mijn reis
Inhoud blog
  • China part 1
  • rest of the trip
  • 18th of november
  • 17th of november: Hanoi, a busy city!
  • 16th of november: let's go to Hanoi...

    Zoeken in blog


    Beoordeel dit blog
      Zeer goed
      Goed
      Voldoende
      Nog wat bijwerken
      Nog veel werk aan
     


    Links
  • webalbum foto's
  • map

  • 13-06-2012
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.China part 1
    The 20th I took the bus back to Ha noi and then it was time to sell my bike. It served me well and I still think it's the best way to travel. You get to see things that a regular tourist misses. You get to experience the true Vietnam while doing some exercise so if you have the time and you want to fully explore a country: take a bicycle with you. It opens doors!

    I sold the bike to a bike travel organization in Hanoi and then booked my train ticket into China. A night train would bring me from Hanoi to Nanning, the train itself was really good and comfortable. I had a softsleeper and I just slept till the border and continued my sleep after the border check. In the morning I woke up in China, ready for the next part of the trip.

    In Nanning I was going to couchsurf at an American who was teaching English at the university. She lived on campus so that was ideal for me to get to know the student life and taste the food :P. My host introduced me to her class where I could talk about just anything, so that they would get to hear a different English accent. The students were really enthousiastic and after the class some of the students took me into town. 
    My host is a fan of cycling so we had a bond and talked a lot, it was very interesting to me. And of course as a teacher she knew lot's of students. And she even had a bible reading group. All new experiences for me! Also in this way I would like to thank her for the great time she gave me. 
    Some students of the other class took me out to drink after class and soon it became late. Oh and Chinese can't stand much alcohol...

    My time in Nanning was coming to an end so after 5 days I went to Guangzhou. 2 days after the Asian games, the town was still ornamented and the parcs were soo pretty. I checked in at the riverside youth hostel; a recommendation is in place. And closeby there is a great noodlerestaurant owned by Muslim. They make great noodles so I went there pretty much all the time. 
    In Guangzhou there is the possibility to rent bikes from one place to the other like in many european cities. It was really nice to bike from parc to parc and to the expo. There even is a beer museum owned by inbev; something a Belgian can never resist!
    The best parc was the sculpture parc, a must see for anyone who goes to guangzhou!!!

    13-06-2012, 11:03 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    31-05-2012
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.rest of the trip
    I should write about the rest of my trip, starting with the 19th of november. The problem I have is that I lost all my pictures of the trip except for the ones that are online. The reason why I stopped writing my blog was because of a mixed-feeling experience and because I bought a flight home so there was only limited time left.

    19th of november:
    in the morning my host took me on a walk around the village with the occasional stop to drink tea at the home of some friends. It was an idillyc town with lots of rice paddies and banana trees. The last stop was at a fisherman's place, there is this river flowing through the town and the people fish there in a special way. They have a car battery in an improvised backpack and then they have to pins connected to it and they electrocute the fish. Saying that the fish doesn't suffer as much as in the traditional way. Pretty impressive to see. (they use rubber boots to keep themselves from being electrocuted).

    After breakfast and loading my backpack with some fruits for on the way I headed back to where I came from but first I wanted to visit a mountain village. The problem was that there aren't any on the map so I turned in some sandy roads along the street. Most of them just stopped at one house until I got lucky. A motorbike with some traditionally dressed people passed me. I tried to follow them and it didn't take long before they went in another dusty path. The path went through the river (no bridge), the motorbike had to be manually pushed through so I did the same with my bike. I got off, took the bike on my shoulder and went across. The motorbike was long gone now but there was only one path which went straight up the mountain so I went. Then got tired, but kept going. 2 more motorbikes with traditionally dressed people passed me. They saw that I was getting really tired and they waited behind every corner to see if I was still following and then giggled when they saw me come round the corner. This gave me enough energy to reach the top of the first mountain. I expected to see a village in the valley but there was nothing. The road went a bit down and then up the next mountain. The motorbikes left me while climbing the second mountain. It was really steep, good thing that I didn't do this with my trailer. On the top of the second mountain I got an even better view than I could have dreamt of. It was amazing, straight out of a movie. 

    About 15 wooden houses with smoke coming out the chimney laid scattered on the mountain flanks, surrounded with fields. When I came closer I saw kids running around with the pigs and chicken. it didn't take long before someone asked me in, the house was build on pillars, below there was a dog, some chicken, a few pigs and hay. In the house there was a part that could be used as a kitchen, an empty space which becomes the bed in the evening and a storage area for dried meat, beans,... My phrasebook came in handy and the camera was a great toy for the people. More and more villagers came to the house to have drinks with me and a chicken got slaughtered. While the wife was preparing the lunch, I followed the man on a trip through his fields, stunning views!

    When we got back lunch was ready, it's touching how these people while not having much still share everything with you. 
    We went for a tour through town after the dinner, it was very interesting, but they were shy and ran away from me. 

    It was a great experience but when I came back at the main street and wanted to eat some of the fruit they gave me, I couldn't find my pocket knife. I'm pretty sure they took it since all pockets were closed and I left my bag at there house before taking the tour through town. Before that it was still in there. This experienced ruined my day... They said no when I wanted to pay them but then they take my swiss army knife, hmmm....

    Soon I will add more stories about china, I left vietnam as soon as I got back to Hanoi...

    31-05-2012, 11:52 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    21-11-2010
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.18th of november
    In the morning we went back to the aunt to eat sticky rice and afterwards I left to the bus station so that I could go to the mountains. After some bargaining about the price to take my bicycle I wanted to get on the bus. However somebody pulled a scam on me: I apparently paid the wrong guy and he just took off with my money… I’ve had to pay some guy around the bus in other cities before but apparently here they are just thieves! I told the bus driver that I already paid the other guy and he called the police. I described the person and as a miracle the police gave me back my money. However for some reason I don’t think they caught the thief… Something like this can ruin your morning! I really don’t understand it, I’ve never had any problems like this until I came to the north; there clearly is a difference in mentality. After only 90 km the surrounding nature was so beautiful that I forgot about it. After a mandatory lunch we arrived at Moc Chau (5 hours for 200 km). I wanted to pick up my helmet and my backpack but the helmet was gone! Someone must have taken it while I was asleep; I really don’t understand these people. It was attached to my backpack so it couldn’t have just disappeared, anyway I checked the entire bus. This was the place where I would need my helmet! 

    I put my bicycle together again and called the guy where I would be staying for directions to his house. It was 24 km downhill from here. The road was quite steep downhill and the scenery stunning so I drove pretty fast and enjoyed! According to a motorbike who was following me I drove 55 km an hour but I think his speedmeter was wrong it didn’t seem that fast… I arrived at a beautiful hut; he lived at a farm filled with banana trees, vegetables and lots of animals. I took a look around before we had dinner: a great meal with 6 different dishes and soup! Afterwards I played a little with the two little kids and then it was time to go to bed. I loved how quiet it was out here.






    21-11-2010, 07:19 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.17th of november: Hanoi, a busy city!
    For breakfast we went to the aunt of Can and had sticky rice, hmm sooo delicious that I ate a double portion! After that I went to check out Hanoi center and look for a bus to go to the mountains. I also came past some people who are willing to buy my bicycle. First I went to a wifi café, then I passed the giant west lake before trying to make my way towards the old city. The small streets of the old city are really charming but it’s the perfect scenery for thieves and apparently they are numerous. Everyone I met warned me about them but I didn’t have any problem. I learned that the city is really big and the first people sent me to the wrong bus station so I had to go to the other side of the city: 13 km! 13 km of pure racing since it can be really dangerous so I had to keep up with the motorbikes if not pass them. I saw a few accidents but didn’t have one myself so I was lucky… At that bus station I got the information I needed: every hour there is a bus to Moc Chau. I went back past the west lake instead of taking the shortest way since I still had some time and I noticed before that it was rather beautiful. There were quite some people on the lake kayaking, some of them were even going very fast.  We had dinner with the 4 of us: Can’s little sister, dad and mom. The food was again delicious, I am getting worried about not liking the food when I go home :( .



    21-11-2010, 07:17 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.16th of november: let's go to Hanoi...
    Knowing that it would be my last cycling day with the trailer I wanted to push myself and that worked: I felt full of energy and was racing passed everything. There wasn’t much to see around here and I had plenty of water so I only had to stop for food once in a while. At 12.30 I reached Hanoi: 65 km done! Now I still had to find the house of Can’s parents which is the total other side of the city. I had to go on the internet to find the exact route description. A few moments later I was making my way through traffic, Luckily I had decided to only take major roads so I had to follow the big road 12 km north. There I was looking for the house, but couldn’t immediately find it; Can told me that there was this kind of factory around but nobody knew it. He forgot to mention the name of the restaurant: there were signs everywhere but I didn’t know that that was it. After passing it 3 times I decided to go in and ask; I didn’t have to ask: they already knew who I was. This was the place where I had to be. They have a lovely garden! His mother prepared a great meal and afterwards we went out to meet the family…



    21-11-2010, 07:15 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.15th of november: a day of detours and bad roads
    Klik op de afbeelding om de link te volgen After a short night sleep I had to wake up the owner of the hotel to be able to leave. It’s strange that here people don’t get up before 7 am while only 30 km away they all get up at 6 or earlier… I arrived at the house that Dong and Sôn pointed out as being theirs but there were other people sitting outside so I texted them and they let me up to their room. I have to say that they are poor: it was smaller than my last place in Leuven and they lived there with 5 people! They had 2 wooden beds, some blankets, 1 rope to hang their clothes, a pipe with some tobacco and everyone had a toothbrush. That was really everything they had! I felt bad about them treating me a beer 2 nights ago (ok, I returned the favour last night but still). We went out to eat Pho at the same restaurant, apparently the owner was really happy that I had been there a couple of times and we didn’t have to pay. People can be soo nice!

    Anyway time to head out and I packed my bicycle and checked out. But I couldn’t leave yet, I met a Canadian who I had met up with for the past few evenings and he wanted to check whether we could do some trekking together in the North-West… We went over some possibilities with the guide and finally I set of towards Hanoi (it was already 11 am so I missed 4 good cycling hours). I wanted to avoid highway No.1 at all cost so that meant going east, then turning onto some small road, which was full of potholes, then going some more east, again north and finally west. Totally shaken up but with quite a good average speed I reached highway No.1 35 km north of Ninh Binh. This was a primary goal but then it wasn’t late yet so I continued looking for road 21 B. I couldn’t find it so I asked where it was and he said 2 km back. The milestones indicated that it was 7 km back so that was a detour of 14 km! If I had known I would have taken another road… Once on 21 B I forgot all the trouble, it was a very nice road trough the fields on an elevated road: lovely. I soon arrived in the city where I wanted to sleep: 60 km from Hanoi but as it seemed there was no hotel or guesthouse in this city. I couldn’t believe my ears: such a big city and no guesthouse or hotel? So I asked for homestays but nobody seemed willing so I had to go back to the previous city. Another detour of 12 km but I found a pretty nice guesthouse.

    21-11-2010, 07:14 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.14th of november
     I slept long today since I didn’t have that much on my planning and it got pretty late last night. I first did some extra research on the internet before going to the restaurant because I have learned that they start serving the daily rice dishes at around 10 am so I went and yes it tasted even better than the evening before since everything was still warm! After a good breakfast I headed towards the touristy sights of Ninh Binh area: Karsts mountains and a few old pagodas. They call this place Halong bay in the rice paddies… When I arrived there were already quite a few tourists around so I tried to get away from them, which didn’t work that well, the paths I took always ended in the middle of nowhere so I had to turn back. Finally I found a place where the scenery was nice and where there are no tourists around. Completely surrounded by nature I took my flute and started to play some tunes, the mountains had a nice echo on the high tones… After a while I went to some pagodas, when I drove past the river again it was traffic jam of all the boats with tourists. These boats are pretty interesting to see/ they have a special way of rowing with their feet as you can see below on the picture. 

    I saw around 50 big busses at the parking lot and it was white from the tourists, unbelievable how many people do the daytrip from Hanoi. Luckily they were all first taking the boat trip so I hurried to the pagodas, which weren’t that special at all so not really worth it. It was getting crowded again so I went back still passing one last temple. This temple is said to be a great sunset spot but it was too early for sunset so I didn’t go up (they have a pretty big entrance fee and it’s said to be not worth the effort if it’s not time for sunset). Instead I heard some traditional music from another temple nearby so I went to take a look. There was a ceremony going on which I believe is very interesting and they invited me in to watch. I noticed that it was similar to the one that I had seen 9 years ago and then took for a ‘bachelor party’ which as I learned is a ceremony for strength and power. It can be done before they get married but it is more general. I watched for a while and listened to the music but it is always the same thing with different clothes so I went back to the guesthouse. I didn’t have wifi for quite a long time so now that I have a hotel with wifi I want to use it! For dinner I went back to the same restaurant (the food changes all the time and it tastes good) and met up with Dong, Sôn and the others. We made an appointment for breakfast (anh sang or something similar) at 6 am next morning at their house. In the evening I met some guys from Antwerp and later in the evening a couple from Holland, it was nice to speak dutch again!










    21-11-2010, 07:13 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.13th of november

    In the morning I went to Kim Son, there should be a festival out here so I wanted to check it out. It is about 30 km from Ninh Binh but it didn’t seem that far: the road was very good and on the way I could see some interesting things: the church (see picture below) was the most interesting. After asking for directions a few times, I arrived at the temple and was right in time for the devotions. I got a book with prayers and after a while I could join a few sentences. 2 hours later, the devotion was finished and they gave me some bananas and sticky rice for lunch. I enjoyed it together with the monks and afterwards they showed me a lock and signed that I had to leave. Apparently that was it, no sign of the swimming competition/ folk games/ folk singing/ … I went to an internet café and checked the website. I asked the owner whether or not this was going on and where it was, he had no clue what it was about (100 m from the temple). I tried to call the tourist information service but they didn’t answer… 

    Anyway I found out that Kim Son is famous for its straw weaving: basketry, carpets and such things. With a new mission I drove through the town, I wanted to learn as much as possible about this weaving and maybe I could get something small as presents? 500 meter further I found some women finishing off the baskets with leather handles. Another 500 meter further I drove past a ‘factory’ where they were painting the straw but that was it. I wasn’t satisfied so I drove into some smaller suburb of the city, apparently the wrong one because there was nothing going on. However I ran into some churches so it was worth it… School was about to start again after lunchbreak and thus I could follow the stream of students into another suburb. This time I found a ‘factory’ where they were making baskets from scratch, tons of baskets! In the storage rooms thousands of baskets where piled up and you could find them in all sizes and colours. All work was put on pause and they guided me around, which was not good for taking pictures so I kindly asked them to keep on working and not be disturbed by me wandering around. After a glass of tea with the owner I continued my exploration through the straw fields. A bit later I found a lot of straw on a street so I gave it a closer look and found a weaving tool, the owner was on his afternoon nap so I couldn’t see him in action :( . A bit further I found some people working again and the entire inner square of the house was filled with straw handicrafts, they invited me in so of course I followed my curious nose… 

    The people were very nice and we had a ‘talk’ (with the use of my phrasebook and pen and paper…) with some tea. They had some really nice handicrafts that I wanted to buy but instead of buying them I received them and quite a few more handicrafts. I was invited to stay for dinner but I was 33 km from my hotel so I had to go back before it was dark. Back in Ninh Binh I found a nice restaurant where I enjoyed some rice and met a few locals: Sôn and Dong are the two names that I remember. They all worked in the same company and lived together. I ended the day with some beers and tourists at the guesthouse, finally some decent English. I notice that mine is deteriorating… :( 















    21-11-2010, 07:08 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.12th of november
    Klik op de afbeelding om de link te volgen I woke up not knowing that today would be a day that I’ll never forget! In the morning I took my usual shower and went for breakfast as I do every day. I had Pho bo as I do most of the time, for dessert I went to get some ice cream in a local store. To my surprise the owner spoke German so we had a little talk; he used to work in germany for 2 years. I was really impressed about his German: it was very fluent and he said that he hadn’t used it in 8 years! Anyway this is not the event that I will never forget no, no. After I loaded everything on my trailer, I went to check out; I got my passport back but when I wanted to pay, she returned the money and said that she needed more. I told her that I negotiated with the son and that this would be it, so I put the money on the desk and got on my bicycle. She ran to the gate and locked it so that I couldn’t leave; then it happened: she came after me with a knife. Not a table-knife but a big meat-chopping knife and waved it in front of my nose then towards my bicycle and yelled money! I got my coat and my camera (the valuable things in sight; my coat contains my wallet since I have no pockets) and ran for the gate, still being chased by a woman with a knife. I climbed over the gate and ran across the street to the police station; the woman stopped when she noticed that everyone could see her and walked back. 

    At the police station I encountered a problem: nobody speaks English around here and I had had to leave my phrasebook with my bicycle.  After a few phonecalls with someone that spoke a few sentences English I had my story together and surrounded by a police force I headed back towards the hotel. The gate wasn’t locked anymore so we could walk in and I found all my stuff untouched (except for the bicycle; they always mess with my bicycle, luckily it is very durable).  It was now 1 pm and I still had to leave! Luckily I only had 40 km planned and soon I was surrounded by beautiful rock-formations! The rest of the day was a beautiful tour along a good road until I reached highway 1. It’s pure evil for a cyclist: a lot, a lot of trucks, busses and cars that constantly honk. I raced along this road and then took a break halfway where I met a guy who wanted to show me around his neighbourhood. He paid for my ice-cream and was really nice so I followed him and met a bunch of his friends in his back yard (he made a phone call after I said that I would go with). They all worked together to make full questions and then asked them to me. I enjoyed the peace and quiet neighbourhood but it was getting late so we quickly visited his church and then I had to go again. In Ninh Binh I had some difficulties finding a cheap hotel or guesthouse but finally I ended up in this ‘German-speaking’ hotel where I had a very small room but they had wifi and a beergarden. The beergarden is the main attraction and is always filled with Germans! I met some nice people in the evening and got a chance to contact home.

    21-11-2010, 07:04 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.10th of november

    I woke up feeling slightly better and left pretty early (7.30 am) towards where-ever I would get tonight. Things  actually went pretty well and after barely 1 hour I met another cyclist. The guy was very well prepared and his handlebar was full of electronic gadgets: Iphone for mp3 player and if necessary google maps for more detailed streets, a garmin gps with the major roads of Vietnam so he could keep track of his speed and the altitude, … All of this blended in with his touring bicycle, he only had panniers in the back so he was travelling light. He was surprised to see a guy drag a trailer around and asked for my picture. He told me that I was completely crazy and pointed out that it was pretty hilly out here so I told him that I have been to Da Lat and that this is absolutely nothing compared to that place. He also suggested some road but it would take me in the opposite direction as where I want to go so I thanked him and kept going. A look on my map told me that I had already done 20 km so that means I’m going really well! About 40 km further I noticed the first Karsts Mountains and another cyclist so we had a meal together. It’s really nice to meet other cyclists; it takes away the feeling that you are doing something completely insane. Too bad that they are all going the opposite direction which is actually understandable. If you ever want to cycle through Vietnam I also recommend you to do it the opposite way; the wind is always coming from the north so it would be easier to go from North to South. Anyway, the environment gave me some new energy but that was not the only thing: there was a tractor that was going about the same speed as me. Uphill he was faster and surpassed me but downhill I was faster so I could take him over again. For 20 km we continued this game until he turned left towards his home and I stopped for a picknick. Everyone came to look and told me that a bit further was a restaurant but I had tomatoes, cucumber, ketchup, sausage and bread so why would I want to eat rice? I felt like eating some bread so I enjoyed it! A bit later I arrived in Cam Thuy and the view was just amazing so I decided to explore these surroundings some more and stop for the night. I drove around and arrived at a river where I had a nice view but I noticed some movement a bit further along the river. When I arrived there I saw some people with ox-carts digging sand and transporting it to another place. I took some pictures and they were really into that so they started posing on their buffaloes and pulling some jokes on the other guys. Really entertaining for me! They also appreciated that I had some candy for them so they took a break from the work. It was starting to get dark so I went to look for some food; there wasn’t anything really interesting in this part of town so I went across the river and I found a soccerfield with a lot of children playing. I could only watch for one minute before they dragged me of my bicycle and I had to join. I found myself in the light-coloured-shirt team and we won! With 1 goal and 2 assists I had my share in the game and we were all very happy!







    21-11-2010, 06:52 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.11th of november
    I noticed something new on my map: an arrow indicating a steep hill, I have to say that I noticed that. It was already there after 2 km; I found myself trying pushing really hard to get up while on the side of the road quite a few local people where cutting manioc roots into small pieces and laying them on the street to dry. Accompanied by the beating of the knives and occasionally a more sophisticated chopping wheel I reached the top and could go down for 3 km! Then it was up again, the word flat has no meaning at all around here! Next on my route was the national park of Cuc Phuong; a beautiful elevated road (FLAT!!!) circled past the mountains and a river was the only barrier between the national park and the road I was on. Soon I had to turn right away from the Ho Chi Minh road; merely 2 km further the road went from good, to bad, to worse, to horrible! Kilometres long the road was in a horrible state followed by 1 km of decent road and then again a road full of potholes. I think that I passed at least 600 potholes in the 20 km that I drove from the Ho Chi Minh road towards Nho Quan. Definitely no terrain for a trailer, but actually quite a peaceful road with a cave along the way. For my Chinese friends I took a picture of the Chinese description of the place. There was nobody there so if one of you would be so kind to translate this… In the evening I checked in in a fancy hotel where they said was wifi available. There indeed was wifi but the internet was not working so I negotiated with the son of the family that I would pay less since the internet was not working and they told me there would be internet. Everything seemed fine so I went to an internet bar instead and went to bed afterwards.











    21-11-2010, 06:50 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 2/5 - (4 Stemmen)
    17-11-2010
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.9th of november

    Today I would cycle a full day along the Ho Chi Minh road, through the sugar cane, manioc and rice fields. I saw a lot of the local life and I met another cyclist: a French woman joined me for a drink however she was going the other way so we only chatted for 15 minutes exchanging some information about the roads and the life of a cyclist. It was definitely interesting and she told me that I would soon enter a more interesting part of Vietnam: Karsts Mountains! I was planning on taking a detour for that but apparently you can see it on the road as well… Maybe I’ll have to change my plans again. Anyway there is not much to say about today, it’s the same story as the past few days: nice scenery, nice people, some rice wine and a horrible wind ahead. Oh one other thing: the trailer started ieping really loud, the sound gave me some sense of rhythm and thus stimulated me to keep a stable speed. In the evening (starts at 4 pm) I drove trough town and into a village nearby where I found a machine to peal the rice. Maybe you remember that we saw a similar machine in the north-east of Thailand. This one is a bit less sophisticated but it works, up to you to decide which one is better. To give some information about where I am: I am in Yen Cat, the city I wanted to reach in 2 days from Vinh. I am still suffering from being ill in Buon Me Thuot… 





    17-11-2010, 04:57 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.8th of november

    Felt horrible in the morning: every muscle hurt as I went for breakfast and an internet bar. I think I passed every street in the entire city before I found one: in a small alley there was a small shop with 12 pc’s. Mentally refreshed by the e-mails from home I set off over again wonderful roads trough places rarely visited by foreigners. I saw a lot of farmers ploughing the fields with the use of an buffalo or cow. Again a very nice ride and then I arrived on the Ho Chi Minh road, a big road with not so much traffic but it’s never flat and the wind is always coming from the North/North-East which made it very hard from time to time. One thing that I didn’t like are the traces of deforestation. There are also a couple of very steep hills with elevations of more than 10%. I don’t know what was wrong with me but after 60 km I was really tired and thus had to call it for the day. In the evening I went to the bigger town nearby to get some internet so that I could send a message home, apparently there was no internet here but the people I asked had a computer and they let me in so that I could use theirs. I love the Vietnamese hospitality! On the way back I went up a hill to watch the sunset and play a bit on my bamboo flute, I kind of miss playing the bassoon or bagpipes. It was very relaxing but I had to hurry in order to get back before it was completely dark. When I got back the electricity was down so there was not much to do except for going to a bar and enjoying a beer at candle light. The ideal setting for a romantic evening but too bad, I’m travelling alone.





    17-11-2010, 04:56 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.7th of november
    since the last post doesn't have a lot of pictures I took a lot of them today:

    7th of November:

    I went to pick up my bicycle and noticed that my tire was flat but there seemed to be no hole however the ‘jepap = ventiel’ (sorry, I have no clue about the English word: the thing where the air enters the tube) was broken. I couldn’t fix it and had to go to a repair guy, he immediately knew the problem and after 2 minutes I was 3000 dong poorer and my bike was fixed. I also asked him to put some oil on my chain and I was ready to go! I started off taking the wrong road, apparently there have been a lot of road constructions in Vinh that are not on my map. I realised when the road went from a 2- lane to a 1-lane to a dirtroad and kept going north while it should go west. I stopped to ask directions and 2 out of 3 told me to go left so I went left (there is always someone who tells you the wrong direction). I stopped 500 m further to make sure that it was the correct way and yes it was; 3 km further I was totally shaken by all the potholes and arrived at Highway 1A, one of the new roads that is not on my map. I had to go back east and then get on the right road. Conclusion: it was now noon and I hadn’t even started! I knew that I could never reach my goal but still I drove faster than normal and passed some really nice scenery; the road was pretty good with only little traffic, lots of hills, lakes, locals,… Everything you need to have a nice cycling afternoon!










    17-11-2010, 04:54 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.2nd till 6th of november
    first of all sorry for not having any pictures: this has 2 reasons: I forgot my camera and the weather was really bad most of the time...

    2nd of November

    Today I took it easy and just went walking through town, checking on the monuments, looking for a way to go back home since the bus from the hotel is not going due to excessive rain! The other bus companies also didn’t go so I would have to find something to do. I didn’t have to look much: when I was buying fried bananas (one of the most delicious snacks), a guy came up to me and said that he was doing some guiding. I asked for more information and well it seemed interesting so we made a deal. Afterwards he invited me to go have some dinner and a few drinks with his friends for tonight. It was a nice dinner and we had some rice wine, vodka and red wine. Meanwhile we had past about 5 houses where we always got some food and a drink ;), he knows quite a lot of people so that is promising for tomorrow. We also made an appointment to have an English conversation class tomorrow evening so everything was great and I went to bed!

    3rd of November

    I woke up feeling horrible! I checked my symptoms on the internet and called my mom (at 2 am for them ;-)) she told me to go to a doctor. I was lucky that I hired a guide because English is usually a problem when going to a doctor or non touristy institution. This doctor spoke a few words of English (the names of symptoms and such) and then my guide knew the basic conversation so with the 3 of us we could understand each other. The doctor couldn’t find anything serious but the fever was worrying him so he I had to take a blood test and a radiography for my stomach. Conclusion: I’m still ok, I just have a viral infection and so he subscribed me 4 medicines! I still felt horrible but I had the guide for the day so I wanted to use it and go see some things. I hopped on the back of his motorbike and zoom, through the rain we went!

    The first stop was his grandmother, a really old but strong woman. She is a monk in a small monastery where they also have a coffee and pepper plantation. We had some tea and fruits and then explored the garden where I learned all about picking coffee beans!
    Next stop was the DraySap waterfall; maybe one of the most beautiful waterfalls I’ve ever seen. Due to all the rain, the waterfall was way bigger than normal but it was not the size and the strength that made this one so amazing. It was the whole setting: a broad yet calm river flowing in a rocky ‘valley’ (not a big valley, in dutch you would call it ‘rivierbekken’) and then getting smaller and smaller until the edge of this rocky plateau where the water splashed down for about 13 m high. Completely white from the power the water then flowed into a big calm pool which would be ideal for swimming if the weather is good. All this beauty is in the middle of the jungle so completely surrounded by vast forrest (with the usual insects as a consequence).
    Now it was time for some real ethnic minorities: we went to an Ede village nearby, normally they don’t allow tourists but my guide has some friends there so we enjoyed some tea and local sweets in a longhouse. I learned that the longhouses are for multiple couples and their children: when a girl marries, the husband has to move in with the family of the girl and they get a part of the longhouse. Very intriguing was that there are no doors between the compartments, which makes you wonder… Anyway this visit was very interesting!
    The last stop was another coffee farm: we went to another friend of him and enjoyed some food there: fish, soup, pork, rice and chips (not French fries but the snack). Here he explained what happens after the picking and drying of the coffee beans and I got first hand experiences! Too bad I forgot my camera in the guesthouse this morning… :(

    Now it was time to head back because I had to go to English class for another conversation class. The teacher was very excited when I showed up and after a brief explanation about how she wanted to handle the class we went in. I faced a group of students who were all the same age as me and some of the girls were really shy in the beginning but then after half an hour the questions were fired at me one after the other. During the class they asked about my favourite Vietnamese food and then they invited me to join them after class so that I could enjoy it, this was really great. It’s pretty hard to find such a restaurant and usually you eat it with a group so this was perfect!!!
    After dinner I headed back to the school for the next class: these were the more advanced students but surprisingly they were more shy than the previous class. Only one guy was really comfortable with his English so despite all my effort to involve other people I basically ended up having a long conversation with him. He is a nice guy so I didn’t mind at all!
    After this class the teacher asked if I was available the next day but I was leaving for Nha Trang again… She was really pleased that I came to the class so I guess everything was good!

    4th of November

    I woke up early since I had to take the bus at 7 am (the only bus) to Nha Trang, it seemed to last longer than the ride to buon me thout. Maybe that was because I couldn’t sleep and a few days ago I was almost always sleeping … The road is actually very nice and if it weren’t that long I would have done it by bicycle. I checked in at the hotel again and then went to arrange my train tickets (for the bicycle, trailer and me). This caused a lot of problems: I wanted to be on the same train as my bicycle but that was not possible for foreigners! Foreigners have to go on the express train and then the price for a soft or hard bed is only 1 dollar different. For local people the difference is way bigger and thus I was upset, I wanted to have an experience with the train ride but instead I ended up paying a lot more than officially listed and was put in a comfort cabin. I sent my bicycle and trailer on the train leaving at 7 pm while I would be on the train of tomorrow 1 pm. It started to rain again so I didn’t do much in the evening.

    5th and 6th of November

    In the morning I went shopping for snacks, drinks, … Because I knew that the slow train take more than 27 hours (yes this is the express train so it will go faster but I had no idea how much faster). Then I repacked my bag so that the things that I would need first were on top of the things I needed second etc. Oh yes, I am learning ;-) in the train I had one of the top beds in a cabin of 4; the other 3 beds in my cabin were occupied with around 60-year-old Vietnamese who didn’t speak a word of English and had troubles with reading Vietnamese. I already know that there would be little contact but no worries, I was prepared with a fully charged battery I can last 10 hours of movies, studying, catching up with my blog,… Before 7 pm my ‘roommates’ went to sleep so I joined them at 8 pm. I kept waking up not knowing where we were and I had no idea how long it would take and thus I was very restless and kept asking other people in the alley where we were and what time we would be in Vinh. Nobody knew when we would arrive in Vinh but after asking 4 times I had an idea how fast we went and thus estimated that we would arrive at 9.30 am. At 5.30 I got up and had breakfast with the other people in the cabin; they had rice, I had bread with jam and cheese (long live supermarkets!). The train started to go really slow because the railway was badly damaged by the floods. You could see that entire strokes were washed away and they were rebuilding it by putting some rails loose on a pile of rocks. At a record speed of about 5 km an hour it had to pass several of those temporary tracks. Next to the railway you could see what the damage was: the road following the railway was not repaired yet. You could see that the road just stopped and then 3m vertically down you saw some pieces of this road. It made me realise that I would have never made it on this road and to be honest that was the road that I wanted to take around here. The smaller highway between Danang, Hue and then the Ho Chi Minh road. Anyway with a serious delay we reached Vinh at 1.45 pm so that means more than 24 hours! The pick-up service for my bicycle and trailer was closed so I first went looking for a hotel and found a decent and really cheap one on the street between the railway and highway 1. In the evening I went to a restaurant and as usual some local people wanted to drink rice wine with me after my meal. Time to go to bed again …

    17-11-2010, 04:52 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    13-11-2010
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.31st bus to buon me thuot + 1st november
    Yesterday I had decided to not cycle through the typhoon territory, the weather reports say that it will keep raining and it is really bad! Even the trains are cancelled so I can’t take the train to the north today. Instead I took a bus to Buon Me Thuot and took my bicycle with. Buon me Thuot is a big city with very few tourists but quite some things to see. It is famous for it’s coffee, elephants, waterfalls and has a lot of stone factories… I guess I can see something around here… The busride took 6 hours for 190 km, it is in the middle of the mountains and I took the local bus so it stopped everywhere. I totally didn’t mind, the boy who has to handle the money of the passengers knew a few words of English and was really happy that I was on board. He treated me well with lots of cookies, local foods and water. I resided in the hotel that is owned by the same family as the bus company, planned my trip for the next day and went to bed early.

    I left early because the trip that I planned was going to be around 120 km and there would be rain, a lot of rain. The streets where already full of water (about 20 cm); so I was completely soaked within 5 minutes. Problem was that my tire was broken and I had to stop 4 times at a repair shop since they don’t know how to fix my mountain bike tire. Anyway the 4th time he knew my type of tire so he fixed it right! And he even bought me a coffee and made me a meal: rice with stir fried pork, hmm! But time to move on, I was just out of the city and I had already been out for an hour. But then I felt really good so I was going smoothly in my highest gear (I have 3x8 gears) and nothing seemed to be a problem. At an average speed of around 28 – 30 km an hour I raced through the countryside on a good road and a nice view when the fog was gone :(. It stopped raining right when I entered a field full of stone factories so I stopped as well. The people that were working all stopped working and gave me a tour, I didn’t understand a thing but it was definitely nice! After the break I continued and soon arrived at the end of the road (according to the manager and to my maps) but on google maps the road continues so I wanted to check it out. The road turned into a dustroad, well more like a dirtroad. The dirtroad went on for a few kilometres and then I arrived at some kind of working camp, there was a small ferry to get across the river and some people who were eating. I asked them whether I could get to the other side and they told me I had to wait, I didn’t understand whatever else they were saying so I just waited. At the other side of the river there was a clay mine which was very difficult to climb; my wheels got blocked by the clay every few minutes so I had to carry my bike up. Once up I had to go down again which was just a big slide: braking so that the clay wouldn’t stick on my wheels and just trying to balance… At least I was faster than the motorbike who was trying the same and crashed multiple times! The road continued as a dirtroad for 12 km, it was very exhausting but incredibly beautiful and I am certain that no tourist has ever done that before by bicycle! When I stopped for a drink this was such an event that they took there phone and called someone that could speak English. I still had to use my phrasebook, but at least she knew the basic words and I found out that she was the only one in the village that spoke a few words of English. Afterwards I continued towards Lake Lac, which is very beautiful but it was very foggy when I was there; giving it a very mysterious look. There is also a minority village there but it is quite touristy and you have to pay to get in… I guess I’ll have enough opportunities to see minority villages so I didn’t go in. After a brief visit to the lake I started the way home: 53 more km to go but over a national way so I though that it would go fast. I was mistaken: as soon as I arrived on the road, the wind started to get stronger. I wanted to go fast since it was already late and today should be the day where I tested my limits. I passed the local public transport: a small tractor pulling a cart. But then the wind was really coming from straight ahead so I decided to save some energy and cycling behind the cart. This really helped a lot but I knew it couldn’t last. After merely 7 km the cart stopped at a village and I had to continue on my own. I made the last 50 km in less than 2 hours including some drink stop so I guess I did ok! I was really tired when I arrived in the hotel and went to bed early.








    13-11-2010, 12:35 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.27th until 30th of October: Nha Trang
    The 27th was a planning day and I found out that I should renew my visa in Nha Trang because I want to go off the main tourist track… So I went to the tourist office and they told me that it would be ready on the 30th at 6 pm. The weather was not nice so for the rest of the day I studied a bit. The 28th was about the same as the 27th: the weather was gloomy but I wanted to see something so I still got on my bicycle and drove around. I saw some rock formations and some French colonial style villas, for the rest of the day it was studying time again :p. The 29th it started to rain really bad, is this the typhoon already? Streets started to flood badly and I decided to stay indoor another day. The 30th was exactly the same as the 29th except for the evening: I faced the flooded streets and went to the travel agency to retrieve my passport. The office was closed because of the rain, after some phonecalls they told me that the passport would be sent to my hotel. Half an hour later it still wasn’t there and I don’t like to take any risk if it comes to my passport so I called them again. They said it had been delivered to the hotel, the hotel manager said it wasn’t there. After they talked to each other he told me that they send it to hoang ha instead of hong ha. The agency didn’t know the hotel where I was staying and I even gave them the name of the street! They though I made a mistake in pronouncing it, which I have to admit is always possible! So after calling them a few times I demanded that the passport should be delivered to me the same evening. They called me a few more times and then finally told me that the immigration had to know the hotel where I am staying so I could only get it the 31st at 10 am… I hate visa services!!!



    13-11-2010, 12:13 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.26th of october: Nha Trang
    Today is my first day of Nha Trang so I used this day to go and do some sightseeing: they have a nice cathedral with a mysterious look, some cham towers which are being renovated, a beach straight from paradise, some statues,… First I went to the cathedral which was pretty nice and definitely worth a visit but I found out that I forgot my camera in the hotel so I went back to get it. Then I went to the market because I was really in the mood for some fruit. I bought a couple of very delicious mangoes; I liked them so much that I bought a few more to take with me to the cham towers. The cham towers are pretty impressive but they are under reconstruction so I enjoyed the museum like exhibition more than the actual towers… They also had some kind of traditional dance performance going on: the perfect scenery to enjoy a mango! The cham towers are built on the side of a hill so you have a pretty nice view over Nha Trang town and the sea. After my visit here I went to the beach, there was a lot of kite surfing going on and it got me interested but the sport is so expensive and I’d probably almost never be able to do it so I just watched and saw others perform some stunts… For the rest of the day I just wondered around the city, occasionally running into something interesting but not worth the mention here.





    13-11-2010, 12:06 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    06-11-2010
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.25th of october: going to Nha Trang part 2
    I slept at an altitude of around 1800 m and had to go to sea level so that is going to be a big descent today! At least that’s what I thought the first 15 km but then I noticed that I was following a river uphill instead of downhill… This was just plain weird and I looked at my map, my map showed that there would be one big pass but didn’t give the altitude. It was the only paved road out here so I just kept going. After following the river for a few km there was a waterfall so that is a great spot for some bread and bananas. I was still thinking that I wouldn’t have to climb a lot today but that was wrong: about 10 minutes later I arrived at the foot of a mountain and saw a road and electricity lines about 200 m higher! An hour later I was at the top: soaked in my sweat I looked over a misty valley, would this be the last one? I took my raincoat to protect me from the ice cold wind when I went down. It was very steep, and I’m not just talking about the road: next to the road there were numerous waterfalls and it seemed to go almost vertically down. They even had some strange traffic sign for it :P. 24 km of pure braking further I arrived in the valley and my hands were really sore! 24km!!! that is the same as going from Leuven to Brussels: imagine just going straight down, constantly braking and still going pretty fast… I felt bad; all my effort of the last few days wasted in this way-to-steep descent :(. I still had about 40 km to go to nha trang when the road turned from great to 1 km good, 1km full of potholes and the wind was right in my face. It felt great to arrive in Nha Trang in the evening and I found a nice hotel: Hong Ha!















    06-11-2010, 14:24 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.24th of october
    Today I left for Nha Trang, but I knew that I would never be able to make the 140 something kilometres in one day. I started quite late since I didn’t want to get out of bed and I took a long breakfast. Then it took me about 1 hour to get out of the city: a maze of streets that are not on my map, going up and down and worst of all: hundreds of potholes that I had to avoid… But once I was out of the city, the road was ok: this is the new highway; it’s only on one of my maps and not even on google maps. Despite it being so new, the road already showed signs of deterioration but it was nice for cycling. The road took me over pass after pass and I had to stop a lot in order to catch my breath. Normally when I get tired I look at the milestones and mentally drag myself to the next one, but there were no milestones on this road so what I did was drag myself to the next mountain. At around 2 pm things got pretty bad: it started to rain; I didn’t care about getting wet because I was already wet from my sweat but the road was getting slippery. When I go downhill I have to brake constantly and then my trailer is shaking big time, so if the road gets slippery I get scared about missing one turn… I could only see about 30 meters in front of me because I was in the clouds. Luckily for me I was almost at the bottom of a long climb when it started to rain. An hour later I reached the top and decided to call it for today. With only about 60 km (of which 10 km in Da Lat) done I stranded in a small village with about 20 houses. I first ordered some pho to return to my strength and then asked if I could stay at their house for tonight. A phrasebook came in handy because they didn’t know any English except for hello and bye bye… But that doesn’t keep me from playing with the cute little daughter, we played pictionary so that I taught her the English words and she taught me the Vietnamese word. It was great fun until it got dark. I learned that the electricity was very unstable here and that batteries are expensive so we just sat around the cooking fire drinking some tea. As soon as the dinner was ready, the electricity was back and I could enjoy the meal: they eat everything and so did I. We had pork chops with the bones since they were grilled crispy, pork organs (don’t ask me which ones but I got the best parts, my hosts made sure of that), some soup with I don’t know what but I think it was pork fat and vegetables and some fried spinach. The women and daughter had to eat rice but we didn’t get any: we had to enjoy the taste of meat and vegetables… When the women had finished eating, we could fill ourselves with the rice and some soup to make it soft. I think this is a very strange custom. Oh and then for drinks for us men there was some kind of rice wine made with about 20 seahorses. The wine was really strong but this was ok since I had to share the bed with a man who appeared to be the uncle of the girl. It was only 8 o’clock when we got to bed but I fell asleep within 5 minutes…



    06-11-2010, 14:01 geschreven door zoriander  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Archief per week
  • 11/06-17/06 2012
  • 28/05-03/06 2012
  • 15/11-21/11 2010
  • 08/11-14/11 2010
  • 01/11-07/11 2010
  • 25/10-31/10 2010
  • 18/10-24/10 2010
  • 11/10-17/10 2010
  • 27/09-03/10 2010
  • 20/09-26/09 2010
  • 13/09-19/09 2010
  • 06/09-12/09 2010
  • 30/08-05/09 2010
  • 23/08-29/08 2010
  • 16/08-22/08 2010
  • 09/08-15/08 2010
  • 02/08-08/08 2010
  • 19/07-25/07 2010
  • 12/07-18/07 2010
  • 05/07-11/07 2010
  • 14/06-20/06 2010

    E-mail mij

    Druk op onderstaande knop om mij te e-mailen.


    Gastenboek

    Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek


    Laatste commentaren
  • prachtige reis (Wim L.)
        op rest of the trip
  • old computers (Wim)
        op 20 till 23rd of september
  • Kevin finally got some fries ;) (Stijn)
        op chinese valentine's day or 16th of august 2010
  • Helaba!! (Dorien Thumas)
        op arrival of Kevin
  • Say hi to Kevin ;) (Stijn)
        op arrival of Kevin

  • Rondvraag / Poll
    was the fish that kevin saw really 1 meter?
    Yes
    kevin was never a genius at algebra
    there was no fish
    the fish was way bigger than 1 meter
    Bekijk resultaat



    Blog tegen de wet? Klik hier.
    Gratis blog op https://www.bloggen.be - Meer blogs