The Plan....
We are three, over 50 year old Australians, two male, one female, planning an easy-going, low cost cycle tour in Vietnam and Cambodia over 6 weeks, starting in late January 2018. We have set an upper limit of 80km (50 miles) for a cycling day. Longer journeys required to get from A to B will be planned to be by bus, with our bikes as luggage. We have only 13 cycling days planned, and several bus/ ferry journeys. We have 15 static days (i.e. with multiple nights in a hotel) before Siem Reap when we will use our bikes to explore the surrounding district. We have 7 nights (6 cycling days) planned in Siem Reap.
In researching our trip, I have found blogs interesting but often they do not provide the information required to give a novice (me!) a real feel for how easy it is to do! We have been in a planning phase for about 12 months - but I'm sure you could do the planning in a couple of weeks if you wanted to.
In this time, we have bought maps, and booked flights and booked most of the hotels required.
Hotels have been researched and booked using google maps, TripAdvisor and several hotel booking sites. We have booked accommodation costing between US$8 and US$66 per night per room. The majority of accommodation costs between US$15 and US$30 per room per night. The cost for 6 weeks of accommodation is about A$2,000 per room. We have booked rooms with A/C, breakfast and bathroom wherever possible and often not booked the cheapest room option. Much of the accommodation bookings have free cancellation up to a week or so before the booking and are 'pay at the hotel in local currency' basis.
The loose plan: we arrive in Ho Chi Minh City and have 3 days of normal tourism planned. We are then going by bus to Ca Mau. Ca Mau appears to have a few bike shops and we have targeted one to head to on arrival. With 2 nights in Ca Mau, we have enough time to shop around if required. We are planning on buying front suspension mountain bikes - many are sold with pannier racks already attached. Prices start below A$200. We probably hope to spend less than A$300 per person on a reasonable bike that is fit for purpose. We are taking a few key bags (pannier bags and frame bags) and very little baggage.
From Ca Mau, we plan to head south (fairly quiet road as introduction) for about 50km and stay for 3 nights (2 days exploring) before heading back north and up the coast, visiting Phu Quoc Island before heading into Cambodia at Prek Chak. From there, we continue up the coast, visiting Koh Rong Island and Chi Phat Community Based Eco-Tourism venture near Andoung Tuek. From there, we intend going to Phnom Penh by bus, and on to Kampong Cham also by bus. We then cycle up towards Kratie before another bus journey to Siem Reap, where we are planning a week of touring the many temple sites. We have 2-3 nights in nice places and we will probably explore these places by bike on our 'days off'.
At the end of our trip, we may try to sell our bikes to another tourist, but our fall-back plan is to give them to a local, perhaps as a seed micro-hire business. After 6 weeks, we expect to have had enough use to justify their purchase - when compared to likely hire costs. Hiring is impractical due to the itinerary and we don't want the hassle/ cost/ risk of carrying our own bikes by air.
What we don't know yet: 1) How much harder it will be cycling in the heat/ humidity. We live in Perth, Western Australia and so we will experience several days of cycling in the mid 30'sC before we go. We have all increased our cycling in preparation for this trip - both distance and number of cycling days. Perth summers are normally very low humidity - so it is really the impact of humidity that is unknown. 2) If the express, regular bus services will readily accept 3 bikes as luggage. 3) Where we will sleep some nights! I think we have 3 nights where we are going to be cycling, then hoping to see a hotel! We are expecting and hoping that there will be many small hotels that (still) have no real internet presence. 4) How enjoyable this is really going to be!
I am happy to answer questions from anyone thinking of undertaking a similar journey and will post more information once we begin our trip.
In researching our trip, I have found blogs interesting but often they do not provide the information required to give a novice (me!) a real feel for how easy it is to do! We have been in a planning phase for about 12 months - but I'm sure you could do the planning in a couple of weeks if you wanted to.
In this time, we have bought maps, and booked flights and booked most of the hotels required.
Hotels have been researched and booked using google maps, TripAdvisor and several hotel booking sites. We have booked accommodation costing between US$8 and US$66 per night per room. The majority of accommodation costs between US$15 and US$30 per room per night. The cost for 6 weeks of accommodation is about A$2,000 per room. We have booked rooms with A/C, breakfast and bathroom wherever possible and often not booked the cheapest room option. Much of the accommodation bookings have free cancellation up to a week or so before the booking and are 'pay at the hotel in local currency' basis.
The loose plan: we arrive in Ho Chi Minh City and have 3 days of normal tourism planned. We are then going by bus to Ca Mau. Ca Mau appears to have a few bike shops and we have targeted one to head to on arrival. With 2 nights in Ca Mau, we have enough time to shop around if required. We are planning on buying front suspension mountain bikes - many are sold with pannier racks already attached. Prices start below A$200. We probably hope to spend less than A$300 per person on a reasonable bike that is fit for purpose. We are taking a few key bags (pannier bags and frame bags) and very little baggage.
From Ca Mau, we plan to head south (fairly quiet road as introduction) for about 50km and stay for 3 nights (2 days exploring) before heading back north and up the coast, visiting Phu Quoc Island before heading into Cambodia at Prek Chak. From there, we continue up the coast, visiting Koh Rong Island and Chi Phat Community Based Eco-Tourism venture near Andoung Tuek. From there, we intend going to Phnom Penh by bus, and on to Kampong Cham also by bus. We then cycle up towards Kratie before another bus journey to Siem Reap, where we are planning a week of touring the many temple sites. We have 2-3 nights in nice places and we will probably explore these places by bike on our 'days off'.
At the end of our trip, we may try to sell our bikes to another tourist, but our fall-back plan is to give them to a local, perhaps as a seed micro-hire business. After 6 weeks, we expect to have had enough use to justify their purchase - when compared to likely hire costs. Hiring is impractical due to the itinerary and we don't want the hassle/ cost/ risk of carrying our own bikes by air.
What we don't know yet: 1) How much harder it will be cycling in the heat/ humidity. We live in Perth, Western Australia and so we will experience several days of cycling in the mid 30'sC before we go. We have all increased our cycling in preparation for this trip - both distance and number of cycling days. Perth summers are normally very low humidity - so it is really the impact of humidity that is unknown. 2) If the express, regular bus services will readily accept 3 bikes as luggage. 3) Where we will sleep some nights! I think we have 3 nights where we are going to be cycling, then hoping to see a hotel! We are expecting and hoping that there will be many small hotels that (still) have no real internet presence. 4) How enjoyable this is really going to be!
I am happy to answer questions from anyone thinking of undertaking a similar journey and will post more information once we begin our trip.
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