It was a fast and easy ride to the Vietnamese border. The line-up of trucks waiting to clear customs was huge, but we went straight to the gate. The process for crossing the border was quite streamlined: the person who did the exit procedure for Laos and the person who did the entry procedure for Vietnam sat at the same desk, and there was only one form to fill out. In each case it was mainly a matter of checking the stamps in the passport. We were on our way quite quickly.
The contrast when entering Vietnam, and the border city Lao Bao, was immediately apparent and overwhelming: cars pushing past and everyone honking. I missed Laos already.
Fortunately we soon turned off the main highway and onto the Ho Chi Minh Road. This is a road built over what was the Ho Chi Minh Trail: a trail cut through the mountains to carry supplies to the south during the Vietnam War. It is a very winding road through the mountains but most of it is well paved. It still has the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere. There are very few villages and only a couple of towns along the way. You can go almost 100 km without seeing anything but forest. In a couple of places there were abandoned government stations that were being overgrown with vegetation.
A couple of times there was a group of tourists on motorcycles going the other way, with a Vietnamese guide in front and at the back. Apparently there are several-day motorcycle tours of the Ho Chi Minh Road that are offered out of Hoi An.
We kept going until it got late, and spent the night in the town of Aluoi. The next day, Luc and I stayed on the Ho Chi Minh Road as far as the town of Thanh My, and then turned off toward Hoi An, while Denis and Claude continued south on the Ho Chi Minh Road.
Luc had always planned to only go this far and return the motorbike in Hoi An. Originally I was going to do the whole trip with Denis and Claude, going as far south as Da Lat and the up the coast back to Hanoi. This would have been another 3 weeks on the motorbike. But after a couple of weeks I was done. Overall I'd been travelling for over 6 weeks by this time, and I was ready to go home. So, I decided to join Luc and return the motorbike at Hoi An. Then I could sightsee in Hoi An and Hue, and then fly to Hanoi, and change my flight to return home earlier.
The contrast when entering Vietnam, and the border city Lao Bao, was immediately apparent and overwhelming: cars pushing past and everyone honking. I missed Laos already.
Fortunately we soon turned off the main highway and onto the Ho Chi Minh Road. This is a road built over what was the Ho Chi Minh Trail: a trail cut through the mountains to carry supplies to the south during the Vietnam War. It is a very winding road through the mountains but most of it is well paved. It still has the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere. There are very few villages and only a couple of towns along the way. You can go almost 100 km without seeing anything but forest. In a couple of places there were abandoned government stations that were being overgrown with vegetation.
A couple of times there was a group of tourists on motorcycles going the other way, with a Vietnamese guide in front and at the back. Apparently there are several-day motorcycle tours of the Ho Chi Minh Road that are offered out of Hoi An.
We kept going until it got late, and spent the night in the town of Aluoi. The next day, Luc and I stayed on the Ho Chi Minh Road as far as the town of Thanh My, and then turned off toward Hoi An, while Denis and Claude continued south on the Ho Chi Minh Road.
Luc had always planned to only go this far and return the motorbike in Hoi An. Originally I was going to do the whole trip with Denis and Claude, going as far south as Da Lat and the up the coast back to Hanoi. This would have been another 3 weeks on the motorbike. But after a couple of weeks I was done. Overall I'd been travelling for over 6 weeks by this time, and I was ready to go home. So, I decided to join Luc and return the motorbike at Hoi An. Then I could sightsee in Hoi An and Hue, and then fly to Hanoi, and change my flight to return home earlier.
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