Training Log Archive: peterk

Ride with komy on a borrowed bike on Siagao Island. Delightful scenery of paddy fields and coconut plantations

Ride from ferry to resort in siagao Island

Casual ride with Surigao tri club around some attractive coastal scenery

Swimming around coral reefs near El Nido Palawan Philllipines

Swimming coral reefs near El Nido Palawan Pillipines

Sea canoeing around Ha Long Bay 180km east of Hanoi. In and around limestone cliffs and dodging speed boats

Last Lesson in Vietnamese traffic rules.

Traffic lights: Green OK to go; Orange OK to go; Red still OK to Go
It is OK to reverse down a busy highway because you missed your turn.
It is OK to drive a motor bike or push bike on the wrong (LHS) side of the road as long it is in the opposing bike lane
It is OK to enter traffic without looking in any direction, as everyone will give way
It is OK to park your motor bike on the foot path, because what else are footpaths for.
It is OK to walk on the road as the footpaths are always cluttered with motor bikes.
If you are a car or bus it is OK to pass others on blind corners on the wrong side of the road as bikes will move out of your way. This works better if you flash your lights.
Use of the horn is OK as a friendly reminder that you are about to pass. Use of the horn because you are annoyed that bikes did not move over when you pass them is also OK
Passing on the left or right is OK
Indicating is optional.
Driving in marked road lanes is also optional.
Turning corners is achieved by turning, closing your eyes and hoping no body hits you. Everyone else should move out of the way anyway

Town Hue- seat of former Vietnamese king - visited citadel, very old pagoda and kings tomb

Ride out from Da Nang around the coast and up over a 500m pass. Tough riding conditions with heat and humidity. Saturated in sweat at the top. Super fast trip down passing an oil tanker a bus and a motorbike. Early Lunch of a squid salad, fish with a superb tomato sauce, omelette, rice a stir fry vegetables

C • Sounds like a good trip 2

A very odd ride through tens of kilometres of highly decorated tombstones. The soft sand provides easy digging. Flat riding but much of the road under repair. Dodging cars, trucks, motorbikes and school kids on bikes all the way

Walking around the old town of Hoi An. Hot and steamy. Wonderful old building which elsewhere are rarely preserved

Relatively gentle ride along the coast 40km north, starting in Nha Trang.
Spectacular granite boulders and white sand beaches

Flat coastal ride along Vietnams Gold Coast. Horrific transfer by bus on Hwy1 which looks like a battlefield. With secondary roads non existent no other choice

Ride through classic Vietnamese countryside. Paddy fields and neat houses beneath green mountains. Enthusiastic kids calling hello and giving high fives. First 20 were too hot to ride and unpleasant. A thunderstorm cooled things to reasonable levels

Bike around the mountain town of Dalat, famous for vegetables and flowers. Attractive countryside on dark red soil. Rolling terrain and mostly good road surface. Some fast downhill to compensate for the climb. Made a motorbike rider nervous by catching up to her and drafting. Bus transfer to the next leg

This leg started with a semicontinuous downhill leg of 30km. A lot of fun ranging in speeds from 35 to 57kph with the exception of facing two trucks side by side with no room to go except onto the grass verge. Apparently I am the one that has to move out of the way not the truck on the wrong side of the road. Temperatures pleasant at the top of the decent became extremely hot at the base. After lunch at the bottom a further 30km of flattish terrain to just outside of Nha Trang. Rest day tommorrow

Ride around the Vietnamese Riviera of Mui NE. Area of ostentatious and empty hotels, untidy local businesses and filthy beach water. Half the signs in Russian

Leave Mui Ne past dragon fruit fields. Leave the fields to ride to the base of the mountains and then bus to Dalat at the top of the plateau. All the roads are highly inhabited so a continuous stream of motor bikes and trucks. RRode with school kids riding home from school to have their lunch.Last Section in the foothills too hot for enjoyable riding

Cycling out of the Mekong Delta to the resort town of Muir NE. Staying in a vast but mostly empty resort built for the Russians. Even though we are on secondary roads the traffic is scary. The central white line is nominal as are traffic lights

Introductory ride to Cu Chi tunnels north west of Saigon