STORIES
Hello vietnam - hi ho chi minh
Seit mehreren Tagen sind wir beide immer wieder am kränkeln. Street food, üble Strassenverhältnisse und zum Teil schmutzige Hotelzimmer sind wohl kein Balsam für die Seele. Ja, die letzten paar Tage in Kambodscha haben uns nicht besonders gefallen, weshalb wir uns beide auf einen Tapetenwechsel in Vietnam gefreut haben. Wir hatten Sehnsucht nacht Fruchtshakes, nach etwas anderem als Fried Rice/Noodles und nach schnellem Internet. Wir überquerten die kambodschanisch-vietnamesische Grenze um Punkt 7 Uhr und ehe wir uns versahen, waren wir auf der Hauptstrasse Richtung Ho Chi Minh City - was keineswegs der Plan war, wir aber irgendwie einfach das Bedürfnis danach hatten! Der Tag sollte also zum Abenteuer werden. Denn mit 7.4 Millionen Scootern die Strasse zu teilen, war für uns frühmorgens noch unvorstellbar.
Wir näherten uns der Grossstadt auf einer, extra für Scooter eingerichteten Fahrbahn. Wir wurden von links und rechts hupend überholt und es kamen uns etliche Scooter auf der falschen Strassenseite entgegen. Würde man sich das Spektakel von oben her anschauen, würde man schier die Krise kriegen. Doch das Unfassbare ist, dass das Ganze total locker und kontrolliert abläuft. Für uns fehlte nur die passende Musik, denn es fühlte sich wie ein harmonischer Tanz an. Abgebremst oder gezögert wird nicht. Muss man überholen, dann tut man es einfach, denn diejenigen hinter dir, die weichen auch aus. Geflucht und geschrien wird sowieso nicht, wenns sein muss, dann lässt man den Falschfahrer halt einfach kurz durch. So schön das auch klingen mag, so einfach ist es dann aber doch nicht. Wir mussten den ganzen Weg zu 100% fokusiert sein und abgelenkt zu werden, zum Beispiel um einen Fruchtshake-Stand zu suchen, kam nicht in Frage. Wir mussten uns auch gegenseitig mit Zeichen zu verstehen geben, dass alles in Ordnung ist oder dass wir hier besonders aufpassen müssen. Am frühen Nachmittag erreichten wir unsere Destination und wir klopften uns gegenseitig auf die Schulter. Natürlich bevorzugen wir atemberaubende Passüberquerungen in Island oder New Mexico als Herausforderung. Aber wir sind beide froh und erstaunt darüber wie "Ho Chi Minh City by bicycle" doch zum positiven Erlebnis wurde. UND es zeigt uns, dass wir im vergangenen Jahr zu unglaublich guten und sicheren Fahrradfahrern geworden sind. |
For the last few days we both had been down with various stomach upsets and colds: street food, bad dusty roads, noxious traffic exhaust and some pretty dirty hotel rooms were taking their toll. We hadn’t really been enjoying the last couple of days in Cambodia and we were looking forward to a change of scenery and crossing over into Vietnam. We were looking forward to fruit shakes, something else to eat other than fried rice or noodles and of course we were also looking forward to the most basic of all needs: high speed WiFi!
We crossed the border into Vietnam at Bavet on the dot at 7am on Saturday the 18th June 2016 and before we knew it we were on the main highway direction Ho Chi Minh City. It hadn’t been our plan at all to ride into Ho Chi Minh, we were actually intending to stay well away from the mayhem of the big city, but somehow we were drawn in by her lures. The day turned into quite an adventure. In the morning it had seemed unimaginable for us to share the road with 7.4 million scooters but soon we found ourselves on the scooter lane immersed in a sea of scooters, being overtaken left right and centre. There were even scooters coming at us against the flow of traffic and they also crisscrossed the lane from the left and from the right. It would have been interesting to observe the spectacle from above! But the amazing thing is that everything went with the flow and was under perfect control, almost like some crazy dance, the only thing missing was the fitting music. If you want to overtake, you simply do so, everyone coming from behind will move aside, if someone comes towards you or from the left or from the right, simply swerve to let him pass. Shouting or cursing is definitively not on. The only rule is NEVER hesitate and NEVER hit the brakes! In spite of the fun we were having, it was still very tiring, we had to stay 100% focussed all the time and couldn’t afford to let ourselves be distracted or divert our attention from the road to look for a fruit shake stand for example. From time to time we signalled to each other to say everything OK, or to warn each other of a tricky section. We arrived in downtown Ho Chi Minh in the early afternoon, after a ride of over 80 km and were quite proud of ourselves. Of course we prefer crossing a breath taking remote mountain pass in Iceland or in New Mexico as challenge, but still we were both quite surprised that our spontaneous project “Ho Chi Minh by bike” turned out to be such a positive experience. And it went to show us how we have both slowly turned into very proficient and safe bicyclists in the course of the last year after having crossed 14 countries and covered almost 15’000 km! |
Kite & bike in vietnams ninh chu bay - days in paradise
I can’t even remember where the idea of bike and kite came from. I think I simply thought it would be cool to have something else to do other than just biking and also it would slow me down a bit when going uphill. I still remember when I bought the trailer and tried to figure out how best to attach a kite surf board using an old ironing board. Back then it was all more of a joke, I thought I would send all the gear back before too long. But somehow, day after day, hill after hill, flight after flight and bus ride after bus ride, the trailer with all the gear has been accompanying us, even if I cursed it over and over again. Now I have dragged it over 15’000 km, climbed a total elevation of almost 90’000 m and kite surfing has become a more and more important fixture of our trip for both of us.
My original idea was that every couple of days or so we would pass by a nice lake or beach and I could simply rig up the kite surfing stuff and go kiting a bit. But this turned out to be very much a utopian idea. Very often we had water but no wind or lots of wind but no water. Sometimes we had both wind and water, but no safe spot to launch the kite or the wind was off-shore. And sometimes, even if the conditions were more or less OK, I simply didn’t have the energy to strip off the sweaty biking clothes, rig up all the stuff, go kiting in the salty sea, then pack all the wet gear away again, put back on the sweaty biking gear and continue biking 40 or 50 km or however far we were from the next hostel or campsite. And so, our trip so far has been definitively more biking than kiting and we had quite a number of frustrating experiences where we made detours to promising beaches with promising wind forecasts only to find that there was -after all- not enough wind.
Mui Ne was such a case. This is THE kitesurf Mekka in Vietnam and we heard there was good wind, even if it was low season. But by the time we arrived, the wind had died. One more frustrating experience! We heard that there was another kite surf spot just over 100 km north of Mui Ne called Ninh Chu Bay. We weren’t all that hopeful, but it sounded like a nice place and apparently they offered a spot to pitch a tent for free. Also this part of the coast of Vietnam is really nice to bike up, so we headed up there. We arrived in Ninh Chu Bay in the early afternoon. We didn’t know exactly where the place was, so we asked around a bit, mimicking a kite surfer, but we only got blank looks, the poor locals didn’t have a clue what we were trying to say. Suddenly we saw a kite up in the air right in front of us and sure enough, a bit further on there was a rather inconspicuous gate with a couple kite surf posters hanging beside it. We went in. There was some laid back music coming out of a large open building with a bar at one end, behind the bar a large screen showing the current wind conditions and in front of the bar a scattering of blue and white couches around low tables. The building opened out to an immaculate white beach and flat blue water beyond. And sure enough, there were three or four kiters out doing their stuff. We were warmly welcomed by the owners of the place, Mark and Tao, and yes, we could certainly pitch our tent anywhere we wanted! I was so afraid the wind would die any moment, that I rushed to unpack all the gear. Soon I was out on the water. It was the first of five wonderful days we spent at Ninh Chu Bay. We had wind every day, sometimes it picked up at 10 am, sometimes only at 1 pm, sometimes it died at 4 pm and sometimes it blew right up to sunset. There was a sand bank just off shore that broke the waves and so there was a small pool of flat butter soft water just off the beach. There was a bit of surf just off the sand bank and further our nice rolling waves. We couldn’t have hoped for more perfect conditions. We kited until every muscle ached taking turns with the kite. If there was a short lull in the wind we would relax on the couches, enjoy the music and have a ginger lime mint lemonade, a frozen banana with coconut and peanut or a large fruit bowl with banana, pineapple, passion fruit and grapes best enjoyed dipped into salt mixed with chilli. When the wind finally died for the day it was time for sunset watching and a nice cool beer before eating our way through the selection of Mexican, Vietnamese and European foods on the menu.
We both agreed that this was kite & bike to perfection. It was exactly the place we had been looking for all along and when we were least expecting it, we stumbled upon it.
I can’t even remember where the idea of bike and kite came from. I think I simply thought it would be cool to have something else to do other than just biking and also it would slow me down a bit when going uphill. I still remember when I bought the trailer and tried to figure out how best to attach a kite surf board using an old ironing board. Back then it was all more of a joke, I thought I would send all the gear back before too long. But somehow, day after day, hill after hill, flight after flight and bus ride after bus ride, the trailer with all the gear has been accompanying us, even if I cursed it over and over again. Now I have dragged it over 15’000 km, climbed a total elevation of almost 90’000 m and kite surfing has become a more and more important fixture of our trip for both of us.
My original idea was that every couple of days or so we would pass by a nice lake or beach and I could simply rig up the kite surfing stuff and go kiting a bit. But this turned out to be very much a utopian idea. Very often we had water but no wind or lots of wind but no water. Sometimes we had both wind and water, but no safe spot to launch the kite or the wind was off-shore. And sometimes, even if the conditions were more or less OK, I simply didn’t have the energy to strip off the sweaty biking clothes, rig up all the stuff, go kiting in the salty sea, then pack all the wet gear away again, put back on the sweaty biking gear and continue biking 40 or 50 km or however far we were from the next hostel or campsite. And so, our trip so far has been definitively more biking than kiting and we had quite a number of frustrating experiences where we made detours to promising beaches with promising wind forecasts only to find that there was -after all- not enough wind.
Mui Ne was such a case. This is THE kitesurf Mekka in Vietnam and we heard there was good wind, even if it was low season. But by the time we arrived, the wind had died. One more frustrating experience! We heard that there was another kite surf spot just over 100 km north of Mui Ne called Ninh Chu Bay. We weren’t all that hopeful, but it sounded like a nice place and apparently they offered a spot to pitch a tent for free. Also this part of the coast of Vietnam is really nice to bike up, so we headed up there. We arrived in Ninh Chu Bay in the early afternoon. We didn’t know exactly where the place was, so we asked around a bit, mimicking a kite surfer, but we only got blank looks, the poor locals didn’t have a clue what we were trying to say. Suddenly we saw a kite up in the air right in front of us and sure enough, a bit further on there was a rather inconspicuous gate with a couple kite surf posters hanging beside it. We went in. There was some laid back music coming out of a large open building with a bar at one end, behind the bar a large screen showing the current wind conditions and in front of the bar a scattering of blue and white couches around low tables. The building opened out to an immaculate white beach and flat blue water beyond. And sure enough, there were three or four kiters out doing their stuff. We were warmly welcomed by the owners of the place, Mark and Tao, and yes, we could certainly pitch our tent anywhere we wanted! I was so afraid the wind would die any moment, that I rushed to unpack all the gear. Soon I was out on the water. It was the first of five wonderful days we spent at Ninh Chu Bay. We had wind every day, sometimes it picked up at 10 am, sometimes only at 1 pm, sometimes it died at 4 pm and sometimes it blew right up to sunset. There was a sand bank just off shore that broke the waves and so there was a small pool of flat butter soft water just off the beach. There was a bit of surf just off the sand bank and further our nice rolling waves. We couldn’t have hoped for more perfect conditions. We kited until every muscle ached taking turns with the kite. If there was a short lull in the wind we would relax on the couches, enjoy the music and have a ginger lime mint lemonade, a frozen banana with coconut and peanut or a large fruit bowl with banana, pineapple, passion fruit and grapes best enjoyed dipped into salt mixed with chilli. When the wind finally died for the day it was time for sunset watching and a nice cool beer before eating our way through the selection of Mexican, Vietnamese and European foods on the menu.
We both agreed that this was kite & bike to perfection. It was exactly the place we had been looking for all along and when we were least expecting it, we stumbled upon it.