70mm of rain Thursday night and 31mm Friday morning...........

Cheers, SB

 

Bloody spectacular Temple shot's there Seb even tho' the religious stuff is lost on me
but the sheer impressiveness of it leaves me speechless.

As for TK's Kitty Kat drinking all the sapphire - ya know - well............ I'm not all that
surprised - I'd wager that cat is a very very very ....very very talented cat when it
wants or needs to be

 

Thanks Sprock.

Spectacular day today - first day back on the Ho Chi Minh Duong and my golly, it's as good as I remember from last year. 320 kms logged including a little geographical mislocation! Just converting the video now. We're now at Hoi An in a different hotel than which we booked due to an Agoda snafu but still wonderful lodgings. More later.

Cheers, SB

 

Up early and packed ready for the big mileage today and as a last minute check Mrs SB looked at messages on her phone. Our booking at a resort hotel had been cancelled due to a mix up between Agoda (the booking company on-line) and the hotel.

We quickly got the computer out did another search and found the Ha An hotel – the ‘best choice’ in the Lonely Planet guide - had a room for a reasonable price. And what a serendipitous choice it turned out to be.

As we got going quite early the roads were clear and the first 50 or 60 km to Dak To were covered quickly. We had a road-side breakfast and then looked at the memorial to the Battle of Kon Tum (Dak To II) that occurred in 1972.




One of the tanks from the battle – with a list of it’s crew.

From Wiki: The 1972 Nguyen Hue Campaign began with a massive attack on the Demilitarized Zone with 30,000 People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) soldiers and more than 100 tanks. Two thrusts of equivalent size, one towards Saigon and a third to the Central Highlands and provincial capital of Kon Tum began soon after. The North Vietnamese knew that if they could capture Kon Tum and the Central Highlands, they would cut South Vietnam in half.




A Self-Propelled (SP) Gun Tank and history.


At the same memorial was this traditional village meeting place - a Long House - in the Vietnamese highlands.

After another 50 km we stopped to refill the bikes as we had not done so before leaving Kon Tum. Having filled the bikes we paused for a drink before continuing when this guy caught my eye as he attempted to cross the road. An Entomologists dream insect………….


A Hawk Moth caterpillar. Mrs SB: After examining it SB walked across the road and put in on a bush - I could see the people watching him intently and I bet that as soon as we were gone they went to seewhat we were looking at!


The road was magnificent. I have one more (small video) to edit and post which shows one of the more exciting aspects of the Ho Chi Minh Duong.
As we progressed along the HCMD the scenery just got better and better.


A waterfall that tumbles to one side of the road, passes under to fall further on the other side.

There were numerous rock and mud slides on the road – most had been cleaned up (or partially so) but they left this rock.


This is looking back along the road. We followed a river for many, many kilometres along a valley floor.


And forward……….. The video above starts from this point

After about a 30 km unintentional detour to Da Nang we found our hotel – and it was fantastic.


The room - with rose petals on the bed no less.



The shower – which was VERY welcome



The area in front which was perfect to sit and watch the torrential rain later in the evening and………


The garden area looking towards our room.

One of the nice things about the Ha An hotel was the complimentary basket in the room full of fruit and a very welcome …………………….


Bottle of Chilean wine.

After our wine we set off for dinner in the Old Quarter of Hoi An which was a 5 minute walk down the road.


This was a water taxi that takes bikes as well. The first heavy shower for the night started shortly after this but we had remembered to take an umbrella.


Boats moored on the river front


The lantern bridge. We dined upstairs by the bridge – Set Menu No 1 for $14 USD including 4 beers (I really lashed out). Five courses and a subscription to a weight loss centre.

As usual the menu amused me……..


Would you like fries with your frog?

While we were having dinner the rain set in – a real tropical down pour.


These little ladies were selling floating candles for tourists to put on the river.

Mrs SB: Yesterday when we were riding we saw 8 weddings - all of them taking place in hired pavilions put up on the side of the highway, amidst all the cacophony of truck horns, scooter horns , people yelling and general chaos. Weddings are huge business here and occur over 3 days. When the brides are having their photos taken they will have a photographer, and a stylist, usually with an assistant,and carry a full make up kit and different shoes, hair spray etc.
In contrast, today we rode past km after km of hillside covered in tombs. The fullcycle of life.

I must say how much I admire our little bikes - they have been amazing workhorses. They just keep going.

We arrived in Hoi An today after 7 long hours in the saddle. SB does an amazing job of navigating us from one place to another, especially given that none of the signage is in English.

We were due to go to Phong Nha in a few days but the rain has set in here and the day we were meant to leave here there is a tropical storm due, and given that we will need to ride for 3 days to get there - the thought of 3 days of cold and wet didn'texcite us so we have decided to stay put until it has passed. The people at Phong Nha were good enough to change our booking. Phong Nha is a beautiful area where an enterprising Aussie and his Viet wife have set up a home stay, and employ many locals. Apparently during the "American" war this village was carpet bombed and the village devastated, his wife's home was totally destroyed. Anyway, being a good Aussie, he sells gourmet food, like home made meat pies and chips! . SB can't wait!

Anyway- we have been out to tea and walked home in the rain, so it's time to have a hot shower and fall into bed.

Cheers, The Travelling ‘Bears

 

Pushing the little Honda 125 through the bends on the Ho Chi Minh Trail when you come across..........................a water buffalo!

A snippet from yesterday

Cheers, SB

 

For those with a nautical bent


A water taxi docking near the centre of Hoi An. These ply the waters with a very regular frequency.

And............



The 'Bears' official trip T-shirt. You have to remember Phó is pronounced 'fur' Then the T-shirt makes sense

Cheers, SB

 

Nice T-shirt, I like it.

Is there a competition to win one of them?

Off to my nephews wedding tomorrow, that would have made the perfect "smart casual" but I guess you can't get one to me before Saturday.

(For those of you in the US, NZ "smart casual" is a T-shirt without an actual swear word or pornographic image).

 

Yes, we wimped out, we bailed, we have forsaken a soaking ride tomorrow to Hue, for a warm, delicious, comfortable, dry hotel room. The weather has been bloody hot in between torrential downpours with 62 mm forecast for tomorrow morning. I think we may be delaying the inevitable soaking but hey, we’re dry at the minute.

So it’s………………..


Vietnaaaaaaaaammmmmmmm!

We spent the majority of the day walking around the old quarter of Hoi An where no motorcycles, cars or scooters are allowed. Just mad foreigners on push bikes. And there’s a lot of them.


We walked past the very healthy pigeon looking for grain in the day’s deliveries


We walked past the water taxi that shuttled in and out regularly


We walked past the lady ‘gondolier’


We walked past the guys fishing with their throw nets


We walked over the bridge past the moored fishing boats


We walked to the Japanese Covered Bridge.


Construction on this covered bridge began in the Year of the Monkey (1593) and was finished in the Year of the Dog (1595), hence the monkey and dog sculptures at either end


We walked past the kite shop


We watched the guys carving wood, holding the work with their feet.


And we dwelt for quite a while in the shop where they sold fine silk needlework tapestries. The works against the light were translucent.


Very, very delicate needlework that must take weeks and weeks to finish any work piece.


In the silk tapestry shop they had this little gem painted on the wall. Each night when we go out for dinner it coincides with the high tide, and the river pushing against it rises and comes onto the footpath. The paintings on the wall show the water heights over the previous floods. This has been prepared to prevent further floods. Personally I’m not entirely sure it’s working!

Then we walked past this bike and I did a double take…….


What’s wrong with this picture??


We walked back to the entrance to the Japanese Covered Bridge


We walked past pretty water lillies in small pots


And I stopped at a lovely Honda Benly 125


Houses with an air of decrepitude that you could smell


We walked past the Happy Why Not Bar where we were invited in to ‘wet out whistels’

We had an Italian dinner in Vietnam, I had a Calzone and MrsSB a Pork Hot Pot. Then wandered among the lanterns between storms.


When we got back to the hotel, Mrs SB found the scales to assess the damage all the fine dining is doing to our waist lines and we found this………….


Too bloody right it is! Oh! And we're convinced that they lie...............

We’ll be sleeping in tomorrow morning.

Cheers, The Travelling ‘Bears

 

My gorgeous daughter is travelling the world for a year with her boyfriend. They are currently in Costa Rica and volunteering for 2 weeks at a Wildlife animal shelter. The shelter predominantly cares from animals from the rain forest



This from her facebook page. I think it is a baby Spider Monkey.

Cheers, SB