Hello Steemians!
You can find PART 1 of this story HERE
The last post left off after my first day on the road in Mai Chau and today I will continue south all the way to Hue.
Sitting outside the waterfall outside Mai Chau
The route I will cover in this post. 725km is a long way with 2 people on a 110cc bike.
Mai Chau to Ngoc Lac
The second day was about 2 hours drive because we spent the morning at a waterfall just north of Mai Châu District swimming and relaxing. Originally I had planned to get to Tân Kỳ but my host said the waterfall should not be missed. Ngọc Lặc is a small town with nothing really all that special about it but I stayed at Hoang Gia hotel, which was a great price for a nice room. There is also lots of street food to eat so it seemed like a good place to stop along the way.
Views from the road, Ngoc Lac was a pretty small town so I don't have any pictures from there, just along the highway.
Most of this day was riding through rice fields just like this
Cows!
Stopping for a break along the road.
Ngoc Lac to Tan Ky
The drive to Tân Kỳ was about 4 hours and was the first day I drove on a somewhat major highway with large trucks and significantly more traffic. Tân Kỳ is the official start to the Ho Chi Minh Trail and it commemorated in the middle of a large traffic circle in the center of town with the Ho Chi Minh Trail Monument. The town itself is really quite nice, there are lots of restaurants and street food, there are a few hotels and I chose the VOLGA Hotel which was quite nice and had indoor parking. I spent the afternoon walking around town and trying all the different street food in town, which varies from town to town and chatting with a few locals in a cafe over coffee. I wanted to stay an extra day here but I also wanted to get to the caves of Phong Nha so I left the next morning after breakfast.
Tan Ky is the start of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Typical lunch of Bun Bo in one of the many small villages along the way, super cheap and tastes great!
Helmets in the hotel room!
Tan Ky to Phong Nha
This was one of the most brutal days of the trip for me. I spent ten straight hours riding up, down, left and right through the mountains at a snails pace because of all the blind corners on such a narrow road. It was completely exhausting both physically and mentally, by the end I was covered head to toe in mud and dust and ready to collapse. I arrived in Phong Nha in the evening and decided to stay two full days there to relax a bit and catch my breath from the past few days. Phong Nha is quite touristy because of the caves so finding hotels and restaurants is quite easy along the main road. I stayed in Thien Thanh Hotel right on the main road and it was one of the cheaper hotels but still very nice. The first day there it rained all day so I spent the day in town reading and catching up on some work. The next day I spent the morning checking out Paradise Cave , it is one of several large caves in the area and is quite spectacular. The locals have built a boardwalk through the cave and place various lights in and behind stalagmites to light the chambers up and create a breathtaking space.
Quick stop on the never ending day.
A shot while driving around the roads outside Phong Nha.
Paradise Cave, Phong Nha
Another shot in Paradise Cave.
Café on the river in Phong Nha.
Phong Nha to Hue
This was the first day I had bike trouble along the way and unfortunately it wasn't the last. Somewhere outside of Đông Hà my front tire blew and went flat and I was forced to walk my bike to the next village. Luckily, not long after stating the walk a local man started yelling for me to come to his house. I went and with the help of a translator app we settled on a price and he went to work changing the front tube. All in all, the stop cost me an hour of my time and $4USD so it worked out pretty well. I arrived in Hue in the early afternoon, quickly checked into the Minh Thai Hotel which was a great value, and set out to see the sights. Hue is a small city built around the Hue Royal Palace and full of great food and cheap hotels. I spent my time checking out the palace and the rest of the time in a few cafes.
Hue Royal Palace.
Breakfast in Hue, Bahn Mi and coffee.
My girlfriend Kama in front of the Royal Palace.
I will continue this series tomorrow covering the drive across most of central Vietnam, I hope you enjoy them and check out my page @travelstheworld if you want to see more. Thanks for Reading!!
