Motorcycle diaries Vietnam style!

From tranquillity to insanity


Let me start this story of my epic journey through Vietnam’s central highlands with a little background of my whereabouts at the time. I was travelling Vietnam North to South; starting in the loudest, fastest and most buzzing city I had ever had the pleasure of plonking myself right smack in the middle of; the capital: Hanoi. Travelling on the well trodden South East Asia full circle loop starting and ending in Bangkok, I had just left behind one of the most under-populated and chilled out countries I have ever been to: Laos. With a total population of around 6 million, you can understand my shock at leaving Laos and finding myself (after a luxurious one hour flight), in a country geographically similar in size but with a whopping 80 million inhabitants.

After two glorious weeks of indulging myself in the devilishly divine Beer Laos, sticky rice and devouring novels amongst stunning untouched scenery, I was suddenly stood in Hanoi’s Old Quarter heart racing, adrenalin pumping wondering how the fuck am I going to cross this road heaving with 4 millions scooters? As the minutes pass by I am self consciously becoming aware that my F.O.B (Fresh off the Boat) status is becoming increasingly obvious to the thousands of pairs of eyes I’m imagining are fixated upon me. The air of confidence I am trying to maintain in this strange place is diminishing rapidly. In reality no one is looking, no one cares, its just one more nervous and naïve Westerner out of the hordes of tourists streaming through this city daily.

A ha! But I’m clever you see, I’ve read my Lonely Planet, they told me that if I run, I die, if I stop, I die, its all about walking slowly but decisively straight into the oncoming traffic. But what about the rules of the road the hedgehog from the videos in school taught me: Stop, Look and Listen? Come on Antonia, that’s not going to help you now, this is Asia, get real.
“Ok, if in doubt, watch the locals” I tell myself.
True to it’s words, I realise the bible (L.P) has not let me down as I gawp in amazement at locals. They appear to me to be attempting suicide as they stride straight into the heaving traffic, are momentarily gulped by thick smog, and spewed out the other side unscathed. I have to watch this a few more times, until finally I grit my teeth, half close my eyes, cross my fingers and with all the power within me fight the urge not to run or stop. Sure enough the drivers weave in and out of each other and around me with skill that could only possibly have been acquired sometime in their mother’s womb.

I am ecstatic, I am god; I have got the power to divide a great ocean of moving vehicles, again…again… I want to do it again! Ok, so the novelty wears of after the first day, and no I’m not god, welcome to Vietnam where car tax is 200% resulting in a land filled with scooters. The only way to travel in Vietnam is on two wheels at I was soon to find.



The Seven Stop Bus Ticket

Anyone who has been to Vietnam will undoubtedly have travelled on the insanely cheap and impressively organised Seven Stop Bus Ticket. This hop-on, hop-off tourist bus ticket is a backpackers dream as its flexible, hassle free and CHEAP. For just $25 (USD) you can travel from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City stopping in five or six other destinations on the way. However, buying into this undisputable bargain of a lifetime requires some careful consideration. After already heavily involving myself in Vietnams super competitive and highly advanced tourist industry, I had officially lost all my independent traveller status through trips such as Ha Long Bay. Did I really want to be horded around the whole country in a similar fashion, being “advised” on which guesthouses to stay in or restaurants to eat in? But as with most fellow backpackers, economics got the better of me and from then on my long journeys were in the hands of my “trusty” tour operators who made sure I was escorted, along with the thousands of other tourists to the major towns of interest.

After Jasmine, Julia and I had been horded through Hue, Hoi An and Nha Trang, the latter two seemingly existing solely for tourism, where a western face was treated as synonymous to crisp dollar bills; enough was enough. We came here to travel and for us this meant learning about the culture, politics and economics of more then the mass tourist industry. We were tired of being utterly segregated from the local people and paying exorbitant prices (relatively speaking) for bananas and pho bo (beef noodle soup). So with a quick change of itinerary we were on yet another long bus journey, this time leaving the coast behind us and climbing into the lush green rolling hills of the Central Highlands. Dalat was our destination where we were to embark on a very different kind of tour, this is the Easyrider way.



The Easyriders

The Easyriders are a crew of motorcycle guides who promise even the most jaded tourists a taste of the “real Vietnam” and a journey well away form the demolished tourist superhighway. Again as promised by my trusty pocket bible, you don’t have to find these guides, they will find you. Sure enough, within half an hour of stepping off the bus, Lulu is chatting away to me in a café as I await the arrival of the other girls. Earning more in a day then the average Vietnamese earns in a month, these leather jacket and rayban clad entrepreneurs have hit the big time thanks to mistakes of the rest of the countries bumbling tourist industry. Reading Lulu’s comment book rich with promises of the ‘journey of a life time’ and gaining real insight into rural Vietnamese life, I’m sold.