27/02/2020 – The War Museum

My destination for the day was Da Lat. Having looked at the route it was to be a tough day.

Starting off with around 50km of lovely flat smooth roads at sea level leading to a climb up to almost 1700m over 30km.

This was the first proper climb since northern Vietnam so it was certainly a shock to the system.

Thankfully the scenery was stunning. It made me realise just how dull the riding had been for the last couple of weeks.

This was a real lung burner. It was quite warm which didn’t help the matter as I was running low on water.

As I went around one of the last hairpins though everything changed. Suddenly the slightly grey skies turned into dense fog which also made the temperature drop.

I decided to push hard hoping that I’d be able to outrun the weather and get back to the kind of weather I’d signed up for.

This tactic worked and I soon arrived at a shop and raided all the chocolate and sweets that looked edible.

Not too long after I passed by another cycle tourist who was going from Bangkok to Hanoi with his wife. A strange reoccurring theme I’ve noticed is a lot of couples who have retired have taken to bike packing across SE Asia.

A couple of undulating hills later and Da Lat was in sight. It was dark as I was approaching the city and it was lit up to like a Christmas tree. A quick ride through some of the backstreets and I reached my hostel.

I woke up with a dodgy stomach so had a day to recover and walk around the city. It seemed nice but the roads were a mess and difficult to navigate yourself around. Maybe I’d just gotten used to the grid system the rest of Vietnam had adopted.

The next day was one of those days you dream about. I was able to take the reward of my previous days hard work and descend from 1500m to 800m keeping a fantastic average speed and reaching Bao Lac (halfway to Saigon) in no time.

I did, however, develop a frustrating quirk with my bike. The chain was skipping every few peddle strokes. Not to worry, this town appeared to have a couple of bike shops so this was a problem for tomorrow. I found a hostel, went to an amazing Banh Mi stall and took enough for dinner and second dinner.

Heading straight to the bike shop in the morning I was passed onto another one as they didn’t have the right parts. The second bike shop was far more helpful and was able to replace the chain and index my gears for me.

Sadly this did nothing to solve the problem and in fact made it worse. Despite his best efforts he held his hands up and said he could do no more and gave me my money back which I politely refused.

The bus station was just down the road so I freewheeled there and got told that bikes weren’t allowed. Thankfully there was another bus company just down the road which took the bike and I experienced my first sleeper bus.

The bus rolled into Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) a couple of hours later down some fantastic roads which I was a little sad I missed out on.

I had been pointed in the direction of a bike shop but amazingly, the bus stopped not 20 meters away from one. I rolled up with a large grin on my face as they appeared to stock road bikes in the window. Sadly the shop assistant was of no help so I made my way to Biker Saigon.

They knew instantly what the issue was and that I needed a new cassette. They trued my wheel and tightened up my brakes and she was as good as new. The cost was a fraction of what it would have cost back in the UK or in Oz.

Saigon is like every other major city in SE Asia to cycle in, in that it is mad but it all just works so in no time, I was at my hostel.

I awoke and had breakfast at their rooftop bar and set off for a walk around the city. The first stop was to get a new hat and some sun cream.

Everyone had said that you have to go to the war museum and so that was a priority. I had my temperature checked upon entry as coronavirus was becoming more serious.

The next couple of hours spent walking round, looking at the pictures and reading about what happened in the Vietnam war floored me.

I am no wordsmith and so do not want to undersell or inaccurately describe what it is like. All I can and will say on the matter is that you need to go there. It will forever change your opinion on war. Not just on that war but all wars since and all wars to come.