Ho Chi Minh Trail

Day 1 - Hanoi-Mai Chau.   140km

So got up this morning at 4 to get out of the city before all the Hanoian traffic started. We were on the road for about 5 after gettin everything sorted and ready to go. So then plan for the day was easy, make it to a place called Mai Chau, 140km south of Hanoi for about 12pm and rest and get a good sleep before day two tomorrow. So as soon as we had left the hostel and were in the city the skies literally opened and it lashed rain so much. It came down so fast and heavy that we were soaked before we could get our ponchos out if our bags. But after that we managed to make it out of the city and onto the road no problem. The places we passes though were just simply breathtaking, high ip over monutains passes and through deep rice paddy valleys with lush green fields stretching as far as the mountains would allow. Driving that early let us seen the mountains shed their cloudy shroud and appear for the day in late morning. We were doing really good for time until we both ran out of petrol, but luckily at different times but did set us back a bit. We did make it to Mai Chau for about 1pm though and my god it's an amazing valley. Rice paddies and rivers cut the monutains into amaIbg shapes that are just beyond words. So we stayed in a hotel there for like $10 or something which was grand, just had a shower and then slept coz we were both still wrecked from the Ha Long bay tour the day before. Ho Chi Minh is now only 1580km away. 

Day 2 - Mai Chau-Thanh Hoa.  180km

So woke up early coz we wanted to be on the road for 8am this morning to get a good run at the road ahead of us today, it was goin to be completely different than yesterday coz yesterday was all highways and good roads while today was the Ho Chi Minh Trail so was tight winding moubtainiois roads that we were away and hard goin both on us and the bikes. The first while was good roads but then we started hitting real remote places so the roads got rougher and rougher as we went. It so beautiful though. Have never seen a landscape so dramatic as Vietnams. It's quite simply an amazing place for mountains popping from nowhere and views slicing through the limestone to release a view through a massive valley stretching for miles. The most amazing part was driving through a stunning valley in a crazy thunder storm with rain bucketing down and there was nowhere to hide at all coz we did actually try. We done the first bit of the journey real easy but then the signs disappeared and we were driving blind. Soon the signs came back but we didn't recognise any of the place names for hours until we seen one that we did. Finally. But we took the road and it us off the HCM into a road that was so bad and this eventually lead to the worst bridge in the world, made of scrap wood and metal that we had to cross on our bikes. Talk about scary shit like. But to make it worse they expected us to pay a toll on it which we just laughed at and kept going. We were soon back on the right road but it was starting to get late so had to make good speed ahead to get to our nite time stopover in Thanh Hoa. We were on the strangiest roads in the world today but the driving itself is really easy just tough goin for doin it so long a day but luckily this was set to be one of the worst of the trip. So finally got to a hotel for the nite and got a bed and a hot shower which is an extreme luxury after 8 hours on the road and every bone in your body is aching from the terenchail rain today. Was tough goin today but we got it done. Ho Chi Minh is now 1400km away.