Nearly every place I travel, I make an effort to tour part of it by bicycle; be it guided or self-guided. Vietnam proved to be a challenge for bicycle touring. As previously mentioned, motor bikes are king and traffic does not respect non-motorized locomotion. So there was zero chance I was going to bike around the major Vietnam cities. Hoi An was my best opportunity and fortunately I found a touring company that offered bike tours outside of the city. I signed up for a half day afternoon excursion to Cam Kim Island. The tour began with a 45 minute boat ride to the obscure end of the Cam Kim island and then we biked a leisure 6 miles back with lots of stops along the way. We visited craftspersons of rice wine, bamboo boats, and shell inlay art. It was a great opportunity to see how more common Vietnamese live. Everyone we came across was super friendly, especially the kids who were eager to shout us their “Hello!”. I wish I would have had time for more.

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