Motor Bike Ride to Hue

Gonna start this post with an angry UGH because I had typed it all out and then somehow it got deleted even though I pressed save..... So this description may not be as great because of lack of desire to repeat everything haha.

Anyway, after we left marble mountain we hopped back onto our motorbikes to continue the drive to Hue! The route took us along the coast and the pass we went through was called Hai Van Pass and the ride was absolutely gorgeous. We didn't actually drive the bikes ourselves, we had a local driver. It was nice because we were able to just sit back, lean on our bags, put headphones in, and enjoy the gorgeous scenery that is Vietnam's coast. The weather wasn't too warm either so we weren't roasting which was nice. Our first stop was at a viewpoint of the Bay below which was gorgeous. I'm sure there were a few people wishing we could swim there. The next stop was at some old American bunkers along side the highway. I didn't actually go up to explore them because my knee was acting up after all the stairs at Marble Mountain but it looked pretty neat! Instead I had a beer with the rest of the group before continuing on. Eventually we stopped for lunch at a restaurant literally on the water. The floor was planks and it was ocean below us. While we were eating I was watching some local men out in the water with wheelbarrows collecting more fresh catch for the restaurant. Pretty cool!

The next stop we made was at Elephant Springs, a locals favourite apparently. It wasn't all that busy while we were there though because the weather took a turn for the worse. It's called Elephant Springs because there's a rock shaped like an elephant that just sits in the middle of the springs. The springs are actually pools from a natural waterfall that are at different levels. They dammed up some of the natural pools a bit to make them a bit deeper. It was pretty cool! To get up to the higher pools you had to walk along rickety boards through the water and over rocks that were quite slippery and steep in areas. Fun though! And of course we still went swimming even though it had started to rain. Lining both sides of the falls were shacks to offer shade and ladies selling cold drinks. I can see why it's so popular in good weather!

From there we continued our journey, and were given full rain gear to help keep us dry. We stopped at a little fishing village where we watched the men do their thing for a while. It was pretty cool! There were sticks in the water to help with their efforts and some of the boats looked lived in.

That was our last stop before continuing to our hotel in Hue, the DMZ hotel. And on this stretch it downpoured. It felt like hail at some points and it wasn't exactly warm either. But it also wasn't cold and I actually kind of enjoyed it, it reminded me of home! Once my driver realized that I was enjoying the rain and not put off by it he started going through puddles at full speed, it was great fun.

After arriving we took much needed showers and went out as a group for dinner at a local bar. There we played some pool and had a few drinks. I made friends with a group from Denmark and overall it was just a great night!Read more