Vacation Days to Burn
In late October I accepted a job offer at a large, international company. Due to a delay in approvals my official start day was set for January 1. I realized, to my surprise, that i still had 10 vacation days left. I started to muse about how I could spend some of those days. I knew I wanted to take a bike tour but I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. The solution was easy. Take the bike tour around Mt. Fuji that I had planned for October but had to cancel due to some really, really bad weather and a family event. But hold on, the foothills around Fuji are cold in December. Well, that’s okay. I’m from Wisconsin. I can take a little near freezing weather. No sweat! Really, no sweat.

I mapped out my route and looked up the number of the first campground on the route and WHAM, BANG I ran into a typhoon sized wall. The campground and the major road leading to it were closed due to damage caused by Typhoon Faxia and Typhoon Hagibis. The road was the only way to go.

The Search
What’s a man with paid vacation days to burn to do? What about somewhere warm? I heard an expert on cheap travel say recently that you could fly for cheap if you didn’t care where you were going or when you got there. I used the magical, mystical Google answer machine to give me a list of cheap plane tickets for some place warm, sometime in December, preferably somewhere in Asia. With this wonderfully specific query I got my answer. Go south and east not-so-young man. I ruled out Korea because it is just as cold as a Japan in December. Despite liking Chinese food I crossed Taipei and Shanghai off the list. I’ve been Taipei in winter and it wasn’t very warm. While Chinese people are generally just as good as anybody I am not  a very big fan of the Chinese government right now. And besides Shanghai and most of the rest of China are chilly right now. 

My list was getting shorter and I was beginning to lose hope of finding a cheap flight to a warm destination in Asia.  Ah ha! I see Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Bali further down the list. Now we are getting warm. Well, I went to Malaysia a couple of years ago so life is too short for reruns and commercials. Bali is a bit too popular and the price was not popular with my undefined budget. The same for Manila and besides any national leader that King Trump likes to sing karaoke with is getting crossed off my list. Asta la vista, Duaterte. Alas, I really wanted to take a ride in a jeepney. Is there no perfect destination for this poor wayfarer on two wheels? Hold on! What’s this place down near the bottom of the list? Ho Chi Minh City? Isn’t that in Vietnam? Well, sure it is. Here’s hopin’! Click. Wow! What a price! 

Hold on, Paul. Calm down. What do you actually know about Vietnam? Not a whole lot and none of it recent. That seems like a good reason to go somewhere. It’s like Cat Stevens sings, “♬On the road to find out♪”. Don’t do anything rash. I nervously steer my mouse once again to the Internet oracle. The price is right. A mere 200 dollars US (22,000 JPY). Check. The weather is warm. Perhaps a little bit too warm. But, Check. Is it bicycle friendly. Lots of reasonably priced supported bicycle tours that include bicycles, lodging and meals. Check. 

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