We had heard about the amazing motorbike ride from Hoi An to Hue, originally from the Top Gear Vietnam Special (If your even mildly interested in travel or comedy you should check it out, episode 8, series 12, it’s hilarious). They rated it as the best coast road in the world, and those are the guys who would know! One way rentals from Hoi An to/from Hue are available from Motorvina ($400,000 VMD or $20 USD), they even send your bags ahead so you don’t have to carry them. The trip was truly amazing and little trafficked.
Once we arrived in Hue we decided we liked the ride so much we bought a bike of our own. After speaking with other backpackers and random Vietnamese guys outside our hotel we ended up buying the bike from Kim Thien, a pretty famous mechanic around these parts. He was recommended online as the best mechanic in Hue and some even claim all of Vietnam. Anyways, we end up with a 10 year old Yamaha Nouvo with only 20,000 km on it for $240, a locals bike rather than a backpackers bike (that gets run up and down the country repeatedly). He was also able to custom modify a rack for us to carry our bags on each side of the bike rather than piled on top like farangs usually do(foreigners, more a Thai expression but I like it). So far the bike has been just about flawless.
Once we got the bike we decided we should take it for a cruise around the area before leaving town just in case there were any problems. First we explored an abandoned water park a fellow traveler told us about that was cool and eerie at the same time. Then we cruised out to the beach that was nice and deserted in the middle of the day, although I’m sure the locals show up around 5pm as the trend has been thus so far. The only problem was the amount of jellyfish everywhere, so we headed back to get in the pool. On the way back we got some fresh coconut water with the meat in an ice-cold pitcher, just perfect.
From Hue we took our new-to-us motorbike to the Vinh Moc Tunnels in Dong Ha and then on to the stunning National Park Phong Nha. Awesome photos and videos to come 😉