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#
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