Day 15 Vietnam Motorbike Tour

I was fortunate enough to have met a couple from the UK that joined us for breakfast. They were on bicycles and will finsih 2,000 miles in 2 months across Vietnam and Laos. (This is incredibile). They were both retired physicians (family practitioners). Their names were Simon and Heather. The problem with meeting folks like this is that there is never enough time to discuss everything. As you can imagine they were very fit and had just sold their practice. They were very inspiring and very nice folks. I wish them the best!

I learned some things about the Vietnam government today. So it starts with the Country, then Providences which there are 64, then the City (which has districts), then the Town and last is the Village. Each division gets to vote for their government represenatives as you go up the chain. Interesting!

We were traveling on the Ho Chi Minh Road again and running about 60 miles per hour until noon. Then we were back into the mountains so we slowed up to handle the curves. We went about 170 miles today. As we continued south it got warmer. We had to stop and take off our coats. The high was around 83 degrees. It is going to be in the 90’s the next few days – especialy since we are south bound. Now this is what I call good motorcycling weather!

All of a sudden we entered onto this flat area in the road which looked like a landing strip for airplanes. My guide pulled over and told me this was where the Vietnamese landed and loaded the planes that took supplies to their troops. I ask if it had been bombed by the Americans and he said “yes”. The name of this airport was called Khe Cat. Also there are active land mines in the jungle in this area. Sometimes when they are digging for new home construction they find them and have to call in the military to take them away. All of a sudden the terrain turned into jungle on both sides of the road and was very thick and green. Amazing how the lanscape can change instantly. I guess only 20 percent of the jungle in this area has been explored.

A short distance later we turned into a city called Phong Hha. A very touristy area that is very clean and neat for Vietnam. At first glance it looked a bit like Breckinridge. We checked into a very cool hotel which runs $30.00 per night. Most here run $20.00. In 15 years these hotels will run $250 a night! The largest cave in the world (that I had mentioned in an ealier post) is a short distance from here. They only take 7 people in at once and you have to spend a day of hiking to get there while you are being accompanied by 7 guides. Again the cost is $3,000 with a booking a year in advance.

We found an Italian restaurant and had pizza and pasta which was really tasty after eating Vietnam food for the last 15 days. I also found some peanut M&M’s which gave me my chocolate fix.

I can’t wait for tomorrow. We will be going to the underground tunnels. My guide tells me I will be blown away. After that we will head to the coastline where we will be traveling all the way to Ho Chi Minh City. I am told we will encounter some beautiful beaches along the way. The journey continues.