The following is a blog of my trip with my friends from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi in Vietnam.
After watching several Vietnam war movies, documentaries, youtube videos and of course the 'Top Gear' Vietnam special I was completely sold on Vietnam. I thought I knew what to expect once I got there too. However, as soon as I landed I immediately felt like I was on a movie set from some old Vietnam war movie. I knew it was going to be weird, but I've been to many many countries and I've never felt like that before. Vietnam really is a special place.
Part 1
Researching, eating, vitamins and meds
Ok lets get this covered first and foremost...
When I was researching my trip before I left I was told to bring malaria tablets and to be careful what I eat. This made me paranoid and all I could think about was mosquito repellent and to be very concerned about where we ate. For the first few days I took my multi vitamins and meds religiously. However, after a while I soon became more relaxed about things and realised that I didnt need to be as uptight as I was at the start.
When it came to places to eat I was very aware of my paranoia and I knew I was annoying my friends who were well traveled verterans of Asia at this point. I kept making a fuss about where we ate. It had to at least look safe to me. In fairness they were cautious themselves, but I think I was just overly so. I soon realised that as long as I didnt eat things washed in water and used common sense on where we ate we would get by ok. When I look back on the trip now I can thankfully say that I didn't get sick once. However, I did feel a little 'dicky' at times. I really do think that the multi vitamins were worth it. In saying that my friends took little or no meds or vitiamins and they didnt have any issues either.
My friends thought I was silly taking anti-malarial tablets. After a week there I decided that I would only take them if we ventured outside of the cities. The amount of mosquitoes really wasnt that bad. My friends told me that India and Thailand was far worse for them. Just to add, I did have vaccinations. However, I didnt bother with the Japanese B Encephalitis vaccination for the simple reason that I personally thought the chances of getting it were very slim (especially as we had no intention of going into areas that you might catch it). I didnt get the Rabies vaccine either and I was a little concerned about this. However, for various reasons I decided I'd just simply avoid animals rather than take this vaccine.
The trip begins...
As soon as I met up with my friends we immediately got a taxi and thankfully the chaos had truely begun. I felt like I was in a cage and there was suicidal bike and car drivers all around me. I dont know how we made it to the hotel without hitting someone.
Our first couple of days were spent in Ho Chi Minh City . We got to see all the tourist spots such as the War Museum and the Independence Mansion (the place where the Vietnam war ended). Both were great to see. However, the War Museum was a very emotional place. They showed images from the war that no one should see, yet maybe anyone considering going to war should see so as they may reconsider. Before I left for this trip I didnt know that much about the Vietnam war (or American war as the Vietnamese call it). Sadly, I was influenced by american war movies that I had seen as I thought that the Vietnamese were the cause of that war. All I'll say is boy did I see a hole new side to the argument once I got there. Two words "Agent Orange".
Before we left Saigon, we went to possibly the coolest night club in the world. We walked through a doorway that had a 70s style entrance to it with the words 'Apocalypse now'. On your left was a pool table that was being served by a local Vietnamese woman. I think it was 3,000VND (1 euro) for a game and for that she set up the balls and kept score for you. We had a few cheap Vietnam style beers such as '333' and 'Saigon'. Both were really nice and cost us very little. The best craic was upstairs though where we had a great oul dance with some Germans and Vietnamese. Yes there was a few tourists there, but not half the amount I thought there would be. Seemingly this nightclub was famous for catering for Americans during the war. Just to add, I've read reviews since I've been here and many people are 50/50 about the place. You either love it or hate it. I loved it because it had that old raw Vietnam war feel to it that I was after.
Mixing with the locals
We met some locals when we were in HCMC and we were invited back to their house for some lunch. It took us about 2 hours to get there by taxi and I think it only came to about 350,000 VND (12 euro) in total. So so cheap!! Once we got there it really felt very real. We or at least I was way out of my comfort zone of first world living, but I loved it. We were in the suburbs and it was really great to able to visit their family and neighbours who were all really friendly and giving towards us even though they had very little. Their house was a single room with a wall partition within that room separating the wash area (that I presume was multi purpose) from the rest of the room. They had a really old tv and dvd player, an electric fan on the wall and some basic cooking equipment. The small couch looked like a pull out bed and they also had one wardrobe for all their stuff. There was no door either, but the stand out thing for me was they had clearly spent a lot of money on what looked like an airbrushed wedding photograph. This hung proudly in the middle of the room.
They cooked us lunch which we ate in a chinese style arrangement. There was no table. It was very communal. They had the food in bowls in the middle of the circle and we all used our chop sticks to fill our mini bowls that they gave us. This was a real challange because myself and my friend were not used to chopsticks yet. What made things harder was the fact the meat was left on the bone so you had to pull it off. I remember they gave us pillows. We thought they were to use as cousins for our sore asses on the hard floor. They kind of laughed, but were very quick to pull them away and explain in their best Engerlish that they were for our heads. I know I felt really embarrassed because I was told from my friend (who had already traveled most of Asia) that they see that part of our body as a dirty thing and it may have been offensive to put our ass where their heads lay at night.
The Chu Chi Tunnels
Before we moved on from HCMC we decided to take a tour to see the must see Củ Chi tunnels near the Cambodian boarder. It took about an hour or so to get there by bus from the city. However, in typical Asian style we stopped off somewhere along the way. That somewhere turned out to be very interesting. It was a pot making and painting factory where victims from the War were employed to make things to sell to tourists. Normally I dont like these kind of places, but I really liked this place because it was a positive thing for these people. However, I did feel a little intrusive walking through the factory with our expensive cameras taking pictures of them as they worked hard for what would probably be a meager wage. Not to mention what they thought of us!? All I kept thinking was maybe they hate us because we're westerners and to them that might mean Americans who ruined their lives. On heinsight however, I doubt this was the case as 99% of the Vietnamese we talked to on our trip didnt hold a grudge against the Americans.
When we finally got to the Chu Chi Tunnels it was pretty cool. We got to see all the different traps they used along with the various techniques as well. The best we saw though had to be the sandals that were made backwards so the Americans tracking them thought they were walking the other way! Needless to say we got to see the tunnels themselves and even walk down through them for a bit. I thought they'd be really hot, but they were'nt that bad at all. They were very tight though. The icing on the cake was the shooting range where ear protection was of secondary importance. It was expensive enough, but for $5USD you got 5 shots. Still worth it to fire an AK47 for the one and only time you might get to all the same.
The Mekong Delta
We decided before we'd start heading north that we wanted to see a bit of the Mekong Delta. We just couldnt resist as it was very close. We wanted to get moving all the same so we decided to go the nearest town to HCMC that we could. This turned out to be the town of My Tho. When we got there it was really hot (10° north of the equator). In fact this was the hottest place on the trip we'd been. The humidity was high too so that made it harder to cope. However, for yet another great price we got a really good hotel room with air con. We immediately had a Mekong delta style lunch (river food) which was ok but not great (although my friends seem to really like it) and then booked a tour for that night and the following day. Again the prices were very good. After this we had a stroll around the town in rush hour traffic and it was just insane! We were always told to just walk across the road and the traffic would go around you, but as you will see in the video link I have below it wasnt as straight forward here.
The evening/night tour we did was pretty good. It involved visiting a very remote village on an island in the Mekong Delta. I liked it and hated it at the same time though. Yes, I loved how raw and real it was and by jasus was I out of my comfort zone here. We had really good fun sampling their weird food and we had a bit of fun with the local sellers who were not in your face at all. Yet another thing I love about most of Vietnam with the exception of the cities. The sellers thought it was hilarious how we reacted to their food. The negative for me was when we walked out into an open area of their village and we were bombarded with kids begging for money. Some were even putting their hands in your pockets. They had poor clothing and were quite dirty. We got the feeling that not many tourists had ever been here. However, we also had a stronger feeling that who ever had been here before us had given them a lot of money or something and they wanted the same from us. We were nervous about giving them anything and really we knew we shouldn't encourage begging so instead my genius friend entertained them all with this weird finger trick that he has.
Afterwards we continued the trip with a search for fireflies. They let my friend drive the boat which suited them down to the ground. They didnt really look where he was going either which was hilarious. They just sat there eating their dinner from their plastic containers. It didnt take too long to find the fireflies though and once we did it was a very cool experience. I'd never seen anything like this before.
See Part 1 with your own eyes here:
Part 2
Boat trip in the Mekong Delta
After a night of fireflies and cheap Vietnamese beer, we got going on our one day boat trip around the Mekong. It started very well with an offering of various Asian style fruits and drinks followed by snake and bee hive handling. Yes, thats right! We got to see a dead religion called the coconut religion which was practiced for around 50 years if I remember correctly. However, very few people followed it and when the founder died there was little or nothing left except for these really cool statues that looked like dragons on a totem pole. We also got to see some semi-wild aligators that were originally part of this area before they died out. They were now reintroduced and the locals and tourists were buying meat to feed them with fishing lines from a bridge. Before the tour ended we got to check out a coconut candy factory where they made, you guessed it, coconut candy. We bought a few packs to bring home. The icing on the cake was getting to use traditional canoes to row through the inlet of the island to our boat. Overall it was a good tour and worth doing I'd say. I'd give it a 7/10.
Da Lat
The next day was just a giant travel day where we got up very early and got a bus back to Saigon and then a sleeper bus straight on to Da Lat. The sleeper bus was an adventure in itself. It was clearly designed for small Asian people and we found it very difficult to get a comfortable position. At the same time it was nice and cool on board for only $7USD. Funnily enough, we also discovered that it included a free taxi to our hotel once we arrived. However, the taxi drivers were wise to this and laughed when we pointed at the sign that said free taxi. I think we did get for free in the end though.
Da Lat itself felt like a ski resort in one sense, but it was clear that the rich of Vietnam lived here. The quality of the homes and buildings in general was of a higher standard than most places in Vietnam. Many made rich through coffee plantations. The hotel we stayed in was a pink hotel full of backpackers. The guy who owned and ran it was very nice and he immediately offered us a really cool 'motobike' tour for one day around the area. It was only $30USD each and that covered everything including an 80cc motorbike, helmet, petrol and tour itself. We thought this sounded great so needless to say we said yes.
'Motobiking' in Da Lat
We didnt get much sun the entire time we were in Vietnam, but we did get some that day and despite being up in the mountains it was still a hot 25 - 30°C all day. At the same time, I still wore loads. I must have been the most over protective considering that I had paintball gloves, special 'Draggin jeans' and boots that I had brought with me from home. These along with the helmet and long sleeve T-shirt covered me up the best of the rest. The others didnt have the same level of concern and just stuck to either boots and a helmet or just a helmet.
Before we set off I checked out the bike I was given. I soon realised that I'd be struggling a bit to get used to this weird new-to-me gear changing setup on the bike that resembled a see-saw type jobbie. The front of your foot went up the gears and you either tapped back or rear footed the back to drop a gear (if I remember correctly). There was no clutch either. My front brakes were shot and the rear was a shitty drum brake. I just had to laugh. My friends had similar quality bikes too. When we finally got going I had a Vietnamese point at my bike as I was riding. I couldnt understand him so I looked all around and realised that my kick stand was still down. "Oh shit" I thought. On my bike at home the engine wont even start if that's down. I had a lot on my mind too so I blame that of course. It was great to be back on motorbikes again though and we were loving them. Knee down at 20mph! haha
Our first few stops of the day included checking out a cockroach factory where they sold dried out dead cockroaches. We got to try a few for free, but I dont think that was even the issue for some of us who couldnt even choke them down. I thought they tasted ok, but the texture was'nt very pleasent. Hard on the outside and soft like a sponge in the middle. I thought the silk factory we visited was really cool. I've always regretted not buying a silk scarf there for $5USD to this day. Why oh why didnt I. I knew my mother would have loved it. We also checked out a coffee planation, waterfall and even a local tribe type village where they spoke a unique language. They even had their own facinating culture which they talked about for ages. Our guide was originally from the village and he had pretty good English to translate for us. After that we went back to a more modern type house where our guide gave us all bowls of various fruit from the area. He made us try them all and he talked about each of them. We all enjoyed that. To finish he played a hilarious drinking type game which was really quick and funny.
Looking back I'm glad I brought the extra bit of bike protection with me. One of the Canadian lads whom was part of the tour group actually came off and highsided somehow. He got some pretty bad road rash on his hands from what the others were saying. The Draggin jeans were ok heat wise and I definately think they were worth having. They really didnt add too much heat compared to regular jeans and once you kept moving you didnt notice them. My only negative towards them was the extra weight and space in my bag.As with the quality of many of the bikes we were riding a few of us had issues with them. My friends bikes ignition switch at the key got stuck and it took a bit of tweaking to fix it. Also for the first time in my biking career so to speak I got a flat tyre which was a little scary because the whole rear swayed side to side violently. As is the case in most of Asia though I ended up being broken down beside somewhere that could fix the problem. In this case it was luckily a tyre shop. There are reports that these places often place nails on the road to make you stop for just that reason, but in my case an old bung had failed on the rear tyre.
All in all though it was a great day. We ended up riding back in the late evening as the darkness was setting in. This made for a friken amazing view of the Da Lat countryside but just as we got to the edge of the town my bike failed again. This time I had run out of petrol. 10 minutes later though my guide came back and I was sorted.
We didnt stay long in Da Lat, but as much as I liked the town and its people I couldnt wait to leave because my bed was full of bugs biting me. Even with the cotton sleeping bag I had with me I still had a very uncomfortable night. Before we left Da Lat we checked out the famous 'Crazy house' that was actually a hotel that people could stay in. We almost did stay there originally, but decided we'd just visit instead. To be honest though it wasn't great and was still under construction in many places. I wouldn't recommend it.
Nha Trang
We were tempted to bike it to Nha Trang, but not all of us wanted to do that so in the end we bused it there. It was a really nice view on the way down the mountain though and I kinda wish we had. When we arrived we were greeted by random taxi drivers who tried to grab our bags. However, my friends were very wise to this kind of thing through their travels and knew that the price they wanted for the fair was way too high. Instead we stuck to the golden rule which was to get the offical taxi service of the area. I could be wrong, but I think they were government taxis. They were all green no matter where we were in Vietnam though. We ended up saving a fair bit in the end.
As my friend's girlfriend put it, this was going to be our summer holiday part of our trip where we would treat ourselves like we would in Spain for example. That was good with all of us. Some fantastic R&R was in order and boy god did we treat ourselves. Where to start? Amazing beach, great views of the sea, great nightclubs and bars that were a nice mix of tourists and locals. We all got massages and had the most amazing meals for half nothing. I loved it and my friends really seemed to enjoy it too. However, I've recommended it to another friend who went there recently and she didn't like it because it was too touristy for her. It is a touristy area, but its great place if you just want some proper R&R for a night or two.
See Part 2 with your own eyes here:
Part 3
While we were in Da Lat we had organised an 'Easy Rider' tour to start in Nha Trang. We got a great price of $45USD a day with a guy who called himself 'Lee'. So after our much needed R&R our highlight of the entire trip was about to begin...
**This following part was written soon after I returned home**
Yes, we had gotten the idea of this motorbike trip from Top Gear (the tv show). In saying that though we only did a total of 5 days motorbiking in the entire trip/holiday and I really wish we could have done more. We were traveling in a group of 5 and unfortunately we had to accomodate a non-biker whom really didnt want to do any motorbiking. If it was up to me we would have done a lot more biking. In saying that though we did cover loads in those 5 days and I suppose because I knew we only had a few days I appreciated each day I did a lot more. We did approximately 850km in total.
Nha Thrang to Hoi An - With the flavour of bikes wetting our taste buds we were keen to get on bikes again as soon as possible. We met up with the Easy Rider boys. Well actually I should elaberate,. we met up with just another company who called themselves Easy Rider. Every biking company in Vietnam has pretty much stolen the name which first origianted from the lonely planet book as a nickname for the companies that provide these biking trips. The first lad we met was dead on and was able to offer us a no bullshit $40 each per day for a 4 day tour, 5 bikes (4 + 1 for the guide) starting in Nha Thrang and finishing in Hoi An which included litherally everything except food and drink. We had considered just renting bikes, but our plan was to actually make ground and not return to point A again. No rental company could do a point A to point B trip that we could find so really this Easy Rider idea whom would get a truck to bring the bikes back for us was the best option.
After meeting with two Easy Rider companies we decided to go with a guy who called himself 'Mr Lee'. I had actually been emailing the other company we met constantly for the previous couple of weeks about the trip, but as is the case when you arrive to meet these guys sometimes things change. The guy I had been emailing never bothered his arse to come meet us and instead sent someone who knew very little and started talking about extra charges which had'nt been mentioned previously (such as an extra day fee to cover the cost of labour for transporting the bikes back). In the end it was an easy decision and we used the guy who was recommended by the hotel. We all had big bags and we got these sent to Hoi An via a local bus tour company for only $3 USD each.
Day 1 of 4. Nha Thrang to Buon Ma Thuot
Before we departed we all got ourselves some leather jackets just in case of a fall. Myself and my mate got 2 jackets for 850,000 Dong which was less than €15 each. Bargain! We collected the bikes and soon enough we were off. I had a 150cc cruiser (some chinese make) and so did two of my mates. Our other friend was still newish to biking so he got a semi auto Honda (depsite asking for an automatic) which was 125cc. Boom! Straight away we ended up doing the most epic road ever. It was a brand new coastal road with no one on it. We stopped and got some pics and quickly moved on. My friend realised quite quickly that one of the boats he lifted to get a cool picture under was covered in ants and they all started biting him as he rode off. It was very nasty!
Immediately I realised that my bike had a couple of problems all be them quite small. Namely these were the cock guage didnt work and the gearing was a littled fucked up. When I hit up when already in top gear (to ensure I was in top gear) the rear tyre would lock up on me. This was because it would go back to neutral or first gear (depending on how hard to shifted) and repeat the cycle again. Anyways, the pussie was amazing as you would expect and it was lovely and cool in when we crossed the mountain regions. These were the few areas where we could actually over take a truck and not vise versa. Something that is the complete opposite in Vietnam is that people buy cars to skip the traffic through their sheer might. Whats dangerous is when two cars overtaking meet which is quite common and they force bikers off the road. You really did have to keep full alert at all times.
The last 20 minutes of day were the toughest. I was glad to have good brakes on this bike because I needed them. We entered Buon Ma Thuot and it was utter chaos. I was glad to be on the big bike though because I used this to bully my way through the traffic. It sounds bad but it was the only way to get around. We all tried to stay close and negotiate the insane roundabouts and cross junctions littered with traffic. You really need to brave in these situations. At junctions you use the biker to your right as the 'blocker' and follow his path as you cross. Roundabouts were a different story. As mad as it sounds you had to keep your head facing straight and go in the direction you wanted and not change course unless you had to. I was told that if you lock eyes with someone else then this causes confusion on whos going first and where. Peripheral vision is what your using most. If you keep your direction and dont look then the others will presume you havent seen them and wait for you to go first. Theres a real sick pleasure to it and to be honest you'd really have to experience it before you'd fully understand what I mean. After a while you get used to it and its crossing the road as a pedestrian is similar in that you just cross (with some common sense) and the traffic will just go around you.
Day 2 of 4. Buon Ma Thuot to Kon Tum
This was our biggest day and without doubt the most tiring and kinda boring day. It was a real grind it out type of a day. I would not recommend the road between these places. My mate had a major problem with the starter, battery and idle on his bike and we had to wait just over 2 hours for it to be fixed. I had my chain guard crack off at one point too and it started to rattle over the chain. It could have been disasterous if it locked the chain.
This made our biggest day much harder and we ended up having to finish the day riding at night. This was kind of fun all the same but very difficult and I suppose a lot more danergous considering our lights were crap, there was no street lighting etc etc and to top it off my mates lights died on his bike as the battery went dead.
Besides our problems though we still managed to stop by rubber tree & pepper farms, a huge lake and a radio base which was the place of a fierce battle during the war.
One thing that kept the trip positive all the way through though was how friendly the locals were. I've honestly never been to a country has been so welcoming and where I've felt so safe. As you motorbike through places no matter how random or far off the beaten track they were you'd always here 'hello'!! come from one of the houses that you'd pass.
Day 3 of 4. Kon Tum to Kham Duc (if I remember correctly)
This was my favourite day. The weather was perfect and roads were just to die for. We did the Hivan Pass later on in the trip which many rate as the best road in Vietnam, but I honestly think this was the best stretch of road I've ever seen. I got some action camera style video of it, but I dont think it does the place justice. It was like being in a movie and it went on and on for miles. There was no traffic either, the temperature was perfect, the road was perfect and there was loads of sweeping bends. What more could you want?
To back track for a second though, we actually started the day with a visit to an orphanage. We brought them bags of crisps which they loved. We got to meet these kids, talk to their minders and see how they lived which was really cool. I even discovered that Man United had sponsored them and given them some football gear. From here we went to a passion fruit farm where we sampled some the fruit. Amazing stuff! From here we visited an airfield that was controled by the American airforce during the war. It was now used to dry out the noodle crop, but what we were actually here for was to observe the mountains and hills in the backdrop. They had been bombed heavily by the Americans during the war and Agent Orange (only the worst chemical ever to be used in any war in history) had been dropped here in large doses also. The hills were still bare in places or had very small trees on them. The area was also still littered with land mines to this day. After visiting the war museum in Saigon and seeing the effects of these sites it was somewhat emotional to observe. From here we began the Ho Chi Minh Highway and with it the most amazing roads of the trip.
The only slight let down for me was running out of fu*el. I couldnt understand though, because everyone else still had a fair amount left. It was leaking quite a lot of oil, but I'm not sure if that would have made a difference. Regardless though I broke down on the side of the mountain and we had to siphon from the other bikes to make it back. The one good thing about breaking down in the Nam though was most of the time the sc*enery was epic and this was no exception.
Two drunken lads who wanted to chat while we were having our lunch. They were about 14 or 15 I'd say. There is no legal age to drink in Nam. Its a complete free for all. Oh and they weren't part of the orphanage in case you were wondering.
Day 4 of 4. Kham Duc to Hoi An
Our last day and one of my favourite days. We woke to foggy mountain country side of Kham Duc and we had a fantastic ride all the way down the mountain. If we had time I would have stopped to take more photos. One area in particular I regret not stopping because it litherally took my breath away. You think you've seen it all and things cant get any better and then boom! once again you're blown away by this place. The lads actually started getting a little frustrated with me spending so much time taking videos and photos. I just kept saying it would be worth it in the end.
We didnt do much on this last day but we did stop off at a local home where got to see how the family lived and worked from home. They had a mini insense factory and they grew many vegtables and rice. It was kind of cool, but for the first time on the trip the family didnt want any photos taken of them. We continued and for miles and miles we passed rice fields, schools and tonnes of people who just wanted to say hello. We eventually stopped off for lunch, but when we recommenced we faced the dreaded main coastal road which was full of crazy traffic again. I honestly think that some of those drivers were suicidal or just plain crazy. We eventually reached Hoi An where half the towns streets had been dug up for resurfacing. The standard of driving was definately getting worse. In fact it just seemed to worse and worse the further north we went. I thought one of us would definately come off today of all days, but luckily we survived the madness. In fact none of us had any spills at all in the entire trip. Even our friend whom had never ridden a bike with gears before had no problems.
Theres little more to say really without going into greater detail. Before I left I asked some of you guys about bringing the Draggin Jeans. I'm definately glad I did. Yes they were heavy and warmer than a normal pair of jeans, but if I did come off at least I would have had that extra bit of protection. We saw countless accidents out there and we talked to a few tourists who had fallen off. All of them fell with little or no protection and they were left with some nasty road rash. One Belgian girl we met had fallen but she was wearing a motocross suit and she was ok on the upper part of her body. However, she had only had short trousers on and these got torn up and she got some nasty road rash from it.
As a general statement about Vietnam, its extremely cheap, the locals are very friendly (especially in the South) and it will constantly amaze you. There is no norm in Vietnam. Every place is different to the last. The only thing that remained similar for me was the food. If you like rice and noodles you'll love their food. You'll learn to use chopsticks. If standards and procedures are your thing then you wont like Vietnam. If you like random, adventure and just down right crazy then you'll love it. Personally I loved it and I'll definately go back. At the same time though I was often uncomfortable with the standard of driving and this can be off putting, but definately not enough to put me off another trip. If you're still on the fence about going though I can promise you one thing and that is you'll have some incredible experience. That you are absolutely guaranteed. Its like they say, you wouldn't know man, you weren't there!!
See Part 3 with your own eyes here:
Part 4 still to come....
