Vietnam

22/04/2026

What a fantastic day. The day started with a trip to Thac Ban Gioc waterfalls. This is Vietnam's version of Niagara Falls will boats leaving from both the China and Vietnam side to travel under the waterfall. At this part of the Son Quay Son River, the Chinese/Vietnam border travels down the middle of it.

The waterfall was a lovely place and well worth the visit. I paid the $VND40000 (AUD$2) mandatory entrance fee and was swamped with hawkers. This is really becoming part of Vietnam I don't like. It's impossible to go anywhere touristy and not be bombarded with "Hello, you look!". The exit was even worse, you couldn't exit without going down the tunnel of doom. The thing I really do like at such places, is you pay $VND10000 for motorbike parking and someone is watching all your stuff you left on the bike. 8/10

Next I headed for Dong Nguom Ngao Caves and paid my $VND10000 for parking. When you park at these places everyone yells at you to park in there area, but I chose the first lady. Opposite was the ticket box, which read "Short 40000 Long 195000". "You want short or long?" she asked. "How much time do they take?" I responded. "Short 40 mins, Long 1 hour 40 mins". I opted for the long, and headed to the entrance.

At the entrance I was taken into a room, given a vest, head torch, and neoprene shoes. "Wait over here for your guide. 10 minutes" she said. I didn't know I was getting a guide. A group of 4 others turned up and our guide also turned up. He introduced himself and said "Tour is 2 - 3 hours, you go to toilet now as no toilet in cave". What the.. what happened to 1 hour 40 minutes? I don't even like caves, they're boring!

We followed the short part tour and then after some time, turned on our torches and disappeared into darkness. I had never done proper caving before, and this was no ropes and carabiners... but it was for a tourist with my fitness level and ability to shuffle under ledges simply awesome. As we crossed several obstacles where I couldn't help but laugh that this wouldn't be permitted in Australia.

A highlight was the raft. We hoped on the raft and had to paddle down the stream, which proved more challenging than I had imagined. I thought the guide would have hopped on at the back and guided us, but no, we were on our own with some panicking and some laughing. For the deep water they had bamboo bridges and the really difficult sections had ladders. We traversed the entire cave until the end, where I climbed out the entrance to see nothing but jungle. One thing about the Vietnamese jungle is it is noisy. It sings with who knows what creatures, and it made me happy to go back through the cave for our return. 10/10

From the cave I headed to My Homestay at Pac Bo. Along the way I stopped at some tombs. Tombs are something you see everywhere in Vietnam and they usually have a decorative flower near them. These particular tombs where in the middle of a field in surrounded by mountains. It was a beautiful place to put to rest.

The little bike struggled to climb out of that valley and I was down to first gear several times today, but we got there. When I came into Pac Bo, I had no idea about the place and it turns out this is where Uncle Ho lived and started the Ho Chi Min Trail. All I can say is they sure love the Ho here, and it seems to be a pilgrimage to visit here. This is why the place is full of Guest Houses and people are transported around everywhere in Golf Cart style buses.

The host of Boong Homestay is a lovely guy and I asked him for dinner, but he recommended I eat at Quan Ngon. Arriving there I said to the guy, whatever you recommend. He bought out a plate of rice and pork, and it was delicious. For VND$90,000 (AUD$5) including a can of Sprite I told him, "I'll be back tomorrow, same time".

The funniest thing just happened. I'm sitting here writing this and a woman showed up, I think looking for the homestay host. I couldn't understand a word, so I put Google Translate on and tried to get her to speak into the phone, but every time I gave her the phone she would put it to her ear and say "Hello". I tried to explain "talk in the phone and I would understand her" but it was hopeless. She just kept holding the phone to her ear and saying "Hello".

When I got back to the B&B I declared tomorrow is a rest day, and booked another night looking forward to another yummy dinner.

23/04/2026

Rest day today. Some fellow guest wanted to go swimming, so I jumped on the back of the host bike and he showed them the local swimming hole. What I found interesting was that when we turned down a goat track and went over several footbridges, an entire town area was buried beneath the jungle. I wondered why this area is no longer part of the town. Maybe it floods, or there simply isn't the population anymore.

I spent the morning talking to an Italian who couldn't believe I was riding around Vietnam on a 50cc. He was doing a 5 day trip with his wife, but they had hired a bike and were simply doing it illegally. Apparently Italy also has the same issue as Australia with IDP.

He hated Trump and was appalled at how bad Europe has become. I could handle that, but he loved Australia. He told me he had worked as a farm hand in Mildura and it was the best country on the planet. "There is no better country!" When this blah blah started and kept coming from his mouth, I looked at my watch and said "times getting away, I better get going".

I jumped on Donkey (my new bike name) and headed for Uncle Ho's cave. Of all the things I have discovered about the 4' 10" Uncle Ho, one thing I know to be very true, is the guy was a mountain goat!

His Cave perched a fair way up the side of a steep slope, and not far away from Mr Ly Quoc Sungs house. It's simply crazy to think the Ho revolution began in this cave and then moved to the hut. It's in the middle of absolutely nowhere! 8/10

I went back to the resturant for dinner and had pork and rice, which wasn't as nice as the beef last night, but still very good.

24/04/2026

Google maps said it would take me 2.5 hours to get to Bao Lac, but it was closer to 4. Donkey wouldn't pull more than 18kph up the hills, but what goes up must come down.

It rained most of the way, and at one stage I got really cold but I was still dry. Misty clouds blocked most views. You know you are on the Han Giang Loop when motorbike after motorbike pases all with the same colour helmets or vests or the pillion flying a flag. Also at the top of any major pass there is a coffee shop looking out over the vista, and to my surprise, they spoke excellent English.

In morning I noticed my luggage rack was cracked, and it would only be time before that snapped right off. One of my worse fears would be loosing my bags. As I was zooming along I passed a guy welding some type of frame. I immediately did a U-Turn and with various gestures and pointing I got him to weld it up. The only English he could knew was "ok" and he did a great job too. I gave him $VND20000 ($AUD1), shook his hand, and left. We were both happy.

The roads were twist after twist, and I had some mental brain fade along the way. Cornering in the wet at 40kph, the rear tire started to slide around and I started putting my leg out like I was ridding a dirt bike. This was all fun until I went to correct the slide with my foot, and as soon as the thong hit the bitumen, it nearly ripped off. WTF was I thinking! It definately stretched the bit that goes over the top of your foot. I think it was just the fact I'm doing dirt bike speeds, and it's such a small bike sliding around in the wet that I forgot I'm ridding on the road with thongs. After that I dialed it back a bit and road like a normal person.

Today was the first day I started to see mountains that were not covered in jungle, but farm land. Going for a walk in Boa Lac, you discover the place is full of machinery and agriculture stores. In walking around I passed some guys with flayed duck on the rotisserie. I'll be having dinner there for sure!

25/04/2026

Once I arrived at the Hotel in Pac Bo and removed the luggage, I inspected the fixup job on the rack and are very happy. Duc Anh Hotel was bad 2/10. Not only did they not speak a word of English, but they seemed totally clueless when it came to foreigners. I surely cant be the first westerner who has stayed there. No one showed at reception until another guy walked down the hallway yelling jibba jabba and 5 then minutes later a lady emerged from the room.

In a painful process we managed to establish I had booked a room, but when I went to pay, it turned into a disaster. I paid with QR Code, but instead of being instantaneous like it always is, it said processing, please wait up to 30 minutes. I put this into Google translator and showed the lady, but she didn't understand what was going on. We just stood there looking at each other.

From the translator I gathered she was asking whats wrong? But any explanation was futile, so the standing and looking at each other continued. Fortunately it processed 5 minutes later (felt like 30) and I asked "Did you get your money?" to which her response was "I'm only an employee". Excellent, now what. Suddenly she smiled and gestured I follow her. There was no elevator but stairs, and she put me on the 3rd floor.

The first thing in this room was the toilet wouldn't flush. Lifting the lid, I found all sorts of modifications going on. Somehow I got it to empty but it wouldn't fill. Next the window wouldn't open, and the bed sheets had cigarette burns in them. Then went I went to leave for dinner the door handle came off. The shower was great after dinner, but in the morning I would discover there was no water and therefore no shower. I debated trying to have a discussion about this, but in the end decided to just get dressed and leave. Besides when I went to dinner, I found the lady sitting on chair looking out a window and I felt sorry for her. She was just looking blankly out a window that faced a concrete wall. Then later in my hunt for a kettle in the joint (which they didn't have) I discovered she lived next to my room behind a curtain. At least my room had a toilet, even if it didn't work! For dinner I went back to the rotisserie and had half a duck (8/10).

Bao Lac is on the Gam River which branches off into the Song Nho Que River, and I didn't realise the road to Meo Vac follows it for at least half the distance, so it was flat but twisty and Donkey ate it up making good time. Meo Vac is a noisy town thanks to all the tour groups, but it has a lovely town square and is set in the base of the valley. It also has some really authentic Vietnamese houses like the guest house I'm currently staying in. I have no idea how old this place is, but it must be old!