Nearly three weeks now in Vietnam and i am in Hoi an the tailoring capital of the world or so it seems. I arrived this morning with Josh who i met in Ukraine and remet randomly in Hanoi. We have been traveling together for the last week after we both decided to buy motorbikes and see the country from a different perspective.
After getting to Vietnam i headed up to the mountain country along the Chinese border for a couple of days mainly to check out how things had changed since my last visit. I probably shouldn't have as the picturesque mountain town of sapa now exists as a tourist trap. Slightly disappointed i cut down my stay to two nights although i did manage to head out of town to some of the more remote tribal villages on a rented scooter. Seriously i didn't think the bike would make it with the state of the road. At one of the villages i met a Vietnamese couple on holiday who then proceeded to show me round sapa as well as all the local food markets. Honestly black chicken (a different species not burnt) is incredible i must have had it three or more times that day. I was also introduced to Pho the staple of Vietnamese cuisine which is noodles in spicy soup although out of the town thats about all you can get so its beginning to lose it magic.
From sapa i took the train to Hanoi after being smuggled on board by a security guard as all of the tickets were sold out. After china this was a refreshing change especially as he didn't ask for money. Onboard i managed to pick up a spare ticket from a family heading back after being on holiday. They were really cool and spoke a bit of english which made the 12 hour journey pass alot faster although teaching and then playing endless games of snap was a bad idea. The ticket didn't go all the way to Hanoi so i had to grab a bus in the pitch black (no streetlights in Vietnam) and pray for forty minutes i was going the right way. Shattered from traveling and the day before i did pretty much nothing in Hanoi for 5 days. I had been before so the sights were of no interest instead a book, ipod and the lake was perfect. On the last day i bumped into josh who i had met in Ukraine. Our journeys had separated after a day and then came back together again. I kind of wanted to ride a motorbike down Vietnam but not on my own and turns out so did he so we agreed to meet in Hue a few days later buy bikes and take the trip from there.
We met in Hue and bought our bikes. They basically cost $200-250 each and all was well at the beginning. We took them out for a test drive and perfect. Next day leaving our bags we headed up to the DMZ (de militarised zone) to see the tunnels and the dividing line between the north and south before heading up to khe san where the famous siege of the US marines happened. We spent the night up there and awoke to solid mist, great this will be a steep learning curve. We had already learnt to ride a bike in Vietnam rush hour traffic probably not the best idea but you learn fast. Then riding in the rain up the coast, then the mountains and now thick fog. All fun and games. The plan was to ride down the Ho Chi Minh trail for 100kms before taking the back road over the mountains to hue to pick up our stuff then over the famous (top gear) hi van pass to Danang and china beach. It kind of went ok until we got delayed in hue sending a parcel then my bike making funny noises. Despite this we soldiered on going over the hi van pass at sunsest (seriously amazing) me at about 2mph and josh powering on ahead. We then took on Danang vietnams third largest city at night which is something that will live with me forever, just a mass of lights, horns people crossing without looking. Insanity in its purist form.
Somehow completely shattered we turned up at our small guesthouse on a deserted section of china beach. Not being a beach person i was not sure about spending too long here but it was amazing. Pristine white sand, palm trees and perfectly clear water the perfect place to relax and unwind although the sun got us both by the end of the day. The ownly downer was going swimming forgetting my solitary bike key was in my open pocket and remembering with horror later. The solution a shifty looking guy with blank keys files me a new one in 10 seconds flat by looking in the lock. Not a comforting thought considering our bikes live outside.
Today we just did the 20km to Hoi an along the coast road to where we are now a nice hotel with a pool $6 a night, happy days. An in two days time we attempt the next section of the Ho Chi Minh trail, should be amazing.
Heres hoping my bikes makes it ;-)
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