My trusty Honda Cub ran out of fuel again tonight. That's four times now. Four times in the last four weeks or less since I got the thing. It's not the bike's fault, of course. Sure, it doesn't help any that there's no fuel gage. Or that anybody can just come along, lift the seat, unscrew the cap (the tank is conveniently located under the seat) and siphon away at their leisure. But back to the story. (It's not very exciting, sorry). Before my tank is about to ...

After beaching it up in Nha Trang for a few days we put our bikes and ourselves on the overnight train to Da Nang. Cheating, perhaps, but I've done the stretch before and we had to make up for lost time. From there we rode about 30km south to the ancient sea port cum perpetual tourist zoo of Hoi An. People come to Hoi An for one reason: to get pimped out in a new suit and shoes. And you're damned right that's exactly what went down. Dan got two of each. And vest....

We were supposed to spend only one night in Dalat, but in all we were there for almost a week, including a detour back to Saigon for two days (we left the bikes at the hotel in Dalat and took the bus). When we got back to Dalat I got food poisoning and was bed ridden for the day. From Dalat the plan was to take the new mountain road to Nha Trang on the coast. The next day, already well behind schedule, we left too late, got lost, and had to turn back. On our thir...

From Mui Ne we took the mountain road up to the central highlands. "Highway 28" turned out to be a quiet winding road through the mountains, which steadily became darker as the day wore on. Dan suffered a flat on the way up and had to push his bike about two kays back to the nearest village. I say push, but he actually ran the whole way with it, being the fitness freak that he is. The friendly village folk quickly had us on the road again and we forced ...

Well, here I am back in hustlin' bustlin' Vietnam. This country changes so fast that it feels like a different place each time I come back. Now in Saigon they have this brand new highway through the middle of the city, a bunch of new skyscrapers (well, at least one, and it has a helipad), and a brand spanking new tunnel that goes right under the Saigon River. We (being me and Dan) rocked up on the first day of Tet, which is like Christmas, New Years, and Australi...