Vietnam

02/05/2026

My ass is sore and I'm exhausted. 7.5 hours on the bike is just too long, and I'm over the seat. It has about 1 inch of foam and I just cant sit on it that long. When I booked the hotel, Google maps told me it was 4 hours away, and then this morning it says 6.5 hours!

The road today criss crossed the Da River. What a lovely stretch of water. Grok tells me water quality is poor and maybe thats why I see so few people swimming or doing recreational water activities. I don't know why, but Vietnam noticeably doesn't seem to enjoy it's inland waterways like other countries.

The river is damed in several places, which I always find such structures fascinating. One thing about Vietnamese is they sure do love concrete.

The roads seem to run parallel in this area, which I assume is following the valleys, but of course Google Maps took me on some hill billy dirt road across the ridge. Then to make things worse, I lost phone signal and maps went into confuse mode. I followed the road and strangely it came to a village where they seemed to grow market garden vegetables and I'm pretty sure strawberries. And then I saw women wearing helmets about 4 inches above their head. WTF?

As I rode down this pot hole gravel road I came across more and more of these, and then I passed a woman who was taking here helmet off. She was about 35 and extremely pretty, and I'm angry with myself I didn't stop and at least ask for a photo. The reason her helmet was sitting so high, was she had a hair bun with gold ribbon through it. Wow! It turns out this is a traditional custom practiced in the Vietnam Northen Highlands to signal that they are marred. After I crossed the range and got off that dirt road, I haven't seen such hair styles since.

As I got closer to Hanoi (160km) the traffic became crazy, and I ended up being swamped by about 30 motorbikes on tour. It started as fun, but became annoying as they would pass me on the straights and then slow me up in the corners. You have to keep the momentum constant on Donkey, because if you back off you soon drop back to second gear and 30kph. This riding combined with the most ridiculous bus and car driving by several people you have ever seen had me wondering how there is not more carnage on the roads. And then it happened. Surrounded by bikes a Hilux ute did a U-turn right in the middle of them. WTF! Like seriously WTF. At the time I was doing about 55kph and I only noticed because the bike on my right suddenly hit the brakes. When he did that, I looked up and saw the ute stationary across the road. I swerved to the right and must have missed him by millimeters. That is the closest I have been to a road accident in 25 years! But, I'm becoming used to the roads now. It's completely normal to come around a corner or over a rise to have two vehicles side by side coming at you. Trucks and buses are the worst, and given what I've witnessed, I'm not sure I would ever go on a Vietnam bus. Those blokes are on a timeline and they push the limits.

03/04/2026

The hotel a Mai Chua was excellent, and even better because a stormed rolled in and the power went out. just when I started watching North Melbourne V Geelong. But luckily the hotel was about the only place in town with a generator, which was fantastic. The time was about 7pm and starving I headed to the main street looking for something to eat. People were walking around with torches and like me, using their phone. I walked up and down, but all the resturants were empty and the food situation seemed hopeless. Then I came across a street stall and the lady told me "chicken like KFC". I asked her if it was cooked, because in the darkness it was hard to tell. She didn't understand a word, so grabbed 2 pieces, some pork sausage, and a can of coke. For VND$100000 I was wrapped, and it turned out to be cold but delicious.

Yesterday Google maps had lied to me, but today it said 4 hours, and it took me 5. It took an extra hour because I had to wait at a landslide, while they cleared the road. I'm really starting to hate bus drivers. Everyone is waiting and buses have to come around everyone blasting there horn like they are on a mission from God. When they then realise there is no way through and dirt and rocks are still falling, they have to back up so the machinery and trucks can get through to clear the road. They are truely dicks. And the other thing is they never have a normal horn like normal people, they have some bullshit music playing air horn.

Once we could get through, it was manic. Cars and bikes in both directions, and everyone in a hurry! Then we all had to endure bus drivers driving for miles in the left lane sounding there horn all the way. I just cant believe how some of those buses missed oncoming vehicles, but thank God they did. Several times I was just waiting for car parts to go flying all over the road. After half an hour the traffic had spread out and life was back to normal.

Then I witnessed a rice harvester at work. I immediately pulled up, and they all seemed excited that I was interested. The driver bought the machine over to the road and I hoped on and said Hi. He knew "Hello" but that was about it. However, I'm pretty sure he got the message I was impressed. The most impressive thing was how it churned through 2 foot deep mud and didn't get stuck. A few times he had to reverse and have another crack, but it never seemed to get fully stuck. I reckon the tracks underneath were doing at least double his actual speed. On the side was a bagger man and he would bag the rice, and then after about 6 bags they would drive to the edge of the field and offload it.

It made such a mess of the paddock, but I had seen a guy at Sapa preparing the field with a paddle machine, so I guess the mess doesn't really matter. What was obvious was what the machine did in 15 minutes would have taken a whole day or more manually.

After I made it to town, I decided to find a new seat for Donkey. When I put a new seat on my bike in Australia it cost me AUD$350, but this seat cost me AUD$13. It's a Honda Wave one too, although I guess just because it says Honda in Vietnam doesn't mean it is a Honda. What a joke Australia prices are. How can there be such a cost difference. While I was at it, I gave the bike some new foot pegs. I really like this bike, it's a little ripper. I see brand new they are VND$15000000 (AUD$790) and nearly everything for the Honda wave fits too. AUD$900 with a big bore kit, and you have a good brand new bike.

Another storm has just hit, and for a second night in a row the power has gone out. Hopefully it comes on soon! I have lovely room, but it feels a bit like I'm on a ship.

04 - 05/04/2026

When I left this morning it was pouring rain. I don't mind riding in the rain if you're warm. It's sort of like being in your own cocoon and nothing can touch you. After an hour and starting to feel the coldness of water, I sought refuge and found a lovely coffee shop hidden behind a big stone wall. It was strange because no one would have known such a lovely place existed except locals, and I only found it because I was really looking hard for a place to stop and saw cafe in small letters near the gate.

As soon as I hoped off the bike, a guy sitting at a table asked with very good English "New Zealander?" "Good guess, Australian" I replied. "Doing Ho Chi Min Road?" "Yes" I said, and he gave me a thumbs up. Maybe lots of people had found this place before afterall. But what was clear is that many foreigners on bikes make it a mission to ride the Ho Chi Min Road, and I was another one.

In my hotel that night I would find 3 other people, a guy and a couple (with a missus that had an ass that truely needed a photograph.. because Ed tells me that if no picture, then it didn't happen) who were also doing the road. They were worried about fuel, which made me worry about fuel, and I had seen some YouTube videos saying there is no fuel. But I was still carrying my 1.25L water bottle of fuel, so I felt safe. I did end up using it, but I didn't really need too.

But two things have happened in Vietnam with Petrolimex. 1. Everytime the fuel gauge  has reached into the red, a servo has appeared; and 2. Everytime I have had a gut ache and need to go to the toilet, a servo has appeared. I had watched people on videos saying a toilet at the service station is not very good, but they have been nothing but exceptional. Some are squat and some are sit, but they have all been clean and well maintained. They have been a hell of a lot better than some cafes that's for sure.

I had expected a big sign saying How Chi Min Road, but no sign appeared and it just showed up on Google Maps around Huong Son. The first thing I could not believe about the road was the amount of trucks. Until now, semis wasn't something you saw much off, and now this was truckie city. Road stops everywhere, Petrolimex everywhere, and nearly all trucks heading North. Around Tuyen Son the road was amazing. Easily the best road I have ridden in Vietnam on a bike. One of those roads where the surface was excellent, the long sweeping corners were just right and the gradient was just right for Donkey too.

Unfortunately, this later on turns into cement road which is quite bumpy and I didn't really enjoy riding it, but I did like seeing how they built the road with the big cement walls and rubber walled corners. It felt like being on a race track. The road passes near a tourist town called Phong Nha which I ended up stopping at the accommodation Retreat Bungalow.

Suddenly I found myself ridding down a street along the river with real coffee shops, signs saying western food, a pizza place and a burger joint! OMG I became so excited at the thought of not having eggs or chicken with rice it was overwhelming.

It was also wierd seeing Western faces, I wasn't used to that. As soon as I arrived at the retreat, I saw the swimming pool and told them I'll stay two nights, maybe more..

After my fill of hamburger and french fries, I passed a street seller BBQing pork. I haven't seen street sellers since HoiAn. I bought a little container of pork, and it was absolutely delicious. It was about this time, eating the pork I decided to cut my motorbike trip short. I feel like I've seen enough of Vietnam and after 2000km of Vietnam roads my bum is sore enough! Now I'm getting close to Hue I feeling a pull to go and explore the place more. I found it a really interesting area and I think I want to check out the Citadel again and visit some of the other Kings tombs (not just King 12). I also want to go and explore the town Dalat as a possible place to live, so I think that might be the focus.

That said, I booked a flight from Danang to HCMC for the 28th where I fly out of Vietnam to Malaysia. This means I wont ride to HCMC for now. I have a month of accommodation there but I'm feeling I should cancel that and I come back to Vietnam. I definately have unfinished business here, and that also includes exploring the south.

06/04/2026

Having decided to stay at the Bungalow for another night I did little today except go for a ride around tow, have a swim in the pool and have a massage. So nothing really to report, so I thought I would just take 5 to talk about some mind boggling things about Vietnam.

This subject started because my shower in the room didn't work. Looking at the installation they have put in a new shower with a hot water heater mounted above like no one cares. Like surely they could have mounted it straight? The hot water unit itself looks to be high quality, and the shower fittings are brand new and appear to be excellent quality, and yet the shower simply doesn't work. Pulling it all apart I find there is a valve in the unit to stop dripping when switched off... so it's clearly a quality item. However, it has been assembled backwards so it prevents any water coming out.

Then I look at the fitting and how it's mounted. There is a 2 inch gap, it's crooked, and the holes look like they have been hacked out with a chainsaw. The toilet is also new, but it has been installed crooked to the wall as well. Like WTF Vietnam? The owner obviously chose quality fittings and yet the workmanship is totally shit, taking the joint from a 5 star to 3 star. The thing is, this type of thing is absolutely everywhere in Vietnam.

For example, that night I go to the chicken shop and look at the extraction system. It's like it was a DIY job, and half way through they just decided "fuck it, that will do". Again, it takes a place from 5 stars to 3. All these things just makes you look at these things and think Vietnam is so close, but yet so far.

I can go on and on, but the final thing I will mention is the pedestrian crossing. This was opposite the hotel a couple of days ago, where they put in a crossing but didn't take the guard rails away, or at least make a gap that people could walk through. And even if they did that there was no path! Guess they call it future proofing.

07/04/2026

Back on Ho Chi Min Road. From a motorcyclist perspective I had been told the heart of the road is from Phong Nha - Khe Sanh. Google Maps said it would take 6.5 hours, but it was more like 8. There was also no petrol stations on the route, so I needed fuel. I took an additional 3L in water bottles, and I ended up sweating bullets and literally rolling into the Khe Sanh Servo on fumes.

Donkey had the ring reved out of it, and for much of the journey I twisted the throttle as far as you could, but it found it hard going up the hills. No one passed me, but I passed several others, so Donkey can be proud of that.

The road has been described as a race track, and I can see why, After hours of left/right, left/right, downshift/upshift, brake/accelerate, you get into a race rhythm. Leaving Phong Nha, once you reach the crossroads, the road becomes a single lane concrete path that traverses the mountains and makes you wonder how they built it.

After hours I was tired of the sun. It beats down on you and you can feel the burn. I was starting to curse it, and the air was warm. I was dripping sweat in my helmet and then God answered my request. With an enormous crack, that basically made me soil my pants that sky opened up and it pissed rain hard. It was the stinging rain Forest Gump had mentioned, and I sought refuge under a tree. I changed into my wet weather gear and continued on, but within 30 minutes I was cold as cold. And then, just like the rain had never happened, the sun came out and started melting me again.

The weather and the surrounding hills just mad me think how the Americans in the war had no hope in this country. None. Because another interesting thing about this part of the road, is it is supposedly the most remote part of Vietnam, and yet when I stop I can often here a cattle bell, or now and again I will pass a building with some other sign of life. In other words I'm sure there are Vietnamese people around here.

One interesting place I paced in this remote wilderness was over a bridge and I noticed people in the river. I stopped and watched them for a while, and they watched me. It looked like they were panning for Gold.

08/04/2026

I'm in the DMZ now, so the whole objective was to explore history a bit. I decided to skip Khe Sanh army base as the reviews said there wasn't much there, and apart from the fact that the Americans completely destroyed it when the evacuated, I just didn't want to go to a place where thousands lost there life.

Instead I head to Vinh Moc tunnels. Unbelievable. The tunnels are dug out of clay and the walls are still soft today. I ended up getting covered in clay. Entrance 5 opened out onto the beach, and when I discovered that I had to strip and have a swim. But hen some other tourists came out of the entrance and I had to wait forever for them to leave so I could get out of the water.

On the way out of the upper tunnel I stopped at a ventilation shaft and listened to a guide on the surface tell the people what went on here. It was really interesting until she said "you can see how deep the tunnels are" and shone a touch down the shaft blinding me. "Oh" she said. "I'm listening to the enemy" I yelled. "The I heard a distinctive Australian voice, which was surprisingly some type of comfort to hear. "Fuck, someone is down there!" he said,

After the tunnels I headed to the 17th Parallel bridge. It was just mental to think that people lived in the 2kms of Vinh Moc tunnels for 4 years, but walking across this bridge and thinking how this was the only crossing between the North and the South was surreal. I actually had some weirdo experiance where it felt like I was in 1968 and being exchanged for another POW!

Unfortunately on the south side, basically everything has been destroyed but it's not hard to image the past.