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  • Paul Jefferyes
april 2015

Vietnam

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    19. april 2015
    Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Nam Dinh at Night

    19. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    We got to nam dinh around 10 or 11 at night, we were hoping to catch a bus or train much further south but the next one was at 9pm the next day. So we had to spend the night in Nam Định, served us right after we spent so long arguing with the travel agent in ha long bay.

    We stopped outside a karaoke joint to grab coffee and the wifi until we figured out what direction to go. It was dark but we found a hotel with a room available still open eventually.    Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Nam Dinh by Day

    20. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Our hotel was around here somewhere.

    It was a quaint little town not much to it, bigger than a village though and seemed like it wanted to develop but had stopped half way. Some of buildings unfinished and vacant.

    We road down to nim Binh after with our bags, it was a bigger town with potentially other ways of getting further south. We found the station and apparently there was a wait of a month for our bikes to get on (according to the hostel owner nearby, I've started to not trust the sales tactics of Vietnamese people unfortunately, seems like they'll say anything to get a sale, still he offered us a bus at 8.30 for a million each. The train worked out to be about 600000, so obviously we would take that but managed to cut the price down to 750 thou, and the bus left at 9 so we had time to fit in some random stuff before leaving. Trip advisor recommended a few things and one I had seen on the map before: tầm coc.    Læs mere

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    Nam Dinh Temple

    20. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    I had noticed this temple on the way in last night. The temple to the north of the town with a big central Buddha, was not the biggest I've seen (bangkok buddha's are hard to beat) but still impressive. The place was mostly empty, kids with their shaved heads were being taught at the back of the temple grounds so the rest was open to exploration. Some men were actually carving and conditioning the wood with blow torches in one area of the temple, it was great to see the work being done first hand and seeing the craftsmanship that goes into every piece.Læs mere

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    Tam Coc

    20. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The ride to the tầm coc start was about 20 minutes south / south west. We wanted to just take a boat out by ourselves, ideally a kayake but they had local things that looked good enough. Me and Jack eventually got into one, Pim wanted to save money I think and didn't join us.
    A guide hopped in with us which we didn't want at first but we were so glad he did. After figuring out the ores were orientated backwards, so that rowing was more like pushing, we had a crack each at getting down stream. We got maybe 250 meters before the guide took over and started to show us how it was done..

    He sat up on the boat and used his feet and legs to push the ores! Genius. Once we got going under some bridges and around a few corners we understood why it was one of the top trip advisor things in the area. A river boat cruise through rice fields between sheer cliff mountains. Goats climb the side walls and cranes fly off at your approach. I took my go pro assuming we might get wet so I didn't take my phone, but the battery lasted 30 seconds. Bummer. Thankfully Pim took a couple of us from the riverbank.
    You'll have to Google search for more tam coc images, I'm sure there will be hundreds.
    There was a cemetery to one side of the way. I thought to myself; that's where I'd want to be buried, I've never thought that about a place before. it was that beautiful. I felt if someone wants to visit my grave, they should go on this epic adventure to the other side of the world once in their life to come and see it. I'd want my grandchildren to see what I've seen and make their own quest for adventure here.
    Anyways.
    We carried on and came to a cave opening the river ran through, the guide said we were going through 3 caves and it would take about 2 hours. We told Pim we would be gone for 1, but we had plenty of time till the bus left that evening so no drama.

    The journey through the glades of rice were too beautiful, we saw sunset from the boat and chatted shit for the whole time.
    Jack's one of the few people I can talk to for hours openly about anything and everything, and the beers from a side boat on the river were a welcome addition to our cruise. We had to borrow the cash from the rower as we hadn't brought anything with us!

    We pulled up to the side after the 3rd cave for a nah veh sinh (toilet) stop, and the souvenir and snack vendor invited us to have our first Vietnam smoke pipe experience. I'm not a smoker so for me it was such a hit, and even for Jack who smokes all the time anyway. My head rush was huge, never thought tobacco could do that but it was good in a way, no filter though so I've been coughing for 3 days already. Worth it for the local experience though.

    When we got back the guide took us to his home / bar for some draft beer (the first pint was all head but we had it anyway) and ordered beef and rice from next door.

    Pim caught up and told us he ended up playing footie with the locals, and apparently they're really good. It didn't surprise me if they were doing it every day. The food and beer was great and the guide had lent us money to get the beers on the boat so we had to tip him!

    We rode back to the backpackers just in time for the bus and got the bikes on, ready for our next sleeping journey south to Dong Hoi.    Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Dong Hoi Drama

    21. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Bike problems came as standard after every bus we put them on.

    We were dropped off of the night bus from Nim Binh to dong hoi at 5am, still dark, and wanting coffee. There were wierd people around jogging like zombies doing yoga while it the sun wasn't even up. We went across to a bakery that opened up and got morning baguettes. Pim got 3 because he was smart. Both other bikes would not start so I had to find mech. I went for a ride to find fuel and a cash point as well. Found money and a locked cage of puppies at the side of the road. I had to stop and had some water in my bike so I poured some out into the lid and gave some to each pup. Hope they are okay! Wish I could keep one! Jack was still by the bakery, think he might have had a nap on the pavement. Pim eventually came back with directions to a bike shop. We got there and got the bikes sorted but not without a fair amount of grumpiness.Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Finding the Cave

    21. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Finding the cave was a bit of a nightmare, we spent most of the day dicking around, trying to find the entrance but the biggest cave, Soon Dong, is off limits to foreigners without a guide, that you have to pay over a $1000 for and there's a several month long waiting list. So here's some photos from the outside of where we thought it might be :'D

    We stopped off a few times in places to get directions / throw rocks.    Læs mere

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    The Cave!

    21. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    set off for the son Doong Cave. The ride there was North West of dong hoi towards the mountains. Dicked around once we got there looking for signs and an entrance but no luck, think they keep the biggest one hidden so only the locals know. Ended up following a group of tourists hoping to luck out with a cave but they stopped at the botanic gardens. They still made the park entry smooth as butter as we coasted in behind them ?
    Rode round the loop and stopped at paradise cave in the end. Biggest cave I've ever been into in my life. Huuuuge. If it wasn't the biggest in the world it damn near felt like it. Son Doong must be incredible. And it gives me an excuse to come back here. Rode back to dong hoi in light drizzle, would have thought that would teach us to get ponchos and tarps sorted by now but nope. ??    Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Buffalo Hostel

    22. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Woke up in dong hoi again, great little hostel by the train station, buffalo hostel sign outside. Jack read on the menu lady living there had looked after someone after they had a bike accident, and her kid seemed to have adhd. I think he and Jack got on pretty well :D After breakfast we tipped her, I kept a jam baguette for the Road after Pims wisdom yesterday. Had to get the bikes fixed again though after my exhaust fell off! Jacks accelerator and Pims light were not working either. Yesterday before both weren't even starting so at least these were minor issues in comparison. We went back to the same shop we stopped at our first morning in dong hoi after the bus dropped us off. I pulled into a welder on the same street while they're bikes were getting looked at who was conveniently working at the time and I noticed his weld sparks. I came back after a screw bolt bodge job and a half weld around the exhaust (it was good enough) Jacks was an easy fix, and Pims was in bits. After about 20 minutes it still would not start. Then I spotted the engine stop switch was down and pushed it up and hey what do you know?! The bike starts first time! Safe to say he made me promise not to tell Jack.Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Our Start on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

    22. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Drove from dong hoi North West again towards the ho chi minh tay at midday and got into it by 1 I think. The road was beyond words. Not a soul in sight for kilometres, just the open slab roads with gravel either side, steep drops and cliffs, and jungle. The forest was so thick! Views were amazing, wanted to stop for photos every 3 mins. Took some good ones I hope. It rained at one point and we drove down a small side mud Road Under someone's shelter and it turned out he opened up the side of his house with snacks, just after Jack said he wanted to move on to find some food. Snacks were terrible tho, cardboard biscuits. Kids were shy of us. Said gà moon and tan beuyt and took run ups for the steep damp exit. Kept heading south until our planned left turn off of the highway which ran towards the Vinh mốc tunnels.Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    The road that wasn't a road yet.

    22. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    The road looked freshly cut into the mountain and was paved at first. It didn't last long. Mud and rocks and river crossings for about 20 km. My bike slipped once and my bag got muddy but not too bad. I was however followed by a persistent marsh fly for the whole way, determined to take a blood sample.

    Pims bike had been wired up in the morning to fix his light issues, but looking back, the mechanic wasn't all that qualified.

    I think people in Vietnam and south east asia like to help, even when they don't really know what they're doing. If it gets them a few extra bucks from a tourist that's probably half their weeks wage. But anyway, this "mechanic" must have linked his light switch with his horn, because halfway through when Pim decided it was time for some illumination, the horn switched on permanently at full blast and you could damn well hear him coming from the other side of the mountain!

    I wanted to coast with engine off for some of the down hill sections so the bike wouldn't get ahead of itself and too fast to control but when Pim caught up with me I swear I probably lost a few decibels of hearing! The engineer of the group (ahem) told him to cut his horn cable after crossing a bridge that wasn't a bridge yet. The workers were in hysterics!

    They seemed to be burning the bridge cement dry, and were still working on the supports so we had to ride through the river to continue our route.
    The path continued muddy for quite sometime and progressed to just rocks which were tricky at the end but thankfully we had no slips or accidents.

    I must have coasted for the last 2 km downhill until we got back onto tar Mac with no engine. The tarmac was like seeing an oasis in a desert of bad road surfaces. It called for no hands on the handlebars past the other two who were taking an exit photo.

    The ride the rest of the way was smooth in terms of surface. Not necessarily in terms of bike performance...    Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    A screw loose.

    22. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    After the road that wasn't a road we kept on headed toward the vin moc tunnels, but it had take longer than we thought and had gotten dark quickly, with Pims light / horn cable cut, we had to take it steady at night. Me upfront trying to follow my satnav, with Jack following behind Pim keeping his path lit up. Then Jacks bike stalled and he beeped for us to stop. Behind me it turned pitch black, not a good sign. I turned around to stop and help and his bike would not start. almost 11pm, in the middle of fucking nowhere road, thankfully some local kids stopped to help. They guided us to a mech about 2km down the road. I got there first to call the mech and wake him up, it was late and the garage closed. Jack pushed his down with the Pim and the others and made it just before mechanic arrived. The mech stripped the bike in minutes, it turned out a screw came loose in the starter motor and had completely wrecked it! Thankfully he had spares and replaced the parts and started it up no worries. 660 thousand đồng.Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    The mysterious guide.

    22. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We made it to where we thought the tunnels were after getting the bike fixed but there was no sign of a hotel anywhere. It was late, it was dark, and everywhere so far we'd managed to find one without pre booking. It had been a lonng day though so we were definitely cranky by this point. We passed a raised up shack at the side of the road, even Jack suggested a night on the beach at one point! We had to keep going down the coast to Vinh quang just inside the old dmz I think before we found anything. It wasn't on the map, this little coast town, we stopped at a nhà nhgi (still to this day I do not know what that translates to) thinking it might have spare rooms. It wasn't a hotel but they called a guy to meet us, we waited a while and played with a puppy (there was always a puppy wherever you went in Vietnam, or anywhere in south east asia really!) and he beckoned us to follow him another few kilometers south. His brown poncho flowing in the darkness, we past 2 or 3 nice looking guest houses with no lights on, up to a sleasy hotel at the end of town. Safe to say I was knackered at this point so I passed out pretty much immediately when I hit the bed I was shown to but on the way in there were several girls flirting super hard with us. To me they looked barely older than 16 / 17. I went to sleep soon as I lay down, but the others stayed up a little later and apparently Jack heard about 4 different guys come in to accompany one of the girls, in the room next door to us, for anywhere between 8 - 15 minutes. So yeah this place was a brothel. I ended up sleeping straight through it all thankfully, I was already frustrated enough having not seen my girlfriend at the time for 7 weeks.Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Rain.

    23. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ 🌫 28 °C

    Đây 13 in Việt Nam. Rain. All morning. Ironic that today is the 13th day here. So we slept in a brothel last night and they only have squid and fish for breakfast. I'd murder a hooker for some cereal right now. God damn I miss cocopops. And decent milk. It's 11:30am with no signs of the rain dissipating. We have to listen to karaoke of cat strangling Asian music. We were going to head to the vin mốc tunnels this morning then head towards Khe San back in the mountains and hope the rain stops further inland. Time to man up and brave the elements. The thunder is close. We have limited ponchos. Not enough to cover ourselves and the bags. My guitar is my priority. Better take my jean shorts off, my waterproof shorts would be better.Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Vin Moc Tunnels

    23. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ 🌫 28 °C

    So we got to the tunnels half soaked but the weather was fitting for us to more appreciate what it would have been like to live here. Damp, dark, cramped. Trench foot would have been terrible. They were deep down though so hidden from the horrors of American bombing. Very defensible. Being just on the north side of the Dmz this area would have been a crucial position for the viet cong. We ended up going off the standard tour guide path into the darkness, like we did in paradise cave in Phòng na, to get a better feel for the age and the reality of the place. A power cut would have meant total darkness. We turned our phone torches off for a few meters and our pace slowed and our arms came up in front of our faces. Could not see one thing. We came out of one of the sea facing entrances to more rain, and took a stroll to the shoreline to take a piss. Ended up noticing the largest washed up jellyfish I've ever seen in my life, even in all of Australia. It looked like it had been hit by a boat prop. We went to leave and trudged back through to the main museum area taking guidance from some local children, then stopped to watch a few documentary clips of the history of the tunnels. Apparently about 35 kids were born and a hundred more were schooled here. I forgot to mention the 55,000 dong instant noodles and the fuss we kicked up after having had enough people rip us off. Usually a decent noodle / rice dish was 30,000, with real shit, not plastic no nutrient instant string. Blah. It was raining and we were mardy. After regrouping we made our way onwards to Hue, still in the rain.Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Hue, a shade of damp.

    23. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    That night we got to Hue in the dark. Rocked up near some hostels to be appropriated instantly by drug dealers. Safe to say they tried to scam us pretty hard, you don't want anything to do with this type of people in Vietnam. And this is all my stuff that was drenched from the ride. So yeah, it was a great day (y).Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    Hue City

    24. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We started our day early with omelettes and bacon in a cafe near our hotel. For some reason in Vietnam they like to play old episodes of English TV series. This one happened to have Mr Bean playing, I think it was the explosive paint episode, but I can't quite remember. Anyways, we had a lot of planning to do so we used the wifi to research the local area, using a combination of google maps and trip advisor we planned to hit 3 main places during our day here: The Ancient Cidadel, a world heritage site, The Thien Mu Temple, and The Tomb of Tu Duc. We ended up finding another war museum as well which we took a quick detour to.Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    The Forbidden Citadel

    24. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    This Royal Palace, was central in the capital of Vietnam over 100 years ago, and still holds the majesty of it's original occupiers at the halfway point down our trip through this beautiful country. The historic site was beautiful to walk through, a lot of it was left authentically ancient for us to explore with a lot of information scattered through the various buildings that were maintained and modernised.

    It looked like our entrance fees were going towards restoration of the older sections.

    This was an impressive first stop on our packed day in Hue.    Læs mere

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  • Paul JefferyesVietnamPaul Jefferyes

    The Thien Mu Temple

    24. april 2015, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    This was a real treat, and we had no idea about this place before we found it.

    It was an interesting little spot on the map so I thought we should check it out, and the ride there next to the river was beautiful, I kept thinking we were going to miss the temple because I wasn't sure what to expect or if it was behind a few buildings but when we got there it was obvious, you couldn't miss it. Apparently, the pagoda that's built there is seven stories high and is the tallest religious building in Vietnam. And that's according to Wikipedia so there. Fact.

    The vibe within the temple grounds was really something else, I can't quite describe it very well, but something about the place just had a lot of energy. The monks were doing some chanting in the central temple behind the pagoda and were obviously devout and dedicated to their spirituality. I videoed a small clip of their sound and may have added a tiny bit of quiet beatboxing because these guys were tight and I can't help myself when I get in tune with things sometimes..

    The grounds were beautifully maintained and lovingly cared for, with a hundred bonzai style trees kept in the courtyard, I may have had a little hay fever that day because when I sneezed accidentally, Jack said he "saw" it land. I'm not sure if he heard it as well, but in his words "Middle of a temple and you just blow a torrent of snot all over the floor"
    So yeah, that was gross, and hopefully not too disrespectful. Sorry Buddha!

    Anyways, at the back was a prayer pedestal that we all put our incense into for good luck with our bikes and the onward journey.

    Now I know it sounds weird but there definitely was a powerful aura to the place, I couldn't put my finger on it but for some reason, it felt like the place was blessed, and when we walked around and came to the old Austin motor, it clicked.
    The car was beautiful, a classic, sky blue paint, and tucked away to the side of the main temple, it looked kind of out of place for Vietnam, like it should be in a Hollywood museum for Elvis, but it was under a roof parked on display as a relic here,
    There was a photo up on the side which explained why it was here, and then it hit me. This was the car in which Thich Quang Duc was driven to his self-immolation in Saigon in 1963 against the Diem regime. It was the first of a series of self-immolations by members of the Buddhist clergy in the country, which brought the plight of Buddhists to the attention of the international community, which is why I recognised the photo. I'd seen it before but hadn't thought to find it here. It was also the rage against the machine album cover! The devotion of that man had a huge impact on the world. I've been doing a little more research on it and even John F. Kennedy at the time said in reference to that photograph: "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one."

    A beautiful and historic place that I definitely recommend you go to if you ever get the chance to head to this great city.    Læs mere

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    24. april 2015
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