It's been a while, a lot has happened and here come the stories.
Let's start slowly.
It was only a short 70km ride from Hoi and to Hue (Quote lonley planet:
"Intellectual, cultural and spiritual heartbeat of Vietnam, the old imperial capital offers historical, spiritual and culinary stimulation." - my opinion: just another big city.)
Thien Mu Pagoda
Palace - throne
Palace - outside
Still I had to drive over a steep mountain pass since the new tunnel was not for bikes.
The city itself was nice but by far nothing special.
At least it had one good thing. I met Russell from Colorado who was travelling on a Fanlim 100 from south to north as well. So we teamed up and went to Dong Ha the next day to check out the demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the former border between North- and South Vietnam. After we checked into a hotel in the not very pleasing town of Dong Ha we headed north to the Ben Ha river and the Vinh Moc tunnels, a Vietcong base.
Those small, dirty, wet tunnels were quite amazing, if you keep in mind, that people had been living there for years.
Vinh Moc
We decided to get away from suicidal Highway 1 and headed towards the mountains the next day on Highway 15 and stopped by at Trung Son National Cemetery. It had been raining all day and we were freezing cold so we did not go far and took a hotel at the outskirts of Dong Hoi on Highway 15.
Trung Son
Next day we headed further north on the 15 and thought about going to the 'famous' World Heritage Phong Nga caves. But since we didn't arrive there till early afternoon and the tour by boat would have cost us a fortune and 3 hours we decided against it. So we drove around there a little to see something of the scenic limestone landscape. After some security guys stopped us didn't let us pass since we didn't have a ticket we took a small dirt path down some fields to where you could actually see the entrance of the cave. Surprisingly there was an old lady with a small ferry who offered us to take us to the other side. Upon arrival in the small village on the other side we decided to do some offroad driving around some mountains to get back to the highway. It turned out to be quite a dirty, muddy adventure but a lot of fun. We had to drive through bushes, deep mud and big stones. All the locals there (probably didn't see a tourist for 15 years - on a bike!!) were amazed and surprised.
no trespassing
our ferry
Russell on the ferry
lots of fun
After some time and one of my flipflops MIA we could actually see a proper street. On the other side of the river. We thought: "No problem, the locals gotta cross somewhere - look there is a path, perhaps there is a bridge, let's drive there." Upon arrival I was like: "FUCK!" Russell coming there 5 seconds later was like: "FUCK!" And after a little consideration we decided that we wouldn't cross that bridge.
dangerous enough by foot
right foot
left foot - no flipflop
!!!
So we went on through the mud. But the bridges coming up were all like the first one. So eventually we asked some village people to take our bikes to the other side by boat, which they did (against Dong of course).
Russell crossing the bridge (made out of bamboo and old tyres)
getting his bike to the boat
So we were back on the road, had a lot of fun but lost a lot of time. We went on driving until after dark in search of a village big enough to have a guest house.
That's where the trouble starts.
We stopped at some random village to ask for a hotel. Russell spoke to some locals (Nha Khach is guest house and Khach San hotel) while I was driving down the road to see if there was something coming up. Upon my return I found Russell being held by a totally drunk police officer screaming something at him in Vietnamese. After a few minutes all the village was there laughing at us (for not understanding and being in a fucked up situation) and at their police guy (for being a drunk idiot). He tried to push Russell off his bike and take his bike keys away. After some 20 minutes we still couldn't resolve the problem and Russell rather wanted to stay there all night than give him his passport. So he sent me on to where we thought was a bigger village to look for help/a hotel/someone who spoke proper English or whatever. Since the police guy wasn't interested in me from the beginning and told me to go away I went and looked for something. When I returned some 30minutes later having found nothing Russell wasn't there anymore. Being afraid of encountering the same fate I didn't question the villagers, went back to the highway and to a restaurant some 100m away. It was quite late, I was full of mud, only one fliflop left and freezing. There was no hotel or town coming up and I barely had 150.000 Dong left. So decided to start talking to the locals in the restauarnt until one of them would eventually allow me to stay at his place. We ate loads of com (rice), ga (fish) and drank several bottles of roung (that's at least how I would spell it - some awfully strong homemade rice spirit) when the atmosphere was getting good I got lucky and one of the guys told me to come with him. We went to his hut some 200m away. His family was like: "WTF?" but kinda happy and very friendly. They teached me some more Vietnamese (as far as I remember fire is something like 'lua', chopsticks are 'doa' and chili is 'toa' and both chicken and fish seem to be 'ga' with a different pronounciation, but I can't tell). They had a campfire and we ate and drank more. Suddenly all his hut was filled with about 5-8 policemen who were obviously coming because of me. I was told to go with them but they only brought me to the next hut. There they examind my passport, international driver's license and bike papers what seemed to me like hours. I was constantly given more of the 'roung' and eventually a new pack of cigarettes. At some point they carried in a bed (no mattress but a blanket at least), took all my papers and bike keys and told me to go to sleep. After all this ruong I didn't really care what happened but somehow I had a bad feeling not having any papers or documents, almost no money and nothing much at all. But they were friendly and sober (at least at the beginning of the ruong interrogation) and then they asked for some money. I thought: "Okay, here it comes." since I had expected it all along. I only had one 100.000 bill (which I wanted to keep since I would eventually need some gas the next day), one 20.000 and one 10.000 and some smaller bills. So I gave them my last 30.000 and surprisingly after 10 minutes they returned with a new pair of fliflops. They were good guys indeed. The next morning I got my papers and keys and everything back and was told that I could go. Happy end for me, but what happened to Russell? I tried to ask them about him but either they did not understand or did not know that there had been another guy.
police guy
the guy where I intended to stay and his kitchen
So the next morning I headed on until I came to a town with a hotel. I took a room and a shower and went out to look for an ATM. But there wasn't one. Eventually I asked for a bank. But upon my arrival at the local Agribank I realized that the lady at the counter had never seen a credit card before and did not want to exchange my last dollars either. In the end I got them changed at a jewelry shop with the help of my hotel people. After checking facebook I learned that Russel got away while I was gone, turned right somewhere and stayed with a family (like I intended) whom he asked for a hotel without being disturbed any further. We met up again at a cafe close to a big intersection and exchanged pics at an internet cafe. Then we took a leave - he went west towards Laos and I east towards Highway 1 and Hanoi.
After spending another night somewhere along the highway and many hours of dusty, suicidal riding I eventually reached Hanoi. For the first time I got stopped at one of the many police controls found all along the streets. At the first one there were loads of police guys checking papers and even though I was speeding upon seeing I was a tourist they told me to go on (They have differnet speed limits for different vehicels - 40km/h for bikes, 50km/h for cars and trucks and mach 3 for busses). About 3 minutes later I was stopped again. That time they weren't really friendy and it was 3 guys with one police bike. They knew I was speeding and they knew I knew. Legally they could have taken my passport and put it to a pile of Vietnamese identity cards and yellow forms with an uncertain future. Luckily both parties were much more satisfied with me paying them 200.000 Dong.
some baby goat spirit anyone?
Probably I won't have time to check out the Halong Bay but I can make it to Nanning for Tet. Currently my passport is at the Chinese embassy getting a visa.
That was a lot of adventure and even though being on the verge giving up a couple of times it was a huge load of fun!
See you around and stay sound!
