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

I woke up early this morning (6am), having a had good rest yesterday. I was keen to get back on the road and head into the mountains again. Getting out of bed, I crossed my fingers as I opened the curtains of the hotel room to see what the weather was like. Sadly, the weather forecast was right. It was pouring down with rain and the thick grey clouds hung just above the top of the cities tallest buildings. As my room was on the 15th floor, I looked in the direction of the mountains – where my route was supposed to take me today – but they were also hidden by the clouds. Closing the curtains I jumped back into bed and began to contemplate my pans for the day:

1. I could just stay here today, rest, do some work, see more of the city and then try again tomorrow. I have a day to spare as I don’t need to be in Hanoi until Saturday but at the moment, I’m due to arrive on Friday. A quick check of the weather forecast said that the weather tomorrow would be the same. So, what’s the point in waiting here today if I’m still going to have rubbish weather tomorrow.
2. Okay, let’s change the route. There’s no point going to the Ho Chim Minh Highway. I would be on it for about 500km, snaking my way through, up, over and down the central highlands of Vietnam. I wouldn’t be able to see anything and I’d be wet and freezing cold the whole time (even with my new waterproof suit). I should just head straight to Hanoi and possibly even be there by tomorrow night – giving me more time to explore Hanoi and maybe even have time to ride north and do the Ha Giang Loop).

I lay in bed for about 30 minutes weighing up all the options and then gave myself a kick up that ass and reminded myself of all the reasons why I was doing this route in the first place, and it’ wasn’t just for the views.

1. It’s the most famous route to travel if you’re going between HCM and Hanoi.
2. It’s supposed to be a beautiful drive – not just the scenery but the actual drive itself.
3. You see parts of ‘old Vietnam’ that you won’t see if you stick to the main roads.
4. It’s been on my wish list for years and years and years.
5. I may not get the chance to do it again.
6. The personal challenge of being able to complete it – seemingly a lot of people bail out half way because it takes so long to complete and is both physically and mentally exhausting.

Decision made! I got up, got packed and went to the coffee shop round the corner [If you’re ever in Hue, I highly recommend it. It’s the best coffee I’ve had since arriving in Vietnam. It’s called Dame]. Bike packed, waterproofs on (I decided to double up on the waterproofs today and wore my thin showerproof jacket underneath the new motorbike one I bought yesterday – great decision!) I headed off on what was looking like a long, wet and windy ride.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Kh9QGz8gXec

Leaving Hue and heading towards the mountains it was another tough ride. The rain was lashing it down and although my body was ‘nice and toasty’, the my face was getting pummelled by the water spray from the endless stream of lorries that stretched out along the road. To make matters worse, no matter how much I tried to keep my mouth closed, the spray from the lorries was still able to make its way though. Furthermore, my glasses were constantly covered in the mud that was being sprayed up from the road – I wonder if anyone has invested glasses with wipers on them?

However, after about an hour, everything changed…..the rain stopped, the clouds lifted and I’d managed to pass most off the lorries. The next 5 hours of riding was amazing! Although the sky was still pretty grey, the visibility had gone from about 100 metres to several miles. This meant that I was able to take in a lot more of the scenery that I’d expected.

https://youtube.com/shorts/lhFrqyGZiHs

I enjoyed the ride so much that the 5 hours flew by and I didn’t even feel the end to stop for refreshments. In fact may only stop was for the toilet and to readjust the bags that had worked themselves loose on some of the bumpy sections of the road.

I arrived in Khe Sahn around 3pm – dry, warm and with a BIG smile on my face. I was staying at a place called Retro Homestay. I was really looking forward to staying here as the pictures on booking.com looked amazing. Perched on the top of river cliff with views extending all the way down the valley. The rooms were little pods with full length windows , allowing you to look out tab the view from your bed. Idyllic!

However, on arrival I have to admit to feeling both cheated and upset. Yes it had all those things mentioned above but the pictures must have been taken about 10 years ago and no maintenance work had been done since. It was nothing like I expected. Nevertheless, determined not to be a ‘lemon sucker’, I checked in, got myself sorted (I couldn’t bring myself to using the shower….so I was staying smelly for the night…not a bad thing as the bedding didn’t look particularly clean either…so I slept in a full set of clothes as well), popped into the town to get some snacks for dinner (coconut bread, soft cheese, crackers, fruit, Pringles and a Monster (calorie free one)), and to get the bike washed.

Tomorrows ride on the Ho Chi Minh Highway (which is the section I’ve really been looking forward to) is going to be a long one – probably around 10 hours – so I in order to make an early start, I’m going to try and sleep early tonight.

But, before I finish today’s BLOG, I can’t help but reflect on the events of this morning. When I saw the bad weather, I was contemplating changing all of my plans and even missing out on the section of the route that I’ve been looking forward to most, just because of the weather. However, it turned out to be the best riding day of the trip! It reminded me that sometimes, we just have to ‘get up’, ‘get out there‘ and ‘get on with it’. Our worries and fears about what might happen, are often the things that prevent us from seeing, doing, experiencing, achieving greatthings!

So for me it was a case if ‘sticking to the plan‘, pushing through the difficult weather and as a result, experiencing one of the best days riding I’ve had (certainly here in Vietnam). As they say, “…you never know what’s around the corner unless you have a look….so go take a look!”