Saigon to Hanoi on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam

[MichaelJ]

Originally Posted by roninwva

Nothing like going thru Siagon traffic being the front bumper on a Cyclo.

Yup - if you've done it, no explanation is necessary. If you haven't, no explanation is possible.

[jwashburn]

Great report Josh! I'm really hoping to do this exact ride within the next year. We have an office in Hanoi so I'd get a free plane trip over from the company. I can't wait to read the rest.

[Josh69]

Originally Posted by MichaelJ

That's a change. Once in Saigon I was riding in a cyclo mai and a couple of locals on a motorbike came alongside - the passenger grabbed my Nikon, I grabbed his arm, the bike rider hit the throttle and the cyclo driver hit the brakes.

Having significantly more mass than the bike's passenger, I stayed put.

Speeds, luckily for the would-be photographer, were low.

I miss cyclo mais and Saigon traffic. EVERY trip was an adventure.

Actually, snatches by low-lives on motorcycles are reasonably common in HCMC. My wifes handbag got snatched and one of the girls in the office still has some bruises on her leg 6 months after coming off her bike when her bag got snatched.

The snatchers are invariable young, no helmet, drive fast like an idiot and no brains - if they carry on driving like that, they will be dead before 30.

When they get caught by locals, it's not a pretty scene. I saw one snatcher who got caught by the crowd getting a beating by the crowd then getting led off in a head/arm lock by two guys.

Fortunately other than that, crime is minimal. I'd rate it lower than any western country.

[Josh69]

Originally Posted by 2xWheel

Great report and some very nice pictures, can't wait for more.

Whate camera and lenses did you use?

It's a Nikon D40 digital SLR and a 18-200mm (27-300mm in film terms) zoom lens. I brought along a 10-20mm wide angle but I didn't use it much. Most of the pics I've posted have about 5 mins worth of post processing with Photoshop.

[Josh69]

Originally Posted by mikeb.

Great RR, thanks for tagging us along.

I wonder why it is Buon Ma Thuot not Ban Me Thuoc, has the name change?.

Dunno - the Lonely Planet still lists Ban Me Thuoc as an alternative name.

[bongodave]

Reports from the Far East never fail to charm me.
Gotta get some cash up!
Very cool!

[Josh69]

Originally Posted by Irish John

The Trail appears to have changed drastically since my experience with it in '70-'72. In serving with MACV-SOG, I ran border ops to sections of the Trail in it's sections in Laos. At that time most of it was not paved but it certainly was not just a single road. We would call in air strikes to attack the truck traffic but the NVA would just shift the traffic further west to a different section.

When the ARVN forces launched Operation Lam Son 719 to cut the Trail in '72, we warned them that there wasn't a single trail to cut. The NVA let them penetrate about 15 miles in, doing a strategic withdrawal, then cut them off and just hammered them. I remember my ARVN counterpart kept saying as they cut a new section of the Trail, "Now we have reached the Trail and will stop the flow of NVA into the RVN." He said that repeatedly but as the ARVN forces pushed further west, they kept finding new "Trails".

The Trail was by that time in the war much more highly developed than in the 60's. A lot of it in Laos and NVN was paved. We even found, and blew up, a gasoline pipeline that originated in NVN, which supplied fuel to the truck depots on the Trail.

I've been back to visit Vietnam 3 times. For most of the people I have met over there, the war is ancient history. Folks are nice, the food is great, and it is a beautiful place to visit.

Thanks for posting that, Irish John. I like reading about what Vietnam was like in those less peaceful times.

BTW Last ANZAC Day (ANZAC Day = a memorial day for Australians and New Zealanders) I went to a morning service hosted by the Australian consulate in HCMC. The consul-general said something during in his speach: "No Vietnamese has every said anything negative or had any recriminations (to him) about the war"

You have to have a lot of respect for the Vietnamese that with the millions who died during the war, they can put it behind them and move on.

[GuyD]

Bravo Josh. Keep it coming!

[Josh69]

Things were going well with my detour until I got to the village of Ea Sup, which was just before sunset. Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pics as I had other things on my mind. In summary what happed was:

1. The track which I hoped would take me the first part of the way and which was marked on the map didn't exist.

2. There was a really busted up goat track which I could tell did go somewhere because every minuite or so somebody would come along on a bicycle; but I'm not a dirt bike rider and this track was sand, rocks, tree roots, mounds, trees in middle of track, gouges etc and only about 3 feet wide.

3. It got me to a creek crossing; the creek was about 15 inches deep and 10 metres wide; it was already dark I didn't want to risk it incase I dropped the bike in the creek in the dark with my camera GPS etc inside; so I turn back and try to find the alternate-alternate route back west and then north again.

4. The alternate-alternate route which the map shows heading towards Hwy 14 instead makes a turn in the wrong direction, towards Cambodia. Then I see a sign in English, Vietnamese and Khmer (Cambodian) which says "FRONTIER AREA" I'm a bit wary of these border areas.

5. I say to myself $!#%-it; I'd already done 13 hours already that day but I'm going to do another 2 hours to return to Buon Ma Thuot in the dark.

6. About an hour outside B.M.T. a tropical downpour starts so I do the last hour in a storm.

7. I arrive B.M.T. about 10.30pm after a 15 hour day - which was the most difficult riding day I've had since I started riding a bike.

In the map below
BLACK IS MY ORIGINAL PLAN, DETOURING WEST RETURNING TO RT 14
BLUE IS WHAT I ACTUALLY DID, ENDING UP BACK AT B.M.T. AFTER A 6 HR BACKTRACK

Oops spelling mistake on the map too, should read "marked" not "market"

[Josh69]

I did get a few pics though; here's some road obsticles. I found the optimal cow heard penetration speed was slightly faster than walking pace. This road felt like luxury compared to the goat track to come.

[Josh69]

And a lily filled lake.

[2xWheel]

Love the goat shot.

Nice Post processing, D40 is a pretty good camera.

[Rick Lee]

Subscribing!

[Indochine]

Thanks for the details of your travel pack and routing, Josh. Let us know how much you dug into the repair kit to fix stuff. And perhaps more important, let us know how the bike performed.

Goes without saying, but I love the pix.

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Edited to remove unnecessary stuff.

[Fredfredburger]

Awesome report so far! Great pics and story.

Can't wait for more.


FFB