The Motorbike Chronicles ( I couldn't help myself...)

Wow, I can't believe that I have let a month go by without blogging.  No excuses, but I did get pretty far off the beaten path since then. I even vetnured into lands entirely devoid of internet, perish the thought. Additionally, I find that the longer I travel the less time I want to spend in internet cafes. That maybe because here in Vietnam the cafes are packed full of screaming boys playing online videogames and cranking bad Asian pop music at high volumes. Or it just may be that I have gotten more comfortable as a solo traveler and don't feel the need to seek solace in my community of electronic friends. Oh yeah, I also found out that more people read this thing than I realized, and it freaked me out a little. Any or all of the above will suffice for a decent excuse, I hope.

So on to the meat of this blog, concerning the title.  After leaving the Imperial City Hue, I traveled down to China Beach with some friends (location of the infamous surfing scene in Apocalypse Now), then on to Hoi An, a beautiful ancient city in a river delta by the South China Sea with a mixture of old Japanese wooden buildings and newer French colonial architecture. There I linked up with my friend Amy Morison, an Aussie expat. I stayed with Amy for 2 weeks, a much needed break from constant packing and unpacking of bags.  While in Hoi An, enjoying the nearby beach and best food in Vietnam, I decided that I really wanted to get off the well-trod backpacker path and see something different. Soooooooo, I bought a beat-up old Honda motorbike for less than 300 bucks, got used to driving it around town (mostly to the beach and back every day), then hit the road.  Or the trail.  To be exact, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was the route used by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong to smuggle supples to the South.  The trail runs through the mountains and highlands along the border with Laos, and it was under constant bombardment by the US during the war, although it was never shut down in that time. Today, it is a reasonably well-paved, 2-lane highway that passes through hilltribe villages, mountain passes. primary rainforest, coffee abd tea plantations, rice paddies, big cities, national parks, past waterfalls and bamboo long house on stilts, and much more. I passed elephants and oxcarts, funerals and weddings, saw one deadly accident and many many minor ones, all all on my own, just me and the motorbike named Speed.

For my first long distance 2-wheeled excursion, I have to say that it was amazing. In the first 5 days, I traveled about 1000 kilmeters (~600 miles) stopping in the towns of Dok Glei, Pleiku, Ban Ma Thuot, and the tiny M'nong village of Ban Don on the Laos border.  My only problems came when I had a breakdown during a torrential downpour on my first day out ( I was able to limp into town and get the chainguard fixed for roughly 25 cents) and a flat tire on the second day, which went flat just as I got to a major town. So for an older, high mileage motorbike, I feel very lucky.  After 5 days on the road, I made it to Dalat, capital of the Central Highlands region. It is a gorgeous small city nestled in pine trees (the smell of which made me homesick for Montana) with a big lake in the middle of town and the best, eternally spring-like weather in all of Vietnam.  From Dalat I made excursions into the surrounding countyside discovering tiny villages where people just about popped the eyes out of their heads from staring at me, Cao Dai temples, and even took my bike (nicknamed Speed) offroad on some really fun singletrack adventures going where I thought no scooter could go. One day I met some American girls in town and led them on a trip to a high pass from which you could see 50 miles to the sea. It was great to do some riding without all my heavy gear bungees to the back seat.

Finally leaving Dalat just 4 days ago, I rode down from the Highlands to the coastal plain. My last big mountain day on the bike started with a thunderstorm as I left Dalat. Luckily, there are cafes everywhere along the roads here and I just popped in for a cup of java to wait it out. And when there aren't cafes there are little rest stops that serve coconuts, sugarcane juice, and cold drinks and provide hammocks for lounging under shade tarps.  This ride down to the coast on Route 28 was one of the best I had in the 'Nam, with a rolllercoast-like series of hairpins down into jungle valleys. I was sad to say goodbye to the mountains and pine trees, but the beach was calling.  I rode into Mui Ne, a coastal town known for windsurfing, sand dunes,  and brewing fish sauce. The whole town reeks of the sauce which is made by layering sardines with brine in big clay pots and letting it ferment in the sun for up to a year. The Viet use it in place of soy sauce or salt. Yum. The beach was really nice though, and I rode with some Canadian girls and a Brit out to the huge  pure white sand dunes next to a lake filled with pink lotus blossoms (at some point I am going to figure out how to upload pictures to this blog and save myself a lot of typing.). At the dunes you could rent plastic sleds from kids for 50 cents and going sledding down the dunes. Good fun, but ridiculously sandy and hot!

Yesterday, I did my last big ride on Speed most likely. I left Mui Ne and rode along the coast with great views of the ocean almost the whole way. I stopped at the amazing Kage lighthouse surrounding by twisted red and yellow sandstone formations and passed salt fields, mud springs, and dragonfruit orchards.  Last night I finally stopped in Long Hai, a beach town frequented by Saigon weekend warriors. I hit the beach for a hour before sunset and what a scene it was! Huge families having picnic dinners, teens racing tricked-out motorbikes on the sand, kids playing soccer, women bathing fully clothed (they hate the sun here, or at least getting tan), ice cream vendors cranking dance music from their carts, and local ladies selling bbq-ed octopus.  A relaxing last night before the big hot crazy city.

So today I make a short ride into Saigon where I will sell Speed in the next few days and become another backpacker on the bus, just like everyone else. Sigh. But it was an amazing journey over the last few weeks, and I am certain it is not my last big motorcycle trek, but just the first. All in all, not a bad inititation to the two-wheeled brotherhood. All told, I will have done about 900 miles on a bike that is only 110 cc and tops out at 50 miles per hour.  I have been run off the rode by trucks and buses and braved the ridiculous no-hold-barred traffic of Vietnam and navigated in a country with little to few road signs without getting lost once.  I got so far off the beaten track I didn't speak English for days ( a rarity in Asia nowadays) and got a workout from performing charades so much in order to communicate. I have walked into places where everyone stopped eating at the sight of me and women felt compelled to show me how to use chopsticks and roll springrolls I appeared so helpless.  Not bad for a kid from Delaware, I think.

Coming soon: Reflections on a year of traveling. Yesterday marked my 1-year anniversary of leaving Montana and beginning my travels around the US and Asia.

Addendum to the last blog about wierd food:

Cat - a corner beer joint, Hoi An. Minced meat formed into little squares with rice flour. Grilled in banana leaves. Gross.
Frog- Better than chicken. Delicious in fact!
Fish pate sandwich - I got this from a little old lady at the night market in Dalat. I triewd everything she had to offer from night to night. It was all amazing, but she spoke no English, and I very little Vietnamese. So besides this one, I had no idea what I tried.
BBQ-ed octopus head - Long Hai beach.  Marinated, stuffed with cilantro, line, and scallions. Grilled. The best seafood I have had in a long time.