Vietnam and Beyond

We finished our last leg of the journey riding about 1000kms down the beautiful coastline of Vietnam. One of the most interesting things on this trip is the difference between countries and culture. One hundred metres to cross the border and wham, what does this country have in store for the two hammers?

Vietnam, right away we noticed that the people and the country was a lot louder than Laos. The people in Laos are really easy going and quiet people, no one raises there voice. In Vietnam, the traffic was much more in your face and the people were not shy at all about letting you know they were there. The volume in Laos was about a 3 and Vietnam being a 9 out of 10. Very similar humour though and very light hearted about things. I felt both cultures have a good laugh at us "foreigners" and they also have a good laugh at themselves. The major difference between the two countries is that Vietnam is number 13 and Laos is number 101 in the world for most population per country.

We visited the old capital "Hue" where there was a huge imperial palace fortified by walls for almost a square kilometer. We did a motorcycle trip around the area to visit all the grave sites where royalty was buried, other landmarks and sat in on a Buddhist prayer at this huge Monastery.

We continued south to DaNang, a large port city and the 3rd largest city in Vietnam. We met a friend of Coral's named Brian. He is teaching English in DaNang which has lead me to my next adventure in this experience called life. I met some students of Brian's and had a great time talking and sharing my knowledge of the English language with them. After meeting Brian everything seemed to fall into place. DaNang has about 30km of coastline and surrounded by some nice passes and mountains. You could see why I might want to stay here for a while, fresh tropical fruits, beaches, mountains and a warm climate all year round.

Onwards to Hoi An a world heritage city. There are a tonne of tailor shops there and it was only 30km outside of DaNang so I can get some tailor made clothes for my new career. You could buy new tailor fit clothes, shoes and any style of clothing, bags or accessories for a fraction of the cost of any designer label and the quality is fantastic. There is a lot to see in the area with many reminents of the Cham empire that ruled much of the central region of Vietnam. I can't wait to go exploring in my free time.

The coastline south continued to amaze us, the views were breathtaking. We arrived in a city called Nha Trang were many Vietnamese go to for R&R on the beach. In the area were some hot springs, probably my favourite attraction for a weary cycle tourist. Coral and I(Steve) treated ourselves to a mudbath and massage.

Moving forward we headed into the tea and coffee country to a city called Dalat. This was the honeymoon capital of Vietnam. They call the city little Paris, it has a communications tower that looks like the Eiffel tower. We climbed about 1400m from the sea which turned out to be a long 120km day. There was a 3% grade for the first 70km which can be a bit demoralizing and a 50km climb to finish the day. What a view! The temperature drops at night which was awesome after spending some really hot days riding by the sea. The coffee in Vietnam rivals the Italian espresso and Turkish Kave that will kickstart the day. It's been really neat experiencing all the regional teas and coffees, different ways of preparation and presentation through out our travels. I could see myself living in Dalat, it was the place to be in Vietnam before air conditioning was invented. Waking up with the smell of pines and fresh mountain air, oh yeah!

The final km's were in front of us, 3 days of riding to Ho Chi Minh. It finally set in that these were the last days of our travels. The Two Hammers were about to sing their swan song on this one year journey. Exactly one year from departing Lisbon we arrived in Ho Chi Minh on March 21st. We reached Ho Chi Minh and the days leading in to the capital were extremely hot(35) with 80% humidity, pushing it up to 40%.

Now Kevin is in Canada making his way across the country from Vancouver(by bus) back to Southern Ontario. He will be laboring for another long season of back breaking manual labour at Plan B. I am studying in Ho Chi Minh to be an english teacher. I will be on my way back to DaNang shortly. My days will be spent learning Vietnamese in my spare time, riding my bike in the mountains in the morning, sitting by the sea drinking coconuts in the afternoon and teaching a few hours a night. Sorry Kev, I don't mean to rub it in... hehe. Coral is currently doing some more traveling in SE Asia before she returns to Canada for some back breaking labour as well.

I will be writing some conclusions about our thoughts on the journey. Until then thanks to everyone who fed us, provided us shelter, made us laugh and most importantly made our journey a memorable one.