April 26th.
Flew to Hanoi the capital city in Northern Vietnam. Full on mayhem. We were only there one night as we left for Ha Long Bay the following morning for a boat trip through and around the thousands of tiny lime stone islands in the bay which included more kayaking, sleeping on the boat, mountain biking and sleeping on an island that had some of the purest sand in the world according to our guide. Silicone sand. It was lots to take in and very beautiful. Sometimes hard to appreciate exactly where we were.
April 29th.
My friend Long. The Hoi An Kayak man – Hoi An kayaking – has a friend that runs a ‘homestay’ on Cat Ba Island. We just caught the ferry in time to get across to Cat Ba. When we arrived we had no idea where we were staying. I didn’t even know the guys first name. Mr Coung is all I had. It was good to see Georgia laughing about the situation. I called him and credit ran out. Got enough info to get a taxi across the island which was very tropical. A full on Forest in most places. The homestay was very old (authentic) and had no way of keeping any insects out at all. Luckily they had put massive mosquito nets over the beds. It was a great place right in the woods.
We hired a moped and took a full tour of island. Found a mad little zoo type thing. I don’t think it was Public as we had driven off road and just stumbled upon it. We rode off road round the coast and saw a bunch of guys with machetes hunting snakes. One of which they tried to put round Georgias neck, still alive and dripping blood.
We punctured the rear wheel of our moped so rode the last mile or so with a flat back tyre. Got it repaired for 99p !!
2nd May.
Got ferry back to mainland and headed back to Hanoi. Good night out in Hanoi. Bit unexpected but that’s what happens when you have an 18 year old Lasenby with you.
4th May.
Had a great day by pool and dropped Georgia at airport. A tear or two saying goodbye. I’m going to miss her lots. The toughest thing of this whole journey is being on my own. Having no one to share it with or talk to. I have a good camp planned and I’m marshalling the Vietnam triathlon on Sunday then I start my journey again. I’ll be ok once I get back into the riding. Had the best time ever with my daughter. She is a great girl.
Talk soon.