Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny199r
Booked my first real cycling vacation set to depart next month.
27 days across Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. It's a supported bike trip, and one that I would describe a cross between a cycling and tourist trip. i can't wait!
This has also been my first winter of biking full time with no vehicle. I have been biking pretty much every day in Winnipeg including during storms (even to my indoor soccer games at night) and it's been great!
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The bike trip was excellent. The first few weeks were in Vietnam. We started in Hanoi (biking through busy Hanoi streets seemed like a death wish at first) and worked our way down the country. Weather was wet and overcast for the first week in Northern Vietnam.
Midway through the trip, we biked up part of the Hai Van Pass, which was cold and wet on the way up. We got to the top and rode down the other side of the pass and the sky cleared, the sun shone and the descent felt like a game of Mario cart in real life as we finished the descent in the city of Da Nang. It was almost an emotional experience. From the point on, we were in tropical Vietnam with sunny skies and heat.
The 2nd leg of the trip began in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) to Cambodia. We then travelled to the capital of Phnom Penh and then on to Siem Reap and the famous Angkor Wat temple complex.
After that, we rode in Thailand until ending in Bangkok.
Bikes were provided. In Vietnam, we used Giant hard tail mountain bikes, due to the rough road conditions. 100km on mountain bikes in the extreme head with a headwind was no joke! In Cambodia and Thailand we used Specialized hybrid bikes as the roads were better.
We had lots of rest stops with refreshments and would pull into small local restaurants for lunch, where they were ready for us, and then a hotel at night or a home stay. Our guides and mechanic were excellent. The Vietnam portion was a cycling trip with tourist activities, while the Ho-Chi-Minh to Bangkok portion was more tourist activities with biking.
I feel lucky to have ridden through so many awesome landscapes, small villages and met so many great local people.
In addition to the bike trip, I arrived early and did a 3 day motorcycle tour of the Ha-Giang Loop (mountain range in Northern Vietnam bordering China). It was the most magnificent scenery I have ever seen in my life and the highlight of my entire trip. I also spent an extra week in Southern Thailand checking out the Islands and beaches, which were also beautiful.
I lost a surprising amount of weight on the trip. The 6 pack of my early 20s returned. Also, for anyone thinking about booking a tour like this, many of the riders are older, retired age people (which I didn't know), so before booking tours in the future I call and ask the ages of the people who have already signed up. Obviously, the longer the tour, the more likely it is the other people are older due to more free time. It wasn't a big problem for me, but I prefer a mix of ages.
I am going to Kenya and Tanzania in January and was interested in cycling there but couldn't find a good tour to combine with a wildlife activities (no surprise) so................
Today I booked this 9 day cycling tour of Jordan for April. This will be my first time in the Middle East and I am very excited to visit such an interesting country and cycle while doing it.
http://https://www.intrepidtravel.com/ca/jordan/cycle-jordan-petra-wadi-rum-160804
