Across Vietnam on a motorbike.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: To slightly derail this, a friend of mine just spent a couple of weeks on two wheels in Vietnam and documented it here for your reading pleasure. Would love to see more of your story.

Thanks for the link! Reading it now and will follow OP's adventure as well. This is where my parents are from and I've been there a few times as a youngster and didn't get to do much exploring, mostly visiting family. One day I will take a similar adventure to really get to know where we come from.

Fantastic! Looking forward to more.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: To slightly derail this, a friend of mine just spent a couple of weeks on two wheels in Vietnam and documented it here for your reading pleasure. Would love to see more of your story.

Wow,that is a helluva trip. Beautiful. I feel so untraveled now.

rickjames wrote: Love it!! These trips are amazing ways to see the country. I lived in Thailand for 8 years, so we did a few in various countries in the region, all on 100cc bikes. You get so much more love from the locals when you show up on one of these than when you show up on a touring bike in full gear.

It's not just that, it's also way more authentic to me to do these horrible awful roads on a scooter with road tires. After all, the locals are all doing the same. No sense in not getting the full treatment!

Glad people are enjoying what I've written so far. I think the big thing I want to concentrate on here is giving out good information and getting away from the 'omg look how amazing Vietnam is!' trip reports that everybody posts. Hell, almost any trip anybody takes will have amazing glowing reviews "It was so great" "this was so beautiful" etc. It's like reading restaurant reviews. Let's get real.

Traveling to Vietnam (especially via motorbike) is not going to an enjoyable experience from a strictly objective viewpoint. Like I said before, I'm glad I went but I did not enjoy things while were there. Aside from the casual drunk driving, reckless trucks, poor road conditions, excessive pollution, nonstop monsoons in the center of the country, disgusting hotel rooms and awful food, there's worse.

Bad day today. We rounded a corner today in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. On the side of the road was a wrecked motorbike and the lifeless body of a man. About a dozen locals were standing around. We passed by, and about 5 seconds later, we thought, “wait, is there anything we can do?” We turned around. The man had clearly hit his head. His ankle was badly broken. He was in and out of consciousness. He likely had many other injuries. Neither of us are proficient in administering first aid and had only limited supplies. It was maybe 50 degrees out and raining, yet nobody had thought to cover him up. We put our rain coats on him to get him warm and found his shoes to get his head off the pavement. Olivia bandaged his head. We did our best to communicate with the locals. Had a doctor been called? Was an ambulance coming? *IS* there an ambulance? How long had he been here? One guy said the doctor was 6km away. We waited 30 more minutes. Trucks coming through blew their horns in annoyance as we were blocking the narrow road. There was no ambulance. Nobody was coming. This man will die here, and nobody seems to care. We tried to flag down the rare car that went by. I was banging on the window of one of them as the guy pulled away. “Does nobody F***ing care? What the F*** is wrong with everybody? This guy will DIE if you don’t take him!” I stood in front of the next car that came around. I wouldn’t let him leave. Obviously there was a language barrier. 10 or more minutes went by. I didn’t understand if this man wanted money to take this guy or what. Finally a French guy pulled up with his vietnamese girlfriend. We quickly explained what was going on and she told us that the driver of the car was unwilling to take him to the hospital because they may think he caused the accident. She told him that she would go with him and explain the situation at the hospital. We lifted the guy into the car, and off he went. He was still breathing when they pulled away. I knew traveling would open our eyes, but this I was not prepared for. F***. I thought the vietnamese were all about helping out if something happens?!?!

Later I found out that this was normal. An Aussie guy we met in Hanoi was riding with his cousin when an oncoming motorcyclist hit his cousin and impaled his head (mirror through the opening in his helmet). Nobody would help or give a ride to the hospital because nobody wanted to talk to the authorities.

Not trying to be a debbie downer. I don't regret going. But it's not easy and it's not fun. It's different, and unless you're willing to appreciate things being different (not better), you'll have a hard time. I sure did.

Next entry: You can run from the police.

I deleted an earlier post because I didn't want to be the guy who posted negative stuff, but often in travel ignorance is bliss. Go to an English-speaking expat-in-Vietnam message board sometime. The two that I've seen were relentlessly negative. The most common theme: practically everyone that you exchange money with will try and rip you off.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: To slightly derail this, a friend of mine just spent a couple of weeks on two wheels in Vietnam and documented it here for your reading pleasure. Would love to see more of your story.

I just read this whole thread along with the OP's thread on adv. They are polar opposites.

To the OP. As much as I was not there with you and cant really comment much, I think many of your problems were a product/combination of not having good gear, trying to cover a lot of miles in one day and a girlfriend that had never ridden a motorcycle that many miles in one shot.

i have been riding motorcycles for over 25 years and good gear will make or break a trip like this if you encounter E36 M3ty weather conditions.

Kreb wrote: The most common theme: practically everyone that you exchange money with will try and rip you off.

That is most of the 3rd world, and Asia in particular.

Dr. Hess wrote:

Kreb wrote: The most common theme: practically everyone that you exchange money with will try and rip you off.

That is most of the 3rd world, and Asia in particular.

Depends on the country. In Thailand I feel like I could give them a pile of bills and get perfect change. Same with Myanmar. Hell, I left my iphone on an overnight bus in Myanmar and somebody found it, took it to the driver, the driver gave it to the travel company who then drove it into the police station where I got it back. An iPhone. In an area where $30/mo is a normal wage.

The worst anybody tried on us in Vietnam was not giving change or giving back the wrong amount. I'd point at the meter, at the change, and I'd get the rest back. Wasn't bad.

Slippery wrote: To the OP. As much as I was not there with you and cant really comment much, I think many of your problems were a product/combination of not having good gear, trying to cover a lot of miles in one day and a girlfriend that had never ridden a motorcycle that many miles in one shot.

It was definitely a combination of things. For the gf, going without a clean bed was very difficult. For me, it was the lack of decent food (big problem in the rural areas). Being soaked didn't help either.

But mostly I think it was a question of mindset. You can't expect every landscape to be better than the next one (especially having just spent 2 months in Alaska just prior). You gotta appreciate different. That's what Vietnam taught us and why I don't regret going.

The most common theme: practically everyone that you exchange money with will try and rip you off.

You need to step out of our NA way of seeing the world. When I lived in Nigeria, it was explained to me by one of my Nigerian staff that business in Nigeria ( and Africa in general) was conducted as between a lion and a Zebra at lunch. Just a question of who was going to be the Lion and who was going to be the Zebra.In Nigeria, a man who scammed his fortune was much more admired than one who earned it legally.

I also get the bit about not loving the real time life experience. Nigeria was not a cakewalk, but since it did not actually kill me, it earns a top spot in the life experience and campfire-story bin.

You need to step out of our NA way of seeing the world. When I lived in Nigeria, it was explained to me by one of my Nigerian staff that business in Nigeria ( and Africa in general) was conducted as between a lion and a Zebra at lunch. Just a question of who was going to be the Lion and who was going to be the Zebra.In Nigeria, a man who scammed his fortune was much more admired than one who earned it legally.

This is incredibly interesting. Africa is on our list but probably not for a few more years.

Going off topic, but my cousin just did a vacation in Zimbabwe. Had a wonderful time. Sometimes we get to believing the media-created perception of a place and miss out on fine opportunities.

In reply to NOHOME:

Maybe that explains all those god damn princes over there constantly ripping us stupid Americans off

My dog is from Zimbabwe. Or is relatives, anyway.