Bin Tan, Indonesia

When Steve was putting all the travel plans together months ago, a few days rest at the end of all the activity certainly seemed a good idea. - it has actually proved to be exactly that! I can't say that we have done anything more exciting than get in the pool, have a swim in the sea and start to get rid of our bugs, but we are both feeling a bit better and are now able to look forward to going home and seeing our loved ones.

View from our window at Bin Tan

Yesterday we heard terrible news aboutLangtang  Village where we spent a couple of very happy days during our Nepal trek. The entire village which was home to around 400 people was completely wiped out in the earthquake and following Avalanche. The news has left us feeling devastated, especially as this was where we had made a connexion and friendship with Sonam, the nurse who had so proudly shown us her health clinic. We had both felt she was something special and has planned to look at sponsoring her wages as we were so impressed at the way she was trying to help her community, although she would have been able to earn do much more in Kathmandu. We had also met her boss  and even her Mum which somehow seemed to make the relationship stronger. It is heartbreaking to think that the life of such a special person has been cut short like this. There are no words. Just overwhelming sadness and incomprehension.

Sonam at the Heakth clinic in Langtang village. A truly special person who touched our lives.

So now we return home after seeing, experiencing and learning more than we could possibly have imagined. So much of life seems to depend on a lottery of circumstances and We find ourselves are so fortunate and blessed. Valuing what is truly precious in our lives, especially our family and friends, trusting that God knows what He is doing and will remain our Rock, ( even when we can't understand) and doing our best to touch and help the lives of others where we can seems to be the only things that really make any sense. To those of you who have read our blog and journeyed with us, thank you so much- we really appreciate you taking time to follow what we have been doing and value your friendship muchly. Looking forward to catching up very soon in person over a glass of wine or two!

Vietnam

This photo just about sums Vietnam up:

a vibrant thriving capitalist economy ruled by the Communist Party who keep control and suppress freedom of speech but are otherwise happy to reap the benifits of a free market economy. The whole country is a market place with endless shops lining almost every road. Cambodia was famous for its insect market - this times it was snakes and rats for sale to make a tasty stew - not as nice as chicken I understand.

Vietnam is much lusher and more photogenic than Cambodia or Thailand with picturesque unbelievably green paddy fields stretching for miles in every direction throughout the very fertile Melong River delta.

We have been riding shorter distances (50 a 60k) but it is still extremely hot. Our health has started to suffer with Sarah well below par with a fever and cough which she kindly shared with me. I've had my own problems with prickly heat which more or less covered me at one stage. I tried steroids and antihistamines but really the only answer (and what I would have told my patients!) is to hide from the sun which I'm now doing. I didn't come half way round the world to hide in a bus though!

Another highlight of the trip was a night in a home stay in the Mekong delta where all the houses are built on stilts to reduce the risk of flooding in the rainy season.

We were treated to fantastic hospitality as always including a home cooking lesson Vietnamese style followed by a fantastic meal which unfortunately Sarah was too poorly to enjoy. The evening ended with Chai our guide picking up the guitar and leading us in the elephant song dance! I' ll try and include the YouTube video link when I find it. 

It was with some sadness and considerable relief that we came to the end of the cycling part of our tour with a 35kph peleton sprint for the last couple of miles. The ride has been fascinating in parts but very challenging especially when our health started to suffer. The group has been excellent and the support teams outstanding. Just to give an idea of how exhausting it's been we've been ready for bed after the evening meal most nights and Stuart's pack of cards for playing Weetabix remains unopened.

We arrived in Saigon to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the 'liberation' of South Vietnam by communist North Vietnam. There was an excellent firework display staged from the helicopter landing pad of the Betaxa tower an iconic skyscraper near our hotel.

Just as Cambodia will be forever associated with the Khmer Rouge genocide, Vietnam will always be linked with the Vietnam war ( or American war as they call it). We went to see the Cu Chi tunnels 60km outside Saigon from which the Vietcong repeatedly attacked and infiltrated Saigon. There are over 200 km of tunnels. They are a testament to VC ingenuity in defence - they made the tunnels too small for a GI  to follow or tapered them so the GI's got stuck - and in attack - some barbaric traps with barbed spikes covered in human shit to guarantee festering infected wounds. It must have been hugely frustrating for the Americans with their everwhelming firepower to be unable to gets to grips with a hidden and resourceful enemy. The end of the trip was a 100m tunnel crawl through a tunnel especially enlarged for westerners.

So reflections on the cycling tour - it has been a hugely varied and interesting tour with fascinating highlights. Angkor Wat was every bit as impressive as I'd hoped and great to explore by bike. Vietnam was great and probably the most enjoyable for me of the 3 countries.The cycling was very challenging and I think Sarah and I will limit our cycling to more temperate climes in future and reserve Thailand and Vietnam for a chillax with Aunty Helen. Off now for a well - earned rest in Indonesia..