Today is the first day of our Spiceroads trip in Vietnam.
Desperate for a proper overseas holiday after being stuck in WA for 2 years we booked this to fit with our diaries, and to explore a new country. Vietnam has been on our bucket list for a while.
We arrived here 4 days ago to explore the city and surrounds, and get used to the hot and humid climate. It’s safe to say we’ve had enough of a noisy city and really Looking forward to getting out to see the country.
There is always some apprehension on the first day as you start to meet the other riders on the trip and find your bearings. We knew there would be 5 of us plus the guide, but I didn’t expect it to be 4 blokes and me... Good job I can keep up!
We have a 3 hour drive out of the city, 30k til lunch then 30 to our accommodation. It’s dry and overcast but not as hot as precious days.
The drive takes us on single carriageway slow roads through villages and lush greenery. Rice fields, banana trees and fruit sold at the side of the road.
With hills looming on the horizon. It’s slow and we are all keen to get riding.
60k later……
The ride started with 15k in gravel backroads!!
I was not impressed. As the only two with thin tyres and our own bikes I was feeling very nervous about punctures and not relishing the next 900km on gravel 😟
Slight sense of humour breakdown, but after lunch of noodles in a local cafe it improved. Gorgeous scenery of padi fields, villages, and the dam on undulating roads.
We made it to our accommodation in Mai Chau by 330pm. Pretty bloody sweaty and glad the first day was only 60k. The sun shone all afternoon but the heat was draining.
The accommodation was a local village family run hotel in a valley surrounded by more lush greenery and stunning hills. Huge air conditioned room with sliding doors leading to a verandah overlooking local fields and village. The room had two massive beds - both with very bumpy mattresses. Having picked one, we proceeded to rearrange the bedding to give some extra protection against the bed springs, lying on top one duvet and grabbing the other sheet and duvet from the other bed to lie underneath. It was optimistic but managed a relatively good nights sleep.
Dinner was a banquet of Vietnamese food: spring rolls, pork and pineapple stir fry, banana leaf salad (which was becoming a firm favourite), soup, rice, beef stir fry, vegetables, and snails from the family run restaurant. It was just us in the restaurant so we were well looked after and keep cool thanks to the fans set up around us.
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