rogue-travels

[rogue-travels]

April 2nd 2018

We were woken up at 4 by dreem to get ready. At half 4 the train stopped and we sleepily followed a guy dreem spoke to to a bus. Once on the bus he told us his name was Jung and that it would be another 4 hours before we'd arrive in Ha Long Bay. 2 hours in we stopped for breakfast at a nice little place where they had blaring techno music on at 7am, not really what you want that when you're half asleep. Once on the road again I just tried to sleep my way through since I'd stupidly left my earphones on the train (gutted). We arrived at the hotel which was aptly named Ha Long Bay hotel. Surprisingly our rooms were ready for us to check in which was great so I showered as soon as I got in. At 12 we met back up in the lobby to go on a boat tour of the bay. We got on a bus with the other group because our bus broke down, it only took 15 minutes to get to the pier. When we got there I didn't realise how big the boat would be for just 7 people. We sat down at the table that was already set. It was a set menu for lunch of seafood, we had the option of having chicken instead but I declined because I wanted to be adventurous (I know eating seafood isn't really adventurous but for someone who doesn't like seafood I thought it was). There was stuffed crabs, spring rolls, a whole fish, shrimps, stir fry noodles and steamed rice. I wasn't big on the crab or fish but everything else was nice. After we'd eaten we arrived at one of the islands where there was a cave, I didn't expect much for some reason so when we went inside I could not believe my eyes how beautiful and big it was. As we walked through the guide was telling us what each rock looked like and how the rock was formed. We got back on the boat headed to another set of islands (there are almost 2000 islands in the bay) here we got to go kayaking, joe and I got in one, V and Brendan got in another and Manju got in with the guide. The weather was absolutely glorious and the water was bright green. We kayaked into a lagoon and then another. After having kayaked around for an hour we got back on the boat and headed back to shore. Once on land we got the bus back and got ready for dinner. Dreem took us to an Italian restaurant near the hotel and of course I had pizza which I really enjoyed. After dinner some of us went back to the hotel and joe, Brendan and I went for a wander around the town. We didn't go very far before heading back for bed.

[rogue-travels]

April 1st 2018

I woke up pretty late today, 10:30 since we had until 12 to check out. Christina and I ended up leaving the dorm room around 11:30 and went to the same place we went last night for lunch. We bumped into the boys on our way so they joined us. After lunch we went back to the hostel and waited around for the bus to arrive to take us to the train station, we got a few snacks for the journey but dreem insisted that it would not be enough, joe suggested we share a pizza since neither of us would have a whole one. At about quarter to 3 the bus arrived and we went to the train station, we had to wait for about half an hour before the train arrived. This time the train ride was from 3:30pm to 4:30am so it was the longest overnight train and the last overnight train. There wasn't really much to do other than watch downloaded Netflix and talk to each other, which didn't last long because everyone seemed really tired so I went to sleep.

[rogue-travels]

March 31st 2018 pt1

This morning I woke up naturally at half 7 which was surprising but good because I forgot to pack last night. I'd packed and got ready by half 8 to give some time for breakfast which was a buffet of a mixture of things. At 9 the bus arrived and we put our backpacks in the back and chose our seats. Since Ho Chi Minh there was only 6 of us so each time we got on a bus we were able to have 2 seats to ourselves which was brilliant. We did the usual drive for a couple hours then stop but our stop was more of a photo taking opportunity as the view was incredible. We arrived in Hue at about half 1, so we were given half an hour to change and drop our bags in our room, this time it was a proper hostel with dorm rooms but us girls were lucky enough to not have to share with anyone we didn't know. Downstairs by 2 and (sorry mum) we were going on a motorbike tour of Hue. The tour guide told us to pick our drivers but mine tapped me on the shoulder and smiled so I couldn't really say no. He strapped a helmet on me (glad to see at least some health and safety) then hopped on. It was funny because before we set off the drivers did a sort of chant. It was so much fun but equally terrifying as there were a few times were a taxi would cut in front of us and a motorbike would come head on at us. It did not help that my driver turned out to be a little bit crazy as I realised later on. The first stop was a place where rice flour was made and a little old lady did a demonstration of how it was done in the old days. There was a Japanese covered bridge just outside as well. Back to the motorbikes thankfully my driver remembered me because I did not remember him just from the back of his head. We got back on and made our way to the next place, as we went along my driver liked to overtake a lot I realised! As I was admiring the ride and observing possible on coming traffic I heard a rattling noise that wasn't there before, the driver looked like he was searching for the source of the noise but not having any luck. He kept looking down until we reached the next destination. A Chinese temple, we wandered around took photos of everything. We got back to our drivers and once again he strapped my helmet on for me, at this point since I hadn't actually even touched the strap I figured I'd let him do it because I couldn't take it off myself anyway. This time on the bike I didn't hear any rattling thankfully so he must have been able to fix it. The next stop was the kings tomb, I don't remember which king but I remember being told the 2nd king had 500 wives and 100 odd children and the 4th king had around 150 wives but 0 children. After more photos we went back to the bikes and got on but before we set off one of the other drivers poked my driver in the side and they did that back and forth until the girl, Manju, on the other bike joined in so we were all messing around until everyone was ready to leave. This journey was the one that made me realise just how mad the driver was. In the middle on the road he started going up to other drivers and giving them high fives then he high fived Manju and she high fived me. This was all fun and games until he started racing against Manju's driver and overtaking almost everyone else! And my lord did he like to lean into his turns and swerve in and out of cars and trucks. The last place was a little shop where they made incense and traditional Vietnamese hats, the incense making is harder than it looks. We also stopped for the toilet and ice cream. On the way back you can imagine what it was like, we did end up winning the race against Manju though and we all came back alive so all in all a really good day! Ince back at the hostel my knees felt weak from the tensing to balance. We had a little while before dinner and we chose a little place I thought my mum would really enjoy, it was called Rustic and it had an open roof, sunflowers on the table, brick walls and generally looked really sweet, they had a mix of Vietnamese, western and Italian food.

[rogue-travels]

March 31st 2018 pt2

I figured I hadn't really been eating a lot of local food lately so I had a curry and it was delicious. We were feeling pretty awake so decided to go for a wander and see where the night took us and it took us to a place called brown eyes where they place sort of old 80's hits but with modern day remixes and they also had caipirinhas so you can imagine I was a pretty bunny.

[rogue-travels]

March 30th 2018

I woke up pretty early today, so after breakfast I decided to join two of the girls to visit some places in old town. First we went to a Chinese temple then a Japanese covered bridge. We had to make it back to the hotel for 10 so I got maps.me (an offline map) to take us the shortest way back, which turned out to be through an old local village sort of thing. Back in time to meet everyone we headed into the town to a place called "streets", this was a restaurant which doubled as a cooking called which funded teaching homeless children English, culinary and hospitality skills. G adventures supports it hence why this activity was included in the trip. It was so good I learnt how how to make noodles and "smashed bread" which is a sheet of rice noodle and a dried sheet of rice noodle smashed together pretty much. After that I had a free afternoon to do as I pleased which wasn't really much because the weather wasn't great so I wandered around for a little bit with one of the girls then headed back to the hotel. On the way someone selling fruit sort of pushed her hat and fruit baskets on me to take photos with and then the same for the other girl then took my phone to take photos of both of us. Not going to lie I was a little worried she'd run off with it but she seemed trust worthy enough. After that I headed to the hotel and just relaxed for a while before we all tried to think of somewhere to eat. We picked a place while wandering the streets I had a spinach and ricotta lasagne which was delicious. After the boys had eaten they left us with their money and went back to the hotel to watch the football game. Us girls decided we'd have desert, V and I ended up sharing a chocolate truffle cake. We thought we'd go somewhere else since it was still early but too busy in the place we were. We ended up in a place called "Q" we only had one drink before feeling tired so we just went back to the hotel for bed.

[rogue-travels]

March 29th 2018

We didn't sleep great but had a little bit longer than last time to sleep. We got off the train at half 6 and hopped on a bus for 45 minutes to the hotel. Once again the hotel room wasn't ready so we dropped our bags off and met our guide for the morning, Hai. She took us into the old town of Hoi An and stopped to tell us about little things here and there that we should go back and visit later. Once we'd bought our tickets and seen some of old town dreem took us to a place that was famous for their banh mi (Vietnamese baguette) for breakfast. Today was a free day to do as we pleased so me and two other girls decided to wander around the old town a little more and maybe a little shopping. I bought a couple of things and ended up getting dragged off by a woman that said my eyebrows were too messy so she threaded them and tried to thread my legs which I declined. We decided to head back to the hotel to see if our rooms were ready and they were which was good because I really needed to reorganise my backpack. Everyone met up for dinner at 7 and we headed back to old town and had dinner in a really nice place that did a really really good cheeseburger. They had a happy hour when we got there so we had a look at the cocktails and I decided to try a fuzzy navel because it had a funny name (it also tasted nice). After that everyone expect me and joe wanted to go for another drink so joe and I just made our way back. I found that guardians of the galaxy 2 was on tv (in English) so I watched that and went to sleep.

[rogue-travels]

March 28th 2018

We didn't have to check out until 12 today so I had a great lie in til about 10 then went to meet dreem in a cafe down the road. I got myself an iced coffee and we sat there for a while until 12 and decided to go for pizza for bunch. It was great because they had a deal on where you could buy one get one free so that was dinner on the train sorted. Once we'd had our pizza we went back to the hotel to meet up with everyone. When we were all there we called the taxi and went to the mud baths which was so fun and relaxing. After a day of relaxation we headed to the hotel to change before getting on the bus to the train station. We arrived at the station at quarter past 7 but our train set off at 10 past 8 so we had quite a while to wait around. Eventually the train arrived and we got on, I enjoyed my free pizza then the boys came to our room and we decide to play a card so I suggested we play gin, to my surprise no one knew it so I taught them and everyone enjoyed a few games before going to sleep.

[rogue-travels]

March 27th 2018

So we woke up at 5am to get off the train and 5:30. Obviously our hotel wasn't going to be ready for us to check in yet so we left our bags in the storage room and went for a walk along the beach, there were so many people exercising and doing yoga, at this time because it was cooler than through the day. Dreem showed us a couple of restaurant/cafes for breakfast but since it was only half 6 no where was open so we rented deck chairs and slept under some umbrellas. At about 9 we decided to go to the restaurant and have breakfast. Once we'd eaten we returned to our deck chairs and slept a little more until about half 12 when the hotel rooms would be ready. We headed back to the hotel and on the way I bumped into two girls from the last tour with the elephants! It was so fun to have a quick chat and catch up with them. We arrived back at the hotel and got our keys. The first thing I did when I got to the room was shower and it was amazing. After shower I flicked through the to channels not expecting much since everything would be in Vietnamese but low and behold Star Wars! Freaking Star Wars was on and it was in english!!!! We all met up for dinner in the lobby (which doubles as a jewellery shop) and headed across the road to a BBQ restaurant called Lanterns. I thought I'd try the Vietnamese curry and it was delicious, very similar tasting to korma but creamier and had potatoes in it. I decided to have a white wine as well which was nice and after dinner we went back to the hotel for bed.

[rogue-travels]

March 25th 2018

This morning I woke up easily but very tired the mattress was not the most comfortable thing but I slept enough to last the day. We were given breakfast which was half a baguette and egg. We got on the bus and the owner of the home stay was our guide for the day, his name was Wen. We made our way to the river where we got on a long boat, this was just a small river that later led onto the big river where surprisingly it looked a lot like a road with the amount of boats on it. There was a big group of boats up ahead and as we approached a smaller boat came up to us and attached a rope to the side of us. It was selling coconuts and Vietnamese coffee, I got myself an ice coffee and it was delicious! The coffee here is so famous because they roast the coffee beans in cocoa so the coffee takes more like mocha but that settles really well with me. After that we went to a another boat on the floating market that was a fair bit bigger than ours selling Pineapple. The driver tied our boat to theirs and we boarded, we sat on top of the boat and they demonstrated how they cut up the Pineapple to sell to people. It was funny because just as the demonstration started our boat driver took off and left us but some people had left things on the boat. He did come back for us though, we then got taken to a place where rice noodles were made which was very interesting. Then we went to the fresh market to look around before getting the bus to ho chi mihn. Once there we dropped off our bags and went to a noodle cafe where bill Clinton went to. I tried the beef phó and it was delicious, it was also a meal I succeeded in using the chopsticks. Irene and I then went to the market across the road and did some shopping. We then made our way back to the hotel to meet everyone for dinner. We went to a lovely little restaurant where I had a tiny Hawaiian pizza. After that we went to a bar on a sort of strip where there were a lot of bars. One of the girls from the other group had had her phone stolen that day so I was quite wary of my belongings. In the bar we met a Vietnamese man who had funny hair and a very tight shirt on who danced a lot, he gave me his card and showed me a video of him on vietnams got talent, then asked if I had Facebook and thought it best to just say no. Dreem is a very good dancer and had quite a few people applaud her and some even challenged her but she declined every time because she was there with her group to enjoy ourselves. We walked back to the hotel quite late and just went to sleep when we got there.

[rogue-travels]

March 26th 2018

This morning we had to check out of the hotel at 8:20 and grab a quick bite before leaving at 8:30 for the cu chi tunnels. It took an hour or two to get there and when we did we could hear guns firing in the distance. Our guide for the day was called mr Hai and he'd in fact been in the war. We watched a 15 minute propaganda clip first. We then walked around the grounds seeing the traps, air holes and entrances. Towards the end we were told we could go through the tunnel and that it had been widened for tourists so I did, some people went so far then went through the little escape exits because it was so hot an small. It started out big but the towards the end I had to get on my hands and knees to fit. Mr Hai then told us that the last 20 meters weren't widened and they were the original size of the tunnel. At the end we were told we could shoot guns or buy ice cream, I went for the latter because the thought of having an AK47 in my hand next to someone else who also had one was kind of daunting. The boys opted for the guns and some came back saying they weren't comfortable with them as it was scary how easily someone could turn and shoot someone else. We went back to the hotel and to meet dreem and went for lunch at a little cafe which wasn't great but wen you're hungry it doesn't bother you too much. After that I went to the shop for a drink to take on the overnight train. Then I returned to the hotel to pick up my laundry and shower before dinner. Me and a couple other people went to a noodle cafe and got some noodles then hopped on the mini bus to the train station. This was the point at which some people left the group to either go home or carry on travelling alone, we were now a group of 6 people. The train left at half 8 so we stayed up for a little while watching Netflix or chatting then we tried to sleep.

[rogue-travels]

March 24th 2018

This morning we had to be out the door by half 6. We didn't get breakfast at the hotel so we after driving for 2 hours we stopped at a mini mart and got some pot noodles for breakfast. We got back on the bus and drove for another 2 hours until we arrived at the border of Vietnam. Once we handed our passports in we just had to wait, it took about 20 minutes to go get our passports after taking finger prints. Overall I took about an hour to get through before we were back on the bus. We were only on the bus for 45 minutes before we stopped for lunch, at the cafe we went to they had a bit where you could exchange your dollars and reals to dong. Once again on the road for 2 hours, we stopped for the toilet and drove for another 2 hours and arrived at the home stay in Can Tho. When we the family greeted us as we got there and showed us to where we were sleeping. It was like a big hall that was sectioned off by thin walls with metal sliding doors and two mattresses on the floor, it was very basic but it had all the necessities: bed, mosquito net and fan. Although the window didn't have any glass so the mosquito net was greatly appreciated. We picked our rooms and dropped our bags off before being taken round the village for a walk. It was crazy to think that we were walking through the back of people's homes and they simply didn't care, they just sat and cooked or watched tv. We ran into a little group of children and they started shouting "hello" and putting their hands up. The oldest looking boy stopped the rest of them speaking and put his hand out in front of us and said "hello" looking at us very seriously, as if to say "shake my hand, you don't have a choice" so we shook his hand and the other children started shouting hello and shaking hands with everyone, the littlest one started hugging us as well. We carried on and arrived back at the home stay where we grabbed a can of 333 (pronounced Ba ba ba) and just chatted for a while. After it got dark the women of the home stay came out and did a cooking demonstration on how to make a traditional Vietnamese pancake they would usually have at new year. Once they made one we were told to just take it and eat, they only took a minute or two to make. Then one by one they brought out dishes of rice and veg and meat to share between each table. After dinner we sat around the table and chatted before going to bed.

[rogue-travels]

March 24th 2018

This morning we woke up at 8 and I walked to the ATM with one of the other girls. Once cash was in hand we got a tuk tuk to the place we had dinner last night. We met the rest of the group and the other g adventures group (they're doing the same trip as us but they're doing 40 days rather than 20). We were given breakfast which was fruit juice, a baguette, a fried egg and some bacon. When breakfast was finished we hopped on the back of a truck and went to the pier. We got on a long boat and headed to one of the islands where we stopped to go snorkelling, there were so many tiger fish and sea urchins. It was incredible how much you could see. After about an hour we got back on the boat to another island. We stopped there for a good few hours playing ball on the beach while we waited for the BBQ to be ready. After eating we got back in the sea to play ball for a while. Once back on the boat we went to another island to go snorkelling and again just as amazing as the last time but shallower since I managed to kick a rock, I kept swimming around for a while until I foot hurt a bit too much so I hopped on the boat a few minutes before the last couple of people did. Low and behold my foot was bleeding quite a bit so the guide gave me a plaster and off we went back to shore, I decided to lay down at the front of the boat with my roommate to sunbathe a little (it was cloudy but the sky is deceiving, everyone got a little burnt except me). Once on shore we walked a little bit of the way then decided since one of the girls had a sore ankle it would be best to get a tuk tuk. We shower and changed back at the hotel before heading back to the beach bar for dinner, I went for the sweet and sour chicken and spring rolls, I only had one since turns out that's a lot of food so I shared the rest with everyone. After dinner we just headed back to the hotel and packed for another day of travelling ahead.

[rogue-travels]

March 22nd 2018

We got up the morning and slowly made our way downstairs to the bus. We only stopped the once for lunch at a place called "the stop". We arrived mid afternoon at Sihanoukville. About 15 minutes walk from the hotel was a lovely little beach bar called Angkor beach bar. We had dinner there and since it was one of the guys birthdays we went to a bar afterwards, played 2 games of pool, had one drink, then left.

[rogue-travels]

March 21st 2018

Today we woke up and made our way to breakfast. Today we were told we were going to be seeing the killings fields just on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. We got on the bus and met our tour guide for the day, his name was nay and said "watch me whip" which is you get the reference was pretty funny. When we got there it was not quite what I expected, I didn't think I'd see a glass tower with shelves filled with skulls. As we walked around the graves nay told us about the history and details of the harrowing events of the Khmer Rouge. If you have not heard of the Khmer Rouge or simply don't know what happened basically Cambodia had a rubbish government and the people wanted change but when the new government came to power the people celebrated for 3 hours before they started killing them. Almost half the population was wiped out. There are over 300 killing fields in Cambodia and 20,000 bodies were found in the one we visited so you can imagine how I was quite taken back walking threw bones. Nay told us that they had tried to dig up the bodies but there were far too many, they would clear so many but whenever it rained more bones and teeth would come to the surface along with clothes. As we made our way round the graves Nay spoke the individual graves and who were buried there, but I don't think anyone else said a word, I don't think anyone could it was just so terrible. There was one grave in particular that really took us of guard, the grave where the women and their children were buried. After the killing field, we went to one of the prisons, S-21, most of the other prisons were turned back into schools and hospitals but this one remains the same to better inform the public we looked around the cells and they had photos hung on the walls. In the courtyard there was a huge blown up picture of four little children and a group of Vietnamese soldiers who come to rescue the victims, the tallest boy in the picture was the only one who knew what happened as the others were too young, little did we know that boy (obviously now a grown man) was stood right next to us. He told us the story about him wanting to go get ice cream when the Khmer Rouge came and took his father away and how he and his brother were separated from his mother. It was a horrible story no 9 year old should have to experience. The only survivors of S-21 were 7 men and 4 children, one of the men had since died, the others are still alive and 2 were there when we visited selling their books about their ordeal. After a rather dark morning we went to a lovely cafe for lunch called friends that was funding the school next door. Once lunch was over we had a free afternoon to do as we pleased. Irene and I decided we'd go the the central market then the fresh market which trust me is definitely fresh but probably not edible! Some places had fish that were out of water but still wriggling, but as soon as they were dead they were just covered in flies! Dinner was not anywhere near the market was a nice little restaurant on the riverside one of the girls and I split a pitcher of sangria since it was happy hour. After dinner we went to a karaoke bar upstairs from the restaurant, believe it or not I actually went up sang a song with 2 other guys. We walked back to the hotel afterwards and went straight to bed.

[rogue-travels]

March 20th 2018

This morning we packed up our belongings and took them downstairs. Irene and I decided we wanted to grab a quick iced coffee before setting off so we went down the road to the cafe. Once on the bus we drove for 2 hours before stopping for lunch. After lunch it was another 2 hours before the next stop and thankfully I'd downloaded a few friends episodes to entertain me. At the next stop this place was known as spider village, take a guess why, yes, they cook them (no, I did not hold any of the live spiders, the image is Dreem's hand). We made the rest of the way to Phnom Penh fine and got to the hotel, we dropped our bags off and went out for dinner. Dinner was a lovely little restaurant and I decided to try the ma chi which was lovely. After dinner we wandered then streets and went back to the hotel for bed.

[rogue-travels]

March 19th 2018 pt2

Dreem took us to a place called hangover bar, this didn't sound promising but the food was great and you could pick the music since they had a computer with YouTube open for anyone to pick songs. They also had a pool table which at first sounding like a great idea but it must have taken a hour to place two games because the pool table was on a slant, it was funny though. After that dreem took us to a club which was interesting, they had caipirinhas so I had one of those. One of the girls, Christina, and I soon realised we couldn't find dreem or our tour so decided it would be best to just get a tuk tuk back to the hotel, which proved very difficult, once in the tuk tuk we got taken to a totally different place and ended up going to 3 or 4 places that were definitely not where we were staying, it must have taken about an hour to get back when it would normally be 10 minutes. It's safe to say we were very relieved to be back.

[rogue-travels]

March 19th 2018 pt1

This morning it was horrendous trying to get out of be at 4am. We managed to make it downstairs for half past like everyone else. We had a private mini bus and a different guide for the day, his name was Bunto. He gave us some information for the day but I'm afraid I missed parts since I was nodding off a lot. We had to stop off to get our tickets and then headed to Angkor wat for the sunrise, we arrived at about 5am and managed to get a really good spot for photos, we didn't realise we'd have to wait another hour and 40 minutes for the sun to rise though. The wait was definitely worth it, the sunrise was absolutely stunning. At 6:45 we headed to a seating area for breakfast (the hotel had given us some breakfast packed up). As we ate there were so many little children selling postcards and fans, little knick knacks and I felt so bad for them because they had the saddest look on their faces so I bought some postcards. Dreem had told us that giving money or food or anything to the less fortunate would be a bad idea and we shouldn't do it, she said she'd explain why later but never did. But Bunto on the hand gave one of the children one of the left over hard boiled eggs to one so we all put together a box of food no one had touched and gave it to the child, it was amazing to see her little face light up. When breakfast was over Bunto took us around Angkor wat and told us about the meaning behind a lot of the murals on the walls, it was really interesting to learn about the history of such an iconic temple. There was a monk sat down in a little archway and Bunto said if you make a small donation you can be blessed by the monk, of course I wasn't going to miss the chance to be blessed by monk, although I'd already been blessed I was very happy to do it again. We also went up the stairs to the tower part where there were old sort of reservoirs. The views were amazing. After Angkor wat we went to Angkor tom which is the temple with hundreds of Buddha faces everywhere, again it was such an incredible experience to learn about the history. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the fact that there were elephant rides around the temple and if you've being keeping up with this blog then you can probably guess that I was not happy to see this. Elephant riding is so wrong, the things they do to them behind the scenes is cruel, elephants that are treated this way can so easily snap and rampage from simply having enough. Elephants that treated well will not do anything like that, it's not in their nature. Then we went to Ta Prohm, more commonly known as the tomb raider temple, as it was in the film. We didn't get to really see too much there though as we were sort of being rushed through due to being a little behind schedule. Bunto took us a lovely little cafe for lunch, I decided to try a traditional Khmer amok which was absolutely delicious. Before we got back on the bus we banded together to give the bus driver and Bunto a tip. When we got back to the hotel one of the girls had collected the money from us and gave it to them. We had about 2 hours before our next activity so Irene and I took a nap since there were a few times where I would start nodding off. 4 o'clock rolled around and we headed downstairs to meet up. We were going quad-biking. This activity was not included in our tour so we paid for this ourselves, we had a sort of 5 minute tutorial on driving them with one of the staff sat behind us. After that we were given masks for dust and helmets (some safety!!!) after that we got on our own quad bikes then just followed one of the staff who was on a motorbike. We went through the countryside on dirt tracks and rice fields. It was a great way of cooling down from the heat. We were on the bikes for an hour and a half. It was so fun to see how many little kids would wave at you. We returned to the hotel with enough time to shower and change to go out for dinner