On August 4th I set off from Ho Chi Minh, extremely excited for the trip ahead. In Thailand and Cambodia, I really wanted to stay present in the moment, but I couldn’t help at times but be sucked forward to Vietnam and the prospect of riding through the country.
Getting out of Ho Chi Minh was a challenge, though, and I ended up spending two or three hours of what was going to be at least a ten hour trip just trying to get out. I soon found that the route Google Maps wanted me to take wasn’t a route motorbikes could go (they aren’t allowed on some highways). Just getting out of the city involved getting on a ferry across a river, which I wasn’t expecting.
Because it was my first day, I was also unfamiliar with how far I would reasonably be able to ride. I trusted the Google Maps time estimate, which I learned later could be wildly inaccurate based on road conditions, weather, etc.
The first six hours of riding were relatively easy and I was happy to be on the road. By 2pm I’d ridden around 200km, which would normally be a day’s worth of riding. I was planning on following a route down along the southern coast instead of going directly from HCM to Dalat, thinking it would be a good way of seeing the ocean and highlands in the same day, but it was an overly ambitious goal, especially for my first day.
It was the low season in Vietnam, and I stopped for lunch at an empty restaurant on a beautiful but empty beach. It was clear many people didn’t stop here in the monsoon season. From there I continued on to Dalat.
About an hour after I stopped for lunch the rain started. I thought I was prepared for it. I bought a Goretex jacket and waterproof pants, and I accepted my gloves and boots were going to get wet. But I wasn’t really ready for monsoon rain in Vietnam. While the clothes were ostensibly waterproof, if you’re sitting in pouring rain for two hours there’s simply no way to keep out the water. By 5pm I was soaking wet, but I continued along contently until sunset. Between the altitude gain, the sun going down, the continued rain, and knowing I didn’t yet have a place to sleep in Dalat, it turned from fun riding to really cold and uncomfortable on the bike. Making matters worse was the torn up road, and whole stretches for a few miles at a time felt more like a motocross course than a normal road.
By this point the novelty had worn off and I was ready to be in a warm place with dry clothing. It took another three hours for me to get to the highlands town of Dalat. I was happy to be there, but numb from the cold and from the 12 hours I’d spent on the bike by the time I arrived at 8pm.
I didn’t have a place to stay, but thankfully I found a great hostel without too much difficulty. My bag was also an unfortunate victim of the rain, and I realized the rain cover on top wasn’t enough to keep the water from splashing up from below. Lessons learned. I put on some dry clothes and scarfed down three banh mi in town before crashing for the night.
The next day was lovely, though, and I enjoyed the cool mountain air which was a nice change of pace from the last month of heat in India and the rest of SE Asia. My main goal was finding proper rain gear, and I bought a heavy duty poncho and tarp to make sure I could withstand any future rain along the way. Both would prove to be invaluable.
At night in the hostel there was a lovely family dinner, and I met two groups of guys who were doing the North->South motorbike trip instead of the South->North route I was doing. I picked up lots of recommendations and advice, all of which proved helpful in the coming weeks. This sharing of information over beers in hostels along the route would prove infinitely more valuable than blogs I’d read beforehand.
Come the next morning it was time to set out again. I was happy to be out on the road, and after riding for twelve hours the day before last, I was starting to feel comfortable on the motorcycle.