Biking in the Mekong Delta

 January 17th – Long Cau to Cho Gau “Rice Market” town - 52.7 km/32.7 miles

Darrell and I were picked up from our hotel and driven over an hour south with our bicycles and gear to Long Cau. The Mekong Delta is a watery wonderland and we had our first ferry crossing soon after we began biking. The ferries have a bow ramp they can raise and lower to the cement incline at the shore. We boarded with all the motorbikes and one elderly woman with her bicycle, quickly turning around so we are all facing the bow again for a fast exit. Some ferries make a quick turn-around with motorbikes starting to load while we are still unloading.

At each river crossing we see giant rafts of Common Water Hyacinth (see photo below) floating by. Pontederia crassipes is native to the Amazon basin but has naturalized throughout the world and is often invasive outside of its native range. It certainly clogs up smaller water channels and ponds in Vietnam.

Typical ferry and water hyacinth in the channel

We zig-zagged on our sweet Trek Marlin bikes through many rice paddies – gorgeous now with tender looking shoots of spring-green rice. We only saw the leftover brown stubble after the rice was harvested when we were in Hoi An in early December so this is a treat! The rice in the south can be grown 3 times per year, while there are two harvests per year in the central areas like Hoi An, and only one harvest each year in the north around Hanoi.

Dragon fruit "cactus" plant

We also bicycled through acres and acres of what looked like cactus – but it was dragon fruit! It turns out dragon fruit is from a cactus species known as pitahaya in Mexico. We saw bushels of dragon fruit ready for transport. Vietnam is the world's largest supplier of dragon fruit!

Bushels of dragon fruit

We caught our third and last ferry – a longer one – to Longan Island and our homestay. The home is a beautiful open home built around a courtyard with a large patio in front so you can watch the fishing boats and barges go by. Most of the rice grown in the Delta is gathered here before being shipped to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon (used interchangeably) and abroad. The house has louvered doors open to the patio and outside gardens. We have an outdoor bathroom and shower off our room and a bed net over our bed. There are also many hammocks hanging in the courtyard. All three ladies of the house were resting in them when we arrived that afternoon!

Sunset from our Homestay

We were requested to join the other 3 guests and our hosts in the kitchen at 7 pm to help make our dinner. We grated taro and cut carrots and green beans. Then the taro was mixed with other goodies and we wrapped small bits of it in rice paper and rolled it up. We fried it in hot oil for one of our courses. We also made our own egg pancakes folded over the veggies, with some shrimp and minced pork. This is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes! You eat it hot and dipped in the delicious sweet and sour sauce that accompanies most meals.

Darrell cooking his egg pancake for dinner!

January 18^th – Cho Gau to Ben Tre - 49.4 km/30.6 miles

We had the typical tourist breakfast of fried eggs and French bread and started biking around 8:30 am. We caught a ferry soon after we began, the first of 3 again. Today we biked through fields of coconut palms. There are rows of trees in raised humps with drainage ditches between the rows. Motorbikes pulling narrow trailers of piled up coconuts sped by.

We got to “Maison du Pays de Ben Tre”, our homestay, around 2 pm. The owner/manager was a very outgoing young man who lost his job during COVID so returned to his family home to take care of his grandmother. In the five years since, he has created an aesthetically pleasing homestay with five guest rooms plus a nice sitting and dining area.

The Maison was hosting a thank you party paid for by the local government to the folks who had donated food to 400 poor families in the region. We were invited to the party as we were heading out for a walk. A little food, conversation, and some rice wine and we were on our way. A lot of folks said “hello” as we walked by and a little girl ran up and gave us some candy! This is a friendly and welcoming community.

Looking for hidden birds in the Mekong Delta

January 19^th – Ben Tre to Tra Vinh - 43.4 km/26.9 miles

We bought some of the candy the Maison was selling – a spicy banana and nut chew that I just loved, then we headed off after breakfast. We only had two ferries today but they were both much longer and rougher crossings. We waited a long time for the first ferry to arrive and then were stalled longer because a motorbike with a big trailer tipped off the narrow cement ramp and ended up with two wheels in the mud. I’ve got a sequence of photos with folks trying to right it, but the hero was the female captain of the ferry that used the loading ramp like a forklift to lever the trailer back onto the cement ramp. Darrell helped along with a few others and there was good cheering when the motorbike and loaded trailer got up the ramp!

Darrell and others ready to help

The second ferry was much quieter with just one local couple besides us. I gave them each a banana nut chew while we waited for the boat to arrive and we attempted a short dialogue using google translate.

We landed in Tra Vinh in a sterile hotel – not nearly as nice as the homestays but it did have a pool. I took a shower in my bike shorts and sports bra so I could use them as a bathing suit and cool off in the pool.

January 20^th – Tra Vinh to Cau Ke - 59.3 km/36.8 miles

Darrell had an 8 am zoom meeting, so I checked out the “Ecostore” across the street. It was the Vietnamese version of the Dollar Store – everything was 19,000 dong – just under a dollar.

We left around 10 am and had our longest ride yet, almost 60 km, with a few detours off the outlined route. It was like being the ball on a mini-golf course (Darrell’s expression) with quick turns, short steep bridges, broken “sidewalks” (actually narrow roads), ducking under palm fronds and under electric lines, all while dodging motorbikes and giant piles of coconuts…

A giant pile of coconuts

We stopped at two Khmer Buddhist temples – “Ang Temple” was just outside Tra Vinh and is the signature temple here. Then our route took us right through the grounds of another temple as we approached the end of the bike ride.

Khmer Buddhist Ang Temple 

We found Suonsia Homestay and it is another delightful place. The Homestays were all highlights of this trip. Suonsia had a self-serve fridge with chilled mugs and cold beer, plus a hot shower, and hosts that speak both English and French in addition to their native languages. It has been their home since before the American/Vietnam War. The grandfather worked for the American soldiers and had to leave when the Vietcong took over. But now they are back, with remnants of trenches that were dug during the war, and the craters left over from bombs.

B52 bomb crater in their backyard

We had a delicious dinner of egg pancake with fresh veggies, lettuce, mint, giant shrimp, tasty chicken and a squash soup, plus a perfect mango for dessert.

January 21^st – Cau Ke to Can Tho - 60.6 km/37.6 miles

I woke up with the roosters and Darrell was already awake. I tiptoed into the host’s kitchen to make coffee around 5 am. D and I took a bird walk after our wake-up juice and listened to the noisy white-nest swiftlets flying in and out of a tower window. We also saw yellow-vented bulbuls – so two new species for us!

We ended up on our roughest road yet – lots of sidewalk-width and very broken up cement paths – so a lot of rattling and I stood up on my pedals much of the time to avoid the jarring. At one point our bridge was down (see photo below) so we detoured around that as well. Then when we thought we were taking a bridge into Can Tho it turned out to be our 11^th ferry – this time a small boat that we had to maneuver our bikes on as well!

The bridge was down and being rebuilt

Our fancy hotel is situated on the Hau river and we had a wonderful view over the city and river system here.

View of the Hay (Bassac) River and Can Tho

January 22^nd – Can Tho boat trip to Cai Rang floating market – return to Saigon

We met our boat captain at 7 am for our trip to the Cai Rang floating market. This market gets a lot of tourist looky-lou’s but the tourists are not buying much – it is a working market for the folks along the river. The sellers put up a sample of what they are offering on a pole in front of the boat so buyers can see which boats are selling what they want – sweet potatoes, onions, watermelon, etc. It is a huge market since the boats must be far enough apart for the buyers to connect with them and for the tourists to cruise by snapping photos!

Morning chat at the Cai Rang Floating Market

We also saw the Interceptor 003 from the Ocean Cleanup Project as we were returning to Can Tho. While there are some real issues with the OCP netting living organism as they collect plastic in the ocean, I don't know much about their river interceptor success. You can read more about it here if you are interested.

The Interceptor 003 from the Ocean Cleanup Project

We met our driver back at the hotel at 9am and he was loading our bikes into the back of his truck. Then we began the almost 3-hour drive back to Saigon for our last night in the big city. We had reservations (you NEED reservations) to eat at one of the many Pizza 4Ps in Saigon. There is a remarkable story behind the success of this enterprise. It reminded me of our friend’s pizza restaurants in Flagstaff and the pizza was almost as good as his! 

Pizza 4Ps lives up to its hype!

Summary of the bike trip – We highly recommend Mr. Biker Saigon for both guided and self-guided trips or for renting a bicycle and arranging your own trip. The bikes were high quality and outfitted with panniers and a phone holder for easy navigation. The team was accessible by quick communication on the road with WhatsApp. Our average speed was only about 10 mph, so if you are looking for a higher-speed ride, we don’t recommend the occasionally rough roads, and frequent turns you need to make going on the scenic back roads. But, if you are willing to slow down, and have a few bumps along the way, this trip was fantastic! 

We’ve had a wonderful 2-months in Vietnam, and the Mekong Delta was a highlight. We are so grateful for the time we spent with the friendly, hard-working, kind people in this beautiful country.

 

Biking in North Vietnam

Hubby and I decided on a 5-day bicycle trip from outside of Hanoi to the Ninh Binh region, a water-filled karst environment we were eager to explore. We both love the motion of cycling and to see places at the pace of a bicycle. We can go far enough in one day to see a variety of places, yet slow enough to enjoy the scenery, observe how folks live their lives, and not run over the wandering chickens and dogs!

Day 1 – Man Duc to Mai Chau

Mileage – 32.8 miles, Elevation gain – 2,525 ft.

We were picked up at our Hanoi Airbnb and fitted with bikes and helmets. We checked the toolkit, and filled the one pannier for daytime needs – extra water, snacks, sunscreen, windbreakers, etc. Darrell was on a regular “push bike” and I was using an e-bike for the first time. It turned out we were accompanied by both a driver and a mechanic on the entire tour! The owner of the bike tour company was afraid the driver, who called us “grandparents” out of respect, was too old to help us with mechanical issues, and the mechanic wasn’t a driver. So, our “self-guided tour” was really 2 bikers and 2 men in a van – carrying our luggage to the next stay and inflating the tires of our bikes each morning.

On previous tours in Europe, daily luggage transfers were handled by one hotel sending luggage on to the next hotel – since they were only about 35 miles apart. That kind of system has not been set up here. And since wages for workers are low, it doesn’t add greatly to the cost of the trip. Many tourists hire a car and driver for long-distance tours.

We were driven over 2 hours SW of Hanoi to a quieter village near Man Duc and began biking on dirt roads toward a large reservoir. We followed the edge of the reservoir, winding in and out of each bay before finally climbing a large hill to Go Lau. It was approaching dusk, but we coasted downhill to our first night at a lovely homestay in Mai Chau, a traditional White Thai village.

Note: There are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, with the Vinh (also called Viet) making up 87% of the population, and the other 53 groups contributing a small fraction each to the overall population of about 100 million people. When we were in Hoi An I went to the Precious Heritage Museum and saw photographer Réhahn’s gorgeous images from each of the ethnic groups. It is an amazing free museum!

View from our balcony at Green House Mai Chau

Day 2 – Mai Chau to Ban Lac to Ban Hieu

Mileage - 36.3 miles, Elevation gain – 3,250 ft.

We had a lovely breakfast at our homestay, then got on our bikes around 9 am to start our hardest day. Or I should say Hubby’s hardest day since I was able to just kick the e-bike into a higher gear when the heavily forested hills got too long or steep! I realize I can make the bike ride as easy or as challenging as I want – but it is tempting to not push too hard – especially when you are “conserving” energy for later in the day… Excuses, excuses…

The reward near the end of the bike ride was amazing views over terraced rice fields and an incredibly steep descent on a narrow cement track. 

Terraced rice fields near Pu Luong

Just when we thought we were close to our place, we realized we had a 1.5 km hill to climb – and it was the steepest yet. Darrell got in his last big workout of the day getting to the Na Co Lodge Homestay. Thank goodness there was cold beer at the top!

We visited with a French family at dinner who were on a 2-week car tour with their driver. They were seeing many places off the beaten track, arranged by a friend who could speak Vietnamese. We all relied on google translate since few people speak English (or French).

We had a mosquito net over our bed in this small bamboo cottage but there were few mosquitoes and we both slept well!

Na Co Lodge Homestay

Day 3 - Ban Hieu to Ngoc Lac

Mileage – 39.1 miles, Elevation gain – 1,550 ft.

Today began with the steep descent, retracing some miles from yesterday, and then heading south and east to Ngoc Lac. There were a few nice sections but much of it was on a busier road than we preferred and not as scenic as the previous two days.

We ended up in a larger town and stayed in a sterile hotel that looked more like something the Drump would build – including gold fillagree – than the previous two nights homestays.

We did have an entertaining meal with our two side-kicks – where we had tender goat meat (a local delicacy). Our driver shared some of his brother’s homemade rice wine with all of us. We had more than one toast...

Toasting to our health!

Day 4 – Ngoc Lac to Cuc Phuong National Park

Mileage – 46.7 miles, Elevation gain – 1,425 ft.

The next day was our longest ride – but also relatively easy. It was mostly flat through many pineapple fields until we approached Cuc Phuong National Park (Vietnam’s first National Park) which is on two karst ridges. We began biking early so we would have time to see some of the Park after we arrived. Because the Park stretches along both sides of a central 18 km road, Hubby rented a motorscooter and I jumped on the back for a 2-hour jaunt through the tropical rainforest. We took side paths to see both ancient trees and giant tree ferns.

 

Giant tree ferns dwarfing Hubby

Day 5 – Cuc Phuong National Park to Tam Coc 

Mileage – 33.6 miles, Elevation gain – 500 ft.

We woke early and made our instant coffee in the room as usual - and then heard the loud chorus of gibbons as dawn broke! The noise was wonderfully raucous though we didn’t see any of these native primates. We went for an unsuccessful bird walk before breakfast along the road we didn’t have time to visit yesterday – the Endangered Primate Rescue Center, the Turtle Conservation Center, and the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Center. You can tell they are doing a lot of conservation work at this National Park - which is increasingly necessary as there are fewer and fewer animals in the wild. I was questioning why there were so few birds in the wild in Vietnam and found this New York Times article from 2019 that discusses the loss of wildlife. While the article doesn't address birds specifically - some of the same issues affect birds. We have seen songbirds in cages outside of houses, feral cats, rapid development - and many of the birds here would prized by the illegal international wildlife trade.

 

This last day of biking (on Christmas Day) took us to Tam Coc Nature Lodge. We had read the description in our guidebook and I really wanted to stay here – though it was a more expensive option at almost $50/night (crazy huh?). I figured it was our holiday present to ourselves, and it really was a delightful place.

 

View from our balcony over the pool and "moat"

View of the cottages with towering karst backdrop

Summary: Parts of the bike ride were just plain fun - when kids waved and flashed the peace symbol as we biked by. Some parts were depressing - like trash on the ground and poor air quality. But most parts – especially the scenery, friendly people and amazing food - were absolutely wonderful.

The trail was varied – from crowded streets through small towns, to quiet lanes between pineapple fields, to dirt paths through rice paddies, and potholed roads up and down steep hills in dense forested areas. We enjoyed the shifting views of peaceful fields and striking karst topography with hills like the bumps on a dragon’s back!

 

The local karst topography from the Tam Coc Heritage Trail

Cycling in Montenegro

Our very late bus finally arrived close to noon at Dubrovnik's Central Bus Station, and Darrell and I scored seats on the right side to view the Adriatic as we wound our way south to Montenegro and around Kotor Bay. Our destination was the town of Kotor where we would begin our 6-day bike trip with 3e Travel a local travel company based in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.

The Bay of Kotor, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is often described as the "southern most fjord", but married to a geologist, I can tell you it is really a "ria" - a drowned river valley and its steep limestone hills were not carved by glaciers!

NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day from 2017

 Lord Byron wrote this about the Bay of Kotor: “At the moment of the creation of our planet, the most beautiful merging of land and sea occurred at the Montenegrin seaside...When the pearls of nature were sworn, an abundance of them were strewn all over this area.” Of course, this has now manifested in hordes of visitors (including us) descending on this confined area.

View of Kotor from the castle - the red-roofs in bottom right are the old town

We met Zoran and Drazen of 3e Travel at our hotel in Kotor when they delivered the bicycles and went over basic directions. The next morning I toured Kotor, which actually is a double UNESCO World Heritage site - both for its well-preserved medieval old town including the Cathedral of St. Tryphon built in 1166, and for its more recent 16th and 17th century Venetian fortifications.

Me at the castle enjoying the incredible view

We took a late afternoon ride on the quieter road to the northwest of Kotor to check out the bikes before we began our tour the following day. The tour route is shown below beginning at the red dot in the upper left and ending with a round trip tour to the red dot in the lower right.

Tour Map with each number representing where we spent the nights

Our first official day of cycling was around the upper Bay - we were lucky it was a "no cruise ship" day because the traffic was greatly reduced. We cycled clockwise from Kotor and met another cycling couple on the loop. Rosemary and Chris have embarked on a 6-month post-retirement cycling trip from Sicily to Scandinavia. We chatted in a park and then visited the Roman mosaics in Risan together. You can follow their adventures here!

Darrell on our first day of cycling - around the Bay of Kotor

Our second day began with Drazen giving us a lift up the 25 sinuous turns to Lovcen National Park with great views looking down on the Bay. We cycled downhill to the small town of Njeguši, the birthplace of the long ruling (1696 to 1918) Petrovic family, and also known for local cheese and prosciutto that we added to our lunch. The extra fuel powered us back up the hill and we continued climbing through the Park. At the south end we turned downhill and coasted through the otherworldly white stone landscape.

White limestone, green pines and grape hyacinths

We cruised mostly downhill to Cetinje, slowing down for sheep! Cetinje is the old royal capital of Montenegro where the President still presides. It is a charming town, and must have Montenegro's best stone masons!

Sheep rule the road

Impressive stone wall in Cetinje

From Cetinje we had another lovely, mostly downhill, cruise through Lake Skadar National Park to the even smaller town of Virpazar on the north end of the lake. We stayed at a lovely family home where the hostess waited for us after dinner to share her homemade liqueur - a tasty blend of good quality vodka infused with fresh rosemary and left in the sun for ten days. This is my kind of recipe - two ingredients and not much work! We work up early the next morning to catch our ride with Kormoran boats. Lake Skadar is the largest lake on the Balkan Peninsula and is known for its biodiversity, including 270 species of birds. We saw an incredible number of grebes and two flocks of Dalmatian Pelicans.

Early morning birdwatching on the backwaters of Lake Skadar

Dalmatian Pelicans are the world's rarest pelicans

 After our morning adventure, we had our longest and steepest ride - 72 km with almost a kilometer uphill. We also had a lot of rain, though it mostly came when we were huff-puffing uphill so we could stay warm. We saw some amazing views at the crests and bicycled through an ancient chestnut forest near the coast.

Darrell riding through the chestnut forest

We crested the pass - coming within meters of Albania at the top - and then finished up with a downhill to Ulcinj - one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast. For those of us with a weak understanding of European history, this edited bit from Wikipedia may give us some excuse: Ulcinj was founded in 5th century BC, was captured by the Romans in 163 BC from the Illyrians, became part of the Byzantine Empire when the Roman Empire was divided and was under South Slavic rule for a few centuries. In 1405 it became part of the Republic of Venice and in 1571 part of the Ottoman Empire. The fun doesn't end there but I don't want to leave you dizzy. Do note that their latest independence didn't come until 2006...

Highlander dress - Ulcinj castle museum

It was in the Ulcinj castle museum that I first became obsessed with this highlander dress. It is heavy wool but I'd love to recreate it as a lighter weight skirt. Highlander dress - Tirana History Museum

From Ulcinj we headed towards Shkoder, Albania - near the south end of the Lake Skadar. Darrell got settled in to work in our hotel, and I biked to Rozafa Castle high on the hill with great views all around. We had a great trip cycling in Montenegro and leave you with the view and some great advice!

View from Rozafa Castle