Ho Chi Minh Trail on Motorbike

After saying farewell to Rafael I went and got a beer then checked into a hotel because the backpackers digs was full.

I went to a local bar for food and beers, the bar was a typical backpacker bar ran by an English guy.  He was organising a killer pool game, so I got involved. I met a couple of English guys, Tim and Matt.  They were riding motorbikes from south to north Vietnam.  They told me about their day and said it was probably the best day of their lives.  They had rode from Hue (where we were staying) to the Ho Chi Minh Trail.  They convinced me to do the same trip. 

We carried on playing pool and drinking, we met a Swede so we played doubles pool.  We ended up going to a little club and got home at 5am ish.  So the biking was a rite off yesterday.  Still thinking about how buzzing Tim and Matt were about their day I decided to stay another night in Hue so I could get up early and do a whole day on the motorbike.

So today I got up at 6.30am, had breakfast and set off for the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The bike was a 110cc Honda wave.  It was pretty nippy, obviously not compared to a bigger bike but I was very impressed.

Ho Chi Minh was the communist leader of northern Vietnam during the Vietnam civil war with the US.  The trail was built by northern Vietnam as the main supply route to the troops on the front line fighting the US in the south. It is one of the heaviest bombed areas in the world. The trail is regarded as 'one of the greatest achievements in military engineering of the 20th century'.

The first hour was a nightmare, what should of been a simple route out of town we not so simple. I got lost, bought a map, spent another hour asking people to show me where I am on the map.  I struggled, I know some of it would of been a language barrier problem, but a few people were holding the map upsidedown! One guy gave me confidence he knew where to go, he said for me to follow him so I thought great. He led me back to Hue, I showed him the map again, he looked at it for 5 mins then said he didn't know!  So I resorted to paying a taxi driver so I could follow him out of town, even that wasn't straight forward, some other westerners flagged him down so he stopped to pick them up, then just pointed me on my way.  I eventually found the road I needed so I cracked on.

I needed fuel, so I stopped at a roadside cafe, out they come with a 2 litre coke bottle of petrol!

Anyway, I got to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was bloody awesome! A winding road through the mountains.  The mountains were covered in thick jungle with rivers and waterfalls.  It was properly in the middle of nowhere, jungle covered mountains as far as you can see.  The road surface was concrete and in perfect condition. You could take the racing line through the corners, it was like a computer racing game. Almost no traffic, I saw one other car and a handful of bikes in the two hours I was on the trail. Switchback after switchback. To get an idea, go on Google maps, search for Hue, head West on QL49, then south on Ho Chi Minh Trail!

About 10 hours of riding in the end but bloody worth it.  A thoroughly good day. Even though I had high expectations, it lived up to it. Thanks Tim and Matt!