Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City: A blog of firsts.

Having allowed Joe and Mike to carry the heavy burden of blogging for the whole team for quite some time, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to throw my blogging cap in to the ring. I’d like to start by wishing everyone a happy and successful 2012. Welcome to the first blog of 2012 from the H2H team and my first blog ever. Pad your saddles – this could get bumpy.

I’ll be honest – right now, me being able to cycle 2000 kilometres from Hanoi through the mountains of Vietnam to finish up in Ho Chi Minh after 25 days (plus two rest days) seems as unlikely as my internet connection working well, or my favourite noodle lady wearing mismatched pyjamas. However, despite my warped sense of reality, my one-way flight is booked, I’m training twice a week, very abrupt tan lines have developed on my legs and thanks to the tropical climate, I have an incurable addiction to fresh coconuts. And I’m raising money for the best cause I’ve found in the world; promoting education and the creation of opportunities for disadvantaged young people. As one H2H team mate said – This is actually happening!!

Through training week in and out, I’ve become remarkably multi-functional on the back of my bike and I have perfected the art of cycling and drinking from my water bottle / taking photos with my camera / changing the track on my MP3 Player. However I’ve got nothing on this guy – texting, pushing a bicycle, having a chat and driving a motorbike!! They both made time to wave as they zoomed by, the driver scoffing at my lack of obliging motorised “helper”, only for me to catch up 2 minutes later and snap this shot of them from behind!! Sounds like a story….. something about a tortoise and a hare….. hmmm…. anyway.

(Disclaimer – as unofficial Health and Safety assistant of the H2H Team 2012, I would like to officially state that it’s probably a bad idea to do anything on the back of a bike that is not either, peddling, sitting and looking where you’re going. That’s quite enough to be getting on with, in Vietnam or anywhere in the world.)

If you would like to see more of Ho Chi Minh City’s traffic wonderment check out Rob Whitworth’s time lapse creation – if you haven’t already, it was all over Facebook not long ago. Oh look!! First H2H blog post faux pas – quick now watch the AMAZING H2H PROMOTIONAL VIDEO as created by Jeff Matsumoto (an all-round superstar) of H2H team 2010!! Go Now!!! And PLEASE DONATE!!

I'll leave you with a (training) day in the life of Team H2H 2012 to finish. I genuinely love cycling through Vietnam even before I did it on a racing bike, and even though all I’ve seen is this tiny portion of country sticking out of District 7!! There’s always some encouraging smiles from passers by and shouts of “Hello!” and “Very good!” and if you’re lucky some gently mocking hand gestures which imply – “come on, too slow!!” What makes it even better is that there is a higher purpose to our peddling, a mission for our motivation, benefit behind the butt ache.