Skedaddler Sarah Towers joined us in Vietnam to check out the amazing sights, rides, food and experiences found during our Mountains and Coast cycling holiday. Once returned from her asian adventure, she wrote an amazing (and very detailed!) blog about her experience. To give you a feel of the trip, here’s some of our favourite snippets which she shared with about her journey…
‘After landing in Ho Chi Minh City, we were met with a Saddle Skeddadle sign and the friendly face of Duong who was to be the guide for our two week trip around Vietnam…
The first ride and the first stop…
After the normal fettling, filling up of water bottles, applying of lashings of first day sunscreen etc we finally hopped in the saddle. The land was lush, green and grassy with some fairly friendly looking brown cows with very saggy skin browsing around! It was warm, a little sunny and quite humid but more than rideable. At some point we took a left turn and very soon saw the sign on our right for the entrance to the Cu Chi tunnels. A network of 250km of underground tunnels several ‘floors’ deep in the Cu Chi region which became infamous during the 1960s for their role in the war.
To the coast…
At the start of day three, I wandered down to the beach to catch the end of the sun rising over the ocean. I was surprised to see a line of literally hundreds of local fishermen chest deep in the sea scouring the sea bed with large nets. Every so often they would return to the shore to empty the net into a sack before returning to the sea. I took a nosey in one of the sacks and to me it just looked like large sand particles but Duong assured us it was mixed sea food being collected.
More rides…
The ride on day 6 was tough going but everyone rode to their own speed and I was soon being cheered over the summit line by the group who’d beat me up. I then joined them to cheer on the rest of the group to the top before we had the treat of the downhill. We were also treated to our first view of paddy fields growing brightly in the valley below us – the real Vietnam I’d expected to see.
On day 8, we rode through lands of paddy fields with massive water buffalo basking in amongst the crops and past more schools of children desperate for high fives.
Arriving to Hoi An…
Hoi An was a delightful place. It was once a riverside port attracting traders from the west and further east so a total mix of different cultures. It was the most touristy we’d visited so far and was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 1999 with much of the old town being preserved to how it was centuries ago. We just familiarised ourselves this evening before separating into two groups – a handmade silk shopping group and a beer on a boat group – for an hour before meeting up for dinner.
Ocean Cloud Pass…
The Hải Vân Pass or ocean cloud pass is a 21km long mountain pass. It traverses a spur of the Annamite mountain range that juts into the South China Sea. The pass featured on Top Gear in 2008 where Jeremy Clarkson described the road “a deserted ribbon of perfection—one of the best coast roads in the world.” We began the climb and slowly slowly ground our way up to the top. The 10km climb took me about an hour and I finish middle-ish in the group. We spent some time taking in the views and checking out the war remnants.
Last day on the bikes…
Our final day on the bikes saw us leave the hotel on a tour of the imperial capital of Vietnam settled on the banks of the Perfume River – Hue. We started our tour by heading out of the old city to the Tomb of Tu Duc, one of the most impressive mausoleums in Vietnam, designed by the emperor for use before and after his death.
We than hopped back on the bike, exited the citadel and turned right to follow the road along the river to the Thien Mu Pagoda. This was the final stop of the day and the departure point for the support team who would begin the long drive back to Saigon. We said our goodbyes then head into the temple.
Train ride…
Pagoda done we made our way to the riverbank where we picked up the dragon boat which would take us back to close to the hotel. This evening we would make the journey from Hue to the modern day capital of Hanoi where we would end our journey by overnight train.
The train was a proper sleeper train with nothing but bunks in each of the ‘cabins’. We had stocked up on so much pizza, crisps, croissants and beer we could have eaten and drunken for the whole 12 hours! We started early and by about 9pm everyone was tucked up in bed trying to sleep. Sleep wasn’t as hard to come by as we had expected and before we knew it we arrived in Hanoi.
Last stop – Hanoi…
No more riding now but for completeness the final two days of our trip were spent in Hanoi. After some sightseeing, we headed into the old quarter. What an amazing place the old quarter was, jam-packed with scooters and with each street dedicated to its own product – the weirdest for me being the sellotape street!’
Want to read Sarah’s blog in full? Click here.
Sarah took part in our cycling adventure holiday in Vietnam, Mountains and Coast. For more information about our holiday click here.