Tet Nguyen Dan is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. Translated it means “the first morning of the first day”, and it is the Vietnamese version of the Lunar New Year. The rituals and celebrations of Tet reflect the various cultures of the different regions, but they are all holistic, mindful of the connection between humans and their natural…
Category: An Epic Adventure
January 26 and 27: Halong Bay
A well visited UNESCO site on the coast near Hanoi is Halong Bay. Set in the Gulf of Tonkin, there are towering limestone pillars and tiny islets topped by forest which rise from the emerald waters. Halong translates to “where the dragon descends into the sea” and legend tells that this mystical seascape was created when a great mountain dragon…
January 25: Hanoi, Day 2
Apparently a visit to Hanoi is not complete without a visit to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and the adjacent historical places and Museum. So, that was the destination for the morning. And it was quite an interesting experience. The large complex is well guarded, and there’s an elaborate system for getting in. Once through security any backpack sized bag needed…
January 24: Hanoi Day 1
The old quarter of Hanoi is filled with narrow streets and many small vendors and stores selling everything from pots and pans to t-shirts to lots of red decorations for the upcoming New Year celebration. It’s difficult walking — easy to be accosted by a shop owner, or run over by a motor bike, who park and pull onto the…
January 23: Siem Reap to Hanoi
After our dinner at Square 24 we went to the Night Market in Siem Reap, which was all neon and people and bars and selling — seems like it’s like that all the time. We appreciated having a dedicated tuk tuk driver so we didn’t have to navigate that part of life. On Monday we had a leisurely morning and then…
January 22: Kompong Pluk (Floating Village) and Flooded Forest
We signed up for a small group tour to the Floating Village, about 45 minutes outside of Siem Reap, on the edge of Tonle Sap Lake. The lake is the largest freshwater body of water in all of SE Asia — 62 miles across at it’s widest and 160 miles long. It occupies a geographical depression and floodplain of the…
January 21: Another visit to the Angkor Temples
It’s been widely written in tour books that the best time to visit the Temples, especially Angkor Wat, is at sunrise or sunset. Our visit there a couple of days ago was at high noon, so we decided to visit again in the early morning. We met a tuk tuk driver yesterday who is now our personal go-to guy, so…
January 20: A day of rest (and news blackout)
After another goodbye at breakfast to our cycle buddies, Donna and I packed up and took a tuk tuk ride to another hotel — a lovely 5 star resort-ish place, from where we will base our further adventures in the part of Cambodia. We were lucky to get into a room early, and spent the day in the shade by…
Last day of cycling: the Temples of Angkor — 15 miles
We cycled out of the hotel, which was located in the middle of Siem Reap, out to the Temple areas. Where possible we were on back or side dirt roads, and even some narrow paths through some jungle to avoid the tuk tuks and large tourist buses. Once we got to the ticket center however it was clear that we…
Cycling Day 10: Preah Vihear to Siem Reap – 37 Miles
Another early start in an attempt to beat the heat — we biked out of the hotel at 7:30 and headed east, then south on a long route towards Siem Reap. It was very bright (we’ve been blessed with clouds for many days), and we cycled along paved blacktop with rolling hills. It got hot very fast and by our 10:30,…