Our Motorbike Adventure - Part I
ELLIE - We have just had the most amazing week ever!
We've really loved being in Vietnam but we were both getting a bit sick of continually being surrounded by other tourists, all doing the same thing and visiting the same places. After a trip to Halong Bay (a beautiful bay full of caves - if you could see past the other thousand tourists who were there!) where we were hearded around with countless other excited travelers we decided that it was time to do a bit of exploring on our own. Our chosen destination was North West Vietnam, an area described in guide books as pretty unfrequented by tourists - sounded perfect! So, we bought a pair of gloves, an atlas of North Vietnam and hired two motorbikes and off we set! Got to say that I was pretty nervous about our trip as I'd never really ridden a motorbike before and not only did our planned route cover more than 1,000km but it also encompassed what Lonely Planet described as 'some of the most treacherous roads in Vietnam'!
ADAM - I must admit that I was very surprised when Ellie showed any interest in the idea of going on a motor bike trip as her description of "not really" ridden a motor bike actually means that she has been on the back of a motor bike a few times and has never ridden a motor bike (in fact she hates motorbikes with a passion!). However the prospect of days on motor bikes on mountain roads sounded amazing (to me) and the thought of no tourists was obviously enough to spur Ellie on to do the unthinkable.
So having picked our motor bikes up I thought it would be a good idea for Ellie to get a little practice on her bike to make sure she knew how the bike worked. After an hour of driving around the near deserted late night streets of Hanoi I realised that she was a bit of a natural. This was lucky as the next time we rode our bikes it was in crazed morning rush hour traffic where there are no real rules to the road. In fact to ride a bike in Hanoi you need 2 things an accelerator and a horn everything else on the bike is an optional extra and rarely used!
Safely out of Hanoi we started on our journey to Mai Chia which is west of Hanoi and a nice easy ride for our first day. This was however until Valentino Rossi (aka Ellie) decided that it was too close and that she was happy to continue to what was our second night destination Son La. This was almost 400km of winding but good quality roads. (I know that 400km does not sound like a long way for the perfect motorway roads of the UK with laws and rules but in Vietnam it's a bloody long and very dangerous way!)
ELLIE - Looking back it was pretty stupid of me to suggest we drive all that way extra. By the time we arrived in Son Las (11 hours after leaving Hanoi!) I was shattered and badly in need of a good, long shower! However, the drive had been awesome (I still can't quite believe that I enjoyed it so much!) and we'd met some amazing people along the way.
At one point I was running really low on fuel so we stopped at this petrol station - I know it looks like a random plastic carton on the side of the road but believe me - it was a petrol station. The woman who was running it didn't speak a word of English but was very friendly none the less. Once she had filled both our bikes up she grabbed me by the hand and literally propelled me into her house. Inside she sat us both down and proceeded to pour us tiny cups of tea - much to my horror! Not wanting to be rude I forced mine down pretty quickly only for it to be refilled seconds later! We were relieved when the teapot appeared to be empty but then she topped it up from a luke warm thermos flask - nice! We stayed and talked (we talked in English and she talked in Vietnamese - it kind of worked!) for quite a while, we were having a great time with her and the hundreds of children who had appeared from nowhere to see the 'white people'! It was really refreshing meeting someone local who was genuinely pleased to see us and didn't just see our white skin as dollar signs!
ADAM - As Ells said we were both pretty tired when we arrived in Son Las and very hungry! The only food we had eaten all day was "new year" food that we were forced (sorry kindly invited) to eat by a lady when we stopped at her shack for a drink. (New Year food is white sticky rice with some corn, a type of meat which I think was dog all held together by fat of the animal the meat related to, hmmmm Nice!) So I decided to go and find some food in Son La and discovered that for the first and not the last time on this trip I was being TET(ed). This means that all restaurants were shut or had private celebrations going on for New Year. Although discouraged I managed to find a small shop that sold biscuits and beer (always essential!). The owner was a very enthusiastic old man who watched the premier ship all day, screaming and jigging up and down in his chair every time a goal was shown. I spent a very confusing 30 minutes sitting with him "talking" about football! Still no real food to be found, so sadly we went to bed hungry.
We've really loved being in Vietnam but we were both getting a bit sick of continually being surrounded by other tourists, all doing the same thing and visiting the same places. After a trip to Halong Bay (a beautiful bay full of caves - if you could see past the other thousand tourists who were there!) where we were hearded around with countless other excited travelers we decided that it was time to do a bit of exploring on our own. Our chosen destination was North West Vietnam, an area described in guide books as pretty unfrequented by tourists - sounded perfect! So, we bought a pair of gloves, an atlas of North Vietnam and hired two motorbikes and off we set! Got to say that I was pretty nervous about our trip as I'd never really ridden a motorbike before and not only did our planned route cover more than 1,000km but it also encompassed what Lonely Planet described as 'some of the most treacherous roads in Vietnam'!
ADAM - I must admit that I was very surprised when Ellie showed any interest in the idea of going on a motor bike trip as her description of "not really" ridden a motor bike actually means that she has been on the back of a motor bike a few times and has never ridden a motor bike (in fact she hates motorbikes with a passion!). However the prospect of days on motor bikes on mountain roads sounded amazing (to me) and the thought of no tourists was obviously enough to spur Ellie on to do the unthinkable.
So having picked our motor bikes up I thought it would be a good idea for Ellie to get a little practice on her bike to make sure she knew how the bike worked. After an hour of driving around the near deserted late night streets of Hanoi I realised that she was a bit of a natural. This was lucky as the next time we rode our bikes it was in crazed morning rush hour traffic where there are no real rules to the road. In fact to ride a bike in Hanoi you need 2 things an accelerator and a horn everything else on the bike is an optional extra and rarely used!
Safely out of Hanoi we started on our journey to Mai Chia which is west of Hanoi and a nice easy ride for our first day. This was however until Valentino Rossi (aka Ellie) decided that it was too close and that she was happy to continue to what was our second night destination Son La. This was almost 400km of winding but good quality roads. (I know that 400km does not sound like a long way for the perfect motorway roads of the UK with laws and rules but in Vietnam it's a bloody long and very dangerous way!)ELLIE - Looking back it was pretty stupid of me to suggest we drive all that way extra. By the time we arrived in Son Las (11 hours after leaving Hanoi!) I was shattered and badly in need of a good, long shower! However, the drive had been awesome (I still can't quite believe that I enjoyed it so much!) and we'd met some amazing people along the way.
At one point I was running really low on fuel so we stopped at this petrol station - I know it looks like a random plastic carton on the side of the road but believe me - it was a petrol station. The woman who was running it didn't speak a word of English but was very friendly none the less. Once she had filled both our bikes up she grabbed me by the hand and literally propelled me into her house. Inside she sat us both down and proceeded to pour us tiny cups of tea - much to my horror! Not wanting to be rude I forced mine down pretty quickly only for it to be refilled seconds later! We were relieved when the teapot appeared to be empty but then she topped it up from a luke warm thermos flask - nice! We stayed and talked (we talked in English and she talked in Vietnamese - it kind of worked!) for quite a while, we were having a great time with her and the hundreds of children who had appeared from nowhere to see the 'white people'! It was really refreshing meeting someone local who was genuinely pleased to see us and didn't just see our white skin as dollar signs!
ADAM - As Ells said we were both pretty tired when we arrived in Son Las and very hungry! The only food we had eaten all day was "new year" food that we were forced (sorry kindly invited) to eat by a lady when we stopped at her shack for a drink. (New Year food is white sticky rice with some corn, a type of meat which I think was dog all held together by fat of the animal the meat related to, hmmmm Nice!) So I decided to go and find some food in Son La and discovered that for the first and not the last time on this trip I was being TET(ed). This means that all restaurants were shut or had private celebrations going on for New Year. Although discouraged I managed to find a small shop that sold biscuits and beer (always essential!). The owner was a very enthusiastic old man who watched the premier ship all day, screaming and jigging up and down in his chair every time a goal was shown. I spent a very confusing 30 minutes sitting with him "talking" about football! Still no real food to be found, so sadly we went to bed hungry.posted by Ellie and Adam at
1:08 AM
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