Once a forbidden and forbidding land, Vietnam
is emerging as a popular tourist destination. Can you ride there?
Step aboard a 125cc two-stroke running on gearbox oil….
"I never see so many round-eyes",
a young Vietnamese girl exclaimed during a refreshment stop on
the Ho Chi Minh Highway. Apart from a few Hanoi-based expatriates,
19 Kiwis, a Brit and an Australian were the first foreigners to
travel on this newly constructed highway. Locals in the hinterlands
of Vietnam stopped what they were doing to watch as bike after
bike of 'round eyes', most two-up, rode past them. By the time
the third bike had passed, they were waving and smiling, calling
to their fellow villagers to come and see the foreigners on bikes.
From the back of the pack, I witnessed the commotion we caused
as we travelled slowly through each remote settlement. For many
in our group these motorcycle-enabled interactions with the locals
were the highlight of their trip.
Kicking off in Vietnam's
capital Hanoi, the tour took in many must-see locations including
World Heritage sights Halong Bay and the ancient city of Hoi An,
former Imperial capital Hue, the Demilitarised Zone, Khe San -
the former U.S. Army fire-base, and the Cu Chi Tunnels where the
Viet Cong hid during the war. What had attracted many to the tour
however, was the chance to ride down the not-yet-officially-opened
Ho Chi Minh Highway.
Trail to Highway Loosely following the Ho Chi Minh Trail, this new highway became
the focus of our journey south. Originally a series of complex
parallel truck routes, and paths, through Vietnam, Cambodia, and
Laos, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was used for supply lines by the North
Vietnamese during the American-Vietnam War, and reclaimed by the
surrounding thick jungle after the war. In early 2000, the Vietnamese
Government decided to ease traffic on the heavily congested Highway
One by building the Ho Chi Minh Highway to provide another route
connecting North and South Vietnam. This new highway incorporates
some of the roads and paths of the wartime trail, including the
road through the Truong Son mountain range, an infamous northern
section of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where many Vietnamese and foreign
soldiers died in the war.
Twice the Strokes With around 2300kms to cover, the group followed local advice
and opted for a125cc, two-stroke Belarusian motorcycle, the Minsk.
Tough, light at 100kg, and robust, the Minsks basic design means
it can be fixed almost anywhere. They run on pre-mix two-stroke
fuel; any oil will do including two-stroke, four-stroke, caster
oil, even gearbox oil in a pinch. Just get the mix right - two
small coke bottles to 10 litres of petrol! Minsks may lack a little
in speed and power, but with so much to look at, going fast is
not a requirement. In the rural regions, they are used for everything
from transporting livestock to moving refrigerators. 'In Minsk
We Trust' is the slogan for the, Hanoi based, Minsk Motorcycle
Club- which now has 15 new Kiwi members.
Phung Duc Cuong, the Vietnamese
travelling with the crew, said that the Minsk has the equivalent
cool status that Harley Davidson's receive elsewhere. In Vietnam,
the Minsk rules supreme. Mentioned in The Lonely Planet Guidebook,
Cuong is regarded as the best Minsk repairman in Vietnam. Living
up to his reputation, he repaired a broken bolt on a rear sprocket
in 15 minutes, roadside, with limited tools. He owns 60 Minsks,
including all the bikes we rode, and looked at the tour a holiday,
his first in over four years.
Our guides were long-time
Hanoi residents, Digby Greenhalgh from Australia and Englishman
Dan Dockery. Both speak Vietnamese fluently, not an easy task
with a language that relies heavily on tones - some expatriates
have lived in Vietnam 10 years without picking it up. Dan reckons
his Vietnamese is not good enough for a political discussion,
yet his ability to flirt en-route, with any female from 15 to
50, demonstrated great proficiency with the language. The xeo
(rice liquor) king on tour, Dan actively encouraged everyone to
try the local brews that had everything from sea snake, to geckos,
to goat's foetus, pickled in the brew! Widely read on the American-Vietnam
war - and just a little biased towards his adopted country- Digby
took on the role of history instructor. Most mornings, he gave
lively history lesson, complete with map and red pen. His Australian
origins were clearly on show, though, during his victory dance
after the Wallabies thrashed the All Blacks.
Hill tribes and Haka After leaving Hanoi our first overnight stop was at Mai Chau,
with a White Tay family in their stilt house -the White Tay are
one of the many ethnic groups that make up Vietnam's hill tribes.
The villagers were to perform traditional dances and songs, and
the Kiwis were supposed to reciprocate. Knowing this, tour organiser
Mike Britton had taken up the challenge - there'd be no out-of-tune
warbling for his group of adventurers. So, back on a junk in the
middle of Halong Bay, Mike and a couple of cohorts tried to remember
the choreography of a haka, and later taught the rest of the men
in a park in central Hanoi - amongst the locals who came to practise
Tai Chi. The work paid off, though, and at Mai Chau the haka was
a resounding success, partly because the men remembered to land
lightly to avoid breaking bamboo floor. The cultural exchange
was completed with the hongi - the traditional touching of noses.
Quickly establishing that the young White Tay women would not
be comfortable with hairy Kiwi blokes up close, it was agreed
only the women would hongi the women, and the men the local blokes.
The women giggled as the Kiwi women bent to touch noses with them,
mystified by this strange custom. As the faces met the Kiwis greeted
them in Maori, and fast learners, the White Tay women responded
with a perfectly pronounced "kia ora."
Legacy While following the Ho Chi Minh Trail, it was clear that much
of the country we went through had been heavily affected by the
war with America. Bomb craters were still very evident and during
construction of the leg from Dong Hoi to Khe San engineers found
over 600 unexploded ordinances per kilometre. The devastation
caused by Agent Orange in the region around Khe San, and many
more locations en-route, was very noticeable, even now almost
30 years later. The soil is orange and burnt-out looking as far
as the eye can see, and only sparse scrappy vegetation grows.
It is characteristic of the positive Vietnamese attitude that
they have no bitterness towards those who fought against them
and we always felt welcome in their country. Even those with deformities
caused by Agent Orange waved to the 'round eyes' on bikes, their
faces beaming with smiles.
Memorable Moments There are many great memories from the three-week trip. The beauty
of waking up onboard a junk in the majestic Halong Bay at the
beginning of the tour; the smiles on the faces of the children
when some of the group stopped to give them small toys; the picnic
lunches in the middle of nowhere featuring baguettes, imported
cheeses and meats, and unusual Vietnamese herbs. Then there was
the luxury of the Morin Hotel in Hue and The Rex Hotel in Saigon,
and the sight of workers filling the joints in the concrete, four-lane-wide
Ho Chi Minh Highway with tar poured from kettles.
Vietnam is a country of
outstanding beauty, rich tradition and varied culture, and there's
no better way to see it than from the back of a motorcycle.
