Free tea and bananas were great at 1st, a few chain tightenings or general maintenance type things done to the bike on the house….but then it was free beers and rice wine, and eventually free diners. The kids light up with excitement when they see me coming, running to the street and yelling “hellllllo” followed by a friendly wave. I have even had fans in the street stopping me for photos on a few occasions, clearly die hard followers of 2Guys1Truck. Finally living the life I deserve, these people get me.
Yes it is the Rockstar life in Vietnam, my fame has now gone worldwide. People were friendly in the South, still friendly in the North but much more reserved, but Central Vietnam might just have the most friendly people on this planet. It is probably what I enjoy most about this country, yes the food is great, and the motorcycle riding is phenomenal, but seeing the joy I bring to these kids really makes this place special. My ego will miss this place.
Qui Nhon to Kon Tum: 190KM
Kon Tum to Hoi An: 298KM
Hoi An to De Nang: 30KM
De Nang to Hue: 102KM
Hue to Khe Sanh: 133KM
Khe Sanh to Phong Nha: 222KM
Phong Nha to Huong Khe: 136KM
Huong Khe to Cam Thuy: 300KM
Total for Vietnam: 2078KM (1291 Miles)
So I left Qui Nhon and headed inland, knowing it would be a brief detour through the mountains before heading back to the coast. This was not the most efficient way for me to get to the popular cities of Hoi An or De Nang, but I had read good things about the drive through Kon Tum via the Ho Chi Minh Road, and those of you who have followed this blog over the years know I do not know the meaning of efficient.
The Ho Chi Minh Road roughly coincides with the legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail that played a key role during the American/Vietnam war, which was a network of roads running through Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It will someday run the entire length of Vietnam all the way to China, and once completed will eventually be around 2,000 miles long. Why do I care, because it contains some of the best scenery on the planet, combining some of my favorites: mountains, rivers, twisties, and switchbacks. I am now leaving Southern Vietnam and entering Central Vietnam, where the riding gets much better.
The 1st few hours inland were pleasant, I had blue skies and good roads with gentle curves taking me through the countryside and through random villages. It was a nice change after the coastal highway full of idiots driving scooters and trucks, which was also flat and straight….boring. The scenery was nice but nothing spectacular, I struggle to recall the drive prior to hitting the mountains, as it has been several weeks since I have been in Southern Vietnam at this point. That said, I can remember the exact moment when I hit the mountains, and started the climb. It was a steep ascent, and the twisties started almost immediately. The view of the valley I was leaving behind was fantastic, I can vividly picture it in my mind, which is good since I took ZERO pictures.
Yes, unfortunately, it was a long day of driving, or maybe I stopped too often for pics prior to hitting the mountains, but at some point I noticed I had 130 kms and not much time left before the sun was setting. Now 130 kms is only 80 miles, but any number of kms in Vietnam can take much longer than expected due to the road condition, the constant ascending and descending of mountains, weather, and many other reasons, so I knew I had to book it if I was going to make it to Kon Tum before nightfall. I honestly did not think I would make it, and was a bit nervous to where I would be staying as this route gets you out into the middle of nowhere. The plus here, I made that bike move like it was designed to. Generally I prefer to not push it, back home I drive fairly relaxed and keep things in check, but I did not want to be driving at night, so by being forced to push it a bit I was able to enjoy a great road on a crappy Chinese bike. The problem with this is there are animals all over the place, plus village people walking around, potholes, landslides, you know the drill. As I cruised up a particular section of mountain with my motor humming, a group of guys were chilling on the side and heard me coming, and as I flew past they raised their hands in the air with approval. Out here I started to get a few hellos, waves, and smiles…the people of Vietnam can be very friendly. If I don’t get a hello they at least stare as drive by, or especially when I walk around the small towns. It does take some getting used to, but sometimes my ego loves the attention. All eyes will be on you no matter what, if you are trying to get away, relax, or happen to have social anxiety, Vietnam is not the place for you!
The road was a typical mountain road, narrow and a bit bumpy with occasional potholes, but generally pretty good. Luckily I made it to Kon Tum just as night fell. It was dark, and I realized that both my head light and tail light were not working. Luckily, half of the bikes in Vietnam are like this, so the only worry was someone hitting me. Kon Tum doesn’t have much going on for it, but there was a good selection of street food and the people were friendly, saying hello and asking where I was from. The farther north I go the more friendly they seem to be. The only foreigners passing through are on motorcycles, so I am definitely not the first, but the numbers are low. I believe the only ones in this small city, were myself, 4 Aussies, and a French Canadian. It’s actually a good sized city so I am sure there were others hiding somewhere.
Walking home from my street food adventure, I turned onto the road with my hotel. This street was not lit well, but straight, wide, and empty. I watch a scooter which is passing me in the same direction, as it crashes into the steep sidewalk which was about a foot off the road. Sparks fly as the scooter slides along the sidewalk/road like a bowling ball in the gutter, with the driver tumbling across the sidewalk. Oh shit, I freeze, feeling like I should go check on the driver but knowing it will be tough to help with the language barrier. There are 2 scooters a good distance behind who absolutely saw him go down, and drive right past without even looking over at the driver to check on him, something I have read is normal here. This also makes me hesitant to get involved being a foreigner, but I can’t ignore him when he is right across the street. He stumbles to his feet and seems ok. Luckily I see a guy come running from the corner, ok good now I am off the hook.
I continue walking but keep taking a look back to see what transpires, as there was no reason for the guy to have crashed on such a wide open empty street. The helper picks up the bike, and then I see he is going to drive the original driver home, which I think is nice. As they go past me I see the guy who crashed hanging sideways of that back, slowly coming closer and closer to falling as the new driver is trying to hold him up with 1 hand while driving the scooter and trying to come to a stop. Turns out the crash was because the guy was shitfaced, to drunk to drive, and to drunk to be a passenger. I thought crossing the street in Saigon was dangerous due to the number of scooters, but now crossing the street really has me worried.
I continue north through the mountains often times coming very close to the Laos border. I eventually cut inland in order to hit up Hoi An, a popular tourist destination located on the coast and known for its picturesque lanterns hung all around town. Of course an hour or so outside town I missed my turn, but due to the rain that was just arriving I continued on and ended up in De Nang which is 45 minutes north of Hoi An, meaning I would need to backtrack slightly the next day.
De Nang is one of the larger cities in Vietnam, and slightly famous for its dragon bridge. I went out with some hostel people and had a great night, but I do not know that it had anything to with De Nang, and would have been fine skipping it, but it certainly wasn’t a bad destination. It is a large city with stores and food, plus some bars….which is more than most of the destinations I will be hitting up in the next few weeks.
The next day I backtracked 45 minutes or so to Hoi An, which was a nice place to relax, but is a bit touristy. I enjoyed it but 1 day would be enough for me, though many people take 2-3 days here to bike around or just plain relax. I ended up staying 2 nights as I had a list of maintenance I wanted to get done with the bike, and was to hung over to get them done the 1st day due to the previous outing in De Nang. To give you an idea on Vietnam prices, I had the guy do the following which included parts and labor:
Replaced following for 50USD total: Stator (6USD), new front shocks which I could have ignored (30USD), Brakes, headlight/taillight bulbs, weld my rack that had broke, and a couple other misc things finishing off the remaining 15 USD.
From Hoi An I continued past De Nang heading North, passing over the legendary Hai Van Pass, made famous by the guys on Top Gear, ironically they did not even see the best parts of Vetnam, but the episode is epic. Hai Van Pass is a very beautiful mountain pass with views of the blue sea contrasting with lush green mountains. It is only 21 kms, and located just outside De Nang which makes it very easy for tourists to rent bikes and make the journey. I admit I did not get the beautiful blue skies that others are lucky enough to get though the day was nice enough, I couldn’t help but feel it is over hyped. It is definitely a must do, but there were plenty of other passes throughout Vietnam that simply put this one to shame.
The next stop was Hue, a city full of history which generally bores me, but I was only stopping here as it logistically made sense on my route. I assumed it was US war history, but at least it was from cool shit back in the 1700’s. There were 13 emperors who ruled Vietnam from hue, and they are buried around the city. I went to 2 of the burial sites, as well as walked around the citadel which is where they resided. They had a no peasants rule in the city, that’s right peasants stay out you are not good enough for us…I like these guys. The sites were all ok but being on a moto adventure makes this stuff kind of lame to me. Plus it is a very touristy city. There is a backpacker neighborhood full of restaurants and bars which cater to tourists, and guides constantly trying to get you to go on a moto tour or sell you weed. If you are busing the country by all means check it out as it is a nice enough place, but the city did not impress me. The reason I spent 2 days here was the guy at the hostel had asked if I could stop by the local school, and mentioned it was difficult to get clean English speakers, those damn Brits or Aussies ruin it for everyone with there terrible accents. He said we would head over at 2pm, so I figured worst case scenario I am stuck there 3 hours, sow as happy to help as well as get the experience with local children.
I jump on my bike and follow him over the school. We cut through the citadel and I realize the actual citadel city is huge, it probably took us another 10-15 minutes of motoring until we exited the walls on the other side. It is enormous, and has portions of the modern city of Hue withing these walls. We arrive at school where he passes me off and I am given a brief break down of expectations, there is a teacher present but I am leading the class, asking them questions and letting them ask me questions. Here I thought I was just going to go in and speak, but they are giving me a list of topics and things to cover, I am basically teaching on the fly, without getting paid….can I talk to the union?
I walk into class and in unison they give me the “Hello Teacher, welcome to class, how are you”, like a bunch of robots. But it turns out their English is much better than I anticipated, and they are surprisingly well behaved. They are thrilled that I am there, I get a lot of stares from the kids who quickly look away shyly when I look at them. The classroom isn’t all that large, yet for some reason I am handed a microphone which is completely unnecessary. We play games with key phrases from my cheat sheet, mostly consisting with “Whats-your-favorite-color…Mine-is-pur-ple”. Class ends after 30 or so minutes and I think I am done, but they take me to another class. As I walk in the kid in the back gives me a high five, so naturally every kid wants to high five me. I walk up the isle to the front high fiving everyone I pass like the rockstar I am, yes these kids get me. Class is similar to before but the kids are slightly younger, less behaved, and we cover different topics.
Turns out school doesn’t end at 5 like I assumed, and I am suckered into 6 hours of teaching kids, while each class got younger and less behaved. The obviously sold me with the best kids 1st, knowing I couldn’t get free once I was in too deep. The last class had kids who might have been 6, and there was a lot of youtube sing alongs, it was a bit rough. At 8pm it finally ends, but they pay me with delicious food, ok forget everything I said this was great I will be back everyday, they clearly know the way to my heart. Once it was finally done I was quite thankful I had been asked to go, while a long day the kids were fantastic, and it is one of those experiences that I happened to be in the right place at the right time for.
Leaving Hue an old guy comes up to me and tells me my rear tire is wobbling. Since it is a touristy place I figure it is a scam but am 50 feet from the hostel so go back and ask the guy working to take a look as I drive away, since it feels ok. He immediately tells me it is a scam, so I pull away but look back and see him give the thumbs up. Thinking all is good I continue on, but of course there would in fact be an issue with my rear tire later.
From Hue I go to Khe Sanh, another mountain town. It is another long day with more beautiful scenery, and I arrive feeling I am the only foreigner in town. These places in the mountains are mostly stops of convenience, there is not much going on, and the only foreigners they see are generally other motorcyclists. Even finding food at night is tough, everything is dead. Most towns have a small number of hotels or hostels so that is not a problem. Generally hostels in Vietnam have been 5USD A night, while hotels start at 10USD, though the hostels are often in better shape with more comfortable beds. If you are traveling with a companion you may want to throw in a few extra bucks for the next step up regarding hotels, as they are usually adequate but nothing special. A few have been fantastic for the price, while others are what you would expect for 10USD, but for someone who lived in a van traveling Latin America these places all fill my needs.
From Khe Sanh it is a long day on the HCMR to get to Phong Nha. This is probably the best ride in all of South/Central Vietnam, as I ride a glorified side walk which is generally in good condition, with minimal traffic through some amazing mountains. I stop at one point to snap some pics of an incredible vista, and by dumb luck, happened to park in front of a family of monkeys. I wouldn’t even have known they were there if they hadn’t suddenly went crashing through the tree from one branch to the next as they all ran away. Luck would stick with me later as I entered Phong Nha National Park, as I saw 2 more crossing the street, which I assume is a bit rare, as most people need to go with a guide who knows where to find them.
Phong Nha is famous for not only having the worlds largest cave, but a number of other impressive caves located within the limestone mountains. The largest cave has a wait list of 1 year and costs 3 grand, so most people do not see that one, maybe it doesn’t even exist. The other caves were getting mixed reviews from the people I talked to. The only one consistently recommended to me was the dark cave due to zip lining and crawling through mud. That doesn’t sound all that great to me so I skipped the caving, since again it is about the ride. I naturally hit up the duck farm though, because that is what tourists do.
The what farm, yeah that is what I said too. I was talking to the couple from Edmonton at my hostel, and they mentioned the guy from Houston heard I had a bike and was looking for me as he wasn’t able to take both girls to the duck farm on his rented scooter due to the cops in the area. Yeah ok that sounds stupid I probably won’t be doing that, thinking he is traveling with his daughters and cannot take them to the duck farm, but keep my mouth shut. The guy from Houston eventually shows up, we all sit around chatting and doing the normal hostel meet and greet, and the guy from Edmonton jokes that the real question is if I want the blond or brunette. Oh….”girls”, glad I kept my mouth shut. Turns out a couple of British girls they met earlier while caving wanted to go check out the duck farm, and while I had not yet seen if their teeth were straight, didn’t want to ruin anyone’s fun. Since they needed my bike I made the sacrifice and decided go to the duck farm.
Well the duck farm was weird, but cheap, and everyone had straight teeth. We fed the ducks, letting them eat out of our hands, off from our laps., as well as off of our bare feet which was awful, did a few other weird things with them and then finally tossed them in a pond. The best part was the delicious food we had at the end, and no we were not served duck.
Knowing it was only downhill after the duck farm I left the next morning to continue North. Just outside Phong Nha my rear shock fell apart on me. Luckily I found all the parts and was able to limp back to town and have the guy put it back together, along with an oil change, for 5.37USD (an oil change should cost about 3.44USD but can vary widely). Happy to have my bike back together I drove 3 hours from Phong Nha only to realize my passport was still with the hotel reception. Dammit, now I am going to waste a day on the visa staying one more night in Phong Nha.
The next day with passport in hand I finally continued North, stopping in Huong Khe as it looked like rain was coming. I could have continued further to cover more distance, but decided to stop early and grab a hotel to relax. I had been lucky throughout the trip thus far aside from the 1st day leaving Saigon when I got soaked, so figured this would be a good stopping point. I had read the lake is lined with delicious food stalls which may have also influenced my decision making, but that appears to only be during the summer as there was nothing going on in this town either. I found my only option was some ladies selling street food, but of course that hit the spot. Despite all of this, Huong Khe might have been my favorite town in Central Vietnam. Of all the towns the kids in this one were the best, their faces would light up when they saw me, all yelling hello and enthusiastically waving. Even the older people were very welcoming, I must have said hello to over 200 people as I walked around town, once again I felt like a rockstar. This is another town that is off the radar, and only sees a small number of foreigners.
I have not been recommending hotels/hostels since they are all pretty much the same, but I will say to avoid the “Hoang Ngoc Hotel”. The hotel was nothing special, and a bit dirty but had good reviews on Google. That is not why I think you should avoid it though, I suspect they have a disgruntled employee. There was 1 guy who whenever I said hello to would give off bad vibes, his expression never changed, and he wouldn’t respond to my pathetic attempts at Vietnamese. I chalked it up to the language barrier, but a half mile after leaving the hotel my bike dies. Now it’s a crappy Chinese bike, they are known for this, so I look over the wires, make sure I have gas, etc. There is a wire that has come loose, which could easily happen from the roads I have taken so I reattach it. The bike still wont start so I start the walk of shame, and push it back to town which luckily I am just on the outskirts. A guy motions about me out of gas, I shake my head no and indicate it is engine related, so he tells me to come into his buddies auto shop. Now there are probably 17 moto mechanics if I keep heading to town, but I agree and decide to see how this plays out. His buddy is eating breakfast so I am given some tea which is standard mechanic protocol as I wait for him to finish. We then remove the spark plug to check for a spark, all good. He fiddles with a few other things and then turns the reserve switch on the gas tank, which releases excess gas. He points, draws a line on my frame to indicate which is off/on, and says I am all set. This is where the disgruntled employee comes in. I don’t have proof, but that switch doesn’t accidentally get changed, someone would have had to switch it off. The bike did feel like it was out of gas which would make sense a half mile from where I was, as there would have been some gas available. I felt like an idiot for not checking it, but the Canadian I bought the bike from told me the reserve did not work so I didn’t bother to mess with it. I googled it before leaving Saigon since that means I can run out of gas and have no spare fuel, which is how the Canadian found out it was broken as he ran out of gas. Turns out it may be clogged, broken, or just installed backwards, but irregardless someone tampered with the switch after I parked at the hotel, so I would avoid that place just in case as there are other hotels in town.
Huong Khe to Cam Thuy, same old nothing going on, just a stop before heading to Vietnam’s hectic capital of Hanoi, and the gateway to the North. The highlight to Cam Thuy was walking around town being the Rockstar, 1 guy came across the street to grab me and try and talk to me. I told him I only knew two words, Hello and Thank you, to which he had a good laugh. But the best was when a little girl grabbed her sisters arm with a look of fear/excitement as if she just saw a bear walk out of the woods. “Holy fuck there is a foreigner here” is what I believe she said, though my Vietnamese is pretty awful.
This long ass post wraps up Central Vietnam, where a lot of nothing happened, but there was some great riding everywhere I went. The coastal cities have some decent parties going on, but the mountains are a different world, there is not much of a social scene at all. What made the Central special is the friendliness of the people. The people of Central Vietnam are some of the most welcoming I have met in my travels around this planet, it really is amazing, plus it is nice to be surrounded by my 2Guy1Truck fans.
