A Bike Ride
I want to start by saying, I would never have picked a four hour bike ride - but Hana did so we were off on an amazing adventure… and a little bit nervous. (Yes, we had helmets, just not in this picture)
Meet Minh, our tour guide. He’s newly married, a new father of a four month old little girl, and he was great fun. We were his only customers for the morning so we had his undivided attention. Hana and I were both nervous about riding a bike in this crazy traffic. Minh’s mantra was “No Fear - just go for it”. He was an excellent companion and helped us to safely navigate everything. It wasn’t long before we had built our confidence and technique and were safely weaving in/out of the million scooters, cars, trucks, and busses. We had a great time and loved Minh’s fun sense of humor.
After making it safely out of town, we crossed a (bike/scooter) railroad bridge over a large island of farmland. Halfway across, we took a left turn, went down the stairs, on our bikes, to a dirt road below.
This island is in the middle of the Red River that runs through the middle of this large city. It was so beautiful, lush, and green…. and the best part - no traffic - we loved it. It was acres and acres of farmland. Local farmers lease the land from the government. Owned land is generationally owned and the government can’t take it away from the family owners. But to buy land to farm is $3000 USD for one square foot.
Next stop was back in town, to visit the temple and pagoda (the temple is not pictured). All Vietnamese people believe in honoring their national heros, thus the temples are for that homage. The pagoda is for Buddah. 74% of the population don’t believe in any God, 14% believe in Buddha, 7% are Catholics, and the rest are protestant.
We stopped for a quick break next to the remnants of a B52 bomber. These remain where the plane landed and is now a reminder and tribute to the war, and their success in bringing down a B52.
After riding for four hours and over six miles, someone was a bit tired! We were both so impressed we didn’t have any incidents with traffic, and actually enjoyed our two wheel time!
Last stop was lunch, fried pho. You poke a hole in the middle of the pillow pho, fill it with meat and veges, dip it in the yummy sauce …. and then stick the whole thing in your mouth. Yum!
