A Vietnam Adventure – “From child hood dream to the ramblings of an old solo biker"

A song by Dinah Washington

The first few lines are:

“…Brought the sun and the flowers, Where there used to be rain”

Well, today was defiantly different to yesterday. In fact it was different to any of the days I’ve had on this trip so far! However, it was the very opposite to the words in Dinah’s song! More like,

“…Brought the wind, rain and fog, Where there used to be sun and flowers”

When I was planning this trip, Jonathan (the guy I rented the bike from in Ho Chi Minh City), said that today’s section of the trip was the hardest out of the whole trip. BUT, for the adventure rider, it’s also the most exciting because you leave the main roads and ‘hit’ the dirty tracks for about 6 hours, before getting back onto the main roads. He also said that most people give up part way through the off-road section, bailing out and ‘jumping’ back onto the main roads in order to get to the overnight stop in Danang. When I asked what made it such a difficult day he mentioned several:

1. It’s at least a 10 hour day – 2 hours on the back roads, then 6 hours off-road and then another 2 on the back roads to get to the overnight stop.
2. It’s remote – you’re unlikely to see anyone else while you’re on the off-road section and that can be quite intimidating for many riders (even though most are doing it in groups).
3. Although the riding isn’t particularly technical, the risk of accidents, injuries and breakdowns is much higher and the availability of help is limited.
4. The route isn’t easy to find. There’s no signposts and the maps of that area aren’t that accurate (luckily, Jonathan had sketched me a map of the route with some key landmarks which he assured me would keep going in the right direction).

This was actually one of the days (and sections) that I was really looking forward to, although I have to admit, I was very nervous about doing it on my own.

Last night was spent, getting the bike checked, stocking up on water and snacks and pouring over the route time after time to try and create a mental map in my head. I’d also worked out how far I could realistically go before I was committed to completing the whole section. That way if it got too difficult or I became too uneasy, then at least I could back-track.

The alarm was set for 5am so that I could start the day by 6am (hopefully getting me to Danang by 4pm – if all went according to plan), and although I tried to get an early night, the nerves having a disco inside my head. I eventually nodded off around midnight.

After waking this morning I spent longer in the bathroom than usual, clearly the nerves were still in overdrive! One last check that everything was where they needed to be, bags secured onto the bike and then off to grab a coffee from the local cafe – you’ll know from my previous BLOGs that I can no longer risk not having a coffee first thing in the morning…not that I’m superstitious!

On leaving the coffee shop, the day dealt its first horrible blow…it had started raining! This wasn’t something I’d planned for. Not just for today bit on the entire trip. I wasn’t overly concerned about riding the route in the rain (Nepal in Monsoon season gave me plenty of practice at that), it was that I had absolutely no rain gear. In actual fact I had no warm clothing at all. All I had was a pair of trainers, t-shirts, tracksuit trousers and a couple of long sleeve t-shirts. And, the only jacket I had was a very thin shower proof one that was never going to cope with this amount of rain, especially when driving into it at 50/60kmph. In my attempt to reduce the amount of luggage I brought with me, I’d spoken to Jonathan before leaving the UAE and asked for advice on what I should bring to wear….should I bring my full riding gear (off-road, boots, trousers, jacket, full-face helmet) OR should I go more casual. Jonathan’s advice….go casual, “…thats what I do.”

So, listening his advice, I left all my riding gear at home! Another Schoolboy Error!

Never mind, I wasn’t going to let this ‘lemon sucking moment‘ ruin my day, besides it’s just some rain. And, I certainly wasn’t going to focus on the buffalo shit (aka rain – you’ll understand that if you read yesterday’s BLOG) as that would just make matters worse.

Swinging my leg over the bike, I tried to ignore the inevitable and reassured by thinking positively:

“Once I get lower down the valley, the rain will stop.”

“It’s just early morning rain, when the sun gets up, it will burn off the clouds and the rain will stop.”

“What do you expect Paul, it’s 6am….give it a few hours and by the tike you get to the off-road section in 2-hours, the rain will have stopped.”

However, as much as I wanted to believe all of that, the day suddenly dealt its 2nd blow! FOG!! Not only was I getting blasted by the rain, making it difficult to see through my glasses, but the fog was as thick as pea-soup and made it difficult to see a few feet in front of the bike,. The only solution…slow right down!

“Why is today so different to yesterday?” I asked myself. “How can it all change so quickly?” Overnight the weather had gone from being clear blue skies, 35 degrees, high humidity and no wind, to, thick cloud covered skies, 14 degrees, rain, wind and pea-soup fog. As for me, I’ve gone from worrying about dehydration and sunburn to catching a cold or even pneumonia.

By the time I got to the start of the off-road section (which should have taken 2-hours but in reality took 4.5-hours) it was still raining and the fog hadn’t cleared (as I’d hoped it would) and therefore, it was ‘difficult decision time’…. do I push on with the off-road section or do I admit defeat and stick to the main roads?

Unfortunately there was only one sensible answer. Continuing with the off-road section would have been a disaster. I was already freezing cold, soaked to the skin and mentally exhausted. Also, it was hard enough trying to see where I was going on the roads. Off road would have been a million times worse. Then there was the time. At the pace I was going, and sticking to the roads, I had at least another 7/8 hour of riding ahead of me. I can’t even imagine how long it would taken if I chose to go with the off-road section and that’s if I didn’t get lost.

Decision made, road it is!

I thought I’d be more upset about it, but to be honest, I was actually relieved. Not because I wasn’t doing the off-road section – like I said earlier, I was really looking forward to that section.. The relief was from knowing that I’d made the decision. I’d spent the last four hours trying to decide what I’d do if the weather didn’t improve by the time I got the turn-off. Now that the decision was made it now felt like as though a huge weight had lifted from my shoulders. In fact, my main concern now was, how am I going to continue riding for another 7/8 hours if the weather stayed like this – especially as I had none of my riding gear here with me.

So, straight to Dan Nang and it was merely a case of slipping into survival mode, battening down the hatches and doing whatever I needed to, to get to there!

This next 8 hours were probably the most difficult and horrible bike-riding hours that I’ve experienced, since I started riding bikes. I had hoped that it would get easier once I got to the coastal road but in fact it got worse., The rain got heaver, the wind got stronger and the traffic got busier. Riding a bike behind vehicles in the rain can be horrendous. You feel like someone is holding a power hose at you the whole time.

VIetnam had literally picked me, thrown me on the floor and was jumping all over my chest! Every petrol station I came to, I had to stop, clean my glasses, shake off some of the water, take a breather and then start again. A waste of time really, because within a few minutes my glasses were covered in mud and steam and my jacket was soaked through. Not to mention my trainers which felt like they were 2 mini baths full of water. At one point I tired putting on several t-shirts from my bag in the hope that they would last a bit longer before getting soaked through….they did…about 5 minutes!

In the end I stopped at a local shop, just so I could buy a warm jumper and a plastic poncho. This tuned out to be a good decision but with only 1 hour left to go, it was too late and I should have done that a lot earlier.

I pulled into the hotel at around 5pm, checked in, went straight to the room, turned on the shower and stood under it fully clothed for about 30 minutes…..something I’ve never felt the need to do before – even during my kayaking days where I’d often be submerged in the icy waters of Scotland and Wales.

As my body started to return to normal temperatures and the ice-rods that he been drilling in to my chest for the last 10 hours began to melt, my thoughts turned to the next few days. It was clear that this weather wasn’t going to change anytime soon and the route for the next 3 days was takin g me back into the mountains and onto the infamous ‘Ho Chi Minh Highway’ – regarded as the bit of the trip that everyone wants to do. It’s the most famous part! However, there’s no way the I can have a repeat of what I had to endure today. So there’s only a few options:

1. Admit defeat, leave the bike at TIGIT (as they have an Office in Danang).
2. Change the route and stick to the coastline – at least it won’t be as remote as the mountains and I can stop as often as I need to (and stay in nice places each night which will help me to recover and also allow me wash & dry my clothes for the ebnxt day – something you can’t reallyy do if your starting Homesatys in the mountains).
3. See if I can buy some proper riding gear while I’m here in Danang and then head out on the route as planned.

“What would you do? What do you think I’ll do?” Comment below…

One thing was for sure, with temperatures dropping from 35 degrees to 14/16 degrees, I needed a warm top, even walking around the town was proving to be cold. So, after dinner (in a lovely little Italian restaurant), I headed to the local Thrift Shop to see what I could find (if you know me well enough, then you’ll know that my youngest son got me into Thrift Shop Shopping a few years ago). Fortunately, there was 2 jumpers big enough to fit me, so I bought both of them for 20AED…and absolute bargain, even if they look a but weird.

“Would you wear them?” Comment below…

So, what lessons did I learn today:

1. In yesterday’s BLOG I was complaining about having to sit behind lorries for 2 hours. Yet, today under different circumstances, I was glad to be sat behind lorries, despite the water they were throwing up from the road. You see, the exhaust fumes were warm and when you’re feeling as cold as I was, any heat is good heat! Lesson#1- Things that we sometimes consider as being bad can also be seen as good, depending on the situation.
2. It’s often the worrying about making a decision that causes us all the stress. Once the decision is made, the stress either disappears or becomes a lot less. Lesson #2: when you’re faced with making difficult decision just make them!
3. When things start to go wrong, stop and deal with them as soon as you can. I pushed on far too far today before deciding to stop and buy some clothes. Had I done that a lot earlier, I would have managed the situation a lot better. Lesson #3 – Don’t put off until tomorrow something that can be done today.
4. That little Honda 150XL is an awesome bike. Yes she’s underpowered, can’t carry too much luggage and after a few hours of riding, the seat is uncomfortable but she hasn’t missed a beat and has handled everything thrown at her with ease! Lesson #5 – Some of the best surprises come in small packages.
5. Oh and always pack your MacBook in a waterproof bag – thankfully it’s okay but that’s only by chance!