Hue to the West Ho Chi Minh

Hue and Onward

This will be a short post before launching into an epic tale.

Hue was nice. Nothing special but nothing to be ignored either. Sorry Jenny I know you love it but it just couldn't compare to the other major highlights. With only one night and a morning to see the city we were pretty crammed but already exhausted.

Morgan had I decided to have a quite night and take little strolls o see what we would discover. When we got down to the lake or river (not sure what it was) we discovered swarms of Vietnamese. On the water were dragon boats lined up. Each had a similar entrance. The main body of the boat consisted of an area with chairs set up. The front of the boat had a massive dragon head painted in rainbow colors on either side. I was already regretting my decision to leave my camera behind.

In a short time we also took note on the many traditionally dressed Vietnamese men and women walking around. Within minutes everyone dispersed from the park and began loading into the boats. We were curious. What is going on and how so we become a part of it?

Immediately we walk down and ask a women if we can get in a boat. Well of course! It's a Vietnamese vacation tourist attraction so for a small fee we can get on. We take the first boat we see and are ushered to the back corner. No one else is a western tourist and no one else speaks English. We clearly just invaded their space. With awkward glances and the look of "why and how did you get on this boat" we took our seats.

Lucky enough there was an English speaking guide who was with the Vietnamese tour group in front of us. He explained that we were going to sail down into the middle of the water and would watch a performance. 

The show consisted of traditional instruments and the girls going turns singing some ballads. They were beautiful and their outfits were very special. The tops were passed the knee with slits up the side. They wore circular headdresses that matched the color of their tops. For the next hour we listened to a small performance of music in Vietnamese. If gou have never heard the vietnamese sing go youtube it right nos. The best part was the last song was between a girl and a guy. The entire bit laughed non stop while we sat clueless to what was going on. What am odd experience.  

The next morning we hired a guy to drive both of us around in the back of his motorbike. With our track record of getting lost I didn't want to take any chances. Nothing special to note other than it was funny stuffing three grown adults on a motorbike.

Around one o'clock we packed out backpacks and headed out for phong Nha national park.  I was super excited and had been waiting for this section of the trip which boasted some of the worlds largest and newly famous caves. 

On the road once again we decide we are going to go as far as possible. We would like to make it to phong Nha by morning. Since we are absolutely set on making it to phong Nha by early the next morning we send an email booking a two day hang en cave tour. Super excited we drive like the wind.

Up the highway we find the turn off to cut off the dreaded highway. Part way in we are faced with a decision. Do we take the Ho Chi Minh east or west? The east is windier than the highway but still a well taken route. The road has many villages and towns offering places to stay and plenty of gas stations. The west route is way less travelled and we would almost be guaranteed to be the only tourists on the path. The down or plus side depending how look look at it is that there are very few villages and no gas stations for a couple hundred kilometers.

I look at Morgan and as her how adventurous she is feeling. Obviously she is down for anything me we are in agreement to go to the west Ho Chi Minh. Traveling across Vietnam to the last turn off before the loa border we make a stop at the gas station. At this point we load up empty water with gas to last us the long haul. Luckily I had read somewhere that there are no gas stations anywhere on the road.

At almost four o'clock we turn off into what would be an incredible adventure we could have never predicted. Yes we new it was already four o'clock and too late to make it far. Yes we should've known better. Yes we are crazy. And yes I think in the back of our minds we wanted things to go wrong. But hey, where is the adventure in that.

Two hours in we had only passed two small villages and a million beautiful views. The roads twisting back and forth up hills and only a little down. It was clear we were going up way more than we were going down. The higher and higher we climbed the more beautiful the view got.

Whenever we would see small houses the kids would run after us screaming and waving. We obviously stopped to give them lollipops. Then we reached the end of civilization. The rest of our drive was up, up, and up.

Morgan and I had gotten fancy dresses made in hoi an. We had strategically left them on top of our bags because we thought it would be funny to take picture with our motorbikes in them. We came to a view point that had a pretty view. Not the best we had seen but still a view that could take anyone's breath away.

I stopped Morgan and pointed to the side of the road. We drove our bikes into the grass and places them next to each other. We quickly began to change into our ball gowns before anyone drove past. That was a joke since we were in the middle of nowhere!!! We realized that we couldn't be in it together so having both bikes was silly. So with our dresses half on and hiked up we tried to move my bike out of the way. It rolled a bit and got way to close to the edge for comfort. 

Finally with my bike in a good position we started to pose. The sun was setting quickly so we snapped away laughing uncontrollably. Who does this? Awkward and sweaty we form few good pictures ignoring the fact that we were dirty, makeup less, and even had socks on we were satisfied for the day. The bugs were eating us alive.

Quickly changing out of our dresses we were ready to get outta there and continue on. We tried to get my bike away from the ledge. No good. It was stuck on a rock and Se were worried about pushing it too hard and it falling off the edge.

Carefully we teetered it back and forth. Then we decided to pick of the back and turn it around. Successful in our attempts my bike was pointing the right way. We sat down and admired the view with the setting sun.

Then it was time to go. I hope on my bike and go to start it. Nothing. I try again. Nothing. I scream at it as if that will help. Nothing.

Tired and with night fast approaching I was stranded. My bike is in a grass patch next to the road broken. We are many kilometers in either directions from any town. There is no food in our packs and only half a water bottle. 

And that is only the start to my 30 hours of Vietnamese Bad Luck. If I only knew what those next 30 hours would hold I would've ran straight the opposite direction and Im sure morgan would have run away from me. Or actually I maybe would've welcomed it with open arms. Either way I could not have anticipated what I would experience over those next hours.....