Indochina(Vietnam) - Post No 11: Vinh to Ha Long Bay 510km

29 November 2010

What was suppossed to be a 350km ride turned into a 500km ride, as Hanoi bikers suggested we take a different route which is off AH1. This road is supposed to have less traffic and technically it did, just that there was a bit of offroading involved and of course the longer distance. 3 bikes, including mine ended up with nails in the back tires.

We stopped for lunch at this restaurant that also happened to be holding a wedding, and no prize for guessing, but the newlyweds posed with one of the bikes. Initially we were wondering where is the groom as the bride seems to be with her father, then we realised, the old dude IS the groom. It's some old Taiwanese who has "bought" himself a new wife. I shall not judge, you never know, 40 years from now that's what i'll be doing.

Market in Ha Long

Ha Long is a very touristy town famous for it's limestone caves, some dating back 500 years. In order to visit, you go on these junks, where you'll have a guide as well as lunch served on board. So it was a bit of Pirates of the Caribbean moment for us, especially with the myth(maybe not) of how these caves were used to store armament during Vietnam war.

These boats would chase the junks selling them fruits or rod and bait

We'll attack as soon as we see land!

It's windy on the way there but once inside the bay surrounded by the islands everything became so calm. Basically this is how the fishermen take shelter from the storm. I forgot to charge my camera's battery the night before which accounts for the lack of more shots in the caves.

Our guide seems to be more excited...haha

We stopped by the floating market as well to check out fresh seafood, but the prices were a bit of a killer though. Works fine as the dish they prepared on board was more than enough.

Abg Din and PakTeh

of course let's not forget,

* Fuel Consumption

Ha Long Bay 289.8km 180,000VND 10.87liters

Indochina(Vietnam) - Post No 10: Hue to Vinh 360km

28 November 2010

Another 3 place to go before our tour of Vietnam is over. By this time I'm having mixed feelings, the joy and elation at crossing into Vietnam and riding to Saigon is being replaced by fear, stress, anger and of course fatigue. The rides are long and riddled with near misses that just saps your energy as you go through a roller coaster of adrenaline being pumped through your body.

Somewhat saddened that we are leaving Hue without seeing the Forbidden City. God knows if I'll ever come to this place again. By this time, we've already ridden 2500km in 10days and the bike is just as tired as the rider.

North to South - AH1 is the main road

oh you dirty dirty girl - daddy like!

There seems to be a fascination into how much these bikes cost. Almost every time we stop, someone would approach, admire the bikes, kick the tires (yes they do this in front of us), climb on to the bike (again right in front of us), then would stand close to the bike, eyes on it and without looking at you points at the bike and say........"how much?"

Throughout the trip my answer has varied from 5,000USD to 5USD, you can never gauge what sort of reaction you'd get if you were to tell them the real price, so it's best to go with a lower number and leave it at that.

We also came across a wedding while we're filling up gas. The bride was this sweet 15yr old girl. The father came over and offered us Vietnam Vodka. That was nice of him.

As for Vinh, honestly there's nothing much i can say about it other than the fact it's a town we stopped at before we go to our our next destination which is Ha Long Bay.

*Fuel Consumption
OTW to Vinh 265.5km 170,000VND 10.167liters

Indochina(Vietnam) - Post No 9: Hoi An to Hue 130km

27 November 2010

Technically the title should have been Quong Ngai to Hue as that's where we started from but I'm just going with the planned itinerary instead. We don't need to split hairs do we?

We have this system going on whereby when there's an intersection the 2nd or 3rd guy will wait there to make sure the rest goes to the right direction. On this trip, I was the marker when this Vietnamese guy who calls himself John approached me.

John: "Hallo man, my name John"
Me: "Hello"
John: Where you from?"
Me: "Malaysia"

Then he proceeds to show me this album full of notes from different countries as he explains in pidgin english that he's a collector. I see an RM1 in his album.

John: "You have 10 Malaysia for me?"
Me: "No"

that's when he walks off. I don't know whether he's for real or it's all a scam, but if it is then I have to give him an A for creativity.

Thru mountain roads we go

On occasions the scenery is breathtaking.

I dislocated my knee on this ride....happened when i stopped on a slope so my leg took a bit more weight and that's when the little blighter went pop. I was alone and couldn't get off the bike, so I rode till I saw Ivan who helped me off the bike. Luckily this has happened before and to pop it back in i had to lie down sideways and roll to push the kneecap in. Bearing in mind I was in full gear while doing this so if you can imagine a seal flopping about on his stomach that's pretty close to what I had looked like.

Plenty of local artists in Vietnam

A street in Hue

We reached Hue close to 5, which proved to be another major disappointment after Hoi An as the main attraction here is the Forbidden City. Hue used to be the capital of Vietnam and during Nguyen dynasty had built a citadel within a citadel within a citadel, with the last one being forbidden to anyone other than the emperor and his eunuchs and concubines. Unfortunately they close at 5.30 and we're already leaving early morning the next day for another long ride. This place definitely could have used another day for us to explore.

* Fuel Consumption
1. Hue 328.7km 200,000VND 15.9liters (RON92)

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.

Steven was gonna give up the bike and take the sampan instead

* Fuel Consumption
OTW to Hoi An 298.4km 200,000VND 17.23liters (RON92)

Indochina(Vietnam) - Post No 7: Dalat to Na Thrang 200km

Due to the short distance, we left later, ie after a good breakfast, this time around we had 4 Na Thrang bikers escorting us. For once on this trip, we were going through quieter roads as we go through the mountains. I try to savour it all coz soon enough we were faced with unpaved roads or stretches with potholes that just throws the enjoyment out of the window. Then again we are riding GS's, and that's what they're good for. Those on sports bikes are really hardcore to go through the same roads.

Na Thrang bikers

Once in Na Thrang we rented scooters to go around town, so definitely a change from the GS, and we get to wear these half helmets that looks like a baseball cap, which is the rage all over Vietnam. Pretty sure it offers zero protection, it's more so that you stay on the legal side of the law. It actually took 2 years to implement the helmet law due to soo much resistance to change.

The highlight of our visit here is a dinner hosted by Na Thrang bikers. We are the first group from ANYWHERE outside of Vietnam to have made it there, so it was a big deal. Media was there as well and it was to come out in the local daily the next day, too bad we didn't get hold of a copy. The President had everyone sign the t'shirt we presented to them. 

So if you're ever in Na Thrang and you see that t'shirt, it was us!

wish i was signing in front

After dinner, they took us on a slow procession ride around town, it was definitely a sight, though i was a bit concerned with all the attention, but it was all good.

of course i can't end this post without a parting shot.

* Fuel Consumption

1. Na Thrang 268.4km 172,000VND 10liters

Indochina(Vietnam) - Post No 6: Saigon to Dalat 310km

I am sooo behind on my blog, in fact i'm already out of Vietnam as I write this. Gonna try to use the next couple of days to catch up. 

The ride to Dalat is a real baptism of fire into how shit the traffic here is. We actually left at 5.30am in order to beat the traffic and still it was bloody heavy. The Saigon bikers were there to escort us all the way, which was a good thing coz up to us we'd take forever to navigate. Without boring you with minute details let me summarise Vietnam traffic out of the city for you.

1. They have no sense of right of way. If they want to come out or turn they'll just do so. People actually cross the road without looking. 

2. They loooove their horn and make all possible attempts to have the loudest and use it ALL the time even for no reason at all. I think it is to appease the horn gods who will actually bless them with stupidity the more they use it.

3. Nobody cares if you horn at them, so kinda like defeats the purpose of point no 2.

4. There's people all along the way, i'm not talking sporadically here, I mean many, many, many people all along the highway. Which does make you wonder, if everyone is on the road, who the hell is working?

5. The road condition is also atrocious, there's potholes big enough to swallow small airplanes.

6. Motorbikes are second class citizens, they'll honk angrily at you when you overtake the lorries and buses.
7. Oh ya, btw we also share the main highway with cows, dogs, chickens, goats, ducks and pigs.

Husref - Made the right choice 

It's only 310km to Dalat but it still took close to 8hours, as a point of reference, it's about the distance from KL to Taiping. This place has all year round cool weather, very similar to our Cameron as there's plenty of veggies being planted here, and of course strawberries.

This was along the way to Dalat, no idea what it is though

You know coffee is good when THIS guy makes it.

Dalat is not that big, so after lunch we had a walk around. It's definitely a change from the hustle and bustle of Saigon, but there's still plenty of people and of course those damn horns.

What the French gave Vietnam

Start em early - btw this is a pretty common sight

Market behind us

The guys tried the pancake

Fruits and veggies

Another thing I noticed, Vietnamese men (well the bikers especially), when they shake your hands, they literally crush it, so much so if there's more than 3 of them I would actually dread having to shake hands coz it'll be damn sore after one round...ya ya....call me a wimp, but i think that's why the Americans ran away in 1975.

Colonel: "General, the VC's are lining up their final assault..., they're gonna shake our hands, what do we do?"
General:  "Run damnit, run for your goddamn lives and don't look back!"

Dalat at nite

* Fuel Consumption
1. OTW to Dalat 186.4km 120,000VND 6.968liters