Vietnam :: Hanoi to Saigon :: 2011 : Part 1
Day 1 - Hanoi to Ninh Binh - Breaking in
At 8am I picked up my bike, a 250cc Yamaha Raid trailie with knobbly tires, from Voyage Vietnam in central Hanoi, and jostled my way through dense scooter traffic in first gear on the clutch. Owing to a strange combination of a semi-ring road and selectively motorcycle prohibitive routes, within an hour I was completely lost, a fantastic start. On two separate occasions people sent me in the exact opposite direction to my intended destination. In fact, despite meaning well, roughly half the people I asked for directions in Vietnam got it wrong, a good lesson to learn early then.
I used the location of the sun, instinct and luck to find the road to Ninh Binh, which was chock full of heavy vehicles spilling construction materials over the road, belching black fumes into my face and generally driving aggressively. I saw a man lying on the floor with his leg bent the wrong way, blood staining his trousers, a group of people arguing and pulling around his broken scooter. Lunch was wet noodles with beef at a roadside shack.
Being full of good old English bravery/stupidity I had ridden into the overcast, muggy weather in a t-shirt with no sun cream. Error. My arms were radioactive for a week after. From then on I rode in my hoodie with sun cream on hands and neck.
I stayed in the Kie Anh hotel on the main road, which is near some decent places to eat local food and not a bad place for 10 dollars.
Day 2 - Ninh Binh - Cua Lo - To the sea!
The roads were shocking today, for four hours I had to battle for road position with endless lorries, huge bullying coaches, suicidal scooter riders, constantly changing road surfaces, ever fluctuating road widths, pot holes and a spot of rain.
I stopped for a wee at one point, and when I came back to my bike a group of rascals were all over it, nice lads though.
Mid morning I had a small minor crash with a scooter rider heavily laden with cages and bags full of bananas. As many Vietnamese do ( even with their wife and two kids hanging on the back ) he pulled straight out into the road without glancing at the traffic that could kill him, narrowly avoiding death by coach. He then procedded to drift left across two lanes of fast traffic, then looked over his shoulder, saw me, was apparently transfixed by my radiance and was unable to stop turning. I tried to swerve left but decided I should straighten up and hit straight. After a loud bang and a short scream he ended up sprawled across the road covered in bananas with his scooter on top of his legs. I stopped, turned around, and rode over to see if he was ok. He limped up, recovered some bananas and headed off looking pretty broken. I had ripped open my hoodie, bruised the right of my stomach and gained two thin gashes in my knee and forearm.
Once on the smooth open coastal road to Cua Lo I opened the throttle and had some fun. Cua Lo is a popular destination for Vietnamese holiday makers, although it was definitely low season when I visited. I saw no foreigners there at all, which made me a prime target for people to have their photo taken with me. A group of 6 screaming teenage girls caught me and took it in turns to have their photo taken with me, grabbing onto my top so I couldn’t escape. As soon as I got my camera out they ran, a common phenomenon I found in Vietnam – fear of a foreigners camera…
Once at the Viet Anh hotel I went for a seafood feast then met some mental local chaps who got me as drunk as them. Lovely guys.
I walked the beach in evening until it was dark. The next day I walked the coastline for miles, often a holiday making girl would come over so her boyfriend could take a photo of us. I got to put my arm around some very beautiful girls. For lunch I ate some salty poppadoms with peanuts and syrup on. In the early evening a strange dense fog came in.
Day 4 - Cua Lo to Houng Khe - Westwards into the Jungle
Leaving early without breaky I was starving by noon. I had already passed through a big town, Vinh, and could not see any decent looking shacks for grub. I had to settle for a horrible little dark, damp shack. The people were very nice to me but the place seemed to breath disease. Despite leaving half of my noodles and beef I felt very ill after.
Luckily the riding from then on was great, only light traffic and beautiful countryside. I saw a truck upended in the road, completely stuck, some locals laughed when I got the camera out.
I rode to the Don Loc intersection then on to Houng Khe town.
The only hotel in town was fairly terrible, but cheap. Upon entering I found 2 big cockroaches in my room, and a giant centipede in the tiolet. At least the shower was hot.
I went to the town centre for a snack, my stomach still hurting, so I sat by a lake and ate 2 big bags of crisps. I had some fun with the locals who all kept measuring their height against me. It wasn’t a pretty place.
Back at the hotel I got myself moved to a VIP room on the top floor after showing off my captured cockroaches and a flooded bathroom. The new room seemed nicer, but there was plenty of company in the ceiling, with rats scurrying and bumping around constantly. At 2am a storm kicked off, and apparently tore a hole in the roof, making a terrible noise through which it was impossible to sleep. I didn’t pay any money to stay at that particular abode.
Day 5 - Houng Khe to Dong Hoi - Sehr Gut
Karma gave me a slab of ‘good’ after a rough night. There was incredible riding all day, first around lush green rice paddies with misty mountains in the distance, then into those mountains on winding steep roads. There was hardly anyone else on the road. It was certainly the best day so far and I couldn’t stop smiling.
Mid afternoon rain couldn’t dampen my spirits but I decided to skip exploring Phong Nha park, and so went straight to Dong Hoi. I pulled up to the cheap and decent Thien Long hotel where the manager and his wife speak seemingly good German. Riding around town for a while I found what I think is the only proper restaurant in Dong Hoi, near the tallest building there, Sacombank, and had some lovely cheap munch.
