Day 2 – The Price Of Admission
Distance: 166km / 103 miles
Bike Condition: Gas toots and new parts.
Driver Condition: Paying bribes and making names (bike names).
Very uncreatively, I’ve given my red bike the very original name, Ruby. At least to get started… with the idea that bike glitches and quirks discovered along the will likely change or morph this name as the trip continues. I’ve already had such fortune today… more on that later. Unless a better trail name presents itself, Shawn is referring to his bike as John Cena, as thus far it seems solid and strong. We’ll see how long this legendary status will hold!
After a delicious breakfast of pineapple pancakes (Shawn), pho (for me), and Vietnamese iced coffees overlooking the bright blue ocean, we were packed up and headed out of Mui Ne. The road continued to follow the coastline for a ways and we stopped along the way to take photos of the picturesque coastline and bays of boats. We were loving life!
Not for long! Cruising along past a beautiful section of highway along the shore, we soon met traffic police, standing in the middle of the road and pulling everyone over. UGH! With several cops standing in the middle of the road to slow and usher motorbikers to the side of the road, there was little way out of stopping.
For the record, it is illegal for foreigners to drive motorbikes (and other motor vehicles) in Vietnam. Actually, there is conflicting information as to the legality if you are in possession of an international driver’s license, which it sounds like they may have begun accepting. Either way, we do not have international driver’s licenses and neither do the majority of foreigners who motorbike through Vietnam. Despite being illegal, bucket loads of foreigners purchase or rent motorbikes to drive through all or some of the country, and local bike shops and the tourism industry rakes in cash from this business, so are happy to sell bikes to tourists. The police mostly turn a blind eye, though in some areas do their best to collect “fines” (cough, cough – bribes) for not being in possession of a Vietnamese or international driver’s license, or speeding, or any other bullshit they can come up with to get money from you.
The police officer that handled us checked our registration cards (i.e. the blue cards referred to in our first Vietnam post) and U.S. driver’s licenses and was quick to begin listing the fine for not being in possession of an international driver’s license. He wanted a cool 1 million VND (Vietnamese Dong), i.e. $50 USD, from each of us on the spot or they would impound our bikes and we would have to pay the bank to reclaim them within seven days. Ha! Ummm… no.
The “impound” truck before us sat completely empty, a mirror of its threat: empty. They were not seizing bikes and people were not paying $50 fines. Of course, this is what they want you to pay. They want to get as much as possible out of you and maybe some unknowing suckers just pay this outrageous fee and go on their way, but most foreigners who motorbike in Vietnam have read about this racket and are prepared to argue themselves out of the fine completely or at least bring it down significantly. We were prepared.
The first tactic is to play dumb, pretending you have no idea what they want or can’t understand their English. We tried this at first, though the officer actually did have pretty good English and for what he said that we thought could pass as questionably not understandable, he was actually able to write it in English, so the play dumb attempt was not going to work. Moving on to tactic two…
We had each stashed a small amount of cash away from the rest of our money. Once it was clear that we were at least going to have to pay something, as no one in their right minds would believe we weren’t carrying any money at all, Shawn took out his small stash and began claiming that this was all the money we had and we could pay no more. We were carrying only gas money! The officer argued at first, making a show of writing down our registration information in a small notebook of graph paper (super official looking… eye roll), which he wanted us to sign, and telling us they would impound our bikes without the full fine. There were actually official ticket papers sitting nearby, but he made no motion to use these. Again, the threat level was somewhere around pastel yellow.
We continued to insist that this was all the money we had… around 350,000 VND ($15 USD, even this was probably more than we should have pulled out). The officer’s determination was beginning waver, his eyes moving from intimidation to hesitation. Ok… it would be $50 for the both of us. We persisted. This is absolutely all the cash we have on us! Ok, we will take the bikes from you then. NO… We will definitely be keeping the bikes. Then you must pay the fine! This is all we have!
The officer’s resolve was waning. His eyes were becoming less serious. He looked around. Shawn assumed he was checking to see if any other foreigners were watching. “No one is looking,” Shawn said, “just take this”. Still he was not ready to let us go this easily. I pulled a last ditch effort, pointing after two other foreigners who had just driven away on their bikes. “THOSE GIRLS PAID NOTHING!” I said, raising my voice, though having absolutely no idea if what I said was true, as they had been dealing with another officer. “YOU CAN’T LET THEM GO WITHOUT PAYING AND MAKE US PAY!” He very suddenly and quickly backed down, taking the wad of cash from Shawn’s hand, removing the bigger 200,000 and 100,000 bills and giving us the smaller bills back, and waving us on our way. Without saying anything further, we quickly hopped on our bikes and sped down the road before he or any of the other officers could change their minds.
Whew… while it is annoying that they got $13, it’s far better than $50 or even $100. We will be better prepared if we get pulled over again, or may even just continue driving by obliviously, as we were told later that they won’t chase after you. Even if they did, you would be in the same position, arguing a ludicrous fine.
Continuing up the road, we slowly moved away from the coast, heading northward for Dalat. Our fun in arguing prices wasn’t over yet though, as we pulled into a gas station to fuel up before the mountains. The gas attendant was friendly, asking where we were from and where we were heading, though we thought it odd that he claimed Shawn’s tank was empty when he opened it to fuel up. It definitely wasn’t empty. At any rate, after filling Shawn’s tank, he began filling mine. When finished, he wanted 200,000 between the two of us, which was ridiculous. An argument ensued. The tanks only hold 4 – 5 liters, and the price was 17,500 per liter. Though he had reset the gas meter while filing Shawn’s tank and again immediately after filling mine, so there was no evidence of how many liters had been pumped, Shawn had seen the meter quickly before it had been reset and knew his had only been filled with 2 liters. Mine was likely even less. We said we’d give him 80,000 for the two of us. More arguing ensued and we ended up paying 100,000 before speeding away. WHAT IS IT WITH THIS DAY!
What’s more is the gas turned out to be crap. All the way to Dalat, our bikes were backfiring whenever we let off the gas, most likely due to shitty fuel. I began to refer to this as the “toots”, and thus Ruby Toots was born.
Other than the annoying traffic police, the scamming gas station, and the shitty fuel that caused our bikes to “pop” all the way to Dalat, the drive was actually really nice! After leaving the gas station, we were soon climbing into the hillsides and weaving up mountain roads of trees and beautiful lakes.
Eventually the winding road gave way to nice, new highway for the last 50km or so into Dalat, making for a much quicker end leg to the day’s riding than originally anticipated, initially assuming we’d be on slow, narrow, winding mountain roads all the way into Dalat. Some of the roads looked absolutely brand new with very little traffic at all. We eventually ran into a portion of highway with picture signs indicating that motorbikes weren’t allowed, though seeing no other route, we took the road anyway, luckily meeting up with road where we were allowed before we could get into any more trouble.
Entering Dalat, the temperatures dropped in the cool mountain air and the skies looked as though they might rain soon. A pretty city with some European flair left from its French colonial days, we cruised through the city, passing the scenic central Xuan Huong Lake en route to our hostel for the night: Wolfpack Hostel. Arrrrooooooooo! (That was my pitiful attempt at a wolf howl).
With a bike service shop conveniently located next door to the hostel, we took the opportunity to get some maintenance done. The bike sales/service shop we had purchased our motorbikes from had noted that we should get the oil changed about every 400km (~250 miles) to keep the bikes working well, and we had read this on other travel blogs as well. The oil they use is generally not that great and you’re putting a lot of miles on the bike, so it’s good to keep them well lubed and happy. We’d stretched it a bit over 400km, so we took care of the oil changes and also got a new horn installed on my bike. Now I can honk at everything that’s in my way. Woot!
Shawn also got his bike stand fixed. It has become lose and would hit the ground when going through potholed areas. Every motorbike has two stands, the regular kickstand, on which your bike leans, and the bigger mama-jama stand (not sure of the official name), that holds your bike upright and more stable than the other kickstand, and also takes up less space than leaning the bike on the smaller kickstand. For the oil changes and other fixes, we paid a grand total of 200,000 VND ($8.80).
With maintenance done, we went to 13 Café-Bar for a very late lunch/early dinner (this is a popular meal with us), where we enjoyed some good Vietnamese and Thai food. This meal brought us to the end of daylight hours and we drove our bikes in the dark for the first time back to our hostel. Our lights work, so that’s a plus.
Tomorrow’s journey will take us back to the coast for some beach time in Nha Trang!