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The 5 am Hoi An sky the day of the trip.

It took…

* 9-10 hours (in one day, starting at 5am)
* too many bottles of water to count
* a lot of AA batteries for my MP3 player
* many stops to ask for directions during the first hour
* many photo opportuity stops
* 4 coffee shop stops once it stopped raining
* 1 beef noodle stop (breakfast was baguettes while riding)
* and an entire container of Tiget Balm afterwards

But I DID IT. The books/maps say that it is a 100 kilometer journey, BUT according to the road signs I was 98 kilometers to Quang Nhai 1.5 hours into the trip. So, no way.

There is much to share about this trip, but for now (due to slow internet access and my inability to sit on my ass, for obvious reasons, haha, I will make this a visual experience.

I was treated to some beautiful nature scenes in no time at all:

Highway 1 sign

The highway was a 2 laner the whole way. It rotated between going through town centers to going through farmland. At no time was it anywhere near what a “highway” is like in the states. The buses and trucks were incredibly loud with their horns, and I think I lost what is left of my good hearing due to this, but never did I get run off the road by the vehicles. There were a lot of locals on bikes around me most of the time, although, admittedly, they were probably not going as far in one day. (Or were they?)

Coffee shop owner kicking it after we both had hammock naps.

See…

Some friendly locals cheering me on (me thinks)

And right around the last 30 k’s I wanted to see how badly my face was burnt, it was tingling, to say the least. But no mirrors anywhere in sight. So, I did the next best thing, I took my photo to see. Ut-oh, better get out of the sun soon!

Oh,and here is a catchy tune that helped me through the tough moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_cB5UNGqVs

Going on vacation this wed. Going to try my first ever, long distance anticipated bicycle trip. I could never justify spending $2000 on a trip like this, so am flying (read, biking) solo. Have an itinerary similar to what a lot of the bike tours in Vietnam do, and it looks very doable. All is dependent on weather, my cat gut reaction to all that exercise (me thinks this will be good for me), and how well the bicycle holds up.

The route is planned something like this; (but I am looking forward to any deviations that come up as I am biking and hear of other places that rock along the way.)

* Hanoi to Hue via overnight train on wed

(all of the following via bicycle)

* Hue to Danang (110 km)

* Danang to Hoi An (35 km)

* Hoi An to Quang Ngai (46 km)

* Quang Ngai to Qui nhon (70 km)

* Qui Nhon to Dai Lanh (80 km)

* Dai Lanh to Nha Trang (83 km)

* Nha Trang to Hanoi via plane

I have 10 days. Will buy bike in Hue instead of trying to lug one along on train (possibility of having it stolen and pain in the ass to check in, me thinks.

I will try and blog as I go, internet cafe dependent.

Am SO excited I could only sleep 3 hours last night, my brain was buzzing with ideas and anticipation of such an adventure. The flat terrain of Hanoi seems to be the same as the route I am taking, so this is a supreme time for me to get this dream out of my system. Or, better yet, get started on doing trips like this.

Hurrah and cant wait.

(Oh, if you have any info on any of the above towns, please feel free to send it to me. Am still doing the last bit of research over the last 2 nights.)