Scott Fletcher Travels

Well after a large night on the rice wine I woke rather later than expected and not feeling as fresh as I would have hoped. Katie was going to ride down south to Hoi An, and I was going to go to Danang then west and up the western border. The ride started hot and there was a particular road that I was hoping to take that went through Bach Ma national park. As far as I can figure this is another mythical road, so we ended up going down the highway most of the trip. There was one saving grace being the Hai Van pass where all the mountains go into the sea and you are driving along amazing cliff faces with amazing corners zig zagging their way up the mountains. On the highway was when I started to notice that my bike was not that stable unless the ground was perfect. When you pass through a town they have horizontal white bumps on the road to slow you down, which are fine on most bikes but on this bike the back of the bike seemed to keep kicking out to the left. This became quite pronounced and worrying, the chassis must have been slightly bent and the wheel slightly out of alignment, so when it lost traction it jumped. This is quite scary when you are going at 70km and the back wheel suddenly jumps 10cm to your left.

 

That night I ended up staying in Hoi An again and it was lucky to because there was a full moon festival. The center of the town was blocked off to all traffic, all the lights turned out and only lit by lanterns and candles. This was an amazing site, and so many people milling around it was a mad house. This is when I bumped into a guy I met in Cambodia Rob, I was walking past a restaurant and heard ‘Scott’. We ended up having a few drinks then going out for a fun night on the town.

The next day I wanted to ride up to a hill station called Ba Na Hill station, in a basically a flat coastal landscape this was around  1250m high so it would be a good climb if it was easy to find. First I rode to Danang then asked ‘Bow Nyoo’ (how much) Kilomete Ba Na, this worked surprisingly well, they told me turn left in 5km, after about 4km I asked again and they pointed to the actual road which is always a bonus. Ba Na was about 40km outside Danang through some lovely countryside and also some really dodgy roads. When I reached the bottom of the hill station I need to buy another ticket and walk four meters to have the ticket ripped by someone else, job creation if ever i saw it but i suppose share the wealth.

 

I could not see the top of the mountain and it seemed to rise out of nothing which was pretty impressive, when I went through a gate before the bridge the guy stopped me and pressed my horn a few times to hit home that I would need it, and I soon found out why. After the bridge the climb started that lasted over 10km which I was pretty impressed with. It was a climb through some of the fiercest jungle imaginable, and the sheer slope was immense, there would not be any danger of falling though because of the dense jungle. Some of the corners were over 180 degrees where they bent back on themselves totally blind with a climb of about 8-10 vertical meters in maybe 20m. The views were amazing but hard to capture as it was quite misty. I was quite lucky as I only passed other cars on some straights which was good, sweeping s bends through the jungle with a slight climb.

  

When I was almost at the top there was a huge cable car that went across a valley up to the summit. I decided to take this for some variation, although i would have been nice to ride it as well. It was quite funny when i rocked up to the office, the cable car was not going and they were doing maintenance on the cars which was a little nerve racking. After waiting about 10mins for them to finish I was off until about half way it felt like we stopped and all those thoughts that go through your head were very comforting. After a while i realised we were still moving and it was just slow because other cars were at the terminal. When I was at the top it was a little colder and nice and fresh. The views were magnificent, I would see up and down the coast about 40km even though it was hazy.

   

On the way down it was much faster and my brakes were not the best but it all ads the fun right?? I had my trusty helmet held on with some twine so she’ll be right. I was heading back to Hue and passed along the Hai Van pass again and saw some great flowers where i could test the Macro on my camera! I made it back to Hue by a little after 6 and met up with Rob whom I was going to ride to the DMZ with the next day or two.

   

Check out the Keyring on my room key for the hotel

Scott Fletcher

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Tags>> BaNa Hill Station DMZ Hoi An Hue Vietnam Vietnam War

This is where Hoi An is 

Upon arriving in Hoi An at 6am I was tired and wanted to drop my bag off. There was a guy who said he would take me to three hotels for 5000 dong which is pretty reasonable. He took me to three and they were all expensive and every time I told him cheaper he said yes and took me to an expensive one. I ended up just leaving him and going next door to a place he took me, first night $7, next three $5 so that was good value.

Even though I was exhausted I decided to go for a walk around town to see what it was like. There were tailors everywhere, every corner and every second shop all begging you to come in and have a look. The streets are very narrow in the old part of town, about a car width wide and cobbled. The houses are very old terrace houses, and mainly wooden dating back to the 19th century. Hoi An is really a sleepy paradise, I really think I could live there for a while. The thin cute streets are all different, with different historic houses, different shops and art galleries. This truly is the town of Tailors and Lanterns, they are selling them everywhere too. As you walk through the town you move towards the focus being the river, where there are two story terraces that have been converted into restaurants overlooking the river.

I was getting quite hungry so heading to the market seemed like the best idea. I was surprised how expensive everything was here, it was truly catering to the tourist. I had some good noodles and met a Physio from Newtown who was travelling with her friend from NZ. They were good value and it was good to speak with some level headed people again. On the way back from the market it was getting hot, but i walked down a few more streets and went into a tailor. Being cheap and quite skeptical I decided to just bite the bullet and get one and see what it was like. I chose a grey colour first(with funky blue lining, you are on a winner there Greg) and the material was $70 including tailoring, you just chose the material at the price then they make it for you. I managed to get a shirt thrown in for $5 so that was gold. Choosing out of a book was pretty easy and the shirt was easy as well. They said come back in about 5 hours. I also bought the book “life of Pi” which is a great read. It was getting hot so it was time for a siesta.

Later that afternoon I hired a bicycle(thinking some manual biking would be good exercise) and rode to the beach about 5km. The beach was awesome, it is about 30km long with pristine sand and palm trees. The water was if anything a little to warm, but perfect for a swim for about two hours. It was time to go and check the suit, went back and it was a little tight here and there so they said some back tomorrow and we will fix it up. It was too easy. That night for dinner I just relaxed and ate some street food which was great. On the way home I noticed some Soccer on the TV in a tailor shop, so I ducked in and ended up watching the whole game with this guy, he was making me coffee and being quite the host.

The next day I hired a bike all day which was a better idea, although the bikes are not built for anyone tall, and can be quite punishing to get any speed up. I found some great noodles around the corner from my hotel, the centre of town was right so I went left and stumbled across it. I ended up having two bowls. They were so good I ended up going back there every day for breakfast, and the lady was introducing me to her family, quite funny really because she spoke no English at all. I did notice her attitude to me changed as time went on, at first she gave me dodgy pieces of chicken on top, but she was slowly getting better and better pieces and giving more as well, so I was pretty happy about that.

While I was cycling around town I met two Italian girls and we decided to go to the beach, it was to hot to move (the whole town seems to shut down in the middle of the day for about 3-4 hours everyone is asleep and they sleep anywhere. So I ended up reading on the beach for about two hours and a swim. While I was in the water there was one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. There was a huge cumulus cloud and the sun was almost below it with a great orange glow at the base of the cloud, however at the top there was a halo of light, looked magic. It is funny how you appreciate the simpler things after a while, something like that can make your day.

After the beach I went back to check on my suit and it was perfect and the tailor was there to see what he thought. He changed a few things, and I decided to get another one, another jacket and three more shirts. So all up two suits, a jacket, four shirts $220 all perfect fits. That night I met up with the Australian and New Zealand-er for dinner which was good, then had another early night. The nights were so hot that it was hard to get to sleep most of the time.

 This was my hot date

There is a place near Hoi An called My Son, it is an ancient temple city that was built from 2nd to the 10th Century. This was sold as Vietnam’s Anchor Wat, and there were meant to be amazing pagodas there and plenty to see. Upon getting a little lost on the bike on the way there, there was a walk up a hill about 1km up in stifling heat. This was more of an Archaeological site, where most of the temples where in total ruins or there was say a 5 foot wall and a pile of bricks left. This is fine if you are into that, but I was not really and thought it was a little bit of a hoax the way they sold it. Everyone I have met that has been there has said the same thing, so if you end up going along don’t waste to much time.

I would say to anyone going to Vietnam you have to go to Hoi An, great part of the world.

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Tags>> Beach Hoi An Motorbike My Son Suits Vietnam