Vietnam Report! I got back from an offroad motorcycle trip to Vietnam about a week ago. While Id love to give all sorts of info on the history, more about where I went, the minorities I learned about and people I talked to, I unfortunately am swamped at work, so this is just going to be notes version. Sorry =(. * I was gone for a bit over 3 weeks- a bit over a week in Shanghai for work, then like 11 days in Vietnam, and then 3 in Korea afterwards. But Im just going to write about Vietnam. * It was just me and the guide, ended up being a private tour since its the offseason. 9 days, plus 2 days on my own in the city (Hanoi). It was nice, since we could go as hard as I could every day. * We were on the road for 5-9 hours a day. I dont know if my riding is much better for WA terrain we do, but Im surely a lot better at riding in mud and through water. * We rode about 700 miles, which is a ton seeing as a huge amount of that was unpaved, switchbacks, and sometimes stream beds. * I only spent about $1700 in the 11 days, which included the bike and gear rental, food, lodging, guide, everything. * Vietnam is cheap. The cheap beer (which was fine), was < 50 cents a can. * Didnt get malaria. Slept under mosquito nets. * Stayed with families in homestays most nights, eating and drinking with them every night. The villages we stayed in would be less than 20 people sometimes, over an hour from the next. Sometimes there would be another group, usually from France, but often it was just us and the family. * All the food was fresh in the homestays. In some cases literally everything we ate (including a few types of meat) was slaughtered or harvested that day. Even the rice wine was homemade. * Some of the food maybe wasnt so fresh in the restaurants. There were reminders to not eat old meat in pictographs using the grim reaper on billboards in some areas. Had to use judgement. Not reassuring. * Felt-like was 110 degrees and 90% humidity, so either I was burning every time the bikes stopped, or it was raining so hard it was flooding. * Barely slept from the heat (because we basically slept outside), power went out atleast briefly most nights (so even the fans would stop, we didnt have AC) * My clothes were wet the majority of the trip, either from sweat, rain, or an initial washing that took 5 days to dry because my stuff was in a waterproof bag and it was too humid to dry at night. My ankles are still bleeding and cracked as a result. * I did not eat any dogs, there were way too many puppies around for me to ever feel okay with it. * The currency is called the Dong. Hehehe. 20000 to 1 USD, so my first withdrawal was for 3.5m. That felt weird. * Schoolkids out in the villages can have up to a 3 hour walk one way to school. They shout HELLO! at you whenever you pass. * People out in the country that bring like an ox to the market, might leave as early as 2am to get there in time. * Terrain was surprisingly different every day, Id always think wed be down to variations, but somehow it was always new islands, or a first lake, or river crossing, or super high up mountains... * Sometimes wed have to get off the bikes and push during the water crossings because it was too deep and dangerous. We were literally going over at the mouth of a waterfall. * Its amazingly green. In the Pics: * Any villagey looking house with a thatched roof is representative of where I slept, any food is what I ate, any puppy is what I would play with. Any water you see that isnt a river from far away is actually the road crossing water over a waterfall thats a couple feet deep. * Check out how huge that leaf is. Holy crap. * The monkey lives at a gas station. * The pic you see that looks like fog, is actually a cloud. It was gorgeous, and totally worth the amazing discomfort.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 16:06:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015