I realised that this is the first actual 'travelling' I've done since....well, since I went to China last year. I've been living in Saigon for like 8 months now, but working. I've only done rushed weekend tours which were more like mini-holidays to places near to Saigon.

Anyway, its day 4 of the trip, let me backtrack. I haven't had time to write anything since we arrived, its been flat out driving, sightseeing, eating, drinking and sleeping. Travelling is so tiring! We arrived in Da Nang midday Saturday to find three crates sitting at the station, our motorbikes packed inside. Sometimes things just work the way you want them to. Well, until my bike wouldn't start... So after we got a mechanic to fix it up (something I've had to do at least once a day since we started this thing) we cruised around Da Nang, a suprisingly modern and clean city (by Vietnamese standards). The clean streets and lack of the usual beggars and hawkers on the street made for a nice change. Its a very up-and-coming place, the third-biggest city in Vietnam. I'd like to come back in a few years and see how much its changed.

We checked out China Beach (where the Americans landed during the war) and drove up to an eerie Buddhist temple on Monkey Mountain, then went for supplies at the Big C supermarket, getting a lot of suprised looks and pointing from the locals.

We left real early the next morning, at 6, to drive to Hue, the ancient capital. To get to Hue by motorbike, you have to take the Hai Van pass, which goes right up into the mountains. A 6km tunnel was recently put in for 4-wheeled traffic, which meant we essentially had the pass all to ourselves. It was a dreamlike atmosphere driving up the pass, through mist and fog. We were way up in the mountaind, driving through the clouds. You couldn't see much, just the occasional sweeping vista through the clouds; but you could feel you we right up there. It was drizzling, but it wasn't unpleasant. We had totally prepared for rain, with raincoats and jackets. Oh, and something we learned on the road - you can never have enough raincoats. I have 3, and a rain jacket with pants. I'm thinking about getting a 4th tomorrow.

Hue was a pleasant suprise. It has a reputation for notoriously bad weather all year round, but we lucked out and got a sunny blue-sky day, for the whole day. Its on the tourist trail, but by no means is it a tourist town. Hue is a very green and very old city, with an ancient wall that encloses a large portion of the cityand Vietnam's 'forbidden city' inside, along with a dozen tombs from back in the day dotted around the city and a museum with some old tanks that I had to climb on like a kid.

We visited one of the big pagodas along the river, then drove out of the city along some old road, well away from the tourists. It was a great drive, except for all the bloody mud-filled potholes. It was like a country road, dotted with bullet-riddled ruins from centuries ago. And I after that I had my bike repaired (again...) by a mysterious green-eyed mechanic. I had never seen a Vietnamese with green eyes, it was quite a suprise.

I was truely buggared by 8.30pm, driving really takes it out of you, all that concentration and whatnot. That night I slpet like a log, dreaming about ancient black stone, secret gardens and misty mountains.

Next day, we drove back over the sensational Hai Van pass - it was sunny this time!! - to get to the popular trading port town of Hoi An...which is now just a pretty little tourist town. Seriously, there are more tourists than locals. The highlight of the day was for sure Hai Van pass. I have never seen such beautiful scenery in my life, and to be driving through it by myself at my own pace was something else, just a magical experience.

While we were eating seafood on China Beach, we met an 'easy rider' (think of them as experienced local Vietnamese tour guides on motorbikes, the perfect people to ask advice for this kind of trip, since they do it for a living!). He talked us in to changing our route from the coast and Highway 1A to the Ho Chi Minh trail, which runs through the mountains and jungle futher inland. A new highway had just been put in, making it a much nicer drive along a new sealed road through the mountains, away from all the trucks, buses and general crazniness on the main highway. I was sold in the first 5 seconds.

So today, the plan was to go from Hoi An to Kon Tum, the gateway to the Ho Chi Minh trail. Being a bunch of young and naive 20-somethings, we didn't plan it at all, just a sort of gung-ho 'take it as it comes' attitude. Probably not the idea for a road trip in a place like this. So of course we got horrbily lost, having just a TOURIST MAP! We ended up in some beautiful misty valley surronded 360-degrees by mountain vistas, driving past young schoolkids waving to us on their bicycles, while we beeped them out of our way and splashed them with lots of mud. Well, at least I did.

So after driving in the wrong direction, a broken clutch cable and a lot of pouring rain, we ended up back to square one, having to turn back to Da Nang. At least now we know where to go. Still no road map though.

Its a long stretch to Kon Tum, 400km. Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a long day...