Week 7 ~Vietnam~ Boats, Planes, Bikes, & Busses
- Mary Kate gKing
- 6 days ago
- 12 min read
Week 7: Second week in Vietnam - The week of multiple modes of transportation.
Missed a week or two? Click HERE to access each weekly blog post.
I am currently writing this on my first ever sleeper bus in Vietnam, on the way to Ninh Binh from Phong Nha. While there have been times on this trip where Nick and I have felt like giants, we have been humbled that we are actually not that tall, and actually fit quite nicely on these sleeper busses. There was a lot of chatter about experiencing these small beds on these buses but I have had no complaints.. well aside from no toilet on the bus. But anyways, I see how this could be less comfortable for any giant who is taller than Nick and I. #sleeperbusagainsttallgirlies (sry Jenna).
Week two started off with us flying into Hoi An, Vietnam. After 3 wonderful days, we made our way up to Hue via motorbike. We enjoyed our tour so much, we continued on for another two days of motorbiking through the DMZ, to Khe Sanh then up the Ho Chi Minh trail to Phong Nha. The only mode of transportation we missed this week was train. I’m sure we’ll add that to our list at some point in the near future.
Hoi An, an ancient town, that used to be the major trading port in Southeast Asia. Influence from Japan and China still exist in the historic buildings of the famous town. Now, the city is mostly just a tourist destination, famously known for being a great place for a shopping spree.
To all my fashionistas, let's book a trip! Custom suits, dresses, outfits both formal and casual. High quality, extremely affordable, and an insanely fast turn around time for custom outfits. Truly a world renown destination for any fashionista to add to their bucket list.
With over 350 tailors in the city, most of which are within a 10 minute walk, the options are endless. We did not expect to participate in the shopping, given our backpacks are already tightly packed, but how could we pass up on this opportunity?? Five hours later, two custom suits, and three custom dresses made from scratch were in hand. The price tag? You’ll have to go to Hoi An to test it out for yourself, but let me tell you.. you won’t get this value anywhere else in the world.
What else is there to do in Hoi An, aside from shopping?
Boat rides, bar crawls, and cooking classes are offered endlessly in this city. While all of those were tempting, we ended up enjoying the views of the countryside via bike, exploring the city by foot, and learning about the history via a walking tour.
Fun Fact Question: Does anyone know the 4 sacred animals in Vietnam?
Hint: You might find some in these photos
Read to the end & I will share with you later.
On our way to Hue, we stopped through Da Nang, visiting marble mountain. Located on a mountain looking down on the city, this is a place where both worship and tourism exist.
It was at this point on our trip, where we finally started to understand the various types of religion in Vietnam and how many Vietnamese worship their ancestors. More photos from Marble Mt:
Now, for the motorbike….
Our guest writer had requested to share his experience of the journey in this blog post. His request was granted. Enjoy.
Nick's Corner
He who hesitates is lost – I thought it was Confucious, but I guess it is some guy in a play written in the 1700’s
Here is a brain teaser: You are on a two lane road. The shoulder is gravel. You are driving 70 kmph, a 18 wheeler 100m in front of you has slowed to 50 kmph. Coming the other direction 500m away, is truck carrying a mountain of bamboo traveling 80 kmph. There are cows on one shoulder of the road, and kids on the other shoulder. What do you do?
Oh yea, I forgot to mention. You are on a moped in Vietnam.
There is only one option. You blast your horn, full throttle around the 18 wheeler, and cut back across before the bamboo truck clips you. In this case, he who hesitates is run over by a bamboo truck.
Parents, don’t worry. Our guide, Bumblebee, was setting the line.
This past week, we set off on the Ho Chi Minh trail through central Vietnam.
The decision to do this typifies the type of decision that we hope to make more of. Everyone had told us, you need to do the Ha Giang loop in Vietnam. No one had mentioned the Ho Chi Minh trail to us, other than our local guide, Bumblebee. After a few hours of deliberation, we decided to scrap the plan to do the well-trodden Ha Giang loop, and proceed with the Ho Chi Minh trail route. A 3-day, 700km moped tour.
Day 1 – Hoi An Pass
We started the day in Hoi An being picked up by BumbleBee. BumbleBee was born & raised in Hue, our final destination for today’s trip. His father fought for the Viet Kong. His mother’s side fought with the Americans in the South, against the communists. He was raised Buddhist. His ex-wife was Christian. He is now a Buddhist with his current wife. He has three kids. He went to law school. He has a long mohawk-style haircut, and rainbow painted nails. He was great, he quickly became our friend.
This was my first time getting back on the moped since Phu Quoc. One of us was soloing the bike & the other was on the back of BumbleBee’s bike. I had lost the handlebar moustache and goatee, but remained confident in my abilities.
For those of you who have sailed with me and Mary Kate, I like to say, half the skill, twice the confidence.
Confidence is the key ingredient to successfully navigating the roads of Vietnam.
I took us out of the city and into the countryside. Mary Kate took us up the Hoi Van pass.
While stopped for some iced peanut butter coffee, we got to talking life in Vietnam, as we like to do to hear different people’s perspectives. BB shared some of his thoughts about how he feels that Saigon/HCMC would look more like Singapore or Seoul if the south remained separate. He shared how the richest person in the country is the creator of the car company VinFast, and is tightly intertwined with the government. And he shared how many people in the north look to Ho Chi Minh as a sort of deity. This has been one of the most interesting parts of Vietnam, hearing different peoples perspectives on their country (obviously without bad-mouthing their government, which could put them in jail).
After 4 hours of riding, we stopped for lunch, where we made the call. We were going to pass on the Ha Jiang loop later in the trip & send it on the Ho Chi Minh trail with Bumblebee for the next two days.
Just before arriving to Hue, we stopped at a cemetery. I guess you could call it that. It was unlike anything we had ever seen before. We were the only people other than one worker who was in the cemetery. He was a craftsman working on one of the gravesites or what they call “family temples.” Both the craftsman & BumbleBee made the joke “your money is here.” The town where this cemetery had a massive diaspora after the north won the war. Many of the Vietnamese from this town ended up in the United States. Many of them opened nail salons. So, as BumbleBee said it, if you have ever been to the nail salon, your money is here. Photos are best to show this place.
After 8 hours of riding, we made it to Hue. Where, I got to experience moped’ing around a city during rush hour. Surfing is one way to get into a meditative state, where all you can focus on is catching & riding the incoming wave. Another form of meditative state is the one where you are on a moped in Vietnam, swerving through traffic, in a state of 100% focus.
We made it to Hue, the former imperial city for the Nguyen dynasty & the home of salt coffee. We were asleep at 8pm.
Day 2 – Khe San
We began the morning in Hue. We started with a salt coffee, which was developed in Hue. The south has coconut coffee. The north has egg coffee. The central decided they needed a signature coffee & the salt coffee was created ~15 years ago.
On the way to Khe San, we stopped at a tunnel system that was used during the war located in the DMZ. After consuming some propaganda, we got a tour. Our tour guide’s mother lived in the tunnel system, along with ~500 others. They had 2 bathrooms, a ‘hospital’, a ‘school’, and people lived in this system for 6 years. They had a bomb shelter where everyone would gather and sing to drown out the sounds of the bombs landing. That is unimaginable.
We stopped at the 17th parallel, which was the temporary border between North Vietnam & South Vietnam established in the 1954 Geneva Accords.
Along the road, we kept seeing what looked like sand taking up a full lane of the 2 lane road. Turns out it wasn’t sand. It was rice. The local rice farmers use the main highway as a place to dry out their rice. Once the rice is harvested, it is laid out on the main road for 3 days to dry out. After 3 days of drying out, they throw the rice into a machine to remove the husks.
After the harvest they will burn the rice fields to prepare the land for the next season. A similar process is completed for coffee.
The sun dropping, we made our way through the mountain pass, and arrived in Khe San.
We had dinner with BumbleBee – nothing like Chicken Knee Cartilage to calm the stomach on Day 4 of crippling stomach cramps & travelers diarrhea. The knee cartilage was actually decent.
Day 3 – Ho Chi Minh Trail
The Ho Chi Minh Trail is where the journey really picked up. What used to transport grenades & guns to the Viet Cong, was now transporting two pretentious hipsters, as my brother-in-law lovingly calls us.
Prior to getting on the trail, we stopped at the Khe San air force base. We got a very interesting perspective from our guide at this base. His outlook was grounded in the yin & the yang of things. There is good. There is bad. Without one, the other wouldn’t exist. Ultimately, it is on yourself to improve your life. But, if you want to drink, smoke, and gamble all day, then so be it. He was an interesting guy.
After learning about the pivotal battle at Khe San, we got onto the trail. This part was one of our highlights of Vietnam thus far.
We were basically the only people on this road. In 5 hours, we saw a few locals & only one other group of 4 tourists on motorbikes.
We stopped at a waterfall. It was the kind of waterfall you see in photos & say you need to visit. But, most of those waterfalls are now over-run with tourists, and you have to wait in line to get the ‘shot.’ This was the opposite of this. We were actually the only people here. The 68 degree water was incredibly refreshing in contrast to the 90+ degree mid-day heat.
We hung out here, swam, and relaxed for over an hour. And were the only ones there. As we were leaving, a group of 5 locals showed up with a case of beers to be the only ones at the waterfall. That is exactly the kind of place we want to be hanging out.
After the waterfall, we continued along the trail. We got deposited into what could be best described as like Yosemite Valley, but with jungle mountains surrounding, and rice fields on the floor. This was our introduction to some of the very cool mountain/rock features of Vietnam.
In this valley, we walked through a local village. Our reception from the children was akin to the Ghanaian kids yelling ‘obroni.’ It is always powerful to see how the local people live.
We continued to meander our way up the trail, across bridges (some very tight), passing water buffalo cooling off in the river, and giving high-fives to kids on motorbikes going the other direction at 40 kmph. Mary Kate said that, if she goes crazy protective of future kids, I need to remind her that 3 kids aged 4, 8, and 12 are ripping a motor bike at 50 kmph through the mountains of Vietnam, yelling at those passing by, trying to give high fives, and they are OK. And so are the kids holding sticks trying to see how close they can get to the water buffalo at the riverbank.
The Ho Chi Minh pass was very, very cool. If you are looking for a more local, cultural experience, still with amazing views, it is a must-hit in Vietnam.
We were welcomed in Phong Na, the El Chalten of Vietnam, by our host Tam.
We said bye to BumbleBee, who had another 4 hours of riding to get back home. The people of Vietnam work incredibly hard.
That wrapped out 3-day 700km motorbike tour.
Guess who's back? ... Back again....
Remember when I asked you about the 4 holy animals? Have your answer in your head?
Dragon- representing power, authority, and prosperity.
Ky Lan (Vietnamese Unicorn) - symbolizing peace, compassion, and good fortune.
Ugh taken from the internet bc we both forgot to snap a picture of these statures. Phoenix - symbolizing rebirth, grace, and virtue.
Managed to capture this photo on the phone though. Turtle - representing longevity, wisdom, and stability.
In Phong Nha, there are many adventure based activities, including overnight trekking and adventure cave exploration. After riding over 700km on a motorbike in 3 days, we were looking for some passive leisure exploration in lieu of the adventure. So, we enjoyed an afternoon boat ride to the famous Phong Nha Cave.
Phong Nha cave, now a huge tourist destination, used to be the location of an underground hospital and ammunition storage for the north Vietnamese to take shelter off the Ho Chi Minh trail. The name of the river through the cave is “Son” river, meaning lipstick, because of the red river during the war.
Phong Nha cave was the first cave to be turned into a tourist attraction. The cave is the largest ‘underground’ river (river cave) stretching 7.7 km into the cave. In the cave there was incredible stalactites and stalagmites formed over millions of years. The color of the river in the cave even changes colors based on the minerals.
Like many places in Vietnam, Phong Nha also floods, including the cave. Pretty much all of the lights and walkways we saw during our tour will be completely submerged during the rainy season. This limits the tour season here and in quite a few other places in Vietnam, like Hoi An.
This leads me to our weekly High, Low, Unexpected, and Learned:
Nick:
High: Driving the motorbike via the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Low: Traveling 1300KM by plane, car, and motorbike while battling stomach problems that would have hospitalized the average person. My experience is best described in the pictures below. Me vs traveler's diarrhea.
Unexpected: Changing our plans from the Ha Giang loop to the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Learned: Water buffalo and cows are left to roam the countryside freely in many areas within central Vietnam. Who keeps track of them? A lead cow is trained to take the group out on the town (mt range and valleys) and bring them back later that evening, when the cows come home.
MK:
High: The final day of the Ho Chi Minh trail, specifically the views of the last 2 hours and arriving in Phong Nha.
Low: Having low Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores this week. My nurses know the buffoonery that goes along with this.
Unexpected: Completing a 3 day motorbike tour through central Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Learned: Flooding is very common in Vietnam - especially in Hoi An and Phong Nha. In Hoi An, the second biggest flood was in 2025, the worst in 1964.
Well, that is it for our second week in Vietnam. Every day brings a renewed sense of admiration for the locals’ resilience, diligence, and compassion. It has been a truly amazing experience learning more about their history and culture. I am excited to see what the next week and a half brings in Vietnam.
As always, thank you so much for joining us for the ride! We miss & love you all.
Love,
MK & Nick
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