Vietnam wakes up and bustles into another busy day, early as usual ferrying huge quantities of food on scooters and in baskets loaded on backs. Usually we’re sleeping through this ritual but today Rob and Greg are sounding out a morning cry as we speed through the dramatic mountain scape from Phong Nha northward to […]
After our visit to paradise yesterday it’s off to the caves again, in this area that houses the worlds biggest caves it’s the thing to do. Today there’s no punishing steps to climb or heat to battle, in their place we slip smoothly along a river to the cave mouth surrounded by the giant bulges […]
I never thought that standing at the pearly gates would be such a sweaty ordeal; in fact I was pretty sure I was heading straight to the more fun side of the afterlife, being an abomination and all. But to my surprise more than anyone else’s here I am and Charlie’s here too. This all […]
5:30am and the alarm goes signalling a commencement to what we’ve taken to calling ‘the big day’, stocking up on bun mi’s (Vietnamese baguettes) and a cake in the bustling early hours of the morning. We wave to Ari and Jamie sitting at the cafe for Ari’s much needed morning coffee before it’s out of […]
The time has arrived, we’re fronting up to the mechanics dressed in black like a couple of grieving widows. As we approach there’s no solemn face with a serious brow, no empathetic tilt of the head to assure us that they did everything they could. Instead there’s Greg, or a bike that looks like Greg […]
After two sessions at the mechanic in Hue we’re finally off and running, pushing forward towards the Ho Chi Minh trail and onward to Phong Nha. The leg of riding through the Phong Nha national park is not only one of the longest days on this road trip its also meant to be one of […]
With all the architectural and design brilliance clearly on display all around us it continues to baffle me why old cultures made stairs so bloody steep. Surrounded by immense stone carvings, monoliths that reach to the sky and balustrades more akin to artwork in rock it seems that no one along the way thought to […]
Our day threatens to begin like some others have, with a desperate need for food and coffee. Possibly it’s now appropriate to make a confession, pretty much all days start this way but lets all agree to keep up the illusion that we are about more than just food, shall we. Sadly this days commencement […]
We’ve woken up not in the twilight zone, but the demilitarised zone. This is not a science fiction scenario or a drug induced psychosis, just the middle of Vietnam where at the Geneva conference of 1954 the post colonial division of north and south Vietnam was drawn. In fact the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) is a […]
The farewells have been made for Hoi An, this town of near immeasurable romance; for now it’s an early morning scamper from town like outlaws in an old western movie. A quick stop by the tailor for a final check up, five baguettes in the backpack and it’s out of town before the sheriff catches […]
Charlie and Steve's Excellent Adventure 