Hoi An Motorbike

I spent most of my youth on a motorbike riding up and down the fields of Lylehill, so I was very excited when I found Hoi An Motorbike Adventures on TripAdvisor. They offer day trips on old Minsk motorbikes. We opted for the Mountains and Delta Explorer, a 150km ride into the mountains and through the Thu Bon river delta. It's been a long time since I've ridden a bike, so I was a bit nervous, but I suppose it's "just like riding a bike" and memories came back straight away.

I found the guide, Duncan, delivered the right balance of stopping at a few historical sights and giving us some historical information, as well as just having fun on these old bikes! There were a few occasions when some black smoke appeared from these relics but we had a support crew keeping an eye on us and these guys knew every inch of the bike inside out. 

One of the more interesting sections of the ride was boarding a river boat to cross a river. Basically, as the bikes loaded, the boat moved along the jetty allowing more and more bikes to join. By the time the boat departed there must have been 20 or 30 bikes stacked in a row on this boat!

These bikes could also double up as a bed when a rest was needed

I have to say crossing this floating bridge had me holding my breath. The interesting part is that when a boat needs to pass by, they simply un tie one end of the bridge and let it float down parallel to the banks. Once the boat passes, they pull the bridge back across and tie it up. Sometimes the simple things in life, work best. 

Overall this was one of the highlights of my trip and the saddle sores in my backside were well worth the grin I was left with.

Halong Bay

After deciding we were going to Vietnam on holiday, Ha Long Bay was the first name on our must visit places. After arriving in Hanoi to find that a typhoon was about to hit and all trips had been cancelled we were pretty disappointed. Fortunately for us, the path of the typhoon changed course at the last minute and after a late booking the night before, we were back on track.

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site. The bay consists of nearly 2,000 limestone karsts rising from the emerald green water.

We drove for about 3 and a half hours North of Hanoi to Halong City, where we joined our boat, the Dragon's Pearl III and set off on our two day cruise around Bai Tu Long Bay, which is a less visited area within the larger Halong Bay site.

The boat had only 11 cabins spread over three decks. Just after we set sail, the crew served what was purported to be lunch, but turned out to be a never ending stream of freshly cooked and very delicious seafood.

After cruising around the bay we stopped at of the islands for a few hours, where we were able to explore one of the famous caves. We also took the opportunity to get out in a couple of kayaks and explore a bit ourselves.

The next morning we stopped at one of the fishing villages, which comprised a handful of floating houses, a shop to sell the cultured pearls and a school. It was quite a humbling experience, to see people living quite happily without  any of life's little luxuries that we take for granted.

Whilst the whole trip was super relaxing and very peaceful, I think Jenny got a bit carried away with the camera. There's no doubt that the scenery was stunning, but once you get home there's only so many pictures of what is essentially just rocks that you can actually look at. Anyway, here's a time lapse video of the boat trip.

Hanoi, Hue & Hoi An

Jenny and I love to travel and have been very lucky with the places we've been able to visit, so when the option of some air miles came up it was a total no brainer. The really hard decision was deciding where to go. Vietnam has been high up on our wish list for a while, and with Oman being relatively close, three weeks touring the lush green countryside of South East Asia seemed the perfect summer escape.

Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi to rain. Ordinarily I might have been quite upset at this, but after escaping the scorching 40C+ heat of Muscat a little light rain felt quite refreshing. However, it turns out that it wasn't just rain but that we'd actually landed just as typhoon Ramassun was expected to hit. I'd not been paying much attention to the local weather, but it seems that the typhoon had had quite a devastating effect on the Philippines and Southern China before heading for Northern Vietnam. Being a concerned global citizen my first thought was instinctly how was this going to affect our trip and especially Halong Bay. Fortunately for us, the typhoon changed it's course and we only got hit with a couple of days of rain.

With our trip to Halong Bay still on the cards, we had one day to explore the sights and sounds of Hanoi. 

Hue

The next stop on the trip was the city of Hue, the former capital of Vietnam. Steeped in history, the city has earned it a place in UNESCO's list of world heritage sites. But to be honest, I wasn't overly impressed. We spent one afternoon walking around the imperial city, which I appreciate is a couple of hundred years old, but it really was quite run down. I mean if you want to promote a building as a tourist attraction, the least you can do is tidy up the rubbish lying around.

The saving grace of our trip around Hue was heading to the Da Bong market and getting to try some of the local delicacies. People have many observations about Vietnam; mine was that the people there never seem to stop eating. As we were walking around the market we decided to stop at one of the little restaurant stalls. I had absolutely no idea what I was ordering and I'm not sure the lady serving really cared. I'm not sure whether it was my oversized ass perched on a tiny red plastic chair which can only have been designed for a nursery school child or whether they knew that I did not know what I was letting myself in for but the local ladies thought it was hilarious. I still have no idea what was in the dish I ate. I'm pretty confident that it wasn't dog meat, only based on the fact that I didn't pay any extra for it. 

So after a failed attempt at trying to being cultured, we decided that the best option was to relax at our hotel and indulge in the offerings of the in house spa.

Hai Van Pass

Our next stop was in the town of Danang in Central Vietnam. For this portion we decided not to fly and to take the longer scenic route. There is a new tunnel opened on the road between Hue and Danang that's dramatically reduced the travel time, but it was definitely worth taking the 21km stretch of winding and twisty mountain pass known as the Hai Van Pass. We had a lovely driver who stopped at many of the places along the way to take in the amazing scenery.

Hoi An

Although we were staying in Danang, we spent most of our time in the nearby town of Hoi An, which is a picturesque and quaint little town. It's a very popular town with local tourists, but has still managed to retain its authentic feel.

The highlight of visiting Hoi An was definitely the motorbike trip through the countryside before we headed on to our relaxation phase in Nha Trang.