Hoi An to Hue
So the weather it shit today – so much for you getting bored of my complaining about the heat, I’m getting my karmic payback. We only have a short ride up the coast from Hoi An to Hue – in the rain…
When Top Gear did the route they proclaimed this road the best in Vietnam and now we have to do it in the rain. On the Hoi An side it was clear but quite cool riding the bikes. We ascended into the clouds and soon couldn’t see anything. I am sure the view was spectacular but I only have google images to prove it. As for the road it was really good fun, even in the pissing wet. There was some heated debate in the pub later if this was as good as the road out of Dalat vut that might just have been because we had views? We push as hard as we dared making sure the bike was perpendicular to the road at all times. There was no leaning around corners today and even so we still skidded a bit! The tyres must have been made of the same stuff hotwheels cars are.
Just before the dousing we stopped near Danang for the Marble Mountains. A kind, but financially driven, lady offered us the front of her shop to park the bikes while we walked around the mountain. We didn’t trust her with our bags, and the manliness challenge of lugging it up the marble mountain could not be passed by. We INSTANTLY regretted the decision but we were on the way now. Many many stone steps later we reached the first of the caves. We thought that one was good with its huge Budda and decorations all over the place. Turns out there are loads of them. The marble mountain is basically hollow and each cave has a different Budda. The detail of the carvings was amazing and when we got back to the bikes, unsurprisingly, the kind lady insisted we looked about her shop. I got myself a little jade Budda keyring and a pure white hand carved Budda statue. I spent a bit more on it than I wanted to but it’s amazing, I love it.
After a long, slow, wet, dangerous ride to Hue we got to the hostel. I was able to lift my leg up and water poured out of my “GoreTex” shoes. We were absolutely sopping for head to toe. Luckily, we knew this would happen, so I had bought us all waterproof bags made from tarpaulin material – it’s just the kinda guy I am. They worked perfectly and all our stuff was bone dry to change into ready for the pub quiz at a hostel down the road.
We met up with some girls we danced with in Hoi An. They had also biked from there to Hue today and gotten soaked in the process but they had been on the back of bikes. Their hostel was hilarious fun. The organiser sorted us for BOGOF drinks like clockwork and a whole bottle of whiskey was passed around. It was like petrol but when its free you don’t care. The night was spent drinking and dancing and making fun of an american who was could have been Trumps PR agent.