mustakimrides: Indochina(Vietnam) - Post No 8: Na Thrang to Hoi An 500km

26 and 27 November 2010

A word of warning to anyone who wants to ride in Vietnam. 500km in one go is virtually impossible, well for 8 of us anyways. We left Na Thrang under the cover of rain at 7am and it just continued to pour till 2pm. My waterproof pants didnt stay waterproof and it was so cold that i wasnt sure anymore whether it's rain water i'm feeling or did i piss myself.....could be both.

The further north we go the more curious the people are. When we stop we're bound to attract the attention of onlookers, and they would actually stop or even make u turns and come by to check the bikes out. They're really interested in the GPS as I'm pretty sure most thinks that we have a TV on our bike. My helmet cam also attracts a lot of pointing. They're like children who's curious yet at the same time very bold. I've experienced being pushed aside while still on the bike because this guys wanted to show his friend the GPS.

As usual, we would have our coffee stop after a couple hours or so, and we stopped at this cafe who's owner realises we speak english and all of a sudden he was playing this mixed CD of songs, Hotel California included, loudly. He must have kept that CD for special occasions and I suppose when 11 BMW bikes turn up, that qualifies as one. He was also promoting his daughter to us...haha

The daughter

After a solid 12 hours of riding, we only did 350km. It's dark as by 5.30pm the sun is down, roads are bad and full of trucks and buses with high beams on. This is when we got split into 2 groups with 8 of us deciding that it's just not safe to continue and it'd be best to stay the night and try to make up the distance tomorrow morning. So instead of Hoi An, we ended up in Quong Ngai and managed to find this hotel for US10 a nite.

The amazing thing is while we have been struggling to communicate in this country as many don't speak english, we met David, an American Vietnamese who is married to hotel owner's daughter. He's born in the states and came here for a vacation and ended up getting married. Brilliant! Anyways it's all good for us as that sorts out the communication issues.

The last time that the bike looked clean on this trip

Young or old, they're all curious

We asked for a simple breakfast of noodles before we shoot off the next day, and they gave us their version of Maggie in bowl with the wrappers peeled off. Haha....what to do, we are tourists brader.

They lie - there was no massage

David

We reached Hoi An about 10am and would have to say it'd have been nice to arrive here yesterday and spend a bit of time. This town is steeped with history and is not unlike our own Melaka. The only thing we managed to do was to ride out through the town and snap a couple of photos as we made our way to Hue.