We had an 8 day Backroads trip through Vietnam then over to Cambodia in a group of 12 people. I was rooming with Uncle Ben for the whole entire trip.We had 2 guides, one of our guides name was Kevin and he ia from the U.S.A. and the other guide's name is Catalina and she is from Slovenia. We had one other guide from Vietnam and his name is Dragon, he led the pack.
Over all this bike trip made it so we could spend time as a big group experiencing rice fields, temples, riding on dragon boats, biking over rolling hills and mountains, looking at going to ancestor worship temples and visiting with our friends and family.
3/8 Met at the Metropole Hotel, took Cyclo Tour, lunch, Church, Chocolate Bar, Massage with Dad, Dinner at Le Oriental
3/9 Early wakeup to Hue, started bike ride, rice paddies, water buffalo, dragon boats, Ancestor Worship Temples, lunch at roadside cafe, rode with Dragon and got to hotel first, cut through huge line of scooters on bike, tour of the old Emperor Palace from 1800s when Hue became the capital of Vietnam, dinner at hotel
3/10 Rode through town, lots of ancestor worship temples, making rice paddy hats with wedding proposals in them, making incense, burial ground and emperor's tombs with glass and ceramic reliefs inside the burial rooms, lunch with music from the one string harp and 2 string guitar, dinner at grandson of one of the last Mandarins in Hue.
3/11 Biking, Hill around 10k, downhill around 10k, got in bus, biked over suspension bridge, rolling hills, mango smoothie, pool for lunch, Nam Hai, room service, and movie.
3/12 Rice paddies, War Memorial, boat ride, bike through Old Town of Hoi An, pool time at Nam Hai, cooking class in town and walking through city of lanterns at night
3/13 Slept in and breakfast at the Nam Hai, lunch in town at Mango Mango in Hoi An, explored with the boys, flew to Siem Reap, arrived at the Raffles Grand Hotel, didn't feel good and went to bed early
3/14 Toured Taprohm Temple where filmed Tomb Raider, biked on dirt roads lined with trees, pigs on back of scooters, Bayon Temple with the faces of the 6th King on the walls of his temple, hanging in hammocks, tuk tuk to Old Town for dad and Uncle Ben's shave
3/15 Today we were leaving Cambodia and entering Bangkok, Thailand, but first we drove to the temple of Angkor Wat.
The first day was a touring day and and a getting together day. We didn't bike at all but we did ride cyclos. A cyclo is kind of like a three wheeled bike with a chariot in the front for a guest to sit in and the peddler/driver in the back. We took those through Hanoi to where everybody ate lunch. After lunch we took a van with Brian and Rachel Bertha to church since it was Sunday. Church was in a building with multiple floors and was not a tiny branch. The chapel was on the 1st floor so you had to walk through it to get to the other rooms. The male missionaries there were both Vietnamese blooded but they both live in the USA. The rest of the day we got a foot and head massage, ate fondu, and had dinner.
For the next several days we biked through some of Vietnam starting in Hue and ending just outside Hoi An. To get to Hue we had to take a plane flight and once we arrived we walked across the parking lot to our bikes. That day's ride we saw green rice fields, green with a gray sky with many fields stacking next to each other. That same day Dragon and I beat the Backroads van to the hotel. One of the days Logan and I were racing in the rice fields on a backroad, we were passing each other back and forth, back and forth, but Logan came out on top. Our hill climb was hard, it was around 10k up and 10k down. It was hard, but I did it all in 1 go. We had to finish the hill climb day by biking over rolling HILLS and then by jumping in the pool.
The Nam Hai hotel was the most unique hotel and maybe the nicest hotel we stayed at. Each couple had there own Villa which was unique in how it had few stairs, bath tub in the seating area, the bed up a step on a weaved floor, and the TV mounted on the floor right next to the bed. On our last day of biking in Vietnam we rode alongside a river. We viewed fisherman’s boats in the water and along the road were flat square baskets of little dried fish and there were thousands upon thousands of them.
It wasn't over yet we still had to travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We left Vietnam and also left Dragon and met Cambodia, and our new guide Borin. We were only in Cambodia for 2 nights but I still got in 1 day of biking. In Cambodia we saw ancient temples one of which was where they filmed Tomb Raider. These temples were hundreds of years old and still intact. One of the gates and a few or all of the temples we saw had 4 faces of Buddha on the towers pointing North, East, South, and West. One of the temples we drove and walked to used to be a golden Hindu temple but then turned into a red Buddest temple which is also still intact.
A while back Cambodia’s government was taken over by the communist party. The leader of the communist party was Pol Pot. Pol Pot wanted no one with an education, so he killed 2 million Cambodians to make that happen. Pol Pot bordered the country with land mines so people couldn't enter the country or exit the country. Pol Pot's communist party was called the Khmer Rouge and were responsible for the 2,000,000 deaths called the Killing Fields.
Over all this bike trip made it so we could spend time as a big group experiencing rice fields, temples, riding on dragon boats, biking over rolling hills and mountains, looking at going to ancestor worship temples and visiting with our friends and family.
3/9 Early wakeup to Hue, started bike ride, rice paddies, water buffalo, dragon boats, Ancestor Worship Temples, lunch at roadside cafe, rode with Dragon and got to hotel first, cut through huge line of scooters on bike, tour of the old Emperor Palace from 1800s when Hue became the capital of Vietnam, dinner at hotel
3/10 Rode through town, lots of ancestor worship temples, making rice paddy hats with wedding proposals in them, making incense, burial ground and emperor's tombs with glass and ceramic reliefs inside the burial rooms, lunch with music from the one string harp and 2 string guitar, dinner at grandson of one of the last Mandarins in Hue.
3/11 Biking, Hill around 10k, downhill around 10k, got in bus, biked over suspension bridge, rolling hills, mango smoothie, pool for lunch, Nam Hai, room service, and movie.
3/12 Rice paddies, War Memorial, boat ride, bike through Old Town of Hoi An, pool time at Nam Hai, cooking class in town and walking through city of lanterns at night
3/13 Slept in and breakfast at the Nam Hai, lunch in town at Mango Mango in Hoi An, explored with the boys, flew to Siem Reap, arrived at the Raffles Grand Hotel, didn't feel good and went to bed early
3/14 Toured Taprohm Temple where filmed Tomb Raider, biked on dirt roads lined with trees, pigs on back of scooters, Bayon Temple with the faces of the 6th King on the walls of his temple, hanging in hammocks, tuk tuk to Old Town for dad and Uncle Ben's shave
3/15 Today we were leaving Cambodia and entering Bangkok, Thailand, but first we drove to the temple of Angkor Wat.
We watched the sunrise at Angkor Wat at around 6 am. From a ways a away the temple kind of looked like the disney castle. The temple’s towers on top were supposed to look like the Lotus flower. To get into the actual temple you had to walk eons down this walkway through a gate, keep walking a ways then you would hit the entrance. Inside the temple I had a monk tie a bracelet on my wrist. While he was tying the bracelet on he gave a blessing to me. If I take the bracelet off it is bad luck, but if I keep it on it is good luck. We were able to walk on the top level and I was the first one to climb up. Dad and I did a time-lapse of the people walking up and down the stairs to the top level.
I took my flight to Bangkok, Thailand with Dad, Mom, and Uncle Ben. Uncle Ben left and drove another way while Mom, Dad, and I got picked up by the Marriott and taken to the JW Marriott Bangkok. We were at the Marriott for a little before taking the Sky Train over to the Weekend Day Market. When we arrived at our stop we walked over to the market and found some Pad Thai while Dad and I were eating Mom walked through just a part of the market. Dad and I walked by our selves and found shoes, shirts, a tattoo parlor, and some watches.
When we were back at the hotel after being on the Sky Train and walking to our hotel we ate some dinner at a Tepanyaki restaurant, I got a Bento Box.
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