Morning couldn’t come fast enough, though I slept well enough in the safety of our net-shelter.  The bird had quieted overnight and was nowhere to be heard.  We strapped our bags onto our bikes with the rubber straps provided to us, fueled up at a nearby petrol station, and hit the road.  We were glad […]

We hardly took time to look around our room after our arrival, basically just dumping our bags and heading out to town. We checked out the local grocery store to pick up some water and some juice and then sought out some pho. This particular rendition was full of some really tough duck meat that […]

It is amazing at how many kids we see running around this place.  Whether riding bikes, walking home from school in large groups with matching blue and white uniforms, or playing shirtless and shoeless in the street, kids are everywhere.  They seem particularly excited to try out their English on native speakers and as such […]

We had seen images of outdoor barbers in Vietnam, entailing a mirror hung up in the street with a chair right on the sidewalk.  Thinking that this was a relic of the past, we were delighted to see such an operation just across the street from our guest house as we rolled into Son La. […]

A half hour after our scooter incident, the heavy fog began to burn off and the roads dried out. With the weather having shaped up for the rest of our days ride, we carried on through the dusty villages and towns on our way to Son La. [split_gallery show=”1-8″] Now three days into our visit […]

We woke up too a cool morning in Mai Chau well before the sun came up as usual.  After laying on the extremely firm mattress for several hours, we decided to get an early start to the day.  We made our way downstairs where we were met by the hostess.  She offered us a breakfast […]

Mai Chau is a delightful little town surrounded by a steep limestone karst which seems to epitomize northern Vietnam.  The people are incredibly friendly, and have surprisingly good English.  I suppose that even though this little town isn’t a big tourist destination, it is close enough to Hanoi that there is enough opportunity to interface […]

Waking up in Hanoi this morning left me with some real anxiety. Today was the day we were to pick up our scooters and ride them out of the crazy Hanoi traffic and into Mai Chau. The rental process took what felt like forever and a number of hours later, we were just getting our […]

We had read reports of the airport being hawkish and local taxi drivers relentlessly soliciting foreigners for rides.  Last night there were a few solicitors, but the “hawkishness” usually went something like this: “Do you need a ride?”  “No, were ok, thank you.”  “Where are you going?”  “We don’t need a ride, thank you.”  After […]

After a long night of pretending to sleep, we got up, checked out, and set to the streets of Saigon.  A cyclone was slated to move into the city, though the full force of the reported 50 mph winds and heavy rain had not yet hit.  Instead, we found a muggy drizzle that made the […]

There is no quick way to reach Saigon from the United States, but certainly United Airlines knows how to make it take even longer. After delays and cancellations in Salt Lake, an emergency Delta flight which required an all out sprint to the adjoining terminal which sent us to San Francisco, and a long “middle […]