Vietnam is a fantastic destination for a bike trip!

After receiving heaps of great advice from Digby of exploreindochina.com, we bought a minsk from Cuong, as mentioned in Lonely Planet. We paid 450 usd for the bike, spares and saddle bags. Other that the bike choking on the steepest ascents in the fog the bike has enough power. You don't need to go fast in this beautiful country. We had no problems at all with the bike, so cuong is a reputable name to buy a bike from.

As to the trip: we bought a road book in the book stores (Blue A4 format with a bridge picted on) which is fairly precise if a bit outdated. Road works are everywhere in vietnam, new roads are being built everywhere.

We came back today from a trip to the entire north (Hanoi, Mai Chau, Son La, Lai Chau, Pa so, Sa Pa, Bac Ha, Ha giang, Yen Min, Meo Vac, Bao Lac, Cao Bang, Ba Be, Hanoi) a 150km trip tru the most remote and breathtaking scenery. It's soo easy to get away from the tourist flocks on the bike. We've seen people run away when they realised we were westerners (or maybe i needed a shave)
Specially the bit from Ha Giang to Bao Lac was mind blowing. Until Meo Vac its all hairpins in the greates Karst mountains, after that, it's pure adventure: riding the bike tru rivers, on bamboo rafts that serve as ferries, over sketchy bridges and mud pools 2 feet high.....

On monday we're leaving to Laos. Hopefully the border crossing is feasible.
If you need more info, drop a line here.

[This message has been edited by Mingh (edited 18 December 2005).]

__________________
you don't stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing