2009 Biking Vietnam

Perhaps our best cycling day lay between Hue and Lang Co. At the mouth of the Perfume River lies a long, narrow island – a spit of sand between a lagoon and the sea. The area is dubbed the city of tombs or city of ghosts and is renowned for its colourful graveyards and ancestral family temples. We cycled a narrow road here through one fishing / farming village after another, had our photos taken with a bride and groom, and I laughed until I cried when a young boy reached up and squeezed Charl’s breast (see “fat stories” later).

On Charl’s 60th birthday we cycled the Hai Van Pass (Sea Cloud Pass) – 10km up and 10km down. At the top lay my favourite road sign in all Vietnam. It read: Sloppy road, Drive slowly. The pass dropped us into Danang, Vietnam’s third biggest city. The first US troops landed here in 1965; 3,500 marines stormed “China” beach in full battle gear, to be greeted by girls in traditional ao dais, bearing flowers. We visited here the Cao Dai temple. This religion, based on messages received in séances, was founded in the early 1920s. It seeks to create the ideal religion by merging the religious philosophies of east and west. A sign reads “All religions have the same reason”; behind is a picture of the founders of five religions: Mohammed, Laotse (Taoism), Jesus, Buddha and Confucius.