Vietnam

Dear readers, I'm back! 

Resume du troisieme episode asiatique:

Mon sejour d'environ trois semaines et demi au Vietnam commenca par une croisiere de la Baie d'Halong, au cours de laquelle je rencontrai notamment Maaike, Ward, Julian et Sam, deux Hollandais et deux Australiens. Nous decidames chacun d'acheter une moto afin de rejoindre Saigon depuis Hanoi en moins de trois semaines. Le nord du Vietnam fut assez pluvieux et nous essayames d'aller aussi vite que possible retrouver le soleil plus au sud, mais de nombreux soucis techniques nous empecherent de pleinement profter de nos montures. Nous visitames en chemin une magnifique grotte, ainsi que des tunnels utilises pendant la guerre comme abris anti-bombardement. Nous nous arretames quelques jours a Hoi An, charmante ville situee a mi-parcours et remplie de tailleurs, ce dont nous profitames autant que possible. Puis vinrent Nha Trang (station balneaire pleine de Russes), Dalat (jolie ville dans les montagnes du sud Vietnam), Mui Ne (station balneaire bien plus jolie et interessante) et enfin Saigon, ou nous vendimes nos bien-aimees motos, visitames un musee tres marquant sur les victimes de la guerre du Vietnam, et d'ou Julian prit son avion pour rentrer en Australie.

After Singapore, Thailand and a bit of Laos, it was time to get dirty, local, real. Vietnam, show me what you got!

From Vientiane, I flew to Hanoi, Vietnam capital located in the north. I met some friends from Chiang Mai at the airport and we got together on a minibus to the city centre. Unfortunately, our arrival was quite depressing. For the first time in my trip, it was raining. Hanoi is a big dirty city, rain cannot make that any better.

With this terrible weather, I decided to follow Sophie's advice (a British girl I had met in Luang Prabang) and booked a space on the famous Castaway tour in Halong Bay, a three-day tour which includes 24 hours on a private island. This tour being very popular with backpackers, I could hardly have taken any better decision: would you rather be stuck with no sun on a boat full of like-minded young people or surrounded by old tourists, or even worse, families?! 

Halong Bay, Castaway-style

Those three days turned out to be really cool. On our first day, we cruised Halong Bay and went kayaking in some Hong (similar to what I had done around Phuket, but without a guide paddling for you). We stayed on the boat for the first night for a big party to welcome us on board and celebrate Vanessa's birthday, and reached Castaway island the following morning. There, it really felt like being on holidays with a bunch of close friends, talking to everyone, playing beach soccer and volleyball, rock climbing, high speed tubing... Sometimes, it would feel like being back to childhood, at a summer camp, having switched off your brain and only thinking about having fun. Ok, maybe with a few more beers than when you were twelve, but that was pretty much the only difference.

Before arriving to Vietnam, I had thought about buying a motorbike in Hanoi and traveling all the way south to Saigon, but needed some extra motivation to actually do it. On my first day in Hanoi, talking to some people who did it helped me to make my mind, but then Castaway enabled me to meet Maaike and Ward, two Dutches who were traveling on their own too and had the same motorbike plan. Like me, none of them had ridden a manual motorbike before.

Back in Hanoi, we met with Stone, an extremely nice Vietnamese motorbike seller/tour operator who had agreed to sell us a bike and help us find the other two, and most importantly had agreed to spend half a day teaching us how to ride a manual motorbike. 

 My devoted motorbike

When you are used to driving a scooter and using a clutch on a manual car, then learning how to ride a bike should not be a big deal, and you should feel pretty at ease after a couple of hours. But Hanoi has the craziest traffic I have seen in my life: crossing a street by foot is already demanding, so imagine learning to drive there... Hordes of bikes and scooters going in all directions, with no apparent respect for normal traffic laws... To makes things worse, our cheap bikes (Chinese copies of Honda Wins, the perfect bike for that trip) of very dubious quality were already falling apart (Ward started the series of our many mechanic visits with a broken gear pedal and a blocked gas handle, before we even left Hanoi), so you can imagine how intense this was!

But Vietnam is the perfect country to do such a trip. Like in Singapore, car taxes go as high as two hundred percent, but unlike in  the city state where wealth is so abundant that you will still find Ferrari and Rolls Royce cars everywhere, Vietnam does not enjoy that luxury and went for a cheaper alternative: nearly everyone owns a motorbike or a scooter. Which means that you will find bike shops and mechanics everywhere, so it does not really matter if your bike breaks down, most of the time you will get it fixed easily at a highly competitive price. New tyre? Two dollars! Weird oil leak? You need new seals, I'll do it for three... and so on...

Anyway, after having properly celebrated Paddy's day, we left Hanoi, joined by Julian and Sam, two Australians I met at Castaway and who also had bought Wins to go to Saigon. 

About half an hour after having left Hanoi, we had already lost Ward, who was heading to Laos before realising he was on the wrong track. We found him again at the beginning of the Ho Chi Minh trail, which basically is a road linking north and south Vietnam and had been used in wartime to provide support to military factions in the South. Its a nice alternative to very busy Highway One, which links Hanoi to Saigon more directly.

It was still mostly cloudy and rainy, so we did our best to get away from the north as fast as possible, even if that meant spending some time on Highway One, which we quickly renamed "suicide road" because of how dangerous it can be. Surprisingly, we did not see that many accidents on the road, which probably means that no matter how strange Vietnamese traffic rules are, most people actually follow them. The most important one being that as a motorbike, you count as next to nothing, and busses or trucks coming the other way will disregard you when deciding to overtake each other. That is why I was sometimes forced to leave the proper road and quickly get to the side track as crazy bus drivers were speeding up and coming straight at me... Ah, Vietnamese roads... 

Another striking aspect Vietnamese road is how dirty they are. There is no waste collection system outside of cities (and even in cities, do not expect much from it), and people throw away their rubbish without even looking for a bin.

 Herd of cows randomly crossing an intersection, somewhere in north Vietnam

Driving on a dirty beach

We stopped in Ninh Binh and Vinh, but did not see much of these places except from their mechanics, and had to stop one night in the middle of nowhere on the Ho Chi Minh trail, spending the night in a tiny village and our evening with puppies at the mechanic, worryingly looking at Vietnamese guys disassembling piece by piece Sam's motor...

 That does not look very promising...

View somewhere along Ho Chi Minh trail

Literally, we would try to wake up early everyday, but end up spending the all morning at the mechanic, and leave around lunchtime, meaning that we would arrive at night in most cities we slept in. And believe me, suicide road at night is quite scary!

The road is mine

On the following day, Sam's bike seemed to be working better, and we continued on our long journey. As we were passing some mountains, it started raining heavily, but nevertheless we managed to safely get to Son Trach, a small town mostly used as a base to explore Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park, home of the largest limestone cave worldwide. 

 

Inside the cave

Next on our route was Hue. We met a white guy living in Vietnam who gave us lots of good advises on how to get there avoiding busy roads and stopping at the right places.

 Having fun on the beach

Hue is very close to the DMZ (demilitarised zone), which separated North from South Vietnam during the war. Before getting to Hue, we stopped to visit Vinh Moc tunnels, built by villagers to move their village underground and protect themselves from intense US bombing. It was full of children on a school trip, reminding me of French teachers bringing children to Verdun. The tunnels are quite long, dozens of families lived there for years and seventeen kids were actually born under ground level. 

 American bomb shells

 

Tunnel entrance

We finally got (at night, of course) to Hue, and next morning was spent at the mechanic, again, because Sam's bike had broken down once more. I know, this article may sound quite repetitive.

After having driven around Hue's citadel, we decided to split up and to go to Hoi An while Sam would wait in Hue with Julian for his bike to be ready.

 Hue

 

Of course, it took more time than expected, so two hours later our favourite Aussies called us to tell us we would meet on the following day in Hoi An.

Overall, until up to that point, Julian definitely had the most reliable bike, and not much to repair on it. He got bored at the mechanic waiting for Sam's bike to get fixed, so he asked Kim, his local bike expert, to set up a USB plug connected to his battery, plus an iPhone case on his speed counter, just for the sake of it... But however cool his bike was, I still had the fastest of our whole crew!

 A well equipped bike

Riding from Hue to Hoi An was probably one of our best days. First, to avoid highway one as much as possible, we went on a tiny road going through small villages full of temples and cemeteries. We probably passed thirty or forty temples in less than an hour!

Northern Vietnam feels very Chinese, culturally speaking but also based on how people look like and behave (they do not spit all day long though!) and Chinese influence looked very obvious on these temples. Apparently, most Vietnamese believe in some kind of mix between Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, but there are also many Catholics here.

Chinese-style tomb

Anyway, after that, we headed to Hai Van Pass, a road full of turns in the mountain that separates Hue from Hoi An, North from South Vietnam, rainy days from sunny one, cold from warm weather, jeans from short, trekking shoes from flip flops. Finally! The road itself was highly enjoyable, especially because they built a tunnel for Highway One trucks and busses, meaning that the pass is mainly used by bikers who want to have some fun while enjoying great views. Words can hardly describe the feeling of being surrounded by such beautiful sceneries, driving through clouds and ending up a thousand metres higher than where you started your ascent.

 On our way to Hai Van Pass

 Ward driving on Hai Van Pass

View from Hai Van Pass

 Very strange cloud strip at the top of Hai Van Pass, coming from North Vietnam (right-hand side)

 Road to Da Nang, South Vietnam (it got sunnier the following day)

Actually, once at the top I decided to leave the road and went on a small and very steep path that seemed to go even higher to take a cool photo. Around a hundred metres higher, I passed in front of a small building next to which three Vietnamese guys were eating and drinking beer. It was only 5:30 pm but these guys were obviously very drunk already, since they started shouting at me telling me (in Vietnamese) I could not go further, then took dozens of photos with me, and finally offered me beers for the road (I was driving, so when I refused the second one, he put it in my pocket and forced me to keep it for later). When he understood I was French, one of them started shouting "Chamonix!", a famous French ski resort, which seemed to be the only thing he knew about France... So random! 

 My new friends on top of Hai Van Pass

We then got to Da Nang, and then Hoi An. A peaceful town with a charming historical centre that has not been bombed down by American forces, Hoi An is quite famous for its tailors and shoemakers. We were quite keen to stay there for a few days, something we had not done since leaving Hanoi, finally enjoying some well deserved sun, beaches all day long and once in a while going to the tailor for some fittings. Following my technique developed in Phuket, we sneaked into a five star resort on our first day there and spent the afternoon by their pool, surrounded by old Aussies on holidays. The nightlife was quite disappointing though, everyone keeps talking about Hoi An so I guess we expected a bit too much out of it. In particular, the main club there looked like it came straight from the eighties, with mirrors everywhere and one of the worst dj ever... But you can still organise beach parties, sitting around a bond fire with your friends, and that was pretty much all we needed. 

Enjoying some well deserved sun by the infinity pool

 Finally a nice sunny beach !

On our second evening in Hoi An, Sam and Julian got to the city, with a Swedish guy called Ham (like ham and cheese, as he introduced himself). Sam told me they had met him in the Hai Van pass, when he overtook them topless, smoking a cigarette and wearing flip flops, while Sam was freezing on his bike. That sums up quite well how chill Ham is, a very spontaneous, cool guy: we immediately adopted him in our bikers crew.

Hoi An is also the place where I fixed the two biggest problems on my bike: I had been back firing (explosions in my exhaust, with flames sometimes coming out of it) a lot from Hue to Hoi An, which was definitely not a good sign for my bike, but it is not a huge problem either. More important, I also realised my fuel tank was leaking and had to replace it. You could have set me on fire just by throwing a cigarette butt at me. Or maybe simply leaving the bike too long in the sun. Yeah, our bikes were not that safe and solid.

 

Selfie at the tailor

 Behind the scenes

All suited up !

 Julian taking care of our bond fire

Also, if you are looking for good food, Hoi An delivers. I probably had the best Vietnamese food there, in particular they offer white rose: dumplings filled with shrimps, and served with a white-wine sauce and crispy onions... delicious!
 

 Amazing street food in Hoi An

Another random memory: in Hoi An, we started seeing a lot of rats. Hanoi had its fair share too, but there, I even had rats bumping into my feet while waiting in front of my hotel.

Anyway, when we decided to leave Hoi An, we had five hundred kilometers to ride before reaching Nha Trang, another coastal city. That took us two days, but it was such a beautiful ride! Going along the coast felt like being somewhere around the Mediterranean sea, turquoise water, warm and sunny weather... Paradise on two wheels!

 Typical gas refill stop

 On our way to Nah Trang (1)

  On our way to Nah Trang (2) - Hai Van Pass 2.0

  On our way to Nah Trang (3)

 On our way to Nah Trang (4)

  On our way to Nah Trang (5) - Definitely nicer when sun is up!

In two days, and without too many serious bike problems, we reached Nah Trang, a beach resort full of Russians (there is a daily flight from Moscow), quite impersonal and charmless. But we ended up renting a private flat for the six of us, close to the main party places, which was definitely what we needed after Hoi An somewhat dull nightlife. Also, speaking about gay rights and Crimea with Russians remains a priceless experience.

It is also in Nha Trang that I had for the first time eel and crocodile, and it was surprisingly good. After days eating beef noodle soup at lunch and dinner (and quite a few times for breakfast too), my stomach happily had weird new local food!

After Nha Trang, the six of us headed to Dalat, a cute city located in the middle of south Vietnam mountains. A good ride to get there, but because there were not many villages on the way, we were literally praying for our bikes not to break down. And of course they did... After having fixed Maaike's engine and chain, we were back on the road and got to Dalat just before sunset. We stayed in a very cool guesthouse, a bit isolated but boasting a great family atmosphere (hence its name, family guesthouse), shared dinner with everyone sitting on the common room floor and activities organised for the whole house guests. 

 On our way to Dalat (1)

  On our way to Dalat (2)

Greenhouses just before Dalat

We spent a day canyoning in a natural park, abseiling rocks and waterfalls, water sliding (great idea to do it with both Ward and Julian at the same time, all of us ending up with our back and/or legs bruised), cliff jumping... A very good day, even if we finished it under the rain.

Next day, Ham had left us and went straight to Ho Chi Minh City to sell his bike, but we decided to add a stop on our route in Mui Ne, a beach city on the southern coast of Vietnam before getting to Ho Chi Minh City. We left early in the morning, which allowed us to go visit Pongour waterfalls, the most beautiful waterfalls I have seen in Asia so far. And apart from a couple taking wedding photos there, we had the whole site by ourselves... Fantastic! 

 Pongour waterfalls

Back on our bikes, it did not last long before Sam experienced yet another bike problem. His back tyre was flat, so we ended up putting his bike on a truck and went to the closest repair shop to fix it. Then, rain came back in the game, and it started pouring so hard that we were forced to stop: driving fast was actually painful! Once rain was over, the ride became really enjoyable, in the middle of mountains, surrounded by untouched forests... Perfect, until Sam's bike (again) broke down, in the middle of nowhere. He had to buy a rope and Julian pulled him until the next mechanic, who was unable to do anything to fix his bike... Night was slowly falling on us, half of our lights were broken, but we made it to Phan Thiet, about forty kilometres away, on our five bikes but with only four engines running...

 Sam's bike seems to be doing well

Way easier...

Heavy rain in the mountains

Next day, we left Sam's and Maaike's bikes at yet another mechanic (she had heaps of smoke coming out of her exhaust, which would be a standard problem on Sam's bike but not on hers... ) and went on three bikes to Mui Ne, a beach town famous for its white and red sand dunes. 

On our way there, we got controlled by the police. They asked for our motorbike driving license and of course none of us had one. Ward and Julian got away with their car driving license, but my French one explicitly says that I cannot drive a motorbike... But I bullshited my way through and got away with it without even having to pay any fine/bribe. Someone told me Vietnam finally realised tourism could become a big industry and police forces have been explicitly asked not to bother tourist beyond necessary. Five years ago it would probably have cost us more.

 Our five beasts

Sam photobombing a cute puppy photo

 Enjoying a good fat burger, best one in town

Once in Mui Ne, we managed to find a nice hotel, with its beautiful swimming pool facing the sea. It was actually so nice that we ended up spending the whole day relaxing there, only to realise half an hour before sunset that it was probably too late to go check out the dunes... I guess I will have to come back!

By that time, we had to rush a bit, since Julian was flying back to Australia from Saigon a couple of days later, and wanted at least a day in Saigon to sell his bike.

So finally came our last day on our babes, going from Mui Ne to Saigon. For once, Sam's bike was working, and remarkably well (he was nearly as fast as me, but not quite yet... Try again Sammy boy!). Arriving in Saigon was actually quite fun. It had been a while since we had last seen that many scooters and bikes in one town, they were everywhere! But now we were actually experienced, not like on our first day in Hanoi.

 Average traffic

We stayed a couple of nights in Saigon, just enough to sell our bikes, make new friends (including Yuna, a French girl on exchange who knew a few friends of mine from Paris), sadly wish a safe flight back home to Julian, and visit the war remnants museum. This is the most impressive war museum I have ever seen. Unexpectedly, you are first shown pictures and documents about demonstrations which took place around the world against the war and then only documents and objects concerning the conflict itself. Like any war-related museum, it depicts a terribly violent picture of what happened, but the worse is yet to come. Half of a floor focusses on agent orange and its devastating effects on Vietnam, a human as well as ecological catastrophe. Agent orange is an extremely potent defoliant, which Americans used extensively during that war. They sprayed it over so much land it affected people even years after the end of the war, simply because they ate food grown on contaminated fields. By causing mutation in reproductive cells, way too many Vietnamese gave and still give birth to malformed kids. 

Pictures exposed were so strong, it made me feel nauseous, horrible stories about how it affected Vietnamese people would literally bring tears to my eyes. It was shocking.

Leaving that museum, you are left with anger against American government and military commanders who made that horror happen, but at the same it is not just American bashing, since so many photos show you most Americans were against the war and heavily protested and fought to prevent it. But it definitely makes you realise how inhumane men can be.

After that, Julian left us to go back to Australia (he was only on a three-week holiday) and finished to sell our bikes. Basically, we just hung out the night before at our hotel rooftop bar, and since nearly everyone staying there was either selling or buying bikes, talked to people and agreed on prices over a beer. As simple as that! We all sold them for about $300, which was good except for Sam who spent maybe $150 on his repairs...

Overall, we broke/had to fix:
- a gear pedal
- a gas handle
- lights
- spark plugs
- Sam's whole engine, he actually bought a brand new set of gears
- breaks
- clutches
- spokes
- tyres
- seals
- a lot of bolts to tighten
- racks
- batteries
- my gas tank

- suspensions (simply tightening them though)
- fenders
- chains
- electric starters
- hoses
- horns
- chain protection
- Ham's seat
- exhausts
- some stuff on Maaike's and Ward's engines
... and probably many more parts I forgot. But they were great bikes, and it was part of the fun!

After that, we decided not to stay long in Vietnam and I took a bus with Maaike and Ward straight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to head as soon as possible to a beach and finally get some well deserved rest after our tiring Vietnamese experience. Plus we did not really like Saigon, one of those big and somewhat dirty Asian cities that I try to avoid during this trip, even if I have to admit that some parts of it were nicer than expected. There's a beautiful central post office, a French-inspired cathedral and a few impressive modern skyscrapers which clearly show Saigon growing importance as a major economic centre in Asia.

 Saigon cathedral

 My baby and Bitexco financial tower, designed by Carlos Zapata

Since the route to follow when visiting Vietnam is quite straightforward and because people end up hanging out around the same places, we kept meeting the same people and see the same faces in different towns. I mean, it is true of my all trip here in Southeast Asia (there are not many possible different routes to follow), but it is always nice to arrive in a new town and come across a face you know, like those Swedish we met in Hoi An, Nha Trang and Saigon, or these Danish girls we saw in about the same places, or Kush who we saw pretty much everywhere... And we kept seeing them even in Cambodia, but that's another story... Coming soon in my next post!

Thanks for reading!

Jean-Paul