Central Vietnam Motorbike Adventure

Definitely one of the best things we have done since we arrived in Vietnam is take a 3 day motorbike tour of Central Vietnam. There just isn't a better way to really get a feel for the remote central highlands than braving the twisting roads on two wheels. So two weekends ago Nikki and I hit the road with our friends Cash and Emily – starting in Hoi An, spending the night in the tiny town of Prao, continuing on to Hue, and finally completing the circuit to Hoi An.

We went with an outfit called Hoi An Motorbike Adventures, which allows you to rent the ever-charismatic "Minsk," a 2 stroke, 125cc, soviet-made beast of a machine mass-produced in Belarus. They were loud, break-down prone, and spewed huge clouds of foul-smelling smoke, but fun to ride and handled all manner of pitted, washed out roads with no problem. So what if occasionally the clutch went out or the brakes stopped working? Right? Luckily, our guide Joe and mechanic Diu were around to help us out with our (fairly numerous) mechanical failures.

Once we got out of traffic near Hoi An, we had a blast cruising down mostly empty roads, high-fiving kids in tiny villages, and zipping across causeways dividing rice fields filled with water buffalo and farmers with conical hats. There was even a rickety old suspension bridge that we all had to navigate. The road and views only got better from there though. After spending the night in a questionable hotel near the border with Laos, we hit the Ho Chi Minh Highway surrounded by mist-shrouded green mountains. At some point, the rain started falling pretty heavily. No problem. We tossed on some rain gear (and awesomely stylish ponchos) and soldiered on, barely able to see the slick road in front of us. When we hit Hue, the roads were inundated with several feet of water. It was total chaos and I can't believe we made it to our hotel (and more importantly the bar!) in one piece. Motorbikes were going in every direction and wave after wave of hip-deep water washed over our bikes (and clothes-filled saddle bags!). Troi oi – I felt like a true Vietnamese person from the Central Region. Wish I had it on tape.

The adventure continued the next morning as we skirted the huge, scenic coastal estuaries near Hue. Around lunchtime we hit Hai Van pass, with its many twists and turns and scenic viewpoints around every dangerous corner. We paused for sandwiches near the French and US fortifications at the top and made friends with a Thai group making a multi-week tour motorbike tour of Southeast Asia. From there it was a very windy ride past Nam O Beach (where US marines landed in 1965), Danang, and China Beach before completing the circuit and heading home.

Excellent trip overall and I'd highly recommend it, despite various issues we encountered along the way. I tried to select some of our best pictures here, and have posted more on Picasa at: https://picasaweb.google.com/115993796619952960910/CentralVietnamMotorbikeTrip#

August and September Update

Whew! It's been a crazy few months with plenty of travel, visitors, and fun activities. Just wanted to give everyone an update on our continuing Southeast Asian adventures.

Before I get too far along – Nikki and I found out where we are going after Vietnam! In late 2012 we will start a two year post in Harare, Zimbabwe. We are so excited! True, Zimbabwe has plenty of problems. Also, it doesn't have a coastline, which will certainly be challenging for my career. However, Nikki and I really want to explore the African continent and Harare will be a great jumping off point. We'll get to live in a big (secure) house with a yard, so we should be able to bring our dog Hina along. Also, we've got some good friends also posted there, which will be super fun. Most of all, this will be a really different experience for us – I've never even set foot in Africa – new adventures here we come!

That's all over a year away. For the time being, we are loving Vietnam. For some reason the last two months have been filled with various competitions. My buddy Minh and I were handily defeated at a badminton tournament in August (turns out the Vietnamese are pretty skilled at the sport – I believe I have now been beaten by every possible demographic in HCMC). However, we were victorious a couple weekends ago in The Amazing Race Saigon, a city-wide game organized by our friends Huong and David. Earlier this month I finished 5th at the Hoi An Triathlon here in Vietnam, coming in first in my age group. I've recently started running with my buddy Jordan, who is here from the UK for a few months, so hopefully I'll be able to improve my fitness a bit. Unfortunately, the training hasn't helped my golf game, and the HCMC consulate team lost to our friends from the Hanoi embassy at the first annual inter-mission tournament in Danang. The soccer team is on a break at the moment, though we did play a friendly game in the Mekong Delta a few weeks ago (where I had the opportunity to try rat, embryonic ducks, pigeons, and various other Delta specialties).

On the travel side of things, Nikki and I took an incredible trip to Burma/Myanmar in early September (separate post below). We took a couple trips to the Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, where we got up early to check out the floating markets and toured various small waterways and villages. We also were able to spend more time in Central Vietnam, with a trip to Hue to see the ancient capital of Vietnam and the ornate tombs of past kings. Hoi An is quickly becoming one our favorite towns, with it's historic downtown packed with tailors and shoesmiths. Using Hoi An as a base, we also explored the nearby ruins of My Son: a vestige of the ancient Cham empire. The marble mountains aren't too far away either. We had fun poking around the caves with giant buddhas and riding a rented scooter out to China beach, where Nikki's parents started dating over 40 years ago!

Two of our good friends moved on to other posts this month. Nikki's best bud Liz completed her fellowship with the US Center for Disease Control and is off to join her boyfriend in South Africa – we will miss her, but luckily our next post will not be far away. Our buddy Dave also departed to prepare for his next post in Shanghai. We organized a pub crawl for his going away party, taking over some of our favorite Saigon watering holes. We've also got plenty of friends/family coming to visit these days. Last month my cousin Stan bought an impulse ticket to Vietnam and we spent a week hitting up Hanoi, Ha Long, Hue, and of course HCMC. Next month we've got our friends Amy and Ant coming, and after that my parents and brother – busy qua!

Work is going great for both me and Nikki. I'm wrapping up a UNEP funded project addressing land based marine pollution and about to start another one doing marine spatial planning in Ha Long Bay. Nikki has moved to a new portfolio addressing economic issues, so gets to be more plugged in to environmental work. We recently took a trip together to the Mekong Delta to escort a team of scientists looking at sedimentation (read: slogging through mangrove forests) and have also attended meetings together on sustainable tourism and climate change – it's so fun to get to work on the same issues!

That's the update for now – adventures will continue next month with a multi-day motorcycle tour, a trip up north, and a vacation in either Indonesia or Nepal. Also we've got R&R coming up soon and thinking about diving in the Maldives. Woo! How did we get so lucky?