I Survived Vietnam Traffic

A few days ago I officially finished driving through the whole country of Vietnam, starting from Hanoi to Saigon. The total amount of kilometers we did in the end was a whopping 2400km through mostly the mountains of this beautiful country. The total time it took us to do it was 15 days. It was exciting, nerve wracking, and challenging on the body and mind. I will have to admit there were some days where I was like fuck this shit. But the other days when I couldn’t believe my eyes made it all worth while. I really wished I would of stopped and took pictures at the places that truly made my heart gasp. there were four full days throughout the trip where I was just an awe about the wild and beauty of this country. It reminded me of Jurassic Park or the movie Avatar. I think I said omg probably about a good solid two hours straight for each of these four days of going through amazing landscape. I will however always have these places in the back of my mind. Worlds of paradise and tranquility.

Driving through Vietnam is dangerous. In my group there were three accidents. Not severe, but definitely accidents. One of the accidents was a guy not looking both ways and getting hit by our fellow crew member at 40km/h, making him do a flip in the air from the force. Another was a girl that decided to tag along with us one day and try to go around this car and instead went right through it and destroyed the poor mans bumper and part of her motorcycle, luckily she came out alright. The last was a huge semi throwing another of our crew members off to the side of the road in a big pile of mud and manure. Now all of this was just in our crew but everyday we saw some kind of scooter accident on the road and also heard stories from fellow travelers about their accidents they were involved in. It happens all the time. My outlook however on this for someone that wants to do the same thing I did is don’t be an idiot, don’t be too cocky, and drive defensive. If you do this and act this way you should be A okay. People are going to cut you off and rub the back of your tires. You just have to be defensive and let the man or woman take the advantage (they know what they are doing). The biggest trucks are the fastest things on the road remarkably. They will pass other Semi’s on a upward mountain and don’t care whats on the other side of the hill. They will honk though and if you hear that you better move over. Never try to overtake these bad boys, they’ll always catch back up to you in the end. There is a system in Vietnam, a very chaotic system but nonetheless it works. Everyone drives defensively on a scooter and all of traffic will stop if you stop. They completely understand that were assholes that don’t know how to drive and for some reason they show respect for that, or they just don’t want to get hit or involved in an incident. I am not going to explain it further. You’ll figure it out the first day when you get on the bike. Just honk a lot when you pass someone and pass them on the right.

There were some fuck this shit days. Quite a few to be honest. I think there was four or five where it was 60 degrees fahrenheit and raining on top of you going 70 km/hr on a bike. That makes it cold as shit and miserable, thank god for my poncho. We drove 4 hours sometimes on days like this and at the end of it you felt like you definitely had hyperthermia. On top of that staying at crappy hotel in the middle of nowhere that didn’t have a heater did not help to warm you up. For three days I felt as though I couldn’t warm up my body properly because even the showers were cold. The scootering thing is definitely a challenge if you’re trying to bike in a 15 day period. You don’t have much time to spend in each city and again you have to constantly bike and not stop if you want to make it to the next town before dark. 5 days and 7 hours each day consistently, really puts a ding on you. I suggest if you do this make sure it’s for about three weeks. That way you can spend the extra time in cities to rest and relax before doing an epic journey. There are highs and lows in anything that you do. The highs in this trip though for sure beats the lows and is worth every penny and agony you spend.

So the last week or two of our trip it rained unfortunately since my last blog post. It is supposed to be dry season but for most of the days it was wet. The plan was to go down south Vietnam along the beaches but it was supposed to rain for weeks in the areas we wanted to go, so instead we headed west into the mountains. Through the mountains we found sun again, so ultimately it was the best decision. The three of us that started out on the trip and ended up joining other people making it seven of us throughout most of the trip. The more the merrier baby. Great group of people and we finally parted ways a couple days ago.

I did take some more pictures but I will just put it at the end of the blog. The last weeks of the bike trip was basically a repeat of getting up at 6:30am starting to drive at 8am and finish at 5pm with a meal, a beer, and a guitar (dude we were with was a hell of singer and player). A simple time but a fun time. In the major cities like Saigon we just relaxed. Went to a museum and went to nice cafes. We all needed a break from the end of our scooter journey. I ended up treating myself to a private room over looking Ho Chi Ming. A little present for my accomplishment.

Now I am sitting in a random hostel waiting for the night ferry to head to the island of Koh Tao. The ferry leaves at 10pm and I paid 1.50$ to store my bag here and have free wifi. Tomorrow I will start my open water course which is going to cost me 280$ for four days of learning how to dive. I am really excited but scared I will be exhausted from this night ferry and won’t be fully myself when learning how to dive. We shall see though tomorrow. Till next time.

I feel like I should at least describe where these pictures are since there are only so many. I don’t know if you have seen the show Top Gear, but on one of the finale episodes, they did exactly what I did and bought motor bikes and biked throughout the whole country. These two pictures are the iconic scene in this episodes below on the way to Hoi An from Hue.

These pictures below are from a Chinese Temple on top of a mountain in the city of Hoi An. A place where you can buy a three piece suit for 60 bucks.

These pictures of flowers below are in a botanical garden I found.

The pictures are deep in the south jungle of Vietnam in a national park about 130km away from Saigon. Coming out of this jungle we were all covered in leaches and bleeding everywhere from them. So pretty gnarly stuff.

Biking Through Vietnam

I just got a motor bike in Hanoi five days ago and it was worth it. After taking a little break from New Years me and couple of my friends all decided to rent bikes instead of buying it on January 4th, 2018 and here is why. First from what we have heard, all the bikes that people sell you have problems along the way. The always have a tendency to break down setting back you back a day or two, and we don’t have that kind of time. Second is selling the damn thing after you finish your journey, which is not always guaranteed. So you might loose in the end 500 dollars rather than 200 dollars when selling it for 300 dollars. The last thing is all the bikes are now fake. I was thinking about getting a Honda Wind I think its called? (might be wrong) but they are all knock offs made from China and cheap as hell! The last Wind ever made was in 2006 by Honda. All these decisions lead to renting a motor bike/scooter from this one place in Hanoi. Our scooters are all 2017s and badass so the chance of breaking down is minimal. Also if they do, everything gets completely paid for through the company. The total cost was 225 for renting the bike and then 1000 dollars for a security deposit, in case you fuck shit up. Drive the bikes from Hanoi to Ho Ming Chi City and return the bikes. That’s it. The total length of the trip is 2300km north to south and we have officially made it half way to the city of Hue 1150km into our trip in five days.

Here’s the set up:

Nothing too fancy just some railings to hold the bags in place and some bungie cords, and trust me that’s all you need. The first day setting off was pretty hectic. We got our bikes right out of the old quarters square in Hanoi and had to take off through the city. Hanoi has some of the worst traffic in the world and we we’re surrounded by thousands of motor bikes and huge semi’s, touching mirror to mirror. We had an hour of super intense driving and then it settled down after the city. We drove all day and all night until we stopped in the middle of nowhere to make camp. We did at least 9 hours of driving and it was brutal on our bodies from not being used to that position on the bike. There wasn’t anything too spectacular to see on the first day but oh well made it to the first stop. Now this blog is very general so certain cities we stopped at, I’m not going to mention because honestly I don’t know where the fuck we stopped. Most of them were small hick towns that are not on the map and have shitty hotels for you to sleep in. The humidity is registered at 150% and when you wake up you’re drenched with the dew from outside coming in. Anyways day two we were off again, bright and early around 8am in the morning. This part of the drive was spectacular. We went through a whole bunch of rice paddy fields that were endless to the eye. Then went through jungle mountains that were so high up we were literally in the clouds getting soaked to the brim. Then through some more mountains with steep over hanging cliffs and a bunch of palm trees covering that sucker. It was a hell of a day and a hell of a drive again lasting about 7 hours. Here’s a couple of pictures from that day:

During the day we can’t make so many stops because we are on a time frame so there’s only a limited amount of pictures per day.

Day three was just an average day. Nothing really special, just went through some real rural cities where people hardly see white people and scream with joy and say hello every time you past them. The amount of hellos that I have said in these five days are crazy. Day four was absolutely amazing. We took an old highway through some national parks and it is supposed to be the best part of the drive and I can now be a happy man the rest of this trip because that shit was amazing. here’s some pictures from that. The road was great and curved like a snake. So many waterfalls were passed and rivers. It was absolutely gorgeous.

And today we had to stop in Hue to get our oil changed. It is the half way point in our journey and we will be here just for the night and then our next stop is Hoi An. We’ll rest up for a bit and stay there for two days. The journey was shitty. Took the highway to get here as quick as possible. Took us about three hours total and it was 60 degrees and raining. Thank the lord for my poncho.

I also went to Ha Long Bay which is a must if you are up in Hanoi. It is a three hour bus ride from there and then you hop on a 90 dollar cruise that takes you to the magical place. Food and drink are all included in the package and you go to a cave during the first day and then a view point and that’s it. Then the second day they take you to a pearl factory farm in the bay and then you Kayak around. Is it worth it? The view for sure is worth it, but the activities are just average and boring to someone kind of adventurous as me. Here is some pictures from that trip:

Well that is it so far on the motor bike journey. I am really exhausted from these last five days driving for 7 plus hours and then getting to the city just in time for dinner and bed. It’s honestly so worth it though. Best decision I made on this trip so far. Yeah there is times where it is sketchy as shit, but as long as you have your wits about you, you should be fine. Honk a lot and drive defensively. Until next time, so long.

Reflection

I am now in Ha Noi, Vietnam and it is January 1st, 2018. I am almost half way through my journey, about to attempt to drive through the whole country of Vietnam by scooter. As I sit in my bed I start to reflect on the past few weeks of my life and the experiences I have gained throughout my travels. I am truly blessed to be able to do the things that most people aren’t able to do and have been honored to meet amazing people along the way. The world is beautiful, not only in the places that are known to you but the whole world itself. It amazes me the kindness and hospitality that people in the farthest reaches of earth have. So many times I have been drilled with the idea of the world being a bad place in countries that are undeveloped but that is far from the truth. I have seen more kindness and thoughtfulness in these three beautiful countries than I have seen in a long time. People will literally go out of their way and stop, in this fast moving world to make sure they fully help you which ever thing that acquire.

Traveling you are always going to meet people that have similar interests as you. They all want to experience new things and take everything in. Being in a hostel is electric. Everyone is very open and welcoming. Whenever someone is going to explore you can always ask if you can come along and 99 percent of the time they will say yes. I always say the more the merrier when asked this question. There is nothing like sharing first time experiences with someone and the more people that you share it with, the better that experience will come. I have met some fantastic people. I started in Bangkok alone and now I have been traveling with the same four people ever since. One Kiwi and two people from Mexico. The journey traveled has made a tight bond and we will be friends for a long time. It amazes me that I have met these people only a few weeks back but it seems like I have known them for years. Each one of us feeds off of each others energy and good vibes. All of us are accepting to each of our differences and are accepting of other people joining the squad. We all have completely different backgrounds but we share the same values and show the same amount of respect. When I have been traveling that’s what I realize. No matter how foreign the world you travel in, you will always find that people are the same as everywhere else. Kind, good hearted, and giving people. Of course in every society there will be some bad people or ignorant people, but for the most part humans will be humans, loving and caring after one another. This is the beauty of us beings and it gives me great hope to our future.

In life we are all about direction. It makes us feel stable, comfortable, and a sense of balance. Direction is not a bad thing. It is good to have some sort of plan of what you want to do and who you want to be in this world. Certain direction however can be bad. The typical direction everyone thinks everyone should take is go to school, get a degree, get a job, and retire early. We are stuck in this one lane road that everyone takes and we see this finish line that will come eventually. The money is good, but the job is bad, everyday we are praying when the clock hits five, and then going to sleep worrying about the same job the next day. You only get two days to enjoy yourself on the weekend and a few holidays off. For the most part though this is not enough. This is how I felt about my old job, constantly dreading to wake up and go pop open some man holes as a civil engineer and not a laborer. My mind was always fixed on one thought and I never really enjoy living in that moment throughout my work week days. In this state of mind, time would fly by and days would turn into weeks, into months, and then into a year. I finally took a moment to think that I couldn’t keep this up and I would have to change, hence where I am now. Going through my journey I no longer have a solid asphalt road to the finish line that was set up for me. Like I said in my first post I have wandered into the forest next to it and I am lost. This lostness is not a bad thing. It has expanded my mind and my heart and thoughtfulness to the things that surround me. I feel alive and more connected to this world. The fear of instability is not there. I realize it is okay not to know but to live in the moment because that is the one true thing. Sometimes you have to be lost to be found and I am slowly starting to understand that and myself. It is okay not to know, just let things develop and become. Follow your heart and beauty will eventually sprout in this forest that you are lost in and time will start to slow down, making a day feel like day and not a couple of hours. I know I have been traveling for only three weeks but living in this state makes it feel more than that and I am blessed with this feeling.

You are your own person. Your own body and flesh. The only thing that can make you change is yourself. You just have to do it. Stop thinking about what if and just do. I pursued this dream and now I am living it, and you bet your ass it was the best decision I have made in a long time. This scooter trip that I am going on is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and my thoughts of what if I get injured or worse killed pop into my mind. The maturity of myself will always keep this in the back of my head and I will be as careful and aware as possible. But with risk there is reward, and I feel like this will be a journey that I will tell to my children and grandchildren. I am looking forward to start this amazing journey on January 4th and will share my experiences on this 15 day adventure. For now I am off to Ha long Bay on a cruise for two days and a night. I will write a simple blog about the cruise and what is was all about. Till then here are some pictures from Vang Vieng and Vientiane.