Thôn Đông Dương

Ah today was fucking amazing - another thing off my bucket list done. This and HA Long Bay are the two reasons I came to Vietnam.

I remember watching this on top gear about 10/11 years ago and since that point this was on my list of things to do - it’s that good in real life. The bike I had wasn’t great but I think that made it better, as I felt like it wasn’t much better than what the TG trio used. The company I used motovina to hire the bike also sent my luggage to Hue so I could pick it up when I got there so I didn’t have to worry about it.

I had my go pro and I managed to film some of it however the batteries are not great anymore so I’m lucky to get 15 mins of footage, and it died before the best bit hahahahaha.

The Hai Van pass is pretty much deserted now as the Vietnamese government recently built a bypass tunnel through the mountains as a more direct route to Hue, this just made it better, although the roads have come into a bit of disrepair now.

I was a lot more confident after completing the Mae Hong Son Loop so I was throwing the bike into corners much faster and even leaning down which caused a few clenched moments which just added to the excitement. I did see a girl however go arse over tit on her bike which I have to admit was hilarious, not sure how bad she was hurt, but she wasn’t much smaller than me and she was on a huge bike. Silly really.

The last 15km of the trip is just a boring duel carriage way - but with it being Vietnam it’s not so straight forward. Traffic coming down the wrong way. Bikes, lorries just pulling out from side streets, you have to be on your toes. Riding a bike here is much more difficult than Thailand, there seems to be less of a rhythm, it’s definitely more chaotic and I think if I didn’t have the experience doing the MHS Loop I’d of had more trouble.

I’d like to come back one day with a bigger, more powerful bike 🏍 - as I saw a few super bikes doing it and it looked so much fun.

Hai Van Pass ✅

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