Kim's Cycling Thoughts for the Day

Hi all, Kim here. Just some thoughts about images of Vietnam I have had.

The first two things that are most prevalent are motorbikes and rice paddies. There are so many bikes here it is amazing. In Hanoi, the capital, there are 6 million people and 3 million motorbikes. They carry massive loads of goods including on my first day I saw 60 trays of eggs on the back of one bike! Alternatively I have seen a family of five on them, young babies included.

On all the flat land in this country we see crops grown, mostly rice but also sugarcane, tapioca, corn etc. There is nothing quite as vibrant as the green of rice paddies, the colour is stunning. It now makes me appreciate when I eat some rice the work involved in getting it, it is a huge process, very labour intensive.

We are in the seaside resort of Nga Trang today, we biked 70km yesterday through countryside and small villages with lots of children yelling hello. We are going to enjoy a rest day to allow our weary bones and bottoms to recoup. This includes a boat ride and swimming or snorkelling, tough life.

The trip is rapidly coming to its end which is happy and sad, so many great times and some hard ones, the people are so welcoming here, our group has been great and supportive and the Intrepid crew wonderful. Our guide Lam is the happiest person we have met and takes us down some paths which you would never know exists, keeping us off the main roads with our mechanic Sui at the back of our group as a great traffic warden. One last big day tomorrow, 30km of that is straight uphill!! just blacking that out at present and a couple of days later a nice 25km ride to a chicken farm before our drive to Ho Chi Minh City. Thanks for checking in on our news.

Love the cycling sisters Kim and Sally.