Ride to Vietnam ( Part 2)

       
                                                                             Day 5    

We woke up bright and early. After breakfast we rode to the Vietnam border .

Getting out of Cambodia...

Immigration was easy... skipped customs   :-)

Looking back at Cambodia.

Moc Bai , Vietnam

FJR in Vietnam   :-)

After all the plans.....we made it  :-) :-) :-)

Memories  :-)

We did it bro.....

Single star on red...

Ooiiiiiiiii   get off.....

Actually he was our local tourist agent with all our paperwork

We had to get local plates

After immigration and customs ,we had to register at the police station...

Actually for everything we didn't have to even go in. Our agent took care of everything.All we did was sit by the bikes  :-)

New look  .........

We're riding in Vietnam. Hell yeah.............

Toll free for bikes

Everything was new

Wide open spaces

Han says it best  :-)

A preview of things to come.

little did we know...

We planed to ride to the central highlands

A short water break and route planning

Day 1's plan

You pay to use the good roads

Sights and sounds of Vietnam

. 

Stopped for a break here.

Nice family. 

Soon we were back on the national highway.

Which had patches like this

And this

Then ok again....

We covered miles and miles

Time for a break

Riding through villages here

After this point the roads got bad....

Just remember that Han is holding the camera with one hand ,that means the pictures taken are of the ok parts and not what we suffered through.

These next few pics are of the better parts.

Look at the part infront of me

I'm carrying a pillion....

So Han was carrying her luggage

Thank god we split the weight

Remember....these are the good parts

Really...

Fun huh...

A few moments of peace....

By the time it got dark, we only covered 200km with another 150 to go.it started to rain. So there we were 

tired, wet, cold ,slippery roads and dark. After discussing with Han we decided to stay the night in the nearest town. 

So we found this hotel with good parking.

Had a hot meal and crash. Exhausted from the road.

Note. The bad parts of the roads were literally deep craters covering the whole 2 lanes. Where there were 2 lanes. You had to pick the least damaging line. In Laos Han on his DP bike could stand and throttle through. Here no way. We had to physically man handle our bikes through the hell roads. We thought Laos raods were bad , and they were. but this stretch in Vietnam is much worse. Add a pillion in and you see a new level of hell. Good times  :-)

Day 6

Gooooood Mornnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnng Vietnam

View of Kien Duc the next morning

Its only 6am here

Now we could see the hotel proper

Sights and sounds

Soon we were on our way. We were hoping the roads get better.

Fat chance.

More towns..

Actually the roads improved a lot compared to yesterday.Seriously...it was worse than Laos.

A bigger town means good roads

Smaller towns...

GPS -Guna Pun Sesat

But the views.....

Good roads and great scenery

Rustic

Today the ride was really fun.

This is the state roads. The only road...

More villages

Till suddenly we saw this

When we pulled up the workmen nearby dropped everything and came to look at us

What a way to start the day.....great

FJR in Vietnam

And  Red Versys in Vietnam

We took a break and enjoyed the view

On the bike...

Riding though the Central Highlands

Another stop for the view.

In some parts the views were better than Laos( our old benchmark)

Back on the road.

Look at that...

Some parts were beautiful

Soon we were going downhill

Good roads today

We stopped here for the view again

Nice huh

It was just us alone

And the view

Rolling hill as far as you could see

Took a nice break and soon hit the road

Still good

And getting better  :-)

Oh wait...what  :-(

:-) :-)

In this part of Vietnam the GPS suddenly lost the road. So we were literally flying in the display

Passing a dam

Its still under construction

Deeeeeeeeeppppp

Nice view

So we walked around a bit

And stocked up on memories

After asking some locals we hit the road again 

New and wonderful lands

We had great weather throughout the whole ride

The shop lady wanted her picture taken  :-)

time to move

More great views

Getting to evening

Which way ???

Left it was ,a short break here

All downhill

Yamaha's ADVenture bike   :-)

And its partner in crime

Remember me saying the views and comparing it to Laos....here you go

Time to ride

Finally reached the low lands

Still nice scenery

Almost at our destination

Finally reached

Safe guarded parking

Time for food.We walked to the restaurant

Some sights along the way

This is outside a hotel owned by a biker

Many vintage models

Nice huh

After a good meal, its was as usual massage and sleep

Day 7

Every ride has its climax. The 4 nation ride was the China border ,Cambodia ride was my bike in from of Angkor Wat. This rides climax is today

In the morning we took a walk around our resort

Nice huh

It gets better during our ride... :-)

Vietnamese coffee sucks so badly

We wanted to see a nearby attraction first

On the taxi..

Nice beach and view

Beautiful weather

Then we drove to here

Unfortunately we had to walk.....uphill :-(

By the sea

More ancient temples( after Cambodia)

This is the second tower

More walking

What a view

inside of the tower

A final look , and back to the hotel

Bath ,change ,on the bike

Time for the best part of the whole trip(with a small mishap thrown in )

Look at that (it gets better :-)

Amazing huh

This stretch of road is one of the most beautiful i've ever seen 

Dunes on the left ,wild sea on the right

Perfect roads

It was so amazing

This is why we ride

We turned off the road on to this sandy  road. Fine sand. 

Lots of it and thick 

Finally ...

Let me introduce you to the Binh Thuan Desert

So cool to be here

With its oasis. We are actually still far away

On the bike

Look at the roads

And the surroundings

my baby brought me this far

To a desert. Hell yeah

Yes we can.....

Red Vesrys and Dusky Black FJR ,among the dunes

While riding to the dunes proper, Han's front tyre got caught in a large patch of deep soft sand

So his bike got tired and wanted to rest for a while

Everything was ok , so we reached the main parking area. You have to walk to the dunes.  Initally we told the guys there we would walk.

Very soon we changed our mind

The path to the main dunes

On the ATV

Getting close

The climax of the ride . We reached the Deserts  of Vietnam.

Yup , its real

See that peak

Zoomed in. Its actually far away and about 6 stories high

2 Malaysian boots made it here .for the first time in our lives. Standing in a desert.

This dune was about 8 stories high. There is no sense of scale unfortunately

Even in the horizon its shrubs over the sand

After the amazing experience, its back on the bike

Salute

Today we are headed to Saigon

Its about 300km

Some sights along the way

Suddenly we see cops infront signalling us to stop.

Corrupt motherf***ers .

Yup them

Apparently we were speeding. 66kmph in a 40 zone .If i ride at 40 i don't know what gear to use  ha ha.

As usual money talks. Then they start asking about our bikes.  Idiots.

Back on the road.Where 5 minutes later we get pulled over again. We told them we were just stopped and already paid. After a quick phone call to the other roadblock we were let off.

This is the main road to Saigon.Here i'm riding on the shoulder (where all the bikes ride ) to avoid being pulled over again. We passed 5 more road blocks. Probably their doughnut fund is getting low. A**holes.

Ooohhh   i'm speeding - 50kmph    ha ha ha

Soon we made it to the hell that is Saigon's traffic. I learnt to ride as a student in India. India's traffic loses hands down .

This is after peak hours

After checking in , we took in the sights.

After a good meal  and massage  ,guess what .........we slept  :-)

 **To be continued