Ok, so that’s yesterday’s cliffhanger, of would I make it out of the hotel ruined, but to be honest I’m as surprised as anyone. I didn’t really sleep at all last night after my extra long sleep the night before, and it was pouring down outside, so I got up and went for a swim. After that, I headed around the corner to a handily placed bike shop I’d spotted and was graciously allowed to use their bike pump. I also bought one to replace the one I’d brought, which is now languishing in the hotel bin. Hopefully the new one is an improvement!
Having assembled the bike and filled the panniers with stuff which will now become superfluous as I’m cycling for most of every day, I was finally ready to set off, at half past 11. With 50 miles to ride and sunset at not much after 5 it felt dangerously like time trial territory already, on day one.
I quickly got vaguely up to speed with the crazy Hanoi traffic. There are no rules, other than, push in and let everyone else react accordingly. Simple.
Around 10 miles in, having gotten lost a couple of times in the utter chaos, I stopped for lunch, having Pho of the non beef description. What meat was it? I’m not quite sure…
Following Highway 6 out of the city was endless, block after block of noise and fumes, it was 30 miles before it started to feel like I’d entered the countryside, and then all of a sudden, majestic Karst peaks all around.
Soon after, the road started to climb for the first time all day, but not for long and a descent followed, before route 6 turned left towards Hoa Binh, passing rice fields surrounded by the stunning mountainous back drop.
I arrived in Hoa Binh and headed for the Ha Tam hotel, just over the bridge. Nice room, and it cost just over a 10th of the price of an additional night in last night’s hotel. Not that I had thought about it for a second…
Suffice to say, it’s been a busy week. There always seems to be more to do to prepare for a trip like this than I remember. Even after a week preparing my bike and equipment, it was the night before that I realised that the pannier bags I was intending on using wouldn’t fit my pannier rack, and my seat post was stuck in the frame. Luckily my Dad was on hand to make the required amendments while I continued to pack.
Arriving in Hanoi, I organised travel to the hotel, and, as it was a third of the price of the alternative hotel-arranged airport transfer I took that as a win. Driving into town the roads were absolute chaos and when the rain started lashing down I decided to spend the rest of the day in the hotel. Still with a leisure suite and rooftop sky bar it could be worse. The quality of my accommodation after this may deteriorate…
Finally waking at 2 o’clock on my second day in Hanoi, I headed off into the Old Quarter to pick up a phone SIM and explore a bit. I’m feeling much better acclimated today and enjoyed exploring.
Road crossings were a nightmare due to the endless stream of scooters, maybe it’ll be easier when travelling alongside them, by bike?
I was happy to chat to Lanh and Anh and some fellow Hanoi University students near Ho Hoan Kiem, they were keen to try out their English skills, though none of them were actually studying English, Anh was studying Korean as well just to add to the list.
I tried some street food including a Banh Mi (pork baguette) and Pho Bo (beef noodles), Vietnamese staples that I might be encountering a lot on the road, which is fine by me. I’m also quite happy with the Bia Hoi draught beer found randomly dotted about on street corners!
This evening, I tried to pump up the tyres on my bike without much luck. I think I’ll probably need a new pump, so will head for a bike shop in the morning. Tonight it’s back to the Pan Pacific Summit bar to enjoy their eclectic range of out of place Christmas songs…
Should be starting cycling tomorrow if I have a working bike!
Since I returned from cycling the Pacific Coast Highway in June 2017, I have been asked countless times if I had any more cycling trips planned. The answer was usually, ‘no, not yet, but I’ve had a few ideas!’ It was always going to take some time before I was ready to undergo a similar trip again. For a start, successfully completing my biggest challenge yet meant that my ambitions were likely to remain higher for future endeavours, and that required me to find a long enough window with which to fit my plans.
Another problem was that, since the America trip, my touring bike had had a fairly tough time of it. In January 2018, I was out for a short cycle not far from home when I changed gear to pedal up a steep hill and there was a loud crunch from the back of the bike. The chain had broken, the rear derailleur had snapped in half and bent the derailleur mounting point on the frame in the process. Not good. In the end, it turned out an absolutely trashed small chainring, from my 2000 mile sojourn, was the root of the problem, and it was really spring 2019 before it was back up and running properly.
Then it was time to start planning something…
Opting to go in January helped narrow the range of possibilities significantly, and in the end I was trying to decide between an End to End of New Zealand or something in South-East Asia. I decided to leave New Zealand until I was feeling less adventurous, so South-East Asia it was. I’d been to Thailand, so not there. A lack of tarmacked roads and a predominance of hills did for Cambodia and Laos respectively, and eventually, it was the lure of a 1000 mile stretch of well-maintained tarmac through rural farmland and stunning karst mountains that won it. So, as of the 4th of January, I’m heading for the Ho Chi Minh Highway – between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City – in Vietnam!
As I planned this trip, there were many occasions when I was concerned that I was attempting the impossible; indeed, for much of the route, I’d only hoped to get as far as Los Angeles, and I didn’t actually book my flight back from San Diego until I reached there. Before the Pacific Coast, my longest previous cycle tour had been 400 miles, and by the end of that I had been ready to go home. Physically I had still felt strong, but the mental strain of cycling solo through the Moroccan Atlas, sleeping amongst wild dogs and patronising shops in which sellers tried to sell me unwanted trinkets, had worn me down. I knew that if I was to enjoy the experience of testing myself on a longer route, I would need to travel somewhere that felt more culturally familiar. The fact that the US Pacific Coast Highway regularly featured in the top 3 on lists of the world’s best cycle tours helped to narrow my scope considerably.
Having decided on the US Pacific Coast Highway, I wanted to be sure that it would be possible with my given timeframe before I took any drastic steps – such as booking flights. The process seemed endless as I probed the internet for campsite opening dates to determine whether the trip would be plausible at all. As I worked through the campsites, results seemed to suggest that most of the campsites would be available, in fact, most of them were probably available throughout the year. As I spoke to US-based cyclists on the road, they seemed amused to find that I’d been worried about the accessibility of campsites – they clearly hadn’t arrived at a campsite in France at quarter to 7 in the evening, only to find that the reception was closing and security gates fastened into place. As the journey unfolded, I realised that much of my planning had been unnecessary, I was in the land of the RV and the road trip, on one of the most popular routes in the country. This was a route well served by amenities.
Many of the campsites I stayed in on the route were those recommended in the Bicycling the Pacific Coast route guide, and most of the rest I found in the official American Cycling Association maps of the route. I used them interchangeably at times, and was pleased to discover that – until quite far South in California – most of the campsites were excellent for my requirements, whether I’d seen them recommended or not.
It was much the same with restaurants, I’d spent weeks before I left researching potential food stops in guidebooks and jotting them down in a small notebook. Of course, I barely glanced at the notebook during my trip and, checking back afterwards, I realised that I hadn’t been to any of the places I’d planned out beforehand. When restaurant-hunting a quick glance at Trip Advisor had usually been my first port of call, and the next step was to assess individual restaurants, largely based on whether there was somewhere suitable to leave my bike.
During the 5 and a half week journey, I was on the limit in terms of keeping my bike on the road, punctures were a constant issue, especially when the weather worsened, and there were times during the ride where I was getting by with as few as two gears running smoothly, one for the hills, and one for the flat. I could coast the downhills. I went through brake pads quickly in the wet weather, and not being able to set up gears properly meant I snapped more gear cables than I should. Despite all this, I kept the bike rolling along.
Throughout the trip, the ever-changing spectacle of nature left me awestruck on countless occasions. Vancouver Island, Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, Deception Pass, Cannon Beach, Nehalem Bay, Boiler Bay, Cape Perpetua, Oregon Dunes, Pebble Beach, Elk Prairie Redwoods, The Avenue of the Giants, Pacific Grove, Monterey Wine Country, Lake Nacimiento, Point Mugu, La Jolla and Coronado were just a few of the natural wonders I witnessed.
When I think of all that I experienced along the way, I’m reminded of Gilles, the Canadian, who I’d met in the campsite near Santa Cruz, and who was cycling the Pacific Coast for the second time, 25 years after the first. I asked him how he was finding it after so long. ‘Oh, The same!’ was his response. Life had moved on, but the Pacific Coast Highway remained the same, a wonderful adventure waiting to happen.
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