Category: Travel

Hanoi to Ha Long Bay Castaway Island

One bar crawl later, it was time to get up for a 7am coach to Castaway Island. This was the start of a 3 day boat tour (and party) around Ha Long Bay archipelago. The bus ride was not pleasant for me. Wobbly, hot busses and cramped conditions with added hangover make me vomit. Mike was helpful as usual. I had moved to the front of the bus to see the road and as soon as he heard me starting to retch, he bombed over to poke the GoPro in my face… Cheers bro.

After a 2.5 hour pukey coach ride, it was time for a 1 hour dieselly powerboat shuttle. This was quickly followed by another bus ride over one of the larger Islands. And finally, for desert, a slow, bobbing, pleasure boat to Castaway Island. Luckily I was saved by a magic pill a girl gave me to stem the flow of vomit. For once I was able to enjoy being on a boat and the spectacular scenery around me. Continue reading Wakeboarding Wilson

Ninh Bihn to Hanoi

It was time for the last stretch of the bike tour. Hanoi, our target for a month, lay ahead of us. Normally, coming into a city you approach from over a hill or down a valley. You can see the lay of the land and I always enjoy that, getting a feel of the size and density of a city as you arrive. Hanoi did not go that way. As soon as we left Ninh Binh, there was about 10km of open land and then there was always a wall of houses between us and the fields. It just built up slowly but surely as we got closer and closer to Hanoi Proper™. The distance between us and the fields got deeper, the buildings grew and the density of traffic became incredible.

Biking in Ho Chi Minh was mental, but this is something else. They have 3 lane highways where every inch is covered in bikes about half a meter apart, max. If you want to change direction or cross the road, you just have to go for it. There is no waiting for your space, you start moving and space is made for you. Blind hope and luck gets you from one side to the other. Continue reading The Last Leg

Ninh Binh Bouldering

Took our time today, the hostel is WAY out of town in the mountains. We had a lazy start, sleeping in late and slow breakfast. It’s so relaxed and tranquil here, surrounded by paddy fields and lilly marshes and BLOOD SUCKING MOSQUITOES!!!! Literally the buggers are the size of hummingbirds with the bills to match! There are mosquito nets over the beds but it takes sniper eyesight to catch all of them before you go to sleep.

Last night I didn’t get a chance to update the blog because just as I was choosing a photo I dropped my phone… And the screen smashed. So I’ve added a bit to yesterday’s post about eating gruesome things. I’ve been so careful with it but I guess it was going to happen eventually with a phablet. We went into town and found a guy who knew a guy who could fix it for £25, bargain!

Continue reading Mountains and Man Points

Vinh to Ninh Binh

Motorbike status update since last time.

• The ignition has been fixed and then broke again
• The second gear was fixed and then all gears broke. Now they all work again
• The bike developed an interesting tweeting sound around the carb
• The bike wont idle, it just wont.
• Rear right indicator is just about clinging to the bike
• Indicators only turn right, no matter which way you choose
• The ignition also indicates right
• Nothing has changed with the headlights, but they are so crap they are worth mentioning again

Continue reading Soggy Present Hunting

Phong Nha to Vinh

At last a quiet night to catch up on the blogging. Not that I’m complaining (I’ve got zombie cake) so much cool stuff has been going on, but I want to write about it all!

Today was meant to be a Boring Day© , just getting to the next place was a couple days ride away. We are aiming for Nimh Binh. We only managed Vinh in the end.

Continue reading Monster Truck Ride

Phong Nha exploration

Today we didn’t plan any trips. We grabbed the motorbikes (back from the mechanic – again) and went exploring the national park. There was a suggested route to take and at the bottom of the map page they gave us it said you need at least 3 litres of fuel to complete the circuit. But, more about that later.

We set off and decided to take a dirt road next to the river. I like getting lost when I know where I am. I know that doesn’t make sense but I mean exploring an area, finding hidden gems off the beaten track. Continue reading Jungle Roamers

Dong Ha to Phong Nha

After 4 or 5 exceptional days and nights we were quite tired and ready for a quiet day. We still had to cover the distance to Phong Nha and there were two options; the straight-ish road up the coast (short and boring) or the wiggly road through the mountains (long and amazing). If we did the full length of the wiggly road it would have taken us 2 days so we decided to bomb 2/3rds of the way up the coast and then tack back into the mountains for the good bits in the national park.

The road on the map looked like the trace of a drunken man’s progress up the street. It looped back on itself so many times there was no way to tell in which direction you were actually making progress. At one point we were 15km from our destination but had 45km of road to travel. It was an interesting road, no only for the scenery, which was amazing, but the surface! It was simultaneously being resurfaced, had piles of rocks and sand, mud from loggers, trees, concrete sections, tarmac sections and all the usual potholes and moss from the minimal traffic that ever used the road. Oh and we were so high we were inside the clouds, so it was wet too. At one point visibility dropped to about 10m and we were crawling along.

Continue reading Chicken Man

Dong Ha DMZ tour

We got back in quite late and very tired so after a damp night in an empty hotel it was time to rise but there was no shining. The weather was still a bit grey and uninspiring. After much debate about whether to go by motorbike or car ( price difference ) on the tour we opted for the car to avoid the rain and get more time to ask the guide questions.

Dong Ha was only a small town until the american war. When it all kicked off the americans came and relocated the people so they could build a big runway atop the ridge that Dong Ha sits on. The only remnants of this now is the main, dead straight road and one shot up and damaged plane hangar. Continue reading Wedding in the DMZ

Hue to Dong Ha

Today started in safe mode. Only a few systems online at a time, limited memory, error checking and system restoring myself. It took a good 4 hours to recover well enough to contemplate any sort of action today. After two amazing nights out in a row, I am feeling a bit weary and fuzzy headed. Luckily all we had to do was 70km to the next town up the coast.

We are trying to stay up in the mountains for the roads but the country is so skinny at this point the only towns are near the coast anyway. The only problem was the weather, again wr had drizzle. And we had to commit to starting the ride in the rain, so it was really demoralising. Continue reading Wierdy Beardy