Vietnam - A Taste Of Everything

Hi,
Quite long time busy with nothing but can't make a riding trip, we headed to DaLat and Nha Trang for the first ride of 2014.
It's really fun trip to attend two wedding parties of our buddies.
Following this trip, you 'll see some different landscapes, scenery of Vietnam, after a round trip just around 1200km. That's why I said "a taste of everything"
Hope you enjoy.

Applied for a 1.5days off, we all gathered at the muster point at lunch time.
Put too much gas when I hit the road from the office, not too long after that, a bunch of police pulled us over.
Damn, it was just around 6x over 50kph. :wacko:
Settled the thing after around 20mins. Well, looked like not a good sign for the trip.
Hell, why need to care - just forget it then ride.
At the meeting place, a friend just got his KTM990:

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A nice couple on the NC700X:
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And me, my GS with newly installed Pelican top box:
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Joined the traffic under the Saigon heat. Then it was really fun start with familiar faces after months not riding.
After around 60km, we stopped at a rest stop for waiting two friends who just crossed the Vietnam - Cambodia border to join us:

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If you have seen my previous threads, you won't be surprised with the mix of many type of bikes in the team.
I know that you may feel something looked weird with a supersport offroad or a Cafe racer rides a thousand miles [image: icon10.gif]. Well, anything can happen here, in Vietnam. :beer:
Received two GS riders from Cambodia (one is Vietnamese, the other is Thailand, both of them are working in Cambodia).
Our team, near a junction to decide about the route as we have some info of bad roads ahead:

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Love to see all guys are well equipped with proper riding gears:

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You can notice the camera tripod and the tent on my back seat. The Thailand rider with the Blue GS, rode after me:
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Okay, then we left the city, reached the semi-highland. The road surface was really suck - lots of sand at this corner as well as others:

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The guys feel pretty bad with the very nice curve but bad road.
CB1000 and NC700X:

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The KTM was on it first road trip:

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Hornet 919 - I miss my 919s - damn, I used to have two 919s [image: eekers.gif]:

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Beemer:

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Ducati Diavel:

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Oh hell, a poor Honda Rune:

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Oh sh*t, it's the great CB1 Cafe Racer - and such kind of road is never designed for this bike:

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Really hard for both of them:

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The buddy with the KLR was real funny guy. He could ride at front but love to be at the back to ensure all sport and cruiser bikes are safe from the dirt.

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I was thinking of my VFR. She will be pretty sad with such kind of road.

The above curve was not the worst.
Check this out and you may feel the pain which is really affected to all the fancy sport/cafe racer bikes:

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CB1K cafe racer rider was really a hero:

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Rune's rider is another one:

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And not too much different for the CB600F:

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Done all the offroad stuff, we reached the place called Bao Loc.
Our familiar rest stop:

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Had some food:

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Tested the Cafe racer:

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Lucky on unlucky, we found the Honda Rune with flat rear tire before leaving the rest stop:

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It's really nightmare for the Rune's owner:

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Great pictorial as you always do........ Just my thoughts, but most of those bikes would have felt a lot better, had they been wearing tyres like the ones on your bike.......

Great pictorial as you always do........ Just my thoughts, but most of those bikes would have felt a lot better, had they been wearing tyres like the ones on your bike.......

Thank you for getting along all my reports.

You are right about the tires, however the riding posture also contributes a lot to the feeling of bikers. Think of those sport bikes or the cafe racer, or even the VFR, pain is always existed for any trip on such kind of road.

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Some pix from a buddy sitting in a car:

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I was passing my friend's car. Pls ignore the lane line :) :

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Parote from Chantha Buri
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Reached Dalat quite late, when it's real dark.
We again went for around 2km real offroad track to the our place in the jungle. Imagine all the sport, cruiser and cafe racer bikes had to pass that track.

We all made it.

Let's fire on:
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Drink and sing:

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Really fun night with friendship and brotherhood:

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Ca sĩ chuyên ca chẵn

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Wow Trung, that looks like a really good time thanks for sharing the pics!!  The BMW is looking good and seems like it's getting some good use!!

Rollin

Looks and sounds like a great time was had by all.  Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Yo  Trung   thanks  for  the  pic's  and  you  need  to  tell  the  dude  on  Rune  the  value  of  those  bikes INCREASE  every  year .  Right  now  there  around $25,000.00

  If  I  was   him  I  would  put  that  bike  up  and  buy  something  else  ride  around  on .. 

Nice report, as always. So, what would you say your average speed was? I mean it looks like there were quite a few sections where you would have had to drive relatively slowly, when most of those bikes look like they could go at a good pace. Love seeing scenery from Vietnam though. Keep 'em coming!! 

Thanks again,

C

Wow Trung, that looks like a really good time thanks for sharing the pics!!  The BMW is looking good and seems like it's getting some good use!!

Rollin

Hey Sy,

Sent you some messages via Watsapp, they showed delivered at your end, don't know if you still use your old number.

Yes for the BMW. It 's really great bike for me to conquer all kind of roads in a single trip up here.

Looks and sounds like a great time was had by all.  Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Thanks. There will be more and more pix, as usual. :)

Yo  Trung   thanks  for  the  pic's  and  you  need  to  tell  the  dude  on  Rune  the  value  of  those  bikes INCREASE  every  year .  Right  now  there  around $25,000.00

  If  I  was   him  I  would  put  that  bike  up  and  buy  something  else  ride  around  on .. 

Hahah, good point of you, Sir. I have no idea about your sense, but the fact is the Rune was sold to a guy in Nha Trang at the wedding place. Right after the wedding party at night. Our guys were sponsored for an extra party by both seller and buyer in the same night. No idea about the price.

FYI, the guy was having that Rune and BMW K1600, now he has just the BMW left. He went back Hochiminh City by air. :goofy:

Nice report, as always. So, what would you say your average speed was? I mean it looks like there were quite a few sections where you would have had to drive relatively slowly, when most of those bikes look like they could go at a good pace. Love seeing scenery from Vietnam though. Keep 'em coming!! 

Thanks again,

C

Thanks.

If you are talking about the PoPo - The 6x kph I was doing while riding within the City limit. We are fined if go faster than 50kph.

And for other places, various speed, of course.

We can do up to 140kph or so outside of town. :491:

Pix without my signature is not mine, but my friend. Just use them as I did not take any that time.

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The place we stayed that night, awesome place:

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Wrapping up:

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What left over since the previous night:

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Then we were out for the first wedding of the trip.
I was staying at this place, gotta cross the stream to get out:

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Enjoyed offroading:

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Some bikes tipped over last night at this point:

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Love the write up, great pictures as always. The campfire reminds me of the Hog Tie, just a good time to be had. This thread is really making we want to ride, too bad we still have snow on the ground with more to come this week. :mad:

Love the write up, great pictures as always. The campfire reminds me of the Hog Tie, just a good time to be had. This thread is really making we want to ride, too bad we still have snow on the ground with more to come this week. :mad:

Thank you.

Snowing there? Well, you gotta watch this video:

[video: http://youtube.com/embed/jRfxl_qXkcM?html5=1&fs=1]

We had really cool wedding session after that.
Pix by a buddy.
Here's the happy couple:
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Some pix of our bikes at the hotel in Dalat:

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Got up quite early the next day - we rode all the way from Dalat to Nha Trang, to attend the 2nd wedding:

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Weather was pretty strange to us, who live in HCMC. It was around 13-15degC. My jacket seems really fit with that temp.
Dalat is a highland at the Western side of Vietnam. Nha Trang is a seaside city, on the East side. Distance is just about 100miles. The connecting road was great, with lots of twisties.

Waited for the gang:

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Here's how they showed up:

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Dragon  almost    !!!

great stroy and pix once again Trung, thanks for sharing !

I really like the photo of the group around the campfire, having food, beers, and a sing, looks like a great group.

Dragon  almost    !!!

Ah yeah. Somehow. But too bad, it seemed too far from my house.

great stroy and pix once again Trung, thanks for sharing !

I really like the photo of the group around the campfire, having food, beers, and a sing, looks like a great group.

Thank you. I 'd like to at least once experienced riding in your Country. Lots of tempting pix and so...

Some more...

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Poor the little KTM:

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We stopped at the memorial place where people pay respect to some workers who had lost their lives while making this road:

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Hohoo, see the photo of mine, taken by a buddy:

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Down the highland, we went direct to the groom's house in Nha Trang, had breakfast, coffee, then line up for the show:

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Here's happy one - looked a bit serious:

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This is how reporter worked [image: lol8.gif]:

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KTM biker is a gal - respect:

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Now here they coming in the bridal's house:

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groovy as always

groovy as always

Thanks Timmey.

Some more to go...

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Checked in the hotel before attending the wedding party at night:

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Have a good rest, babies:

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Some of us went to find some seaside food, prior the party [image: lol8.gif], it is not the normal way to go to an wedding party [image: lol8.gif]:

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But who cares, Yummy....
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Get finished.

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Wedding party was really fun.

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Reserved for us:

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Don't have any pix of the happy couple.
But this is the groom with the DJ. Pix by a friend:
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The KTM rider sang couple great songs:

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You can't sit still with this DJ:

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See the groom - Friends called this is horse dance, for the horse year. LOL.

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After the wedding, we broke in to groups.
Some of them stayed in Nha Trang.
Some of them left their bike there, then flew back to HCMC.
Some would go direct to HCMC the day after.
I asked some more guy to ride with me to visit some more great places where I had visited but by car.

Woke up around 5AM, clean up all stuff and we hit the road around 5:30AM. The hotel restaurant not opened yet.

Just around 3km away from Hotel, we have reached the ADV road.
See what the cafe racer had done:

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Looks better:

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My plan was conquer the foggy mount in front:

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We had around 40km more to reach the top:

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The road near to the mount sounded really fun.

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My buddy captured the rainbow at the middle of the way:

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See the road surface:

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The lake on our left was really amazing, sorry for not having any pix:

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Went upper...

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Reached the entrance, where they located a barrier for trucks:

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Noticed clouds were around:

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One of very few pix of mine while riding:

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Went up to a nice switchback, found an open area where we can see the clouds underneath.

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Thailand fellow seemed over excited:

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And the Cafe racer guy:

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Oh, I missed all the pix of my KLR buddy [image: icon10.gif]:

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The other GS rider kept riding to the top without stopping, he seemed too much hungry for the top view [image: lol8.gif]

We kept climbing up. The road seemed wetter and wetter.

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Foggy and more foggy...

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@ El (+)1200m:

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After a while with several curves in the mist, we reached the top....

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It's pretty cold, was around 10 DegC.

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This is work base of Dr. Yersin since early 20th Cetury. LINK

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Dr's office:

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Front yard:

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Water well, which Yersin used to collect water from rain and fog:

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Oh, we got the thermo reading [image: naughty.gif]:

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Excited to make it here:

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The house behind was the original one of Dr. Yersin:

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And here, the new one, which built by a tourist company. Hell, I don't like this. It 's too close to the old one:

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When I first came here, some years ago, there was just the Dr's house and a small cabin of the vestige keepers.Then this place looked much better than now.
Anyway, we had some hot tea and coffee at the ground floor of this house, felt good:

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Sign of money takers everywhere:

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Elevation was at +1,500m

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We 're all for a group photo:

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Said good bye to the keepers there, we went down.
Told the guys that we would stop and take some pix of the road under us.
I knew the road view would be very great as I 've seen it during my previous trip.
Just simply beautiful as the below photo - which was captured during my last trip here, by 4 wheels:


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Pix by Bitin (CaravanViet)

But unfortunately, it was quite early, then the mist followed us to the end of the hill.

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Well, not much left for the rest of the trip. [image: bncry.gif]

Left the Hon Ba Mount, we headed back to Ho Chi Minh City.
There are two ways which lead us home. We choose the seaside road, which around 50km further than the main road, but the scenery was fun.
Well, now you may know why I called this thread is "a taste of everything". Within some days, we have covered all kinds of Vietnam roads, scenery and people.
Now, see the special offer from Vietnam seaside, not many people seeing this - because people normally see the very nice, blue and calm beach, with nice and peace resorts...
But now, see what we got - the sand color and the cactus around:

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Do you think the Cafe racer likes this road??

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How about GS??

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Great matching isn't it?

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Oh hell - Vietnam has desert? Have you ever heard about Vietnam desert? Sure No:

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Excited:

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Thought I was riding somewhere in Africa:

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Fantastic pics! Thank you sir.

Fantastic pics! Thank you sir.

Thanks.

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See the pretty cool sweet water pond at the middle of hot sand area:

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Search "Bau trang" (white sand dunes), you may have more info about this:

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Wow... don't know if we get lost in Mongolia:

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Or at the middle of Sahara...!!?

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We may see Pyramids at the other side of this valley!!???

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Another cool spot:

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Kept rolling for around more than 10km, we reached Pink hill (Doi Hong):

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Respect to the Cafe racer rider and his bike. He did all the GS stuff [image: clap.gif]

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We rode all the way along the seaside then back to HCMC safely around 7PM. Really good trip thru 12xxkm.

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Summary of tracklogs, as usual:

Day 1
[image: Day1_zps7f20801f.jpg]

Day 2
[image: Day2_zps94f2e17c.jpg]

Day 3
[image: Day3_zps0d0f147d.jpg]

Day 4
[image: Day4_zps75ea6cde.jpg]