A Thank You to Our 2016 Sponsors

H2H would like to say a huge thank you to DHL, our lead sponsor for the 5^th year running. DHL provides support vans and drivers for the whole ride and media and logistical assistance to the team before, during and after the ride. Every day of the ride, our two fantastic DHL drivers Mr Khang and Mr Phat transport the team kit and spare bikes, they help with navigation, hotel bookings and road safety advice and drive up and down through the team refilling our water bottles between towns in these hot conditions. We simply couldn’t do the ride without them. The support vans are our biggest expense on the ride so DHL’s generous contribution ensures that 100% of donations go straight to the 6 brilliant charities H2H is fundraising for and riders cover all additional expenses themselves. Thank you DHL for your support, expertise and encouragement, it’s our privilege to work in partnership with you and a huge boost to our charity fundraising. Another huge logistical support this year came from Le Hoang Pro Bike who kindly donated two mechanics, Mr Sang and Mr Duc, and a motorbike for them to travel between the riders and help them with bike problems along the route. Their expertise was indispensable during the ride.

H2H would also like to thank the following 2016 partners:

-     Game On Bar: A large cash donation, and hosted our H2H pub quiz fundraiser with generous raffles prizes. GO also hosted our homecoming drinks and generously paid for a DJ that evening.

-     Teaching House New York: A large cash donation.

-     Apollo: A large cash donation

-     Al Frescos: A large cash donation.

-          California Fitness & Yoga: Provided free bicycle spinning classes for the team to get us fit and ready before the ride.

-     K1 Fitness: Provided free circuit training and conditioning sessions to help with our strength training in the lead-up to the ride.

-          Nutrition Depot: Donated a huge amount of energy gels, nutrition bars and various other supplements to fuel us during the ride.

A HUGE THANK YOU to all our corporate sponsors for supporting H2H 2016 and our charity partners. You are fantastic, and we hope to continue our H2H relationship in the future!

-          Kate Grigg

The scene is safe! First Aid Training.

The reality is that when we are on the ride we will often be miles away from the nearest hospital so we figured it would be a good idea to at least know a little about the basics in first aid. The course was provided by International SOS through the company Talisman and over 8 hours Mr Dong taught us everything we would need to know in case of emergency. From CPR (if only real people gave a satisfactory click like the dummy) to snake bites (do NOT try to catch the snake!), Mr Dong was a great teacher and we all learnt a lot.

Hopefully we will not need to put these things into practice but unfortunately last year the team were faced with an emergency situation on the roadside and so it is always better to be prepared. After man-handling dummies, bandaging each other up to look like mummies and pirates, and being forced to look at gory pictures of burns, fractures and bleeding we are now set to help each other out on the ride itself. Thanks Mr Dong!

Here are some action pics:

So much concentration.

A happy patient.

Looking slightly more concerned now!

Words by Bekah Round.

November's Charity Murder Mystery

60 guests - 1 creepy mansion - 1 Victim - Who dunnit?

Saigon Murder Mysteries - my project that I've been working on since August 2014. It was from living in a creepy over sized mansion that led me to running 3 successful mysteries. So for this reason, I decided that it's time to give something back to the community by donating all ticket sales to the Riders of H2H 2015. 

I'm suspecting that not everybody knows what a murder mystery is. So let me sum it up.

60 guests, 1 murder victim and one murderer all socially interacting to guess the murderer. Like a real life game of Clue or Cluedo if you're British.

The night was a great way for new riders to forcefully break the ice by completing tasks given to them on a task sheet of their character.

All guests came as characters that were sent to them before they arrive. Some went all out in costume, some came in smart work wear (which is fine) and 1 person changed gender (which is also fine...)
The truth being told, as the organiser I had a hard time filling female main characters as many of the guests wanted to be a sub character in the plot or found that the flirty personality of their character did not match their own nature. 

The solution?
Beg an actor from the Saigon Players to change gender for the night. 
Photos of this legendary character will follow, but just to pre warn you... 
There's no way these photos can be unseen.

We've had 3 murders at the mansion before. Some where dramatic and some were painful to watch. You can add your own meaning to the work painful. 
The victim on this occasion was Mitch Maverick, a Poker tournament winner about to claim his winnings before being shot dead. 

Victim - Mitch Maverick, a Poker tournament winner shot dead moments before collecting his winnings. 

Thank you to Lucky Dog for providing the catering, complimentary drinks and for your generous donation towards our campaign. Sorry, had to mention them. OK back to the murder.

Meet David, or Sheriff Sam. A general all round nice guy who some describe him as a gentle giant. David works in HR who's job is to interview people everyday. But tonight, interviewing people has just been taken to another level. 

All guests are now suspects and everybody is encouraged to conduct their own investigation into finding the murderer while proving their own innocence. 
Sheriff Sam on the other hand used his positional authority to get information out. 

The following images you are about to see are not for faint hearted. 

Sheriff Sam interrogating a potential suspect

The suspect stood right next to the Victim as the gun shot went off. Was it him?

We warned you that there's no way you can unsee these photos.

Thank you to everybody who attended Murder at Deadwood Saloon. All ticket sales were donated to the riders of H2H equalling a total of US$750.

A great start to the campaign and a pleasure to see so many kind hearted souls on the night. 

For all photos from the night, and details of future murder mysteries visit the Saigon Murder Mysteries' Facebook page. 

https://www.facebook.com/mysteriesinsaigon
or
www.saigonmurdermurdermysteries.com

H2H Goes Back to School

Earlier today around 15 of your intrepid H2H riders cycled to District 4, just across the canal from District 1, to visit the Thang Long Vocational School, which Saigon Children's Charity helps fund. Some of your donations (You have donated already, right? No? Check the links on the right of the page.) to H2H will go towards this school, so we were looking forward seeing it.

The problem is that Thang Long isn't actually located on the street its address says it is. We found the street we thought it was on and stopped when we realized we didn't see the correct number. I asked a man standing in front of a house (in Vietnamese) if he knew where it was, but he just giggled and said something about bicycles. A couple of us headed into the maze of alleys branching off the street in search of the elusive school. Every person I asked for directions from pointed me a different way. We were running late for our scheduled arrival, and I was getting annoyed. I pride myself on never getting lost here, but this was ridiculous.

After nearly 45 minutes of futile searching I called a friend to see if they could fine a number for the school. They did, and a few minutes later I was talking to a manager from SCC. I finally found him on a completely different street, where the school is tucked down an alley that is somehow part of the original road we were on. Clearly logical address numbering hasn't made its way to good old D4 yet.

We were welcomed with bottles of water and smiles from the school management, who called us 'heroes' and said it was amazing that we are undertaking such a physical challenge. They explained that the school trains disadvantaged students, none of whom attend regular school, in English and a number of subjects ranging from photography to hair styling and computers. Tuition is completely free.

Then we checked out the English class that was going on, where the students nervously eyed us in awkward silence. The class leader thanked us for what we were doing, and a few questions were asked. ('What do you expect to be the most beautiful part of the country?" Ho Chi Minh City, obviously.)

 We then moved on to the salon training room, where female students learn to paint nails and apply makeup. (The school principal quietly pointed out that one of the students was 'abnormal' - half boy/half girl.) A few of our female riders decided to test out the quality of the student's training.

smiles all around

Sydney getting her nails did

Amy and Ann Marie getting something painted. I forget.

 Finally we headed upstairs and visited the computer training room, where students learn how to use programs such as Microsoft Office and put together hardware. All of the computers had been donated from RMIT. The principal explained that none of the students have computers at home, and they had never had the opportunity to use before coming to Thang Long.

 It was really great to see concrete proof of where part of H2H's funds will go, and confusing address aside this was a nice afternoon. Ride on!

part of the crew that visited today

Mike T.