Day 1 cycling to Hai Phong - slightly south and west of Halong bay. We got hold of 2 trek mountain bikes for Roo and Matt packed the panniers and set off from the relative safety and comfort zone we had developed in our hostel. We had a photocopied map and a compass and spirits were high. We made it out of the city crossing the large river to the east of Hanoi over a railway bridge- it seemed to be the only route available for bikes. We traveled along route 5 for about 20k. The traffic has heavy and it was a 2 lane high way. It seems standard for all the traffic to honk their horns all the time, the bigger the vehicle the louder the horns. Roo describes them as bone shakingly loud. We followed to road to Nhu Quynh before stopping at a roadside cafe a lunch of noodle soup, we then took a minor road following the rail line east. It got pretty remote and in parts the road wasn't pathed. It looked like Lincolnshire but the carrots growing rather than potatoes?! The locals were clearly not used to seeing white faces- we attracted lots of attention! Progress was slow on the minor roads, we went from ave 22k/h down to about 13k/h. Our planned destination was looking ever so less likely, but we pressed on as best we could. Rather worryingly most of the villages we passed through weren't on the map- and yes Katie I no have a better map. The best quality maps seems to be google maps which we have a print out of. We got to Cam Glang about 3.30pm. The consensus was to continue to our planned destination of Nam Sach. Places that look substantial on the map are tiny villages and some reasonable sized towns were not even on the map- navigation was challenging! We reached a river, this was a good reference point on the map, reassuringly we were on the right road, unfortunately there was no bridge to cross the large fast flowing torrent (about the size of the Tees)! There was a small barge boat crossing, we hopped aboard and were taken swiftly across the river.

Anyway with a little pointing and gesticulating we found out destination. I had asked in our hostel the word for guest house- but had left the post-it in my guide book at said hostel. The light was starting to fade as we reached Nam Sach and we still needed find somewhere to stay! I asked a couple of people and we were given some directions in Vietnamese, we cycled on... Asked some more, cycled some more... We seemed to be leaving the town, down hearted, almost dark! Then we spotted the flashing neon hotel sign! The saga didn't end there.... The hotel was dead- looked like a butlins off season. We searched for signs of life, eventually a woman arrived who spoke no English. She had a mobile and passed it to me- I spoke to someone who sorted us out with en suit rooms and dinner. There was a karaoke bar attached to the restaurant which looked like any large empty Chinese in the uk. We had a feast! Then retired to our very hard cold beds, exhausted after out 70k ride.