In the morning, I showed Joe some of the street markets and sights I stumbled across yesterday
We took a cab to airport and flew a couple hours north to Hanoi. The terminal was chaotic and hot as hell but we survived our Vietjet flight
Caught a cab to the hotel. Roof top pool of course
We were staying at the Tirant Hotel The strange name was not lost on us.
Hanoi, the capital, was a little grimier than Saigon. We were staying in the Old Quarter and the streets were even more crazy than Saigon
Joe got a haircut and we stumbled around for the rest of the day. I crashed early as still suffering time change syndrome
Joe found a massage parlor and dinner on his own as I could not be dragged out of bed from 6pm to 6 am.
The day had come for the motorcycle trip. We had breakfast, left some bags at the hotel for our return in 5 days and walked the couple blocks over to the bike shop
So we found this crew online Offroad Vietnam. They seemed legit. We selected a 5 day trip. This included 150cc dirtbike rental, guide, lodging, and meals all for roughly $150/person/day. A total steal if you ask me. The route we took was advertised for those with “intermediate or advanced skills.”
I guess now is as good a time as any to break down our “advanced skills.” Joe has ridden motorcycles for over 20 years but has zero experience off road. I on the other hand have never ridden a motorcycle of any kind ever. I do ride a Yamaha Vino 125 scooter
I spent about 10 minutes on my buddies motorcycle before heading to Vietnam to try to make sense of shifting, clutch, brakes, etc.
We filled out the paperwork and got fitted for protection
We entered a storage room and they gave me some knee pads and elbow pads that I think were made for a 5 ft rollerbladder. I asked about the armor pants and jacket, but they indicated it would be too hot for all that. Joe has $1k in the latest waterproof Kevlar breathable armor jacket and pants. I went along with the advice and of course as soon as we get outside our guide has all the armor jacket and pants. WTF? I did not feel too secure at this point.
Next was our training session. They wheeled the bikes under a freeway overpass that had about the same amount of room as my kitchen. Here I was to practice riding and shifting. After 2 minutes they gave me the thumbs up and we were kicked out of the nest into the chaos of Hanoi traffic. All my senses were on high alert. I was also trying to remember how to shift and brake. Brain function was at maximum capacity.
Joe had a lot more gear than me. He strapped all of it on his back and back of bike. I had my bag strapped to the bike along with my camelback. At our first stop I found that my camelback spilled all over all my belongings
We started with an easy drive on sealed road along the river road via Son Tay to Trung Ha bridge. Then headed up the low hills of Hoang Lien range to Thu Cuc. We stopped after an hour for a break and some sugar cane cocktail
The next stop was an amazing lunch
Soon we were riding through rural areas with beautiful rice field along the road up towards the Khe pass, the first one of the main range where Fansipan is the top or peak of Indochina.
As if I did not have enough on my plate trying to learn how to ride a bike on the crazy roads of Hanoi, the Gods decided to make it downpour. We pulled over and put on our raingear. For me this meant my raincoat from home and pants. I did not have motorcycle boots so I was gunna get soaked anyway you looked at it
Right as we were starting to pull out of the cover back into the rain Joe said to be careful. It was right after that my bike kinda slipped as I tried to roll it out of our parking spot. I looked over and Joe and he gave me an evil grin. Great.
If I did this again I either get Motorcycle boots or at least wear Gaiters.
We stopped along a mountain rode where guys were polishing marble. It turns out that the quartz was being cut off the face of a local mountain and dragged here for making into consumer items. They had a variety of tables, bracelets and statues. Some of the tables were $2k. This was before they got to your local retail shop so you are probably talking 10K when it’s all said and done.
We finished out the quiet cruise via Ba Khe to Nghia Lo for the night. When we got to the hotel they actually opened up a ground floor door and we parked our bikes inside the hotel. Kinda strange, but hey we are high society.
After showering off all the mud we met the guide in the lobby and walked a few blocks to dinner
Like most places we ate at on this trip, there is a case when you walk in where you pick out what you want and they cook it up. There were sparrows, crabs, fish, etc. We settled on the crabs, pork ribs and some morning glory (kinda like spinach)
A guy at table next to us offered us some cooked bugs. Like the crabs, not much taste to them. Just crunchy.
It was all good. We peppered our guide Kim with questions on Vietnam which he handled patiently. He probably fields these on every trip.
We crashed back at hotel without much beer in our belly.
Here is some of Video from our riding
Until Tomorrow
Darren
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