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Published: November 10th 2015
November 1 - Nov 28, 2015 Viet Nam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos
This trip is in 2 parts:
Part 1 - A motorcycle trip for 5 days (Nov 4 - 9) in the mountainous country around Hanoi. I am going to Hanoi by myself, but have hired a local guide to go with me. We will be riding Yamaha 125cc bikes.
Part 2 - I booked a 17 day trip (Nov 11 - 27) through
Edelweiss Motorcycle Tours . I will meet a group of 10 riders in Bangkok on Nov 11, and we will commence a motorcycle tour from Bangkok, through Thailand to Cambodia, then through Laos, and finally re-entering Thailand in the North ending the trip in Chaing Mai.
I departed from Toronto on November 1, flew to Hong Kong (15 hours) and (after a 4 hour layover) then to Bangkok (3 hour flight). I arrived very late, so I booked a hotel near the airport. The next morning, after 3 hours of terrible sleep, I grapped a cab at 8:15 am to go downtown Bangkok for a day of sightseeing. I should have realized that this was not a
great idea, taking a taxi into the downtown core of a city of 8 million people during rush hour! It look us one hour and forty minutes to travel 30 kms. The good news is the the bill was 300 baht, which is about $9 US dollars. How do they survive?
I spent the day doing what tourists do in Bangkok:
• Toured the Grand Palace with my own private tour guide
• Walked down Khan Sao Road, famous for its youth hostels
• Had a one hour Thai massage for 200 Baht ($6)
• took the River Ferry to Wat Arun, another palace
• and went to Asiatique by ferry, a beautiful new development, including an upscale market (very refreshing compared to some of the local markets) , and numerous waterfront bars and restaurants.
I met a lovely couple - Hubert Schlemmer from Austria and his Thai wife. Hubert has lived in Thailand for 30 years, mainly to avoid high taxes in his home country. he does return home every year, and we had quit a discussion about an Austrian Canadian business man, Frank Stronach from my home town of Aurora, Ontario. Frank, in addition to building the largest
auto parts company in North America, also ran for President of Austria! After a very long day, I returned to my inexpensive Airport hotel, The Crystal Suites, for another lousy night's sleep.
Nov 4, 2015 - Bangkok to Hanoi
I took a relatively short flight from Bangkok to Hanoi - about 2 hours.I was greeted at the airport by a driver from the hotel. I stayed at the Boss Legend in Old hanoi, right in the thick of the action. After settling in, I went to dinner at the New Day, a local restaurant recommended by a Canadian couple that I met in the hotel, that were in Vietnam for their honeymoon. Exhausted I turned in for an early evening.
Day 1of Motorcycle ride - Hanoi - Mai Chau - 180kms
At 8 am I met my bilingual guide, Hao. I was a little uncertain what gear I should wear,since we were only riding Yamaha 125cc dirt bikes. I used my better judgement and wore my full body armour outfit made by BMW. I'm so glad I did, because driving in Hanoi is like being in a battle - survival of the fittest!
It took us an hour to get out of hanoi, a city of 7 million people with 4.5 million motorcycles and scooters. and we picked rush hour to leave. The ride was very busy for the first few hours out of Hanoi, but it gradually turned in to a nice ride through the countryside.
We stayed the first night at a guesthouse - the Mai Chau Ecohouse in a tiny little village of Pom Coong at the base of the mountains.
I met a group of 10 people that were doing a 3 part trip - Cycling, trekking and Kayaking. Three of the people were from Vancouver Island. Brian and Rose Henry have an outdoor adventure store called Ocean River Adventures in Victoria. A very interesting couple. The other canadian lives in Nanaimo where my son lives.
Had the best nights sleep so far. My room was in a wooden house built on stilts overlooking the rice patties.
Day 2 - Mau Chi - Son Li
The second day was a little less hectic since we didn’t have to deal with the Hanoi traffic, we rode about 180 kms in about 7
hours. It takes a while to get used to the driving practices. As it seems like it is totally chaotic, which it is, there are actually sort of, guidelines:
•You make pass a transport on a curve in the mountains. Just make sure that the only vehicles coming from the other direction are motorcycles or scooters
•Stay in you lane, unless you choose not to stay in your lane.
•Bigger vehicles have the right of way. Motorcycles are at the bottom of the food chain
•No more than 2 adults and 4 kids on one motorcycle at any time.
•You may carry any cargo on a motorcycle: small refrigerators, bails of hay, a small convenience store, 10 foot long bamboo …even another motorcycle
•Don’t show any sign of weakness You wont survive
One of our interesting diversions was going off road and crossing a bamboo bridge across a river, with no side rails on the bridge.Once I saw my guide Hoi go, I knew it couldn't be that bad. Just give it the gas and look straight ahead.
One of the strangest part of this experience, is that
people are amazed to see an old white guy with a beard. I don’t even know how they can tell, since I have all my motorcycle gear on. While riding through small towns and the villages, the children yell “hello” and “how are you”. I think they want to try of the basic English they learn in school. Even walking around town in regular street clothes, people stare at me. When I smile at them, they instantly smile back. Almost no one speaks English here, even in our hotels and guest houses. If it wasn’t for my bilingual guide, it would be extremely difficult to find directions, order food, etc.
This evening, my guide had a night off – he didn’t have to babysit me. So I was on my own. I wondering around the streets for a while, then settled on a small restaurant near the hotel. It was very busy, so I figured the food had to be good. I picked up my food,buffet style, and looked around for an empty seat. A group of about 10 young people (5 men and 5 women) noticed I looked a little lost and they invited me to
join them. One spoke broken English and explained that he was with friends and family having dinner before going to a music event.
I was hoping to order a beer, but no one seemed to be drinking. There were several plastic water bottles on the table, however, and one of the group poured a small drink for me. It turned out to be rice wine. Before dinner was over we were toasting Canada, and then Vietnam, and then each other. They invited me to the concert, but I passed since I was tired after a long day of riding. In my younger days I would have been right in there.
In the morning, I ran in to the young fellow that made feel feel so comfortable with his fiends. He came over and greeted me with a tender hand shake. Great way to start the day.
About 3 pm we arrived in Son La, a small town of about 100,000 people. W stopped at a Prison that was used to keep political prisoners when the French were in power
Day 3 - Son Li - Lao Cai - 280 kms
On my
first night in Hanoi, I met a guy from Nigeria at the restaurant. I told him my travel plans , and he suggested I might want to go to a place called Sapa in the mountains. So I asked Hoi, my guide, if we could go there. Our original plan was to do a loop starting in Hanoi and ending back in Hanoi on our bikes. We decided to change the itinerary and travel north to Sapa and then to take a train (with our bikes) back to Hanoi. This appealed to meet since we were going to see a very beautiful part of the country, and we didn't have to deal with riding back into Hanoi, which is very busy and very dirty. It was fun to experience it once the day we left, but I am not going to miss it going back.
As a consequence of this change, we a very long, but very beautiful ride through the mountainous region. We started at 8:30 am, and ended around 5pm, just as it was getting dark. There were lots of twists and turns, passing trucks and buses on sharp bends in the road. Its the
best kind of riding, because you have to stayed focussed and really use your riding and judgment skills.
As we were riding through many diverse areas of the country it was hard not to think about the people and how they live. Vietnam has 54 minority groups, each with their own culture. For the most part,all of the people are very hard working. Most of the land is very fertile and they grow crops anywhere there is decent soil. I thought a lot about the Communist system that is the basis of this countries government, and for a country of 92 million people, mostly rural, whether this might be the right system for them. Hoi and I talked about this at dinner, and, while he said there are definitely many positives, there are many downsides. There is much corruption in government and business at the higher levels. Also due to the lack of a competitive "capitalist" environment, there is high unemployment. One thing though, is that most people seem very happy and very engaging - especially the women and the children. The men seem a little more cautious and apprehensive..
Day 4 Lao Cai -
Sapa - 180kms
First thing this morning we rode 70 kms from Lao Cai to a market high in the mountains the first half was on a good road through the countryside, passing through many small villages. The second half was a gorgeous ride up the mountain with beautiful views. We arrived in the town where they have an open market every Sunday. People come from miles away with their produce, meat, animals, homemade crafts, not so homemade crafts, clothing etc. The native women dress in their finest, colourful clothing. We wondered through the market for an hour or so, before heading on the 110 km journey to Sapa.
Sapa is a town high in the mountains that was developed by the French when they were in power. It is now a very popular vacation destination for both Vietnamese and foreign visitors. It reminded me of a Swiss village in the mountains but there is no skiing. In the winter they will occasionally get snow, but it doesn’t last. We stayed in the Sunny Mountain Hotel, which was definitely the best accommodations of the trip. The dining room was on the top floor overlooking the mountains
and valleys. Trekking and visiting the rice plantations are the main activities. For dinner, we had a traditional Vietnamese Hot Pot dinner, and a little too much rice wine.
Monday Nov 9 – Sapa to Lao Cai - 70kms
This is the last riding day of our trip. Before leaving Sapa, we toured, by bike, several small villages in the hills where the rice farmers live. We stopped for lunch at a rustic spot in the middle of the rice plantation. It turned out the food was outstanding and were entertained by local dancers, performing traditional dance.
We rode back down to Lao Cai where we went to a local hotel that rents room by the hour. We handed the keys to our bikes over to some tour operators that were taking them to the train to ship them back to Hanoi. We had about 5 hours to kill before boarding the train, so I rented a room for a few hours to shower, have a short rest, and repack my bags for the journey.
We boarded the train at 8pm for an 8:35 departure. We had a cabin with 4 berths. Hao took the
upper bunk on our side and I took the lower on. On the other side, there was a lady from France travelling on her own, and a local Vietnam gentleman. The 8 hour and 10 minute train ride went smoothly. I actually did catch a few hours sleep. After we arrived at the train station we taxied back to our starting point - The Boss Legend Hotel. I caught a few hours sleep, repacked, and then headed to the airport to go back to Bangkok for the next leg of my trip.
Many thanks to Anna at Active Asia Travel (activetravel.asia) for doing a superb job of organizing a fantastic trip, and to Hoa Le, my amazing guide. Hoa, you really made this a memory of a lifetime!
Mike
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Rod
non-member comment
Outstanding!
Hey Mike. Yamaha 125cc bike! Now that's some bike ride!!! Have fun and look forward to the next blog. Cheers.