StuartandRhianydd

So...Long time no blog! Dont get me wrong, I'm not apologising, it was always the plan to tell you about our stay on Phu Quoc island either just before or just after we had left for the final part of our trip in Saigon.... But, with the power of hindsight I probably should have done the blog in stages. It now seems a bit of a daunting prospect to catch up with everything we have seen and done since my last update.....Still, no-one likes a shirker! Here we go...... Both of the places we stayed on the island were directly on the beach, south of Duong Dong town, the islands biggest community which lies on the west coast....The island is right at the early stages of what are obviously going to be some very major changes...Though ... read more

The ride from Vinh Long to Can Tho was virtually over before it began...Just 37 kms on sealed roads. The only slight problem being that the bridge linking the two river island provinces collapsed a short while ago (killing 67 people we were laughingly informed by Ho Chi Minh Diamond, see last blog)..Consequently we had to take a ferry across the river just east of Can Tho...Typical vietnamese chaotic efficiency, which I know sounds like a contradiction in terms,...method is to ride directly up to a narrow access ticket booth, bottle necking with hundreds of other bikes, buy the ticket and again bottle neck further into a holding bay about the size of a tennis court, capacity 250 or so bikes, which has rolling steel frame gates..Every 15 minutes these gates roll back revealing an opening ... read more

One of the longest rides to date...Plans were to stop at Ho Coc about 230 kms from Ca Na but after a breathtaking cross country ride east to the coast and then some of the best coastal scenery to date as we headed south to get to Ho Coc we were somewhat underwhelmed with the acommodation options...There was an "eco Resort" that looked like a UK garden centre and a tired looking resort geared totally to Vietnamese tourists that was like a collection of school bicycle sheds full of hundreds of deckchairs set at right angles to the beach...Strange!... Consequently we pressed on to Vung Tao another 70 odd kms further on and directly south of Ho Chi Minh City where we stayed in a central hotel called Petro House..Vung Tao is busy, full of expats ... read more

We both woke in Hoi An feeling better than we thought possible after a great nights sleep...The evening before we had eaten at a French/Vietnamese restaurant "Cafe des Amis" where the food was fantastic (no menu you just get what your given), and the soundtrack of French "Chansons" by the likes of Gresseur and Jaques Brel (three different versions of Port of Amsterdam in less than 2 hours), wonderful if slightly surreal, given the restaurants location on Hoi Ans lantern hung water-front. The owner, Mr Kim, who according to his card has "cooked at many exhibitions in Europe!" is inordinatley proud of his visitors book which he whips out as soon as you sit..A read through the glowing reports in virtually all and any languages you can think of was fun while we waited for the ... read more

So we're as far South as Hue..The ride down from Dong Hoi was a hard one even though only just over 150 K and the last stretch through yet another torrential downpour left us both feeling like a piece of chewed meat..Thank the lord we bought good waterproof gear! The Morin Hotel is absolutely fantastic and if you feel like a bit of a splurge when you get to Hue well worth the 75$ US we paid..(bargain hard!... Advertised prices are 150-200$) We chilled by the pool for the remains of the afternoon (Sunshine!!Hurray!!)and then headed out for a meal at Meditteraneo about 200 metres along the waterfront where we ate good italian food underneath tarpaulins weighed down by the heaviest rain yet.... When you're full of pasta and three sheets to the wind on good,cheap ... read more