Day 1 – Escape from Ho Chi Minh & the Coastal Route to Mui Ne
Distance: 252km / 157 miles
Bike Condition: so far, so good! Kate’s horn suddenly doesn’t work (yes, this is important in Vietnam)
Driver Condition: strong to very strong! Sunburns and butt aches.
Day 1 success! We managed to get both ourselves and our bikes to our first overnight stop in one piece, and that marks a good day motorbiking the roads of Vietnam.
After breakfast and packing up our bikes, by 8am we were driving out of the tiny alley our hostel was tucked down and onto the already frantic streets of Ho Chi Minh. Meeting the highway out of the city, we joined the masses in the motorbike lanes over bridges, through a tunnel, and out of the city, eventually funneling onto a short river ferry before heading south-eastward toward the coast.
Finally, we were out of Ho Chi Minh and on the open road! The sun on our faces and the wind in our hair (helmets), we cruised down the highway! Ha, ha! Yeah right! We wish!… Stop. Go…. Stop…Go… weave… bob and weave. Stop. Go…. Stop. Our drive to the coast was a lot of stop and go, taking us mostly through an uninspiring landscape of hot and windy single to multi-lane highways and the weathered towns they passed through.
However, it didn’t matter too much that scenery was meh, as there was plenty to watch on the road. Driving through cities and down busy highways is an experience unto itself. The good news is, in Vietnam we are back to a county that drives on the right side of the road, what we’re used to from home. The bad news is, that doesn’t matter much, as traffic, pedestrians, and animals can literally come at you from any direction.
A few hours after leaving Ho Chi Minh, we rounded a bend on the DT44A and got our first view of the turquoise blue waters of the coast. We stopped to take a picture. My bike fell over. Ugh. Dunce moment. Lesson learned: make sure bike is stable before walking away.
We were finally along a low traffic road with beautiful scenery! Around midday we stopped for lunch at a small thatched-roof open air restaurant along Ho Coc Beach (seriously, why does everything have “coc” and “dong” in the name? How am I supposed to write a serious post!). While we had originally thought we may make it as far as Dalat, we took another look at our route over our delicious fish lunch and quickly determined that Dalat was much too far taking the coastal route, and planned to overnight in Mui Ne instead, a coastal town not too far from where we would turn away from the coast and head northward to Dalat.
The remainder of our drive for the day was mostly along/near the coast, with beautiful views of the ocean and countryside – rice fields, fruit trees, lazy cows, and baby goats. Orchids dripped from trees along the road of beachside resorts, kids rode adult-sized bicycles down the streets, and men and women worked in fields wearing the traditional leaf hats (the triangular cone hats commonly associated with workers in the rice fields). The drive was along mostly good roads, with only a few sections with some serious pothole weaving practice. Once we hit the coast, most of the roads, save a few busier highway sections, were low traffic and the driving was easy and mostly flat.
Not far from Mui Ne, we crossed over a bridge, the bay below completely filled with colorful boats. Continuing along the road of beautiful coastline, we were soon in Mui Ne, a palm-fringed oasis. We would soon be off the bikes, our butts rejoiced!! At lunch, we had looked up some hostel options, and now found our hostel, Mui Ne Hills, high up a steep alleyway. Perched in the hillsides, our room had an amazing view of the coast, glistening blue waters lined with palms. The property boasted several pools, and we wasted no time jumping into the nearest one to cool off after the long day on the bikes. A nice treat after a long hot day to calm our sunburns. Another lesson learned: sunscreen and long sleeves, or we’re going to fry out here!
Tomorrow we’ll see how our bikes work in the mountains as we head to Dalat!