Two weeks to go....and an overview of my plans

From next week I only have two more weeks working in London, before moving home on the 22nd May, I have about a week then to brush up and collect a few things that I need...perhaps try and teach myself some Vietnamese, and have one last meeting with the guys at Portsmouth Grammar about the NGO charity work that we are doing in Cambodia.

Here is a brief overview of how things should pan out in Vietnam and Cambodia this June and July. To the right you can see a map of where I am travelling in SE Asia.

My route takes me to Hanoi on the 1st June, after spending a few days in Hanoi I travel down to the coast to Halong Bay (the Top Gear place) where we plan to stay on a Junk Rig Boat for a few nights in the bay.

Then by train we travel down the coast of Vietnam, stopping off at Ninh Binh, a rarely visited, but very picturesque town. And then down to the larger city of Hue, an area that has a lot of history routed from it's background in the Vietnam war and it's proximity to the Demilitarized Zone. We then take a bus over the Hai Van Pass (apparently an incredible journey) to the smaller settlement of Hoi An, a picturesque fishing town, with again a lot of history a Pagodas.

It's then time to hit the beach - catching a train to Nha Trang and Mui Ne - both stunning stretches of sand and the opportunity to do some diving.

Then it is a bus to Ho Chi Minh City, and after some time exploring there, another bus into the Mekong Delta, to see and experience the life in the floating villages.

We then take an 8 hour boat journey up the Mekong River into Cambodia and Phnom Penh, where we should arrive on the 1st July. An evening of sightseeing is all we have here before heading off the next day with the 0ther 6 from PGS on the United World Schools charity work expedition. This takes us on a 10hour mini bus journey up for part of it unmade roads to the the town of Ban Lung in remote NE Cambodia, the Ratanakiri Region. The tree top guest house in Ban Lung will be our base for setting out on three different school projects by motorbike (two days for each project) into even more remote areas.

After finishing in Ban Lung, we travel back down to Phnom Penh, via Kratie, to see some very rare river dolphins. Then in Phnom Penh we travel to Siem Reap, Battam Bang and areas around the Tonle Sap Lake/River. We will be going to see the temples of Angkor Wat and the historic region of the North West. Before eventually returning to Phnom Penh for a few more days of sightseeing then flying back to the UK on the evening of the 30th July.

All in all...looking to be one pretty good trip

Isle of Wight Randonee 2010

Kitted out with a brand new Polar CS200 CAD, a birthday present from Mum and Dad, I set out around 10ish on what looked to be a very wet Randonnee....It Was!!!

Around 3 hours of Northerly force 6, Heavy Rain showers and lots of mud.

All good fun though, passed plenty of people and was not overtaken once.

Bike performing very well in the wet, although the brakes were suffering, and rather noisy. The new computer was very effective - with heart rate and cadence measurements, but I set the heart rate alarms wrong, so whenever I ascended a hill I set the alarm off for going over a heart rate of 175bpm, and whenever I slowed down or stopped pedalling on a downhill, I got an alarm for dropping below 145bpm. Slightly annoying. But, definitely a very useful piece of kit.

Judging by my performance on other bike club teams out there, I think my fitness is reasonable at the moment, and it is a shame that I will miss the majority of the racing season this year due to travelling, but a few sportives in September and starting to take part in Warwick Uni Bike club, should mean that I get some decent racing in next year, when I can really prove myself...hopefully.

A good day for sure, even if it is a slightly unusual way to spend the majority of your birthday.