vietnam motorcycle trip

[cb400four_imp]

Last month I was fortunate to go on a motorcycle tour of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Trail; although I wasn't able to take my CB1100 and instead rode a Honda XR150 Enduro, I thought the trip might be of interest to the inmates here. A short bit of background, I'm fortunate to have three neighbors, Peter, Jim, and Jeff, who share my love of motorcycling, and during the summer months we often take rides around in and around New England. That is my CB1100 on the right.

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Last summer during one of our daytrips on the bikes, Peter voiced that he had always wanted to take a motorcycle trip to Vietnam. We are all in our 50s and 60s, so that country has obvious significance to us, and long story short, we found ourselves doing the research and finalizing our plan. Unfortunately, Jeff could not get the time off, so Peter, Jim, and I ended up heading to Vietnam. The trip was from Jan 27 to Feb 11, starting in Hanoi in the north and following a southerly route along Ho Chi Minh Trail and ending in Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City. We traveled with a local tour guide, a retired North Vietnamese Army Sergeant, and a small van for supplies and mechanical repair. The trip turned out to be was one of the most memorable events in my life, and the details of the trip would fill more than one post can comfortably fit, so I'll just touch on the highlights.

Here we are in Hanoi at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, I'm in the center.

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We spent two days in Hanoi and saw quite a bit of Hanoi, including the Hanoi Hilton prison where John McCain was imprisoned -- here is his flight suit and parachute.

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We took a train to the outskirts of Hanoi to pick up the bikes, here we are at the start of the trip.

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As mentioned above, the majority of our ride followed the Ho Chi Minh Trail (HCMT) from the north to the south, with some diversions such as a westward leg to the border of Laos and eastward legs to the beaches of Dong Hoi and Hoi An (near Da Nang). The Ho Chi Minh Trail is substantially an inland route of about 1,500 kilometers / 930 miles. It follows an inland route to the west of the coastline of Vietnam. It is mostly a two lane, undivided, paved road which winds its way through cities and towns and farmland and uncultivated land; from flat plateaus to hilly mountain ranges. In short, great riding!

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Vietnam has fifty four recognized ethnic minorities, most of which are living in rural areas and are relatively poor (though their economic condition is improving with the general rise in living standards of Vietnam generally). We visited several of those distinct ethnic minorities, and we brought resources to them in the form of food, clothing, notebooks, pens and pencils, and gifts; our tourguide would provide historical context to us so we could learn more about these groups.

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(continued on next post, only 10 pics per message)
Riding through the markets was always fun: although it was invariably crowded, the traffic pattern had its own tempo. More significantly, there was none of the seething road rage so often just under the veneer of US traffic.

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Westerners are not often seen, so locals who saw us closely always pulled in for a closer look and always waved at us.

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We didn't have any accidents during the trip, but I had a close call: after going over an expansion joint at the far end of a small bridge, my rear wheel locked up. I pulled the clutch in but the rear wheel remained locked, and the tail swung to the left and pointed me toward a guard rail which would have been a nasty accident. I managed to steer into the skid and keep the bike upright, thus avoiding contact with the guardrail (the below screencap is from the goPro which was running at the time, shows the handlebars turned into skid as the tail is wide to the left). After we examined the bike we learned that the rear fender had cracked and the license plate had jammed between the knobby tire and the swingarm, locking the rear wheel. I rode the remainder of the trip with my crumpled license plate in the sag wagon!

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The schedule was the same most days: we'd meet our tour guide at the hotel breakfast and discuss the route and historical or local context that he would provide, and then we'd leave promptly at 8am. We'd ride, usually stopping once or twice for coffee, scenic stops, or meeting locals. Lunch would usually be at a local road side "Com / Pho" (Rice / Noodle) stand. The local food was always great tasting and I felt well throughout the trip.

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A different day, different roadside stand

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A soup popular in the seaside town of Hue.

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After lunch we would ride until 5pm, stopping once or twice for coffee or sightseeing. At the end of the ride, we'd usually sit outside of the hotel and discuss what we'd seen or other commentary. Dinner was usually around 7pm. Our pre-dinner meeting was usually accompanied by a few beers, well deserved after a long day on the bike; here we after we arrived at the beach resort town of Hoi An.

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Although most of the Ho Chi Minh Trail is paved, there were sections which were not paved. One example was sections of the east / west road which ran from the HCMT westward to the border of Laos. We also took sideroads which were almost like old time fire trails which ran through farm communities, great fun on the XR150s.

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At the end of the trip, after riding on a particularly long stretch of unpaved road, I damaged my right fork seal. There was only one more day of riding in the trip so it wasn't repaired that evening.

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Our trip across Vietnam allowed us to visit many Vietnam War memorials. With the sole exception of the War Remnants Museum in Saigon, none of the war memorials were anti-American. The Vietnamese people have made great strides in reconciliation, as I believe many Americans have as well. In fact, I met many Vietnamese and they were without exception, kind, hard working, entrepreneurial, and optimistic. We felt welcome in the country and their hospitality was very touching.

Khe San war memorial and airstrip. We saw many other war memorials, but out of respect for memories held by any of the several Vietnam Vets on this website, I won't post the pics here.
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Vietnam has a very active motorcycling culture, and everyone young and old rides a motorcycle or scooter. Some things are the same as in the US: girls love a sharp guy on a smart bike: this kid approached me and in very good english he wanted to know if we were enjoying our trip (yes!). I learned that he was studying Electrical Engineering in Hanoi and had ridden the bike a couple hundred miles to be with his family for the Tet (Chinese New Year) holiday.

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In Saigon / HCM City, even the UPS guys ride bikes

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I'm a fan of ATGATT, All The Gear All The Time, but there is another side to the argument.

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All too soon, we had reached our destination and it was time to celebrate the shared experience. Jim, Peter, and I had a wonderful time, and if you buy us a beer we'll fill you in on all the details!

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[Cormanus]

Fantastic post, CB400Four. Thanks so much for sharing the story and the pics. More would be welcome.

Must have been a fantastic trip; I'd like to do so,etching like that myself some day. Us Aussies were with you in Vietnamese, but it is now a very popular lace for Australian tourists, most of whom speak very highly of it.

Thanks again.

[the Ferret]

Wow that had to be an awesome experience. Thanks for posting. Was the trip expensive? There must be a helmet law, since everyone in the pics were wearing helmets?

[cb400four_imp]

Wow that had to be an awesome experience. Thanks for posting. Was the trip expensive? There must be a helmet law, since everyone in the pics were wearing helmets?

The trip was expensive (but worth every penny), about 7,000 usd per person including everything such as international flights, tips, everything. You could do it for less: we met two twenty-something Aussies (I don't think they had 100 bucks between them) who were riding the same route but without a guide or support van and they were staying at the cheapest local guesthouses. You could spend more . For me, the ability to ride in a small group with my friends and having an experienced tour guide allowed us to learn the local culture more closely than if we were self-guided.

There is a helmet law (I believe), but like the US law against texting while driving, sometimes it is not followed. There were often government billboards by the side of the road which showed the importance of wearing a helmet.

[redbirds_imp]

A most excellent post. Thanks

[Rick Froscheiser_imp]

Thank you for the great post. Must have been an amazing trip.
Ride safe my friend.

[CA200_imp]

What a awesome trip. Trip of a life time.
It would be cool if you could post a route map, I am sure there are
other vets here that would like to see. Did you go through Tay Ninh
or Cu Chi. Did you see Nui Ba Den?
Was there in 69-70.

Great pictures!!!

[Aussieflyer]

Just awesome! Thanks a heap for taking the time to share your story.

[MFGUSA_imp]

I would be humbled in your presence. I know of no one in my circles that would have considered it let alone actually DO it! I've spent a fair amount of time in Asia and dreamt about doing something like that.

Incredible and well put together. You could sell the story to the Discovery Channel.

[cb400four_imp]

What a awesome trip. Trip of a life time.
It would be cool if you could post a route map, I am sure there are
other vets here that would like to see. Did you go through Tay Ninh
or Cu Chi. Did you see Nui Ba Den?
Was there in 69-70.

Great pictures!!!

Thanks Steve, it was an awesome trip. I'm working with my buddy Jim from the ride and we are putting together a route map and some edited videos from the GoPro cameras. Work crowds out my time but I'll post it soon. We did not get to Tay Ninh or the Nui Ba Den mountain, but we did go to Cu Chi. Our tourguide spent some time in the Cu Chi tunnels during the war and he told us some emotional stories about the fear of being buried alive, day after day -- he is a very tough guy but his experience was so bad that after the war he wouldn't go back into the tunnels even though they were preserved for tourists (I went inside, it was very cramped, he waited topside).

Here is our tour guide describing some details about the tunnels shown in this diorama.

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I would be humbled in your presence. I know of no one in my circles that would have considered it let alone actually DO it! I've spent a fair amount of time in Asia and dreamt about doing something like that.

Incredible and well put together. You could sell the story to the Discovery Channel.

Thanks mfg! I've lived in Hong Kong from 2008 to 2011 (took the wife and high school kids as well) and also travelled a bit in Asia (Japan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, as well as India) and I've really enjoyed the places I've been; where have you visited?