julies

Thanks to all of you who have helped me out with my endless questions about Vietnam. We've put together something that works for us and our interests. Here it is, and I hope maybe it give someone else who looks at this in the future some ideas.

Land in HCMC late at night.
Spend 1 day there checking it out and recovering from our long flight time.

From there we've arranged a 5 day private cycling trip with cycling-vietnam.com. We'll be visiting the Dong Thap and An Giang regions (the parts near Cambodia) of the Mekong Delta for cycling. We'll be visiting Hong Ngu, Long Xuyen, Cho Moi, Tri Ton, Cao Lanh areas with stops also in Sa Dec to see the flower nurseries and a less-visited floating market somewhere. The owner of the bike company has been very responsive, so I hope things go as well as we anticipate.

As soon as our bike trip ends we take a flight to Hanoi. From there we take the overnight train to Lao Cai where we have arranged a private 3 day tour with Ethnic travel. We visit the Bac Ha market and spend a day and a half trekking in the area including a homestay with people of the Tay minority group in their village. Then we have another day visiting the market at Coc Ly and doing some more trekking in the area. This was our compromise as far as weather concerns about visiting the north in January. This area is at a lower elevation and suposedly the weather is better than in Sapa even if the scenery is not quite as spectacular.

After 3 days in the area we take the night train back to Hanoi for the 2nd segment of private tours we have arranged with Ethnic Travel. We go to the Ninh Bihn area and spend a day there on the boat rides in Kenh Ga and doing some cycling around the area. The next day we are in another part of the Red River Delta area and do some more cycling before going to a local villager's house. There we get a cooking lesson and learn about local agriculture. The next 2 days we spend in the area around Bai Tu Long Bay (the less touristed area north of Halong Bay). Here we take two short cruises and end up on Van Don Island where we do a homestay with a local family. We'll also spend some time cycling around the island. The premise of this travel company is that they encurage ecotourism and want to show people the more unknown parts of Vietnam and encourage interaction with local people. In theory it's everything we are looking for. Let's hope it pans out.

Then, it's back to Hanoi for 2 days before we fly home.

I know for some people this sounds like an exhausting and crazy itinerary. Normally we don't like to move around this much but we figure it give us solid time to really see 3 different areas in depth rather than hitting lots of totally different locales.

I'll be sure to post a trip report when we return.

Kathie

Well, you've ended up with something entirely different from what you anticipated, but it sounds right for your interests. Have a wonderful trip and I look forward to your report.

thursdaysd

This sounds lke a great trip - congratulations! Now, if I just rode a bike....

eurotraveller

Sounds good!

I met a couple of people that had done a cycling tour in Vietnam and they really enjoyed it.

Cheers!

sallyho

It sounds like a great adventure and definitly off the beaten track.

We really enjoyed the short amount of biking we did in the Mekong Delta. The delta was beautiful and a fasinating area. The people were extremly friendly.

Your trip in the north sounds like quite an experience.

ENJOY and I will look foreward to hearing about it when you return.