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Published: November 21st 2011
In words of Mr. Tai
"Let's rock 'n' roll"Finally, it was time for our three day tour with
Freedom Riders. We have been looking forward to this since the first weeks of this travel, when Chris and Kay recommended this tour to us. They were in their last months of their half a year trip and already covered the "main land" by then and told us that the tour with Mr. Tai was the highlight of their trip.
Now, anybody who is reading this blog a bit will know we are two very cheap bastards 😊. We are prepared to travel for hours or do anything (apart from selling our bodies) to save a couple of dollars or to book a flight which cost a tenner less – I hope that once we are over with this trip and back "home" in London, we will start spending our hard earned money with a bit more ease. Anyways, this tour is by far our biggest expenditure on this trip. At 70 US$ per day (we got a friendly discount of 5 US$), per person it meant we spent more than 3 times our daily budget for the next three days. You know what? It was
well worth The two of us
We're blue da ba dee da ba di
da ba dee da ba di
da ba dee da ba di
da ba dee Da ba di
da ba dee da ba di it, like for Chris and Kay this has been one of the highlights of this trip for us as well, at least so far. The only thing I can think of that can beat this is the
Javanese wedding we were invited to during our time in Yogya, but that was just pure luck and not something that just anybody can do.
Now without further ado, sit back, relax and read about our three day adventure with Mr Tai and Mr Hieu.
Day 1: DMZ Zone
6:30 AM and the alarm clock woke us up. Usually I would start complaining the second the annoying sound reached my ears, but on this day I was excited. We had to postpone the tour for a day because of the floods that hit Hue, but the departure time finally came. We had our mandatory noodle soup with beef at the hotel and then it was time to leave. But first the hotel staff wanted to take a picture of us together – it seemed they enjoyed our company while we were stranded in the hotel during the floods.
Tai and Hieu showed up and it was time to start our
three day motorbike tour. They packed our backpacks in huge plastic bags and tied them at the back of their
Made in China Hondas. We were joking before hand who will take which driver/bike. Well the boys made the decision for us. Tai (the whole 47 kilos of him – classic for Vietnamese men) picked up Polona's backpack, so that was settled. And we were off – to freedom!
The idea of freedom rides is simple, you are driven around the country on the back of a motorbike driven by Tai and his brothers. There are many different paths and durations. Some people end up travelling with them for weeks – three days was all we opted for (and could afford). The more known "brand" of it is Easy riders. About 20 years ago, a guy in Dalat started the whole thing and since then hundreds of copy-cats emerged. Tai didn't want to copy the name so he named his tour Freedom riders – according to him it's because he is allowed to smoke and relax when he is on the trail – something his wife doesn't let him do otherwise. I guess only Tai and Hieu were enjoining
the real freedom then, as Polona was right there with me. Damn! When can I get some freedom??? Well, not for a few more months, I guess 😊.
Soon after our lift off it started raining, so we made a quick stop and the guys gave us some huge blue rain covers so that we wouldn’t get soaked. Both of us remembered this
song, da ba dee da ba di.
It was so cool, sitting on the back of the bike and not having to worry about driving, so I could just look around and just enjoy the whole thing. First we stopped at a church and a high-school which served as shelters during the war but were completely destroyed in US Army air-raids, killing hundreds of civilians.
The first longer stop was at Vinh Moc tunnels. While waiting for our guide to finish his lunch (priorities are very clear in Vietnam 😊) we were up for a surprise. Out of nowhere four motorbikes appeared and it was Florian and Alex with two Canadian boys (Charlie and Josh). We haven't seen the boys since our visiting the
secret war sites in Laos, and now here we were again,
checking out sites of the well known war (even if US never really declared war on Vietnam).
The boys bought their own bikes in Hanoi and were on their way down south, heading to Cambodia. I really admire the idea of travelling like this, but my "bike" skills are good enough for a few hours not for a trip like that. And with the non-existence of road rules, wet surface, shit bikes and all, I prefer the buses. Boys had some trouble with bikes breaking down, an accident involving a small kid (and 500 US$ doctor bills), Florian sliding on the mud and burning his leg and so on. Thanks, but no thanks!
The Vinh Moc tunnels are a system of tunnels located right next to the beach. They are just under 2 km long and were dug by hand! They were primarily used for people to hide in, as they did for 6 years, and being safe from the bombings. DMZ (demilitarized zone separating North and South) was where the heaviest fighting occurred during the war. The tunnels were also used to smuggle food and army supplies. We went for a walk inside the tunnels. We visited
the second level, 15 meters under ground, while the third level (23 meters) can only be visited during the dry season. On our short walk we could get a basic idea of the life in the tunnels, there were family rooms (maybe 2 square meters per family), maternity ward (17 kids were born in the tunnels), toilets and so on and so on. I think we were all very happy once we were out.
We had our lunch, you guessed it: noodles, and were on the back of the bikes again, driving through the country side. We stopped at a bridge which used to serve as the border between the two Vietnams. The "border" building is still there and so are the two statues representing both countries – each on one side of the bridge. We also stopped at one of many cemetery sites where fallen North Vietnam soldiers are buried and honoured – I don't think any of the grave sites like this are built with government maintenance assured for the South Vietnamese soldiers
The last part of the day we were driving along the Ho Chi Minh trail – a meter wide road which was used
to transport supplies and people from North to South during the war against Chinese, French and Americans. What used to be thick jungle are now countless rubber tree plantations and an asphalt road – so it's impossible to imagine how it used to look during the war times.
We arrived to Khe Sanh close to Lao border in the evening, checked in to our hotel and we were off to dinner. The only thing not covered by the cost of the tour is food and drinks, but the boys know all the good places to stop at and try the local cuisine. They order all the food as well, so you have nothing to worry about 😊. After the meal and chatting about how the locals lived it was time for another "first". We were offered a glass of snake schnapps – well Polona wanted none of that. I was well up for a try. It is supposed to be good for
happy hour 😊 (
Ah, fairy tales, by Polona) – and by Jan: says the girl who was freezing her gorgeous ass off, and didn't want to move from under the 3 layers of covers.
Day 2:
Delivery "room"
17 kinds were born inside the tunnel Over the mountains
Another early morning wake up, noodle soup and we were back on our bikes. It didn't take long for our first stop, as the Khe Sanh, a former combat base for American troops, was only a few kilometres up the road. The base played an important role during the war and during one of the most decisive moments of the war – when Americans fought hard to keep the base, but were caught completely by surprise by a Vietcong counter-attack down south, known as the TET offensive. Today the old base is a place of a small museum about the war, an old air-strip and a few helicopters, planes and army vehicles.
Another half an hour on the bike and it was time for another coffee break. Tai and Hieu learnt very quickly that we are both huge coffee addicts (maybe in the absence of other, better things like chocolate and...) so they ordered us coffee every time we stopped without even asking.
We were on a cross road, one road leading over the bridge towards the mountains and the other back down-hill towards Hue. It was decision time. Because of the rain (day
two was dry, but still cold) there were numerous land slides the previous day so Tai wasn't sure if we can make it all the way to Prao, a town where we were suppose to sleep. Not being sure Tai still decided we should take the risk and go over the mountains as the scenery was supposed to be fantastic! A great call as he was spot on!
We headed over the bridge and started driving on the swirly mountain road, passing minority villages on the road! Sights that you just don't see from a bus or on any tours (other than motorbike tours!). All along the ride little kids were waiving at us, yelling "hello, hello" after us. We, of course waived back, I think the last time I used my hand that much was when I was about 14 and I discovered...well you get the jeest 😊. Down in the valley you could see the river and flock of people trying to find gold, we passed banana plantations and so on. We stopped in one of the small villages, another great chance to take snap shots of local kids – kids (and old people) just make for
Vinh Moc Tunnels
One of the 13 entry points. such great pics! They were a bit reluctant about us at the start, but when I remembered that I have some caramel candies with me and pulled them out of my dry-bag, we became best friends. Kids are the same all over the world, all you need is a bit of sugar and they come running 😊., but as soon as the bag is empty they get shy, giggly and run away again 😊.
It was late afternoon, about 4 o'clock, when we got to the site of the landslide Tai was worried about. Until then we had to cross a few patches of road covered with mud but this was something new! About 300, maybe 400 meters, of road was covered with mud, 10 meters high (see pics and videos). A day before brothers of our guys took a group of four girls on a similar tour and they actually carried four bikes over this obstacle! No idea how they managed! Tai said it can be done if you have at least 6 or 7 people as you need to lift the bike up and pass it along – while being knee deep on mud!
Luckily for
us heavy machinery was working on the site from early morning but there was still a lot of work to do. As any boy would, I climbed on the top of the mud mountain to check out the work. It was hypnotic, just starting down seeing the machines (how do you call one of this "hand" things? A bulldozer? Polona now googled it and learned it's called an excavator) and observing their progress, while Polona, as any girl, could not be less interested. It took another three hours for a small enough patch to be cleared and the bikes to pass. There were two more Dutch guys there and they had playing cards and we played "donkey" for a while or as Vietnamese call it "duma". It was fun seeing Tai (who won, without getting any letters) smiling like a school girl during a Justin Biever concert 😊. Hieu wasn't so lucky a he got all four letters and was called duma for the rest of the evening – he lost, so he deserved the stick 😊. Luckily for me, as I got all the way to "dum".
It was almost 7pm and pitch dark when we were finally
back on the road! In the dark you realize how dangerous the roads are. Flock of gees, cows, dogs and more mud were in the way! Cows are the worse. You can honk your horn as much as you want, they just stare at you and refuse to move! Why are they sacred animals in India is beyond me – next time I have a burger I will think about this in more detail 😊.
We arrived in our hotel after nine, had dinner, topped it off with some banana schnapps (only me again!) and went to bed!
Ohh before we went to bed we were really nicely surprised by the boys. They bought us a kilo of coffee and coffee makers (see coffee
pic in our previous blog to see what it is). This was the boys saying "thank you" for us offering to get up at 6 am the next day so that Tai could pick up another client at 1pm in Hoi An the next day.
Day 3: My Son and arriving in Hoi An
6 am? 6 am? What the hell was wrong with me for agreeing to this? Too sleepy to take a shower (or
One of many gravesites
Dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the North Vietnamese army maybe I just don't remember having one) I strolled down the stairs and there were Tai and Hieu already up (probably for more than an hour already as things in Vietnam go) ordering us the much needed doze of coffee. Polona came around and told me that Hieu cleaned my shoes (?!?!) which got their fair share of mud the previous day! At that point you can just be thankful you are in a company of such nice people and remember that waking up a bit (well, very, very) early to do them a favour is the least you can do. This guys were like our parents for the whole duration of this trip!
Breakfast done, and for a change it wasn't noodle soup, and we were on our bikes again. Getting up so early might have been a good thing after all. The views in the early morning light were even more amazing and made for great photos. The last day was actually a sunny one. So it went from rain, to dry, but cold to clear and sunny 😊. Another stop, another coffee and I was almost OK – Polona is a morning person (FREAK!!) so she
didn't mind getting up early anyway. We reached a river and experienced the bike ferry (just a bunch of wood planks built into a raft) as well. Here I finally got a picture of a bike filled with pigs – I was on a hunt for a great pic of a bike with like 5 grown up pigs, or 50 chickens or gees on it, but this will do.
Our next stop was My Son, ruins of some temples. The boys told us we don't really have to go, but we didn't want to regret it and asked if we could stop. They were right – we were both unimpressed, so much so, that I can't even be bothered to write much about it. But there were hordes and hordes of tourists there, part of bus tours. Well, without seeing the temples of Indonesia and looking forward to seeing Angkor again, I might have been a bit more positive about the whole thing. As it stands the best memory of the place is a lizard who acted as a professional photo model to myself and a few other guys who found this little creature more interesting than the temples
and its history. At least you could take a photo of him, without a fat lady walking right in-front of you and your camera (she had to be French, I bet! Even if her size suggested Irish).
This was the last place on our to-do-list and we were back on the highway closing up to the finish line. The last surprise came when we drove off the highway, down a dirt hill and took a back rode to Hoi An – a city which is a wet dream to any female on this planet!! (Polona will explain in her next blog).
We said a quick goodbye to Tai, who was off with another very happy traveller to-be. Hieu and the two of us went for lunch together and then he was off as well, leaving us with memories of this amazing experience.
In conclusion
This will sound like advertising but I don't really care. Hue Freedom riders are well worth a try. Chris and Kay recommended them to us as the best thing and we can only repeat it! In the time of writing they have 38 reviews on
Tripadvisor, all of them rating them as
Ho Chi Minh Trail
A meter wide. Use to be a jungle, today it's a rubber tree plantation “Excellent”. Ours is yet to come (we want to link this blog post to it, attention seeking whores that we are 😊) and its rating will, no doubt about it be:
EXCELLENT!!! Pa se Polonino javljanje za oddajo Gori, Doli, Naokoli:
od 6 minute dalje.
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