First, let’s talk about yesterday. Our first day off of this trip. We were in Hue - the Imperial City. I would love to tell you more about this lovely city, except that I was too busy swimming and reading books and taking naps to really explore it beyond a trip to the pharmacy. But it was SO GOOD to have this day off. 12 days in a row is a long time to ride bikes, and our bodies were starting to feel it. So a late morning’s sleep, a swimming pool, and lots of food that wasn’t rice or noodles was just what the doctor ordered.

And if the days before didn’t justify our day off, then today and the next two days do. We’ve made it into some seriously steep mountains here. The kind that road bikes just aren’t made for. I blew out two tires before lunch. And spent far too much time walking my bike up hills for my liking. But, that’s the Central Highlands! And we did touch the clouds not once, but twice in a mere 70 kilometers. And today was just 70k and we made it here at 4pm. Tomorrow we have to go 110k! Let’s hope we got all the bike troubles out of the way today, eh?

It did bring back that old familiar phrase which rang through my head a few weeks ago. Only this time more loudly. DISTINCT LACK OF LOW GEARS!

That’s about it for now. I spent too much energy today being distracted/annoyed by the bike troubles to take too much note of the things we were seeing. But I saw some good valleys and mini waterfalls (aka Trickly Hows) nonetheless.

But one more thing, on an entirely unrelated note. If you notice my sudden disappearance on the popular blue and white social networking site of FB, that’s because the gov’t just blocked it for the entire country. So this is to answer the question of “where the @#$% is Katie,” should the question arise. And also to raise the question, “What the @#$% is going on in Vietnam? And what’s so dangerous about said blue and white site?” It truly is a crazy place. I’ll say no more, in the interest of maintaining access to this site.

See you in a few days for a cheerier update! 

PS – in fairness. All is still going exceptionally well. No one’s been really hurt, everyone’s made it the whole way. And we’re getting along splendidly, considering we’ve been together non-stop for two weeks now doing some pretty tough stuff. So bring on the Central Highlands, that’s what I say!

First: pictures are coming. I swear. We have a day off in 2-3 short days and will probably deal with photos then. We just haven’t had the comp time yet.

Second: my quads are better.

Third: Today was, in the words of many Vietnamese “same same but different.” Not too much to report, except:

Our driver, Bac, is truly a saint with at least 6 senses and maybe more.

This morning before we left, I was messing around with my handlebars trying to make things better when in reality I was making things worse. As soon as we left, I could tell my handlebars were loose and tried everything I knew to fix them but my bike was still wobbly. I fixed enough so that it was ok enough to continue on to the next town.

Never once, by the way, did I mention this mishap to Bac. The man doesn’t even speak English.

About 50k into our ride, two of our dear riders had quite a crash with some school children. As we were stopped and trying to sort them out with the first aid kit, I turn around, and what do I see but Bac, working on my handlebars. Don’t ask how he knew there was anything wrong in the first place. This I can’t answer. But he was on the case.

So I started watching him in awe.

Swivles the handelbars, shakes his head as if something’s wrong.

Twists something around at the base of the handlebars.

Swivles and still shakes head with a thoughtful wrinkle in his forehead.

Adjusts some more things in the region.

Swivles again and nods with satisfaction. Flashes me the “ok” sign and grins. I’m good to go and I never even asked him for help. Indeed, never even told him my problem.

Also, I’m not joking. I can go for hours without seeing this man or this van. The second I start to think: man I wish Bac would come by so I could get some water. There he is.

It’s truly, truly crazy.

My friend Jacinta was saying as we were riding off: I wonder if he knows how much we love him. How can I tell him? Maybe if I just flash him he’ll understand.

Maybe not that, but the man deserves some serious kudos.

So my quads hurt. It took a while, but they . . . hurt . . .

We were plugging along today, on a gorgeous road through gorgeous mountains with some new and merciful clouds over head, when we reached a really big hill. We were plugging our way up the hill, and I was sort of impressed with how quickly we were making it, when our van comes sailing by. 5 minutes later, the kids at the front are on their way back down. We went the wrong way, and Bac saves the day once again. So the next f 5-10 minutes are spent sailing down this hill which we just went up in error and my thoughts were two: this is lovley, and dang we went up a long way!

So the next road was a bit muddy and rocky, so we stopped at a few spots along the way. At one point, I stopped for a peanut butter break with 4 other girls where I ate half a jar of peanut butter (good thing there are 7 more where that came from!) As we were getting ready to leave, I had an idea: The Iron Man Dance.

That’s something we used to do at Davidson any time a group needed a good pumping up. It goes like this. Start singing the iron man theme in your best tough-guy voice. For the first round, pump one fist in the air, much like you’re knocking on a door. Second round: two fists. Third round: both fists and one foot. Fourth round: just jump all over the place.

By the end of this process, a passing car with 3 young guys had stopped to watch. When we finished, they wanted high fives. By the end of the high fives, they had hip hop music blaring out of the window. What’s a girl to do? We danced some more. Right there in the street. Great fun was had by all.

About 30 minutes further along, I stopped for water and 5 kids gathered round. My friend Hilary joined me and 5 more small children joined in. As riders keep joining us, so do small children, and soon we’ve got a crowd. So we did the Iron Man Dance for them. They wanted more, so we did the Hokey Pokey. Silliness. I think they were laughing at our padded shaking bums as much as they were laughing at anything, but laughs are good where you can get them. I think by the end there must have been at least 30 children around us. So we said goodbye and peddled on.

Finally, as we were about 5k from our destination town, I’m thinking “Jeez I’m hot, I sure can’t wait to get back and have a cold shower.” Then we crossed a lovely, clear blue river. Fresh clear water is a rarity in Vietnam. I, for one, have almost never seen it. So we went for a swim. In all our clothes.

The end.

Oh PS – We’re in Dong Le right now. About a 4th of the way to HCM and well over half way to our day off in Hue. Let the countdown to Hue begin!

I didn’t write anything yesterday, mostly because I didn’t want to come on here and winge about the miserable roads we were on. Hwy 1 is terrible:  huge trucks with loud horns who think it’s a game to see how close they can get to us. The whole day was long and flat and dusty. So I didn’t write about yesterday. Well I guess I just did.

But that’s because today was the best day ever! Definitely my favorite day so far. We took a short ride to meet up with the Ho Chi Minh Highway and then headed south on that all day. It was another lovely new road with almost no cars, and it was through GORGEOUS mountains. It was so. very. nice to have some hills and interesting scenery after two relatively boring days. I could tell that my legs are getting stronger, and focused much less on the “distinct lack of low gears.”

About 40k down the highway, we stopped for a food and water break (we’re eating a whole lot these days, including peanut butter by the fingerfull and 1.5 litre bottles of soda, I digress). And this time our break, for some reason, also included beer. (It’s sugar and calories and electrolytes, right? Isn’t that what we’re after?) After about 30 minutes, as our friend Sam so aptly put it “right guys, I think this is becoming a party, we still have 40k to go.” It was true, so we moved on.

A few miles down the way, we took  a (correct) left turn, but found ourselves going the wrong way on a one-way two-lane street. In my book, this isn’t safe, so we turned around and consulted our driver (who, by the way, is a saint and a genius and knows everything about Vietnam’s roads, and his name is Bac, as in Johann Sebastian). His message was clear “that way, Laos. This way, Pho Chau.” Wrong way on a one-way street it was. Carry on. But then it seemed that cars were heading in both directions, most of them on the wrong side of the road, so I chalked it up to thingsiwillneverunderstand and hoped for the best.

In short, today was lovely because the ride was challenging and splendid. We took lots of breaks so we stuck together a little more than usual, and there was lots of laughter at random happenings.

In other news:

• I got poked and groped some more by Vietnamese women this morning
• I raced a kid who was running barefoot, and defeated him ruthlessly, it’s really not fair and I should not be so competitive with small children. Ask my old students how many of them beat me arm wrestling, I just can’t help it.
• Everyone in this town finds us hilarious and we don’t even have to do anything. My hair is so short it doesn’t make sense and my friend’s legs are so long that it doesn’t make sense. Good entertainment for all.
• I nearly hit three different cows at three different times today.

So today was pretty easy. Which is a good thing,  as last night I was fairly certain that today would be my “hump day” in terms of getting settled into this trip. The first three days seemed a breeze fueled my adrenaline and a somewhat disturbing lack of sore muscles or even ability to feel blisters. All that came back a bit last night.

But today we were in for an incredibly (almost perfectly) flat ride on smooth roads. This was the day that made me nervous as it was largely on Highway 1. That’s the big highway that shoots straight down the coast. If we wanted to be in HCMC in a week, we could do it by staying on highway one. But the downside is it’s a big busy road with lots of loud trucks and scenery sort of disappears. So I was nervous about that.

I don’t like big trucks. I think they’re loud and bossy. And in Vietnam “right of way” rules are pretty simple. They go like this: the biggest vehicle always has it. Who’s smaller than a road bike? That’s right, nobody. And there’s a fine line between claiming a fair space on the road and playing chicken with someone who weighs 500 times as much as you. But I think we did a good job today, and I was pleasantly surprised by the politeness of  the trucks. And if we can do Highway 1, the rest of hte roads are just kids on bicycles who like to race us (and always lose, by the way).

So we arrived at our destination at noon, and had the afternoon to spend on the beach, reading books and eating crabs. It was lovely, and welcome break from our usual diet of noodle soup and peanut butter (generally not together).

So now I have this hotel’s guard standing behind me and I think he’s ready to have his computer back, but I just wanted to post a quick update. Tomorrow we go down a bit more of Highway 1 before cutting across the country to end the day near the Laos border. Bring it on!

Today was a lovely ride. Mostly because we got to go straight through a major national park on a brand spanking new highway that the car drivers apparently haven’t discovered yet. The spanking new asphalt highway was appreciated all the more since our first hour or so this morning was on a rocky dirt road trying not to pop our tires. (Mission accomplished by the way, for all but one of us).

And the part of the park that we drove through was a huge valley, so we had a great downhill ride getting there. And once we were there there were mountains on all directions. Couldn’t have been more beautiful. Again, I didn’t take pictures but I know that others did, so I’ll share as soon as I can.

No bike mishaps today. Everyone’s still in the ride. Everyone’s feeling good for the most part. Our driver is fabulous and fabulously helpful (he can fix bikes and he knows Vietnam’s roads like the back of his hand). The roads and cars have been kind to us. I only get an incredibly loud horn in my ear like 3 times a day. We’ve had some good races with children on bikes and high fives from children on the side of the road. We’re about 215k into our trip and all is good.

So now we’re in the town of Quan Loc (in Thanh Hoa provice, if you’re taking this to google maps). Though it’s bigger than Vu Ban, I think its remoteness makes us even more of a novelty than we were there. I’ve had the same man staring over my shoulder ever since I sat 45 minutes ago. As we were walking here from our hotel, all the kids just stopped their bikes to stare at us. I felt like a car crash. Granted there were 10 of us in a row, but we weren’t even wearing spandex.

It’s lovely.

Our second night was spent in the tiny, lovely, adorable town of Vu Ban. Small enough and remote enough that 13 white kids rolling in on road bikes are instant celebrities. I’m pretty sure that the town had two hotels – we occupied both of them almost fully. And I think the town had only one restaurant as well. I ate three meals there in 24 hours. The first time it was full of our group. The second time it was entirely full of Vietnamese men. The third time it was entirely full of Vietnamese women. I don’t understand why.

It’s the kind of town where everyone comes out of their houses to shout “hello!” to you and laughs a lot when you respond.

As I was walking down the street around dusk last night, over the hill I see two men in  a haywagon being pulled by a water buffalo. One second later I realized that one of those people was Chet – a 6 foot-something member of our group from Minnesota. Chet was holding the reigns. Chet even gets stared at in Saigon he’s so tall. You can imagine the looks he was getting in Vu Ban.

So I just stood in the middle of the street and laughed my head off, as was everyone else by the road (which was everyone in town, remember). I took pictures as they strolled on by and that was that.

Also, I was offered another shot at 7:00 this morning as I was walking down the street looking for noodles, coffee and bananas. I’m learning how to say “no.”

Oh also, a few members of our team took a 30k detour from our intended route yesterday. We’re also working on collective navigational skills.

Yikes, we’re only three days in an so much has happened already!

The night we spent in Vu Ban, we were reading this “Cycling Vietnam” book which described road bikes as “less ideal” for Vietnam due to a “distinct lack of low gears” for the mountains. I found this encouraging. We’re all on road bikes except for one. So this phras: “distinct lack of low gears” was rolling through my head like a song for about 12 hours straight.

Yesterday, we rode from Hoa Binh to Vu Ban, a ride that we expected to be “short and mostly flat and downhill.” Much to our surprise, as soon as we exited Hoa Binh we were greeting by an 8k climb up a mountain. It’s ok, bring it on, that’s what we’re here for. But I soon realized that my bike had a very distinct lack of low gears – it wouldn’t even go into its lowest gear! So I tried to take this phrase and turn it into a pump-it-up rhythm phrase to get me up the mountain. “Distinct lack of low gears, distinct lack of low gears.” It was starting to work alright.

Until my chain broke.

So that happened. We got out our little bike repair kit and guidebook and spent a good half hour fixing the chain. Then we decided to address the issue of the low gear – something we expected to be supremely easy. Fifteen minutes into this project, not only had I not regained the use of my lowest gear, but I had lost the use of even the second lowest. It was time to find someone who knew what to do with a bike.

Which, as it turns out, is everyone in Vietnam, our van driver included. So of course the guy on the side of the rode sorted my bike out in 10 seconds flat, laughed a little, and charged me 50 cents for it and I was off again.

This time felt much better and I was able to get that rhythmic, miserable phrase out of my head once and for all.

And, what goes up must come down, so the giant climb was followed by some pretty sweet downhill cruising with gorgeous views. I’ve done a bad job of taking pictures so far, but just take my word for it for now. I promise to show some pictures soon.

Well we made it through the first day!

The group met in Hanoi a few days ago, and we (I, at least) spent those days running around trying to finish everything I hadn’t finished in Saigon. At 8:00 this morning, our van got there. A few hours later, we set off from the edge of Hanoi and ended up in Hoa Binh, about 65 kilometers down the road.

It was a lovely day. It took us about an hour or so to get out of all the crazy city traffic and big trucks with loud horns. But suddenly, about halfway through the ride, we turned through this curve and we were suddenly on this gorgeous road looking at nothing but bikes in the foreground and mountains in the background! From then on, it was schweet.

When I finished my first bottle of water, I stopped at a little roadside stand to get another. But before the woman gave it to me, this man came up to me with two shot glasses full of something. I felt certain that it wasn’t water, so I smelled it. It was vodka. “No no no” I said “I have a long way to go and I don’t think this will help.” (in my best sign language, of course). He wasn’t having it. I wasn’t getting my water until I drank his. So I downed it. To cheers from the table full of men in the back. Strange but somehow wonderful.

The next place I stopped with my friend Jacinta, there was a bunch of women trying to ask us (we think) “How old are you and how many are you and where are you going?” They sort of lost their minds when we said “Saigon.” So then I got groped, by a Vietnamese woman. She mostly groped my thighs and my calves. Strange but somehow . . . wonderful is not exactly the right word, but hugely entertaining.

So that’s all. I’m feeling stellar at the end of the first day, and feeling more confident about the rest of the trip. The only mild concern is the absolute lack of low mountain-style gears on these road bikes, which I hadn’t fully appreciated until today. Ah whatever. Bring on the thunder thighs I guess.

And on a final note, I just want to say how lovely it is to be in Vietnam and not in Saigon. All the people we have seen have been so incredibly friendly and interested and excited about what we’re doing. It makes me excited to see more of the country outside of the big cities and tourist spots. I suppose the risk of food poisoning goes up, but that’s really the only downside. We were eating peanuts tonight and I went “gosh these are soft, almost like boiled peanuts back home, and I love boiled peanuts.” To which my friend took a look in one of hte shells and responded “yes, but they’re not boiled, that’s just mold.” Ah whatever. Bring it on.