Two Rons Venturing into Vietnam

It was stiflingly hot when we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. We changed some money and became instant millionaires as Vietnam dongs were worth 30000 to a £. We took a taxi and went to the centre of town where we had a room booked through Airbnb, we dumped our bags and took a walk looking for a cold drink. The taxi driver had told us that later on there would be a cart selling noodles on the corner where he had dropped us off. We found the cart and had some noodle soup called Pho. It was delicious.

Woke up at 6:30 a.m. Ron was already up. We got ready and headed out to find breakfast. Found a little cafe in front of someone's house which must have been their garage. We ordered two coffees hoping they'd be hot but we got iced coffees instead. We also got hot green tea which we had not ordered. We found this everywhere in Vietnam over the next 4 weeks. As soon as you arrive in a cafe they bring you hot green tea free of charge. Anyway, as we drank the iced coffees other customers would arrive with French baguette rolls and eat them at the cafe with their coffees.

Woke up early and headed out to change some money as soon as the banks opened. Also had to find a tyre shop to put puncture-proof slime in our tyres. Two jobs done and we headed out of HCMC. It took us a good two hours in the mad traffic to get to the outskirts and head south-west towards the Mekong delta. We were hoping to see a floating market near Cai Be. The highway was busy but we made good progress on it, or so it felt but we were only averaging 30kmph. I was using Google maps on my phone to help us navigate.

Went out for breakfast early-ish and when we ordered coffees we got all the component parts for iced coffees which we had to put them together ourselves which was interesting. On the way back we saw a 'coffee house' with a logo almost identical to Starbucks hoping to get hot coffee. We got coffee so strong it made your teeth curl!

We packed up and left hoping to see the floating market in action (we had seen just the boats so far with no merchandise on them). We did find a market and rode through it even. Floating it was not.

Had another go at border crossing after riding to Moc Hoa where there was a proper crossing set up rather than a bamboo barrier across a dirt road. Exiting Vietnam was a simple procedure - we just got stamped out and told "Go Campuchia" so off we went through no man's land and over to Cambodia border where border guards were much friendlier. Filled in a couple of forms, paid the visa fees found out where the nearest bank was to get some Cambodian Riels and set off again. The differences from one side of border to the other were noticeable.

Went for a walk in the morning looking for breakfast and found a bakery. Local Honda dealer did not have a replacement clutch lever for Ron's bike however, an independent bike shop across the road managed to find one that fitted. Result! Bike fixed we headed to Phnom Penh so had to head back up the dusty road and then pickup the highway from the bridge at Neak Loeung. 

We left the hotel in no rush, had breakfast in a nearby cafe and then set off planning to get back to Vietnam that day crossing the border near Tay Ninh. No sooner had we covered 1 km we got pulled ver by the police. The charge? Riding with headlights on during the day! We always ride with our headlights on for safety reasons. In fact all new bikes sold in Europe have their lights permanently on and you cannot switch it off. We tried to explain the reason we had our lights on to the three police officers but they were having none of it.

We didn't go far today. Just rode to Tay Ninh some 40 km from the border. No breakfast or lunch for me as I had a an upset stomach from last night's dinner at Cafe Mimosa. I have eaten in many a dodgy place, have a pretty strong constitution and luckily am not normally affected but...
It only lasted one day. So all was good again. Ron on the other hand ate the leftovers from last night for breakfast and suffered for a couple of days. Enough said.

We left Tay Ninh at around 9.30 am and headed towards Cat Tien nationak park. We had heard it was worth visiting. Had to keep stopping frequently to check we were on the right road but made good progress once on the highway. At one of these stops Ron's leather jacket attracted an admirer who proceeded to check it out in an unashamedly hands-on manner!

Woke up to the beautiful sounds of birds and singing gibbons. Needed to do some washing but was feeling lazy so just chilled in the hammock and set up my Instagram account and opted for the laundry service at £1 per kilo! Bargain. Ron sunbathed, fell asleep and got burnt. Ouch.

Left Nam Cat Tien late and headed towards Dalat. Looking at the map the roads looked twisty and we were looking forward to riding as so far the scenery has been dead flat with straight roads. Not very interesting for bike riding. The idea was to stop at one of the two waterfalls but as the bikes needed an oil change and the Tet (new year) festival was approaching when most shops would be closed, we decided not to stop at the waterfalls but head straight to Dalat.

As we had bypassed the waterfall yesterday we thought we'd retrace our steps for 35 km or so and visit the waterfalls. We arrived at Elephant waterfalls at about 10.30 am after having stopped for a coffee at what looked like a very popular Me Linh coffee garden. We had "proper" coffee (as we know it) for the first time in Vietnam. Despite paying over the odds for a latte it was worth it just for the view from the balcony/terrace.

Check out time wasn't till midday and we needed to change some more money so we walked on the already busy beach to find a bank. After the bank we walked some more through the back streets of Nha Trang and a local fruit and veg market.

Ron woke me up at 10 am. I was so hungover! After breakfast Ron went off to the beach while I lazed in a hammock. Trung kept thrusting more beer at us at breakfast. He was also eating raw fish. Neither of these helped the way I was feeling. I started feeling better by lunch time when Ron came back and said he had found a road/track where we could take our bikes on the beach. So off we went and had a nice ride on on the sand. The beach was deserted for miles. There was a lot of plastic and other rubbish which had washed up from the sea but nevertheless it was stunningly beautiful.

The split on Ron's rear tyre was getting worse by the day so we had got in touch with the rental company to see if we could have the tyre or the bike replaced. They agreed to swap the bikes over but we needed to get to Danang which was still about 550 kms away. But the thing was we had to get there by close of business the next day as otherwise they'd be closed for Tet (new year) for a week from the day after. So we decided to hit the highway rather than going off-grid so to speak.

We knew that Huyen's cafe round the corner sold cappuccino so we headed there early as we had a lot of miles to cover and needed to make an early start. We had to reach Danang today to swap Ron's bike. After breakfast we headed north on the highway. I felt that the ride was boring on highways. The dogs on roads, little bikes darting out of side roads without looking and people driving the wrong way down a dual carriageway kept us awake and alert and that in turn kept us alive.

New year's day - we were up and out of the damp-ridden hotel by 7.30 am. Had Banh Mi by road side with a mango smoothie and headed towards Hue (pronounce 'who way') but we never made it. This is why I love travelling by bike and not making any plans and pre-booking accommodation or signing up for a guided tour. Our lack of plan meant we just went with the flow.

Mr Cam had arranged a car for us to go to the national park in. I had called him the night before to confirm and we were to meet the driver at the entrance to the park. We took all our bags with us to save paying another day's rent at the guesthouse. As we had the exclusive use of a car we could chuck the luggage in the boot.

It was 18 kms of constant climbing and we could see why they did not allow bikes up there. The drops were sheer and sometimes there was no barrier between road and ravine.

Hue used to be the old imperial capital of Vietnam. As we were up early we went for a walk across the Perfume river (that's what it's called) and to the old citadel. It would've been interesting to go in but we didn't have the time as we had to check out by 11 am.

We saw a group of rich-looking Chinese tourists who had two photographers with them and these photographers were taking instructions from the tourists and taking photos so the tourists didn't have to! How the other half live.

We had arranged with Joe to meet up in the morning and visit the Khe Sanh combat base where there were some captured American air force relics. When Joe found out that we were heading to Phong Nha national park where he had come from the day before, he recommended we stay at the backpacker's hostel where it was cheap and clean.