Vietnam, part 2

12/3/02 - Hoi An  We left the hotel early for a 7:50 am flight to Da Nang.  Gia went with us, the bikes and van were left behind.  We were greeted at the airport by our new driver, van and bikes and driven the 20 miles to our hotel in Hoi An.  After getting settled we ventured out to investigate the small town, we heard the shopping was good.  Hoi An was indeed teeming with shops, but the goods were of low quality.  We had a good lunch and did some slow Internetting at the hotel.  Leanne then headed to the pool and I went for a run out of town and into the countryside.  I ran through the covered Japanese bridge and followed the main paved road and then turned off onto a gravel one.  I passed rice paddies and several brick kilns.  From the gravel road I turned onto a dirt path and found my turnaround point when the path led to the ankle high water of a rice field.  Of course, the site was quite unusual and I got constant looks and greetings  along the way.  One old woman on a bike tagged along with me for about 1/2 a mile.  Room service and cable TV completed our day. 

12/4/02 - Hoi An  We met 3 other Westerners in the hotel lobby at 7am for the 2k road race the hotel staff had enthusiastically recruited us for the day before.  The desk manager walked us the 2 blocks to the school where the event was taking place.  It was a big affair, with a podium, officials panel, flagged motorcycle escorts and a crowd of onlookers.  After several speeches, translated for our benefit, the first of three races began - a 1.5k run for the youngest schoolgirls.  A 1/2 hour later was the 2k event but we learned before the start that the final race would be a 4k race, so we waited for it.  The hotel desk manger and some of his staff took our pictures, provided water and generally fawned over us.   The race was great with many onlookers giggling and laughing at the spectacle of a foreigner running in their little town.  Afterwards we foreigners were called to the front as if we were the winners to receive a very public special tanks for participating in their event.  We were presented with flowers and a wrapped gift as a photographer took several photos (no doubt for communist propaganda).  It was great fun.  We walked back to the hotel, showered up and met Gia (who also ran in the race) for our walking tour of the city.  The highlights were the bustling town market, the Japanese covered bridge and lunch.  We returned to the hotel, got into our bike gear and met in the lobby for a 6 mile bike ride to the beach.  Gia took us the long way and we wound through beautiful back roads that reminded us of the Delta.  Ox pulled plows, rice paddies and simple wooden boats caused us to stop frequently for photos.  The beach was very nice, with plenty of palm trees.  A $1 tip got us 2 lounge chairs under a straw umbrella.  Fully protected form the sun I read my book ('In Retrospect', a book about the Vietnam war by Robert McNamara, the former Secretary of Defense).  Once Leanne said we could go we biked the direct 3 mile route back to our hotel.  That night we had a cooking demonstration and dinner at a local restaurant.

12/5/02 - Hoi An  We met at the bikes in the morning and biked about 20 miles to marble mountain.  The area surrounding the mountain was full of small marble "factories" where workers chiseled away and huge hunks of rock.  We spent a few minutes in the showroom, but wow was the stuff ugly.  Gia led us to the mountain and we visited a large cave and a couple of pagodas.  At one point we got a nice look out onto China beach and the ocean.  On the bike ride back our road paralleled the beach but we couldn't quite see it.  We diverted down one of the little paths, through the local homes and onto the beach.  Here we found fisherman busily going about their trade.  We got great photos of the beach, the boats and the workers.  As we rode out a didn't notice that a woman had spread her tiny shrimp onto the cemented path to dry - I cycled right through them, making quite a mess of her catch and my bike.  She was quite excited, but a lot of heartfelt apologizing and $2 neatly rectified the situation.  Back on the road we cycled another 30 minutes and were back at the beach we had visited the day before.  We rode back to the hotel at about 4pm and had a quiet evening at the hotel. 

12/6/02 - Hoi An to Hue  It's about 100 miles to Hue, so we decided to start our day in the van.  We drove about 30 miles before jumping on the bikes.  We were on highway 1 so there were more trucks and cars than we had been accustomed to (there were virtually none in the Delta).  More rice paddies, shack-like stores and honking scooters.  The climb up the Hai Van pass was pretty difficult and we decided, for safety, to ride in the van on the way down.  There were several more lesser climbs and we biked about 50 miles before decided it was time to ride in the van for the rest of our journey.  We arrived at the Morin Hotel and Leanne found time to check out the pool before we headed out for a nice meal.  I did some laundry in the room

12/7/02 - Hue  We met Gia at the bikes and spent the day cycling to some of the Imperial Nguyen Dynasty tombs.  The roads quickly became small and familiar and soon we were again seeing rice paddies.  We biked over a rickety bamboo bridge and rested a while at a park commemorating one of the Emperors.  Then it was back to the excitement of biking the busy streets of Hue as we went to visit the Citadel.

12/8/02 - Hue to Hanoi  I went for a run along the river and Leanne headed to the pool.  Our driver took us to the airport at noon for our 2pm flight to Hanoi.