North Vietnam: MotorCycle Trip

Doesn't hurt to book in advance but i doubt you'd have much trouble getting one.

Great website but that link is overly cautious.. Driving license just isn't an issue. I got stopped before on my big trip.. I offered them a few cigarettes, showed my passport, used the little Vietnamese i know and showed them my big map and they loved me for it. An ice tea later and i was on my way. These days, I've heard of two people getting pulled over and then let go without a fuss.

It wouldn't stop me doing a trip here.. Ever. When we do leave Hanoi, no one would even think about it. I've a friend working for flamingo travel now so let me know if ya have any questions.. Ill ask him.

The locals bear 99.999999% of all corruption. I've seen police trucks with balloons out th back from an old woman being raided. I've seen tiny cafes lose all their furniture cause they didn't pay the tight person off. I've seen clubs having their soundsystems being put in trucks at 1am until the o wner pays it off and everyone heads back inside.

Don't mean to sound like a know it all or something but its a complete non issue. The corruption is ingrained in society. Westerners play no part or role in it.

The notion that they only screw foreigners is completely untrue. My ex girlfriend loved when i drove so she didn't have to wear a helmet.. The locals get stopped and get their bikes impounded constantly while I could pull up drunk with no helmet and ask them for a cigarette before driving off.

No idea what I was on while posting them last few posts.. But I'm doing this trip next week and it will probably be the same 5 day itinerary on page 1. Ill post pics and advice after.

Absolutely amazing... Having driven the country for 2 months last year, that round trip for 5 days blew the rest of the country out of the water.

I didn't get a reply here so didn't post.. I'm at work now but I'll throw up a few photos and some advice later.

Finally getting around to posting this.. Photos from my mobile phone so sorry about the quality. The bike is a 250cc AX-1 which I bought before the trip.. Didn't have enough time to take of the slicks and put on knobbly tyres which nearly killed me twice. Don't know how I did 4500km on a 125cc last year after feeling how much easier the drive is on a bigger bike.

Hanoi - Ha Giang

This is a full days drive that can be made more interesting depending on the route.. I left Hanoi towards Yen Bai, took some small roads to Tuyen Quang and then straight north. I ended up having a massive hangover the morning I was leaving and only got out of Hanoi around 11am. That meant I only made it to a small town called Viet Quang bout 60km short of Ha Giang on the first day.

A quicker way would be north out of Hanoi through Viet Tri. And if you have or need two days to do this, a good route could be Hanoi to Pho Rang through Yen Bai. Then Pho Rang to Ha Giang the next day. I drove that stretch of road last year and remember it being a lot of fun.. Not very scenic but great bends.

Getting out of Hanoi is not an easy task.. Especially if you're new to Vietnamese traffic. Just take your time and go slow. The outskirts of cities are where most of the twelve thousand motorbike deaths happen every year.


Very nice 60-70km stretch of road on the first day.. Narrow and lots of blind corners but everything green and peaceful.


Back onto nice open roads up further north.


Ha Giang - Dong Van

First and most importantly, get your travel permit in Ha Giang before going anywhere.. You need this to stay in hotels and if the police catch you without one, expect a big fine. You get the document from an immigration department so it's not a trivial matter. From memory, I think you drive into the town until you get to the bridge going right across the river.. Turn left here instead, take first left and the office will be on the right. If it's not there, sorry.
Supposed to be $10 which is what I paid. Alot of people get shafted here for another $10 or $15 extra and sometimes they insist you pay for a guide to come with you.. Hopefully you'll be lucky.

When you come out of Ha Giang, you should take the road going north through Tan Son. The road to Dong Van is great and on this day or the next morning, you should take a detour to Long Co / Long Cu at the Chinese border. I did it the next morning.
Really nice 25km drive each way.. One of my favourite sections but also one of the roads I nearly skidded off cause of the back tyre.


The all important permit.. Too lazy to erase personal info.


Road out of Ha Giang.. Relaxing introduction to the region.


Cruised this road at about 30km/h just relaxing and chain smoking cigarettes cause I enjoyed it so much.


Loved this sign.. Definitely felt a bit of the beaten track.


As you get closer to Dong Van, the scenery gets increasingly rocky. This is what separates this region from the rest of the country.


A 15 rider crew from New Zealand broke up my feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere but we had good fun drinking in the afternoon.. Most were riding Minsks with Honda Win engines. More reliable but they just didn't have the 2 stroke roar.

Must mention this is hotel where I met the guys.. Can't remember the name but when you drive into Dong Van, keep going until what feels like the top of the town and it will be on your left.. Big open area at the front. Really nice spot with a cool manager.


The one bike that I was jealous off.. Old school Russian Ural sans side-car. All the group were in their 50s and 60s. Not saying that's old but they were all a bit surprised that a 24 year old in a pair of converse and a t-shirt pulled up with a small backpack cause he got a few days off work. Compared with their guides, a year of planning, a support truck and a luggage van so they didn't have to carry anything. :cool:


The legend manager.. Treated me really well, taught me some Vietnamese and took me to his cafe/bar for beers. Then he gives me an old jacket of his cause I mentioned it was a bit cold. Turned out to be a lifesaver cause the temp dropped the next day.


Nice "road" outside Dong Van.


I mentioned Long Co / Long Cu earlier.. This is on the road to it. You head back west from Dong Van and swing a right up the hill. I've told one other person to take this detour since I did it and they loved it.. So yea, do it.


Ya better get your climbing hat on cause this one isn't easy.. Had to stop for a break and a cigarette on the way up. You can see China from the top and the view really is pretty nice.


Taken close to where I nearly died.. Goin a bit fast and end up with the bike skidding towards the edge of the cliff on a corner but thankfully managed to pull off a bit of my own touchy touchy ABS and kept it under control. Barely. Took a bit of a break to get my heartrate back to normal afterwards.


Dong Van - Bao Lac - Cao Bang - Hanoi

I have alot of photos of this section but I'll bore everyone to tears if I upload too many.. The first day here is great driving with stunning landscape. The second day is more difficult with a lot of roadworks on drive to Cao Bang.


Rocks, rocks everywhere. I have a tonne of photos of this area.. Very dramatic and impressive landscape.


No camera, be in my mobile phone or a DSLR can capture the side of this mountain and it's scale for what it's worth.. Absolutely incredible driving down here. Favourite part of the trip I think. Shows that photos really are limited when I look at it and think "meh.." but when I was there, I was blown away by it.


Fuel stop.. The old guy ripped me off for $2 after this photo was taken. My passive aggression resulted in a cloud of dust after he got angry at me for stating the correct price in Vietnamese.. The price which he had just said to me 2 minutes earlier. If you're gonna rip me off, please do it with a bit of charm.


Pulled into this restaurant in a small village at 10.30am and left at just after 12.. Absolutely pissed. In Vietnam, it's very rude to turn down an offer of "ze-o", the rice whiskey they drink. When the food takes half an hour, then there's beer during food and then they insist on you drinking more and more ze-o afterwards, it's easy to end up fairly drunk very quickly. Was very happy I knew some bits of Vietnamese here. Some slow driving, a lot of cigarette breaks and the cold wind made me sober up again pretty fast thankfully.
Rule 1: Always accept any offer.
Rule 2: Offer cigarettes as a courtesy.
The first rule even comes before basic traffic laws.. It doesn't even matter if there is a policeman sitting at the table, you accept the drink and move on.


On the way to Cao Bang... Not all roads can be beautiful. But this one would have been alot more fun with knobbly tyres. Was fairly gutted knowing the bike could do so much more on ground like that with a proper setup.

I didn't go all the way into Cao Bang city when I reached the area.. I swung south and made it to Bac Can so I had a shorter final drive into Hanoi on the last day.


And after it's all done and I'm back in Hanoi, I get to go and see these little fukers the next day. Thankfully, they're the coolest kids ever.