For the sake of only a few dollars, we popped to Da Nang on
a flight and worked out where to go from here. We’d heard about the Top Gear
motorcycle route, the most popular part of it being a mountain pass road
between Hue and Hoi An, called Hải Vân Pass. Figuring we wanted a few days in
Hoi An, we left the airport and worked out how we’d get to Hue. Unfortunately,
our only option to get to the bus station was a taxi and they were well aware
of that, taking us a somewhat longer router than we expected on the meter, then
taking us an extra 20 metres through a gate that would have cost an extra chunk
of cash, which we outright refused to pay.
We took a minibus to Hue and a short walk from where we were
dropped off to the road with guest houses. We’d had a recommendation of one but
we were poached on the way to it as there appeared to be many cheap places to
stay on the same road, with eagle-eyed receptionists standing on the steps
waiting for people with bags. The room was cheaper than we were expecting (although
later we did find out it came with a little cockroach friend running around,
putting Diana on edge for a while). We found out we could arrange the
motorcycle trip at reception. Whilst the most expensive motorcycle rental
option we’d ever seen, they also had our backpacks taken in the morning on a
separate bike to a hotel at the other end. We made arrangements for the next
morning and took a look around.
We didn’t really get up to a lot in Hue, other than getting
lost in a supermarket and watching the sun set, working out our route for the
morning. It was a fairly simple route once we got on to it, but a little bit of
a maze at first. After enjoying the beautiful view from our window and checking
the room for cockroaches one final time, we headed to sleep ready for the long
journey ahead.
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| A view to die for. |
Like clockwork someone was ready to take our bags ahead of
us, cramming them into sacks and somehow draping them onto the back of a
scooter. We hoped and prayed they’d make it there in one piece, but seeing as
the Vietnamese are well versed in riding bikes we had little doubt they’d be
okay. We hopped on our somewhat unreliable looking scooter (who needs a fuel
gauge or working speedo anyway??), Diana up front, found a petrol station and
just about handled that transaction, and were on our way.
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| Our rough route |
First step was through a small village alongside a beach.
The road passed alongside a number of people drying out rice and stuff,
creating unnecessary obstacles along the way but nobody seemed to really mind.
Next was through a number of graveyards, we have no idea why there were so many
in this particular area but a lot of them were incredibly fancy and ornate.
Then through a small green hilly area, surrounded by trees and countryside,
before a bridge with an absolutely incredible view.
Honestly, there wasn’t much about this journey that wasn’t
absolutely stunning. Even the main highway, where we had to cover our faces to
prevent inhaling tons of diesel fumes, had amazing scenery all around. With my
role as motorcycle photographer, I did my best to capture what I could. Then we
approached ‘the’ road, the mountain bypass road so heralded as the highlight of
the trip. Of course, first we managed to almost take the wrong way which ended
with a security man running out of a hut after us to tell us to stop and go
back the other way, as the route we tried was only for cars and trucks. Hoping
we were still on track, we followed the route he pointed us down.
Wow. Just wow. The most incredible views on a perfect windy
road, with surprisingly little traffic considering the fame of the route and it
being the main road around here. We did see the odd tourist riding pillion on
the way, but it was a surprisingly clear route. We finally reached the top,
where many couples were taking advantage of the incredible views and getting professional
wedding photos taken in odd, yet beautiful places. The buildings around this
area had been peppered by bullets, although the actual history on the area
wasn’t very obvious from anything around. We followed the road higher up, to a
point where we were able to see the whole area, almost 360 degrees of the
region.
The way back down from this view had just as stunning sights
and scenes, an absolutely beautiful stretch of road. Top Gear were absolutely
on point with this one!
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| Puppy off to find love |
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| Good luck pup! |
As we approached the bottom and headed on our way towards
Hoi An, the heavens opened with some insanely heavy rain, to the point it was
stinging my eyes whilst riding. Stopping a couple of times to confirm we were
going in the right direction, we eventually decided to duck out entirely and
stop for a coffee until it passed. Unfortunately, as soon as we resumed riding
again we caught it back up. It seemed we had a bit of a stop/start journey
coming up to avoid the bullet-like torrential rain.
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| Someone off to brave the rain |
Eventually we made it to Hoi An, soaked to the bone and
distinctly prune-fingered. We checked into the hotel we’d been told our luggage
had been forwarded on to, and within 10 minutes were reintroduced to our bags.
A much required shower and off to explore Hoi An!
We’d been informed, both by looking up the area and from
that Top Gear episode, that Hoi An was the place to go to get clothing tailor
made. Whilst this was of no interest to me, Diana set about the task of getting
a tailor-made Ao Dai for her mum, the traditional dress of Vietnamese women.
Finding a tailor and material she liked, we were informed it would be done the
next day. Easy peasy!
The following day, we decided we’d hire bicycles and go for
an impromptu cycling tour of the area, with absolutely no idea where we were
going or what we were doing. With a vague route worked out on a map, we headed
off into the unknown. This took us through along a surprisingly long bridge
over the Thu Bồn River. Hard work on the way up, but great fun on the way back
down!
From here, we had a quick look at our map and headed off to
the right, to make a vague circle. We stopped briefly for a drink at a local
shop, where they were playing a card game. They didn’t seem too familiar with
Western people stopping here, and Diana attempting to go over and understand
the game they were playing to little avail. We went off on our way again.
Riding through roads between huge rice fields, with people
putting their rice out on the sides of the road to dry in the sun, we attracted
fair amounts of attention and it was clear this wasn’t the typical route that
the tourists of the area would take. At this point, we were getting hungry and
tried to find a local place to eat. This is easy enough in tourist areas where
people are eating at any hour of the day, but in this area where people were
more accustomed to eating at certain times, we didn’t find many places with
food still available. Crossing over a bridge, Diana spotted a little place
where it looked like they may have food options and attempted to ask for a menu.
It probably comes as no surprise that the entire menu was
written in Vietnamese and the lady there had not a jot of English. So we moved
to more traditional tactics, where Diana walked over to the kitchen area and
started pointing at things, making exaggerated mimes of eating and I’m fairly
sure there was an attempt to do the action of a noodle in there as well. She
seemed to get the general idea and asked us to take a seat.
Here we both gathered some attention, when (we assume) her
children gathered around us. A boy seemed incredibly drawn to my camera, so I
figured we weren’t going anywhere for a while and handed it over to him.
Meanwhile, Diana attracted the attention of two girls, who had their eye on her
phone. Duly handed over, we waited for whatever food would materialise and
watched as the two girls fought over who’s turn it was to play with Diana’s
phone, and the boy started up a miniature photo shoot.
I forget exactly what the food was, but without a doubt it
was noodle soup with vegetables. The girls at this point had found Temple Run
on Diana’s phone, a game that was installed when she bought it, as she didn’t
even know it was on there. By the time the boy had finished with my camera, an
additional 200 photos had appeared, ranging from us looking vaguely confused at
the menu, the girls arguing over who got to play, us stuffing our faces, and
extreme close ups of my face. Priceless photos I will one day sell for a small
fortune, no doubt. Once we’d finished, we got the impression their mother was
pretty concerned they might break our gadgets, said some things to them and
they immediately handed them back. We then attempted to pay for our food but
she outright refused to take anything from us after attempting to offer three
times (I mean, that might be because we had no idea what the corresponding item
on the menu costed so we just threw a random amount of money at her hoping it
was enough. Maybe we were just offering an insultingly low amount… She seemed
to be smiling and shaking her head a lot though, so I think she was just being
very generous…)
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| First class photography! |
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| Om nom nom |
Thanking her profusely and with all our possessions back in
our possession, we headed on up the road, following a little route on my map
that should get us back to the town again. That said, the route suddenly
changed quite dramatically, down narrow little roads where only a bicycle would
be able to pass. We crossed a very narrow bridge over a river, where a lot of
the bridge was actually missing stone slabs, resulting in a dunk should we fail
to navigate them successfully. From there we went through a number of fields
and past very rural houses and villages, still apparently on route to what
looked like a bridge over to town again. Except it wasn’t a bridge, it was a
boat crossing. It seemed wherever we were, this was the way back to Hoi An, so
we loaded the bikes on and were on our way back over.
One of the reasons we stayed in Hoi An as long as we did was
their monthly ‘Full Moon Festival’, which we’d arrived only a couple of days
before. We looked it up and there were a lot of positive reviews of it, where
apparently people would float candle lanterns down the river and all sorts of
street activities were performed. Whilst wandering back over to our hotel we
could see everything being set up for this, new floats had appeared in the
river and stalls were appearing all up and down the streets. During this
period, vehicle traffic was explicitly prohibited and you were only allowed to
wander the streets by foot (some people went by bicycle, I’m not sure if this
was allowed or typical rule ignoring, but certainly no motor vehicles!)
The evening was absolutely heaving with people, but
extremely beautiful, with lanterns set up outside shops and little stalls all
around the place. People everywhere were attempting to sell you a lantern to
float down the river, but due to the sheer amount of them we decided we were
quite happy just to observe. Street bands were playing and the little streets
were nicely decorated for the event.
We took a while working out the best way to get to our next
destination, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon.) After a while looking at
prices and durations for night buses, and then looking up flights again, we
realised it was almost entirely pointless considering a bus when internal flights
were such a bargain. With a flight booked for the evening of the next day, we
spent our day arranging to post some stuff we’d gathered along the way back to
England. Opting for the cheapest method, by sea, we were told it would take 2-3
months to arrive back home. Seemed a long time, but we were hoping to be
pleasantly surprised it would arrive home sooner as we’d been estimated a long
time from India and it only took a couple of weeks (It didn’t take less time in
the end, it was almost 3 months and Diana was anxiously waiting for her mum to
get her new outfit!)
Light drizzle...
We also took this time to finish applications for Grace House in Siem Reap,
Cambodia. Diana had been looking for a place for us to volunteer whilst there,
and found they had use for Occupational Therapists. It looked like a great
place, so we spent the day filling out all the relevant information on the
application forms and sent them off. That said, it was a weekend, so we’d have
to wait and find out whether we were okay to go there or not.
But anyway, onwards to our next destination, Ho Chi Minh
City!
