I’ve been fascinated by the all the bikes here, the way people use them and how they interact while riding them. I’ve been peering at old bikes chained to fences and noticing the huge variety of riders as they whizz past; men in stylish suits, girls in floral dresses and sandals, parents with young children….
The Gallery of Palaeontology at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris encapsulates all that I love about nineteenth century French architecture. First of all there’s the scale. There’s something special about French public buildings from this time. To my eye the scale is slightly exaggerated; they are a bit too big for we…
Ha Long bay was an unexpected delight. I’d seen photos of the karsts (the little limestone islands) before, but their extent – and the feeling of being within them – caught me by surprise. We travelled to the bay by bus from Hanoi, and the train trip up to Hanoi from Da Nang in was…
“It’s not hot – it’s very very hot.” This joke was first made by Tiet – our guide – in relation to chilli, but it applied equally to the weather. May seems to be the hottest month of the year; about 34 degrees and very humid while we rode, and quite ferocious in the direct…
Leaving our resort we headed north up the coast past abandoned building shells that gave the appearance of a war zone. We turned inland and started to climb. The land became drier with red sandy soil, less farming, wider vistas, and more goats. As it became steeper still we left the bikes and went back…