Hanoi

If you’ve ever travelled to Southeast Asia or other points west across the Pacific, you’ve had the experience of losing a small chunk of your life in the crossing.  Yes, the flight is long and with the inevitable layover along the way it seems to take forever, but in addition, at a specific point along your route, you instantly cross over into tomorrow when you cross the international date line.  So it is very easy to lose 35 hours or more in travel time.  Door to door it is somewhat longer (we left Thursday morning at 7:30 and arrived at our hotel in Hanoi at 1:30 Saturday morning)
   So it may sound like I’m complaining a little bit, but when it is put into the perspective of what I and nine other comrades are about to embark on, it seems trivial.  This morning we we start our journey from Ha Noi to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), a 2000 km. And 25 day bike ride which should be an amazing adventure through rural and scenic areas both inland and along the coast as well as visiting some of Vietnam’s incredible history from India’influence in the many Cham culture sites, to the Imperial city if Hue and much more.
  This is a lifetime opportunity for me, but for my traveling companions it is another cycling adventure in a long list that has taken them to countries and regions around the world!  Three of us from Washington, one from Vancouver, three from Oregon, one from California, and two from Georgia.
   Saturday was spent assembling our bikes, getting SIM cards, and reorganizing our gear, and getting out and exploring this amazing city of Ha Noi.  So here are a few pics from today and my hope is to do a daily short blog with a few pics each day!  We’ll see how that goes!

Until then,   Don