Saigon



We have arrived in Saigon and our bikes are all ready for us to start tomorrow....only about 40 miles on day 1. It's 33 degrees here and there are mopeds everywhere...apparently 7 million of them in this city. We're positive and excited about tomorrow  and looking forward to seeing rural Vietnam. 🚲🚲🌞🌞

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An eventful first day's cycling

Image
First day of the challenge and it has lived up to its name! Leaving Saigon by coach to avoid the morning rush hour we started our ride across the Mekong Delta, so mainly flat! We have cycled through banana plantations and coconut groves, been welcomed by smiling waving school children, eaten delicious, healthy meals and dodged our way through the crazy Vietnamese eve rush hour when a sea of mopeds sweeps down the highway regardless of road signs and traffic lights. The best strategy for getting across a road is to plough bravely on, wading in without any reference to the Highway Code! Poor Anne got caught at a major intersection and managed to fall off her bike just as the lights changed. Rather scary for her, but despite a few bruises and grazes she carried on in characteristic stoic fashion. I was less resilient and almost took to the support bus for the last 5 miles. Cycling in 33C was almost too much for me and really zapped what energy I have, I felt completely overcome so I
Read more

Challenge completed!

Image
After 6 days of cycling in the heat we are really pleased to let all of our supporters know that we have completed our Challenge! The final cycle today was through narrow sandy paths in the jungle whi ch took us both out of our comfort zone. It has been a relentless week with 12 hour days starting at 6am every morning. But finishing at Angkor Wat was incredible and our last cycle was along the ancient outside wall of this temple . It's hard to convey the sheer size of Angkor Wat as photos do not do it justice but here are a few.
Read more

Day 5 80k

Image
Our first day cycling in Cambodia which started by taking the ferry from the rapidly growing city of Phnom Penh into rural areas which was very interesting. The people have very little and they live in houses built on stilts so their cows can live underneath. We had a packed lunch sitting outside and lots of children from the local village turned up and it was lovely to see their faces when we handed out pens and small toys. Jo has finally recovered from jet lag and acclimatised to the heat and cycled the full 80k. We had a 2.5 hour transfer at the end of the ride with a stop in the insect village where Anne sat on the bus and did not look at anything but Jo went into the market and sampled some crickets which were quite tasty. Other members of the Group ate scorpion and tarantula. Our hotel is in Kampongthom village and we feel very remote. We have had two power cuts already and had to carry our cases to floor 3 as there is no lift but the Wi-Fi is great....! leaving Phnom Penh 
Read more