I've hit the coast.

Spot the truck

I left Dien Bien Phu around midday enroute to Son La.  The ride was relatively uneventful with the exception of Oscar starting to play-up.  I’m not sure what was causing it but the engine seem to bog down whenever I opened the throttle more than halfway.  I put some fresh fuel in the tank thinking I may have got some dirty fuel and/or was running low and the engine was sucking up sediments in the bottom of the tank.  Either way, it didn’t fix it so I swapped the spark plug over thinking maybe I had a weak spark…. this didn’t fix it.  A young local guy came up on his bike through and helped me out and got Oscar going smooth again. He checked the spark plug, the leads, the fuel flow and then he revved the crap out of it.  Whatever was wrong with Oscar taking it past it’s un-marked redline seem to fix it.  I'll store this tip for later.  Once Oscar was running smoothly again the young guy got back on his bike, gave me a wave and was off.  I have to say, so far that’s the nicest display from the locals I’ve got with a lot of those in the more rural areas wanting nothing to do with me and for the most part ignore my existence.  A bit strange but then when I speak no Vietnamese and they speak no English I guess they avoid the hassle of trying to communicate.  I don’t mind the ‘hassle’.

Son La is a pretty small place.  I’m pretty sure I was the only westerner in town.  Although I tried my best in Vietnamese to order food given that my tones are no doubt incorrect and the older lady at the ‘restaurant’ not familiar with an english’ified version of Vietnamese it made getting a meal an interesting experience.  With no menu’s to point at, no pictures and no-one else eating of which I could simply point at and say ‘same, same’ it meant a game of charades was in order.  I think I asked for beef… I think I got beef initially but after a little while I was convinced it was pork.  Once finished though I had no idea what it was.  I’m trying not to dwell on it too much.  It was food and given that when I’m on the road I only seem to be getting one meal a day (simply because going hungry is easier  when I’m so remote) I don’t see it as too much of an issue.  As long as it’s food.

I climbed into the mountains from Son La and after an epic road that just seemed to keep going higher and higher I eventually got an awesome down hill where I could throw the bike into neutral and coast down at 80 clicks with the engine off.  I then stayed in a stilt house in Mai Chau for a few days for a much deserved break.   Coincidentally I was able to have my first conversation in English for three days here.

My lodging in Mai Chau

I’m now at Cua Lo beach just north of Vinh.  I was meant to get Vinh by nightfall from Mai Chau (an 8 hour ride) but got completely lost which tacked on a few hours to my trip.  Coming down death highway at night I decided to pull over 16 kays short and find a hotel here for a few nights before making my way to Hue.  I’ve since learnt this seems to be a bit of a ‘rub ‘n tug’ town and most hotels offer ‘massage’ as well.  I’ve opted for a more expensive government hotel at $20 a night but it means I won’t get any knocks on the door come late at night.  Ordering food at the restaurant next door was amusing though.  I sat down and was asked what I wanted to order… in Vietnamese.  I stare at the waitress blankly.  She laughs “silly me!” she must have said in Vietnamese and promptly brings me over a menu… which is also in Vietnamese.  I stare at it blankly and point out some words at total random.  She then continues to talk to me in Vietnamese most likely telling me that what I had ordered was just an appetizer.  I shrug my shoulders and she went and got me my food.  A short time later my small fish cakes had been devoured and I was still hungry.  Someone else had come in at this point so I pointed to the fried noodles they had on their table.  This led to me being handed the napkins from that table… then the box of chopsticks, then a beer… then finally they went out the back to fry up some more noodles.

Rice paddies in Mai Chau

I walked around the place this morning and there’s not much to see.  The beach looks ordinary and the roads are pretty void of cars, motorbikes and people.  It’s a bit of a ghost town.  I guess it must really pick up during the summer months but this must be a destination for Vietnamese tourists from Hanoi as I can see no real drawcard for internationals.  I will happily leave tomorrow morning.  Hopefully I’ll make it over the DMZ and into Hue without too many hassles.

Cua Lo beach... ordinary.

Riding through the remote north.

Leaving in the clouds

I have left SaPa…. And it’s about time too as I was going quite mad.  Oh, I liked the place but with so much else of the country to discover the fact that I was stuck there for over a week was really eating me.  I was meant to leave Friday… but the weather forecast was gloomy (as it turned out it was one of the nicest days spent in Sapa) so I didn’t go.  Saturday I was packed with a full tank of fuel in Oscar… but I woke to heavy rain.  This morning?  SaPa was in the clouds and things for the time being were dry.  I was on my noble steed by 7:30 with the plan to make Muong Lay by mid-afternoon, a 5 ½ hour ride.  I set off into the clouds with high hopes.… an hour later and the heavens opened on the roughest patch of the Tram Ton pass.  Roads turned into rivers and what was once dry dirt was now half a foot deep mud.  The bike stalled crossing a stream that was gushing across the road.  I got off the bike with the water halfway up my knee I pushed Oscar through and thankfully he started up first go.  I pressed on.

I didn’t pull over to take photos of the muddy roads.  I was eager to keep going and get on to something dry. Eventually the rain subsided and as the kilometres passed the road began to dry.  I passed so many towns that weren’t on the map.  I don’t know what’s going on there.  Either the maps only recognize large towns or they all sprang up over night.  Infact, some of those towns weren’t that small at all!    

As I approached Muong Lay I hit a snag. There had been a landslide the week prior and the road I was meant to ride on had slid down the mountain and into the river that runs parallel below.  I back tracked and found some small boats that were ferrying passengers (off buses) up the river and to what I assumed to be the other side of the landslide.  I negotiated a fee and for $7 Oscar was lifted up onto a small dinghy and we floated down the river to the designated drop off, then Oscar was lifted off the dinghy, ridden up the hill and then lifted (thanks to 5 Viet chaps) over the guardrail.

For mum.



I should note the comically large backpack is a result of a buying frenzy in Sapa followed by boxing it all up to post home... and then missing the post office.



After 7 hours  I reached Muong Lay*  ...and clearly they don’t care too much for the place.  The roads weren’t sealed and like a lot of roads I’d already ridden through they were streets of mud.  I’m not talking about big puddles with some dry patches mind.  I’m talking about half a foot deep across the entire street.  Footpath to footpath.  It was nearly comical watching all the bikes and cars slip and slide down those streets.  I decided not to stay there and instead ride on to the Laos border point Dien Bien Phu.  I mean, it’s only 3 hours right?   

The roads improved remarkably after Muong Lay with only a short stint of roadworks that claimed the poor scooter in front of me that slipped on to it side and sent its two ‘occupants’ into the mud.  Despite the rear tyre on Oscar looking a bit bald we got through upright despite slipping and sliding for the whole duration.  It’s sounds fun… but it’s more fun in a car.

Chasing the last of the sunlight I came into the valley where Dien Bien Phu City resides at around 6pm.  At 6:30 I had navigated into town and found some accommodation.  Close to 4 hours on the dot.



Coming into Dien Bien Phu



I just got back from a street stall downstairs… Pho Ga (chicken soup) with the oddest cuts of chicken I’ve ever seen.  I need to increase my vocabulary so I can ask for more than soup.

Todays tally.

Dogs narrowly avoided: 12

Horses narrowly avoided: 1 (since when is a road a suitable place to send your horse for feeding? !)

Dogs seen procreating: 4 (two to tango)

Buffalo’s ridden around at speed: 32

Goats narrowly avoided: 2

Buses narrowly avoided: 1

Live Cobra’s seen slithering across the road: 1 (slowed down for a better look and it raised its head and flattened it’s neck.  Eek!)

Presumed average daily speed: 40 kp/h

Top speed: 85 kp/h (VERY briefly)

Times that I nearly wet my pants at a close call: 2 (excluding the cobra)

Un-named villages past: lost count!

Kids seen playing half naked on the dusty roadside: Too many. 

In some regard I considered Vietnam to be a rather developed country but the poor… really are poor.  This isn’t Kansas anymore and it makes you appreciate the benefits of a rich western homeland.

*This town is due to be flooded (dam project) in 2012

My motorcycle diaries

I’m pacing the room again.  I’ve been in Sapa now for a little over a week and most of that time I feel I’ve spent looking out of the window.  It’s been raining now for days and it’s only just starting to clear up.  Looking out through the window of my room now I can see the highest mountain in Vietnam, Fansipan… well, the base of it anyway.  The rest of the mount is shielded by cloud although for the last half an hour its peak has pushed through the clouds.  I want to climb it.  I don’t think that’s going to be possible though unless I stay here for another week as the weather forecast is gloomy.  On top of that I’m nursing the tail end of a chest infection.

The weather cleared up yesterday for a bit so I decided to ride through the Tram Ton pass… and back again.  Due to the weather I was debating (reluctantly) to put Oscar back on the train to Hanoi and with that in mind I really wanted to ride the mountain pass before having to head back south.  Many consider Tram Ton to be one of the greatest roads (for views) in Vietnam and I’m thankful I took the gamble and rode off into the grey sky.  Fortunately the weather held out for the first few hours and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a countryside so beautiful.  Stunning and I know that even with my l33t photography skills not even I could give those mountains justice.  For now I’m only going to upload a few photo’s from my point and shoot anyway. 



Oscar and friend.



The good news however is that Friday is looking to be a great day so looks like I’ll be riding Oscar with all my gear strapped on the back out of Sapa as originally intended.  I’ll be headed west and I’ll be flipping a coin as to whether to head into Laos or keep travelling south through Vietnam.

Tomorrow I’m planning on dropping in on some hilltribe villages.  Hopefully the weather holds up.



I shall call him Oscar

On the night train to Sapa I met a young Italian couple.  We spoke about their travel itinerary first and when it came to asking where I was headed I just had to shrug my shoulders. 

“I don’t know.  I’ll flip a coin I guess.  Heads for right, tails for left” I laughed .

“Now, that is real freedom”

I don’t even know if freedom actually exists in this world as there are always restraints but in some respects this as free as I can get.  The freedom only brought to you by a bike.

His name is Oscar.  No real reason in particular other than Oscar Wilde being a rather amusing chap and… I thought the name worked.  I prefer Mark Twain for inspiring travel quotes but a bike named Twain just didn’t have the same ring to it.

It’s a ’96 110cc Honda Win although I’ve been told by local Honda Win enthusiasts here in Sapa that it’s made in China.  It’s four-stroke, manual and I’ve been told it can only sustain its top speed of 75km/h for an hour before it’s recommended I pull over for a five to ten minute breather to let Oscar have a little rest.  Oscar has a new clutch, new piston rings and a new piston so really, he’s like a new one and all things going well I shouldn’t have too many issues… although I am expecting a few but that’s part of the experience.  I will however probably need to ensure Oscar gets a service before I travel too far given the fact the engine hasn’t yet been run in. I’ve been loaded up with a few rare spare parts on the off chance they fail and been given a crash course in motorcycle mechanics.  I’m just glad I’m already familiar and relatively competent with how an engine works.

I rode Oscar back from the shop to my hotel at midday as to avoid the hectic Hanoi peak hour traffic that picks up around 4pm.  From there he sat patiently on the curb for a few days before being ridden rather nervously at night through Hanoi to the train station.  Here Oscar was drained of its fuel (a fire hazard allegedly but it felt like a scam to steal my full tank of fuel) loaded up on to a train to Lao Cai where the following morning I pushed it through town until I found a fuel station and then rode from the Chinese border up the mountain pass to the gloriously cold but beautiful Sapa.

Yesterday some newly made friends hired some automatic scooters and I took Oscar to go see some waterfalls about 15km’s out of Sapa.  Oscar behaved wonderfully with the exception of really, really struggling up some of those hills but in his defence he was carrying both myself, a pillion and I just couldn’t shift down the gears fast enough to maintain momentum.  That said, when leading the pack it was no problems to maintain a steady 50-60km/s speed.  I’m amazed at the positive attention Oscar has been getting from locals though.  I thought the red star to be a bit corny but I’ve had locals offer to buy it and one young guy at a restaurant yesterday was really interested in it.  At my suggestion he wore my armour which then prompted all of his friends to start punching him to see if it hurt.  Hilarious!  He was very appreciative of the experience but I think I enjoyed it more than he did!

Not sure how long I’ll be in Sapa but it will be atleast a week. The town is very touristy but there is more to see outside of the town.   Accommodation is cheap at $7 twin share which I’m splitting with another Australian guy and although the food is (surprisingly) more expensive than Hanoi it’s still quite easy to feed oneself three times a day for less than $8.  I’ll use Sapa as a bit of a base to explore the north and return every day or two.  From here I’m thinking to head west before looping wide and around back to Hanoi.  I’m considering bypassing Laos and instead heading south through the entire length of Vietnam before potentially going to Cambodia where Oscar is supposedly worth more to westerners (Vietnamese registered bikes can cross borders whereas Cambodian bikes cannot) OR sell Oscar in Saigon and look at a cheap flight to Chang Mai for a few weeks… the downside to that is that it will be coming in to their tourist season.

Time will tell.

Just one week down...

What day is today?  Monday?… this week has kind of flown!

I’m still Hanoi and it’s incredibly wet.

I’ve just returned from a two day, one night Ha Long Bay trip… a tourist trap but despite the horror stories I’ve heard I had no such experience.  The weather wasn’t too hot  or humid and the nice breeze was refreshing.  My room smelt like diesel and although the A/C worked at the beginning I originally thought I could make it ‘better’ by turning up the fan and lowering the temperature.  Turns out I can’t decipher the Chinese characters on the A/C remote control and turned it off.  I could only get it to turn on again for 30 minute intervals so I was waking up every 40 minutes or so in the heat to push buttons at random to turn it back on!

Overall I have to say the bay was much nicer than I had expected.  The water was beautiful and the limestone karsts are as beautiful as the pictures.  My only disappointment was the lack of sunset thanks to the hazy clouds/smog which really killed some of my photo idea’s and I would have appreciated the lack of 5kg camera gear packed into my small backpack.  Still, I fired off a few shots with the new SLR so I look forward to having a good play around with them once I get home.  Hopefully I have something worthwhile.

I’ve seen everything I wanted to see in Hanoi.  I’ve enjoyed walking around the town, eating in street stalls and the night market that I stumbled on last night.  I’ve seen Ho Chi Minh, his house and his cars.  I’ve walked around the lake numerous times, bought a non-touristy T-shirt at a store where not a word of English was known or spoken.  I’ve screamed all over the city on the back of a motorbike and I’ve also been to the university built eons ago as a temple to honour the teachings of Confucius. .. as well as a few museums.  They seem to have a museum for everything.

I was planning on heading up north to Sapa tomorrow but with the rain killing all motivation today I’ll most likely now depart the day after tomorrow.  From there I expect to use Sapa as a base and take a week to explore the surrounding area before heading into Laos.  Not sure how long I’ll be in Laos and I’ve had an idea to head into Northern Thailand via the golden triangle however I haven’t yet decided as to whether this is a viable idea given I’ll be then having to apply for a second Laos visa to come back into Vietnam and of course, a Thailand visa.  I’ll make that decision on the way I suppose.