We are cycling with a big group, as the tour was completely filled with 18 riders. Pictured here are all the riders, who are from England (5), Scotland (2), Denmark (1) Ireland (2), Northern Ireland (1), Australia (2), Canada (1) and the US (4, counting us). Everyone is very friendly!
We are enjoying being around so many native English speakers and riding through this beautiful country with other cyclists.
We are averaging 40 miles of cycling on the days we ride. Vietnam is a very long country, with over 2,000 miles of coastline. We’ve seen shrimp farming along the coast. Since Vietnam has extreme tides (3-6 feet), the shrimp ponds get their water changed naturally twice a day. The farmers need to raise the oxygen content in the water in order to support the quantity of shrimp in ponds, so they use these mechanized paddles. It takes about 3 months to raise the shrimp.
Along the coast there are many fishing boats.
Here we had turned away from the water and started riding up a small hill. You can see the ocean in the background with its turquoise color.
We like this photo that shows the vibrant green rice fields and a farmer riding her bike to carry what we guess is food for her animals: grass and some kind of grain.
We went to the Long Son temple in Nha Trang. It was late in the afternoon and took this photo which captures the look of the clouds and the Buddha statue in the soft light.
The base of the Buddha statue displayed bronze images of the seven monks who self-immolated in 1963 in protest of persecution by the Catholic south Vietnamese government. Persecution of Buddhists had been happening since the mid-fifties, and didn't stop until after President Ngo Dinh Diem's government was overthrown by an army coup later that year, but these fiery protests did put international pressure onto the government which reopened talks.
There are inspirational billboards along the roads, with generally two themes: limiting family size to two children, and all people working for the common goal of improving Vietnam. These are some of the only signs of communism. In this billboard there are many different professions and in the center is Ho Chi Minh, who is revered for unifying Vietnam into one country. It was Uncle Ho's birthday on May 19th, and we saw banners celebrating his accomplishments too.
On one of our days off from cycling we went snorkeling on a boat from Nha Tran. Here’s the view from the boat as it dropped anchor just off an island.
There was coral and fish to enjoy as we swam around. We saw this type of anenome coiled like this photo, but also spread out.
This is the view from our hotel window in Quy Nhon at about 5:30 am. There were lots of people already swimming since it’s so hot.
One of the national dishes of Vietnam is pho, which is a beef stock soup served with noodles, fresh basil leaves, bean sprouts and typically raw beef that gets cooked in the boiling broth. This version has pork and fish cake that were already cooked. Adding chilies or chili sauce makes it spicy.
We had finished cycling for the day, so after the pho lunch we walked around the lovely beach before getting on the bus to drive to Hoi An.
The Old Town of Hoi An is oozing with charm. So much so that UNESCO added it to the world heritage sites list as a well-preserved trading port from the 15th-19th centuries. The historic buildings have been converted into stores and restaurants.
While there weren’t Buddhist temples in Hoi An, there were several Chinese ancestral halls. These are incense coils that are so long that they take a month to burn. The lit coils like these had a tag with the names of the family members who would receive blessings during the month while the incense burned.
We are enjoying being around so many native English speakers and riding through this beautiful country with other cyclists.
We are averaging 40 miles of cycling on the days we ride. Vietnam is a very long country, with over 2,000 miles of coastline. We’ve seen shrimp farming along the coast. Since Vietnam has extreme tides (3-6 feet), the shrimp ponds get their water changed naturally twice a day. The farmers need to raise the oxygen content in the water in order to support the quantity of shrimp in ponds, so they use these mechanized paddles. It takes about 3 months to raise the shrimp.
Along the coast there are many fishing boats.
Here we had turned away from the water and started riding up a small hill. You can see the ocean in the background with its turquoise color.
We like this photo that shows the vibrant green rice fields and a farmer riding her bike to carry what we guess is food for her animals: grass and some kind of grain.
We went to the Long Son temple in Nha Trang. It was late in the afternoon and took this photo which captures the look of the clouds and the Buddha statue in the soft light.
The base of the Buddha statue displayed bronze images of the seven monks who self-immolated in 1963 in protest of persecution by the Catholic south Vietnamese government. Persecution of Buddhists had been happening since the mid-fifties, and didn't stop until after President Ngo Dinh Diem's government was overthrown by an army coup later that year, but these fiery protests did put international pressure onto the government which reopened talks.
There are inspirational billboards along the roads, with generally two themes: limiting family size to two children, and all people working for the common goal of improving Vietnam. These are some of the only signs of communism. In this billboard there are many different professions and in the center is Ho Chi Minh, who is revered for unifying Vietnam into one country. It was Uncle Ho's birthday on May 19th, and we saw banners celebrating his accomplishments too.
On one of our days off from cycling we went snorkeling on a boat from Nha Tran. Here’s the view from the boat as it dropped anchor just off an island.
There was coral and fish to enjoy as we swam around. We saw this type of anenome coiled like this photo, but also spread out.
This is the view from our hotel window in Quy Nhon at about 5:30 am. There were lots of people already swimming since it’s so hot.
One of the national dishes of Vietnam is pho, which is a beef stock soup served with noodles, fresh basil leaves, bean sprouts and typically raw beef that gets cooked in the boiling broth. This version has pork and fish cake that were already cooked. Adding chilies or chili sauce makes it spicy.
We had finished cycling for the day, so after the pho lunch we walked around the lovely beach before getting on the bus to drive to Hoi An.
The Old Town of Hoi An is oozing with charm. So much so that UNESCO added it to the world heritage sites list as a well-preserved trading port from the 15th-19th centuries. The historic buildings have been converted into stores and restaurants.
While there weren’t Buddhist temples in Hoi An, there were several Chinese ancestral halls. These are incense coils that are so long that they take a month to burn. The lit coils like these had a tag with the names of the family members who would receive blessings during the month while the incense burned.
