Another cool day with a little less traffic. We had a visitor while stopping for drinks today.

Hard to tell which dogs are strays since they just go about on their own and seem pretty much ignored by people. We've seen signs advertising cats and dogs as food which may explain the disconnection. We have seen tons of these signs around. We wish we knew what they said.

Dong Ha is a town right on the Ben Hai River, the border around which the DMZ was formed. Today there are tours around the area, and many monuments honoring the North Vietnamese soldiers and their victory.

We met a man named Ting in town, who was very excited when we told him we were American. He said his father was a lieutenant for the South Vietnamese Army during the war, and had many American friends. He spoke candidly for a while with us about which side of the conflict he was on. Very interesting.

Today was our first real climb, it was nice to break up the flat roads. The scenery is continuing to improve as we head south. Picked up a nice tail wind which brought with it some cooler weather.

We arrived in Dong Hoi by noon which gave us time to check out the town citadel. Our hotel is also quite an improvement from the last couple nights and still a bargain at about $17.50. From our balcony we can see the remains of a church bombed in 1965 which is preserved as a memorial.

We got another early start today to beat the heat. Left the hotel at 5:30 but by 8 it was already 80 degrees. The scenery is improving. People are friendly and anxious to attempt conversation. A woman tried out Jasmine's bike at a gas station and there was a pretty rad high five with a kid on a bike.

Lot's of these guys in the road.

There are plenty of places to stop, but for some reason no one keeps drinks cold. By the end of the ride it hit 93 degrees.

Today was our furthest planned ride and we are glad to have it behind us. Hot and muggy with constant horns. Also we are becoming a bit of a spectacle. Motorbikes pull up along side and stare for a few moments before pulling away. The children all shout "hello,hello" as we ride past them on their way to school.

Today's ride went well. Hot but no rain.

Tons of construction but it was worth it for the smooth parts that were complete.

The first hotel we tried wouldn't let us bring the bikes in the room, so we ended up at a more upscale place. Nearby, we found a grocery store with some good stuff and a small vegan shop. Passed on the vegan snails and pigs ears but we tried the vegan deer. Not bad in soup.

We made the most of our day off yesterday. First we went to Cuc Phuong National Park. There they have a primate rescue center. It is a place where they try to rehabilitate monkeys that have been rescued from the pet trade and release them back into the wild. This was the highlight of our day.

They also had a turtle rescue center.

From there we went on a hike through the jungle before leaving the park.

Next stop was Tam Coc. We were rowed down the river through 3 caves. Pretty nice scenery.

Last we took a short hike up a mountain side where there were Buddhist temples built into caves. Pretty nice views from the top.

After spending a week in the city you get to learn the traffic pattern pretty quickly...in that there is none. Cars drive the wrong way on streets and motorbikes squeeze between cars without a second thought. People, including the vendors with their baskets of fruit, walk in the street because the sidewalk is for motorbike parking, not for walking. And they all just proceed through intersections in what seems like total chaos. Crossing the street Is interesting. You just walk, and miraculously they all avoid you. That being said, we decided to leave Hanoi early this morning to beat the traffic. So at 5:30 we were on the road. It was still dark and raining but I'm glad we did because we made it out of the city with minimal hassle. The rain didn't stop though.

Only taking a couple breaks to duck into roadside cafes we got to our hotel in Ninh Binh by 12:15. The roads were pretty good until about 10 mi out of Ninh Binh. Then they became really broken up and the big trucks with their constant horns were relentless. We are certainly glad to be on the road but our bikes might not be. It took about an hour to wash the mud off of them.

Then it was our turn.

So we are starting off slowly. Tomorrow is a scheduled day of so we can see some sights around here.

After a week visiting Hanoi, we are excited to start our ride in the morning. While in the city we visited a few museums including a historic prison originally built by French invaders, then later used to detain US POWs. At the time it was known as the Hanoi Hilton. Food has been pretty good although it is difficult to communicate. Fruit and bread is available on every street.

We did manage to track down a couple vegetarian/vegan places. Although at least one meal did not stay down for Jasmine.

We also left for an overnight tour of Halong Bay by boat with kayaking (our first time) and a quick dip in the water. The food aboard the boat was amazing.

For our last day in Hanoi, we decided to check out the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and meet with Uncle Ho face to face.

We managed to get one of the phones setup with a local sim card so we should be able to update frequently.

Well after a long trip we made it to Hanoi.

Setup the bikes and everything looks good.

Now we are going to check out Hanoi for a few days before starting our ride.

The bikes are boxed up and ready to go in the morning. Hopefully it won't be too hard to find boxes for the return trip.

Lonely Planet has a Vietnam guide specifically for cycling. We ended up just ripping a chunk from the middle to take with us, but still very useful. ISBN: 1-86450-168-5

Not being completely sure how hard vegan food will be to find on the Vietnam tour, we will be using a front basket to carry extra a surplus. This will be our first time with this set up but it's been useful so far and the Wald basket is solid.