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Published: June 20th 2008
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Bike trip
This didn't bode well for day one For some reason unbeknown to me, I agreed to do a six day motorbike tour of the Vietnamese countryside with Trev. I do not know how this happened, but it turned out to be one of the best experiences of our trip to date. It was of course kept 'top secret' until after the event, so that we could report back home with all limbs intact. Our tour around Dalat by motorbike was a dry run, just so I could get used to being on a motorbike without being in a blind panic at every corner/roundabout.
We booked it with OffRoad Vietnam, a company which we can highly recommend if you are considering something similar. Trev rode his own bike, and I went as the passenger on the guide's bike, and we were accompanied by another couple dounbling up on a bike too. Trev hasn't ridden a motorbike for a few years, so I was nervous at the prospect of being his passenger, and felt a little safer with someone a bit more familiar with bikes. How I ate my words, when the guide was overtaking around blind bends with lorries coming the other way, and I wished I had
Bike trip
Raring to go chosen Trev's bike. Trev carried everyone's luggage on his bike, and I wasn't amused to see our guide drop the bike as he set off to get some fuel because it was so over loaded. A bit of bag shuffling around soon solved that problem, and also stopped his front wheel from lifting up when accellerating up hills which is always a bonus.
Day 1 wasn't much fun as the first mission was to get out of Hanoi. As we have described the traffic is crazy, the rule is there are no rules- it is each man for himself. I was always at the front with the guide so I spent most of the trip turning around to check that we had two bikes still following us. We drove for hours on the first day to get out of the city which at times was harrowing. Huge lorries thundered past us leaving hardly any space, and quite a few times I turned around truly expecting the others behind me not to have made it. We all suffered from numb bums too, which was one of the major problems of the trip. Some days we rode for 7 or 8
Bike trip
Pre-riding bike checks...if the horn doesn't work in Vietnam it really is a death wish hours (with short breaks for refreshment), which soon took its toll. By the afternoon of the first day we were out in the country side and were able to enjoy the scenery and the riding more. We were a little concerned when early on in Day one a bike got a flat, but it was no surprise given the quality of the roads we were on. Our guide swiftly had the wheel off, fixed the problem and half an hour later we were off again.
The first night was spent in a hotel, more luxurious than ever known on this trip. The room was huge, and it had carpet and a bath. A real treat. We felt quite out of place arriving stinking of the days sweat in our scruffy clothes and trainers. We were stared at quite a lot as we were in a town that never sees foreigners- apparently Vietnamese people think we Westerners are all 'big nosed Catholics', which amused them no end. We soon got used to being a laughing stock for no apparent reason, and found it weird by the time we returned to Hanoi to see other Westerners.
We had fewer miles
Bike trip
View from our homestay to cover in day two, and really got to enjoy the Vietnamese mountains. We arrived at our accommodation early on, which was a homestay with a Vietnamese family. We slept on mats on the floor with mozzie nets, surrounded by paddy fields and beautiful views of the hills. They treated us to a Vietnamese feast for dinner, and we washed it down with shots of Rice wine which is like home brewed whisky (aka lethal!). It was impossible to refuse their offers of rice wine, and every few minutes we seemed to be toasting something else and downing it. There was a really bad rain storm that evening- dinner was served late because the family's chickens ran off to shelter from the rain and we had to wait for them to come home so they could be killed and cooked before we could eat!!! We were very surprised to see hail during the storm, despite the warm weather.
The next day we also stayed in the house of a Vietnamese family. We ate dinner with the family and shared stories with our hosts via our tour guide, who spoke excellent english. In the morning we were woken by the
Bike trip
Check out the protective gear- made for some weird tan lines sound of pigs being slaughtered as it was market day. It takes about 20 mins for them to die a slow death, and they are squeeling throughout. The day's riding brought the usual challenges- herds of huge water buffalo on the road, steep mountainous passes, random dogs/chicken/children running in our path. The guide used to just kick out at anything that looked like it may run in our path to scare it off. We dined on water buffalo today- apparently a rare treat. The only reason we were fortunate enough to try this was bacause one fell of a cliff nearby so the locals shared out the meat rather than let it waste.
The next day's riding was put off to the afternoon by a torrenmtial rainstorm. We set off in the morning to buy petrol (see photo!!!), and during the wait the heavens opened. It rained so heavily it would have been too dangerous to set off so we waited until the afternoon. Once it had dried up we set off towards the Chinese/Vietnamese border, and saw a huge waterfall where the river divided the two countries. A small sum of money to the Vietnamese border police allowed
us to take a stroll down to the waters edge, and have a short trip on a bamboo raft, where I am sure we entered Chinese waters. Here our friends found a shop selling some cigarettes with Saddam Hussein's face on the packet, which apparently were made in England. We found that one hard to believe.
The next day was by far the most trecharous day on the bike. A long stretch of the road that we rode on was still under construction, and the huge amount of recent rain fall turned it into a mud bath. It was completely impassable to cars, and we even passed an abandoned lorry that had got stuck in the mud still with all its cargo. We were all covered from head to toe in mud which flew up and hit us, and how the boys managed to get through it without falling amazes me. Unfortunately we didn't get any good photos of this stretch- it was just too dangerous to be messing around with cameras! When we passed the abandoned lorry, we had to ride up a short but steep path where the bike wheels sunk deep into the soft mud, narrow
enough for a person to walk by, with a drop down to the river on the other side. We made it through unscathed, then watched the others try the challenge. When it was Trev's turn, because his bike was so much wider with the saddle bags, he got one of the bags lodged in the wheel rim of the lorry. The bike then stalled and he was truly stuck in the mud, until some random passerby pulled out the bag and helped him on his way.
We saw the real Vietnam on this trip- the isolated villages, huge mountains, people working in the paddy field wearing conical sun hats and the terraced fields. It was everything I imagined Vietnam would be. We had occasional faults with the bikes which our guide found amusing and quickly fixed. The last day was the real challenge, when we broke down twice in the last 20ks before arriving back in Hanoi. Roadside maintenance in Vietnam is not the safest thing to do, as the hard shoulder actually serves as a moped lane. All in all it was a fantastic trip and we would recommend it to anyone that wants to get to see
Bike trip
And you thought your fuel crisis was bad!!!! the real Vietnam!!!
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