Day 33 30th Dec
Alarm fires off at 6.45 and we're up, packed and down stairs by 7.03
More cornflakes with egg on toast, served by the most attentive girls in Vietnam..
As soon as we finish we load the bike up and tie everything down tight and we are off...
90 km ahead lies our destination.... Ninh Binh.
Setting off involves us using a very busy roundabout that's built into a flyover that's outside our hotel, this involves us using the old quarters roads behind our hotel to gain entry onto the slip road that's up stream from our hotel, so we very shakily potter around the small busy streets.... The bikes feeling very odd.... It's heavily loads.... Are rucksacks alone way 50kgs then there Shiree and myself on top of that... The front wheel is very light on the ground..... We've made the few tight bends around the old quarter and we are sat at the end of the road waiting for a gap in the four lanes of traffic coming from our left.. We could wait there for a year and there would be no gap so we just pull out, knowing that the other road users will just go around.... We wobble off down the road amongst the other road users.... We need to cross all four lanes within 100 meters to gain access to the slip ramp up to the roundabout. Thankfully, due to the heavy traffic the progress is slow so in a hale of horns that sound everywhere you go in Vietnam we make it to the roundabout and onto the bridge over the "Red River" I've been here before when collecting the bike from repair, but this time having know one to follow makes it far more challenging and I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed.... Its manic, and no place for the faint hearted......
We are leaving Hanoi in an unusual direction ( East ) considering our intended destination is Ninh Binh ( south ) but this is done to avoid using Highway 1 which looks busy, noisy and dangerous.
We are aiming for a road that runs parallel to Highway 1 on the far side of Red River and we hope it will be quieter...
Using the maps in the phone we find the road we need and we're happy... Its busy, but manageable and we progress well with the occasional exception of a rub from the back wheel over bumps... I'm not overly worried by this at present so press on......
The road becomes somewhat quiet after a while so we check on the phone and we are still on track... Great ! I could get used to this amount of traffic.... I'd read it gets quieter out of town but I had no idea it was this quiet but then we learn why.... The road surface changes from Tarmac to broken Tarmac and sand.... With large bumpy rocky areas that span the whole road... It soon becomes slow going and the road progressively get worse... We drive through sections maybe 60 foot long of sand, think deep sand that's all rutted from passing lorries.... It appears the roads getting some much needed resurfacing work so there are many heave commercial construction using this road.... The dust is chocking when they pass and gets into everything... Including your mouth and eyes, by this stage we are travelling at a snails pace which is pretty hard on a bike so unbalanced. There are holes in the road everywhere and fallen rubble from the passing lorries.... It's not long before we have our first "nearly fall" in the sand.... I tried to avoid a collection of house bricks in the road but the sudden movement upset the balance of weight on the back, and on the sand the front wheel lost its delicate purchase on the ground and the bikes over before you know it....
Shiree can't get her feet to the ground because of all the bags so I have to try and stop the bike and all it's cargo from going over with my own.... The front wheels gone, but I just about manage to get my feet down and prevent a total fall, now grateful for our slow speed....
We decide to continue once we stop laughing at our first proper wobble continue.. Every now and then we are given a nice 40ft if road before the sand, bricks and massive holes in the road are back.... I've noticed that the rubbing sound is becoming more noticeable so pull over for a check... The rear wheels rubbing on part of the bike and it's rubbed away some rubber on the side of the tyre.... I get on the ground for a closer look and grab some tools from the bike.... For some reason one side of the wheel arch / mud guard right under the seat is out of shape, so I try to bend it clear of the wheel... It's moved at far as I'm going to be able to move it so we head off for a test trip.... The noise has changed but 100 meters up the road we are stationary again, but this time we'll do it properly... Off comes the bags, and carrier and the seats up.... At this stage a 70yr old Vietnamese guy turns up on his push bike to help... Its good of him, but he speaks no English so its tricky... The problem we've now got is simple... We weigh to much.... The bikes pretty old and a little rusty around the edges.... We have put to much weight on the framework if the rear grab handle which has then bent and crumbled and moved into contact with the rear tyre.. We need a welder to replace the rusted mounting point for the rear grab handle.... We put the bike back together again and gingerly nurse it along this difficult road until we find a side street.... Thankfully the Vietnamese are very resourceful people so within 5 mins we are outside a small garage trying to explain to 6 Vietnamese guys and 1 woman what we would like them to do.... They all stand about laughing at how much our bags weigh and thankfully one if the guys can speak some English so we talk with him as the woman strips our bike down in record speed ready for her husband to weld our bike back together again and to add some strengthening bars too....
We've ended up miles off track and at least for the next hour stuck in a remote village.... It would appear we are somewhat of a novelty for the village... We witness a two bike crash right outside the welders where we are stood involving a woman in her 80's
She was fine, but sat with us for around 30 mins before getting back on the bike and continuing onwards with her journey, then 20 mins later another bike accident in the same spot..!
I'm thinking to myself "when we leave here I'm avoiding that piece of road" but the English speaking guy then tells me that it's because people are looking at us... Tourists not common here...
Once the bike us back up and running and we are on our way we decide to try get to Highway 1.
It's the other side if the river to us so we look for a bridge on the map and head there.... The roads have not improved as we have progressed, but the bike has.... The speeds the same at barely above walking pace, but the rubbing has now stopped....
We find ourselves at the location of the bridge to cross the river to the highway side but it's been replaced by a boat.... We take the ferry to the other river bank and get transported back into the 21st century.... The roads on the other side are busy, and miles apart from western roads with a very different attitude of road user and the widest selection of archaic vehicles your very likely to see in daily use.... But there Tarmac..... And Tarmac is seriously underrated.
We find Highway 1 and open the throttle.... The bike plods along just fine for miles on lovely smooth roads as we travel south... Finally 5 hrs after we left we are actually making progress.
Highway 1 isn't as bad as all the hype suggests. After a while of trouble free riding we notice that much like the rest of Vietnam, Highway 1 has become a building site. It to is getting a makeover so the speed drops as we all bump over unfinished roads... Here in Vietnam the roads are worked on whilst the bulk of the traffic still use them.... Once up to normal speed again, and getting covered in dust behind a lorry we have followed for a while I decided to overtake... The bike In front of us has just performed this and I'm keen to keep him in my sights. We'd overtaken a few lorries before this one and there speed is no issue for us to get buy... I pull out to the middle of the road and take a look around..... There's a lorry coming the other way flashing its headlights.... I slow the bike down and pull back in behind the lorry we were following.....
This I'd imagine your thinking is a relatively common occurrence..... And you'd be correct on any other road than this one.
Highway 1 is in places a 4 lane motorway that reduces to a dual carriage way in places, but always has a central barrier...... This full size, modern, stone carrying lorry was going the wrong way up the motorway at speed, in the fast lane with only its flashing headlights as protection.
The worrying thing about it was that there was no line of following police cars in sight, no helicopter overhead or attempted road block, this to the Vietnamese was just a every day occurrence, so mundane that it didn't even warrant the use of a horn.... And there awfully eager to use there horns....
We arrive in Ninh Binh in one piece on our trusty Honda Dream and locate a hotel quickly....
We literally dump our bags and head straight out in search of some much needed food, followed buy a walk around a market....
The markets are very honest places in Asia.... Everything's organic, and nothing's hidden.... The animal meat is raw, and warm when you buy it and you pick your sea food from a live selection..... Live ducks are placed next to very recently deceased ducks that are getting chopped up into different cuts of meat in front of your very eyes.... Nothing's waisted.
Interestingly there are few flies and the only thing that smells is the fish.
We are back at the hotel planning unsuccessfully for tomorrow when we call it a night..... Dust is everywhere but after Shirees shower there is no hot water.... !! So off to bed I go...ill be getting the first shower tomorrow.

http://www.flamingotravel.com.vn/Motorbike-rent/dm133/