30th May - Pho Chau to Hanoi

Another early start and I'm back on Ho Chi Minh Highway heading north towards Hanoi. I've no idea if I can make it in one day and am not really sure why I'm in such a hurry to get there as Anji doesn't arrive until the 1st, but for some reason I have a need to press on.

The joruney from Pho Chau is pretty uneventful. I do have to dodge a number of ox carts and there's an awful lot of hay drying out on the road.

As I get closer to Hanoi it's pretty clear that this section of the road sees a lot more use as the pot holes and lorry ruts start to make a re-appearance.

I start to approach Hanoi at around 17:30-18:00, just as rush hour is at its peak. The traffic here is like nothing I've ever experienced. I though Saigon was pretty mental but this is something else. Cars and bikes are flying everywhere, on both sides of the road. Junctions without traffic lights are just a free for all and I just try to stick near cars or other larger vehicles to shield me from the oncoming traffic where ever possible.

It starts to rain again and everyone on bikes stops to put their rain gear on, and I don't mean pull over to the side of the road and put their rain gear on. I mean stop whereever they are and put their rain gear on. It's complete and utter pandemonium trying to dodge through it.

Somehow I make it to one of the main backpacker hostel areas and find a hotel near to where the bus from the airport drops off.

I am knackered and my ass hurts. I guess that's what 2 days of ~11 hours riding a motorbike does to you.
Get food and fall into a deep sleep.

29th May - Hue to Pho Chau

Woke up early to get on the move. Anji will be in Hanoi on the 1st June and I'd like to be there to meet here so need to get some miles under my belt. I've had enough of the traffic  of Highway 1 so look at the map and decide to head for Phong Nha which is around 200Km away up the Ho Chi Minh Highway which everyone has been telling me I ought to use.

After a while on Highway 1 I turn off to the Ho Chi Minh Highway and immediately notice the difference. The road surface is 100x better and there's barely any traffic. I see maybe 15 cars/lorries every hour and the road runs through some pretty nice countryside.

After a while I start to feel something I'd not felt whilst driving before, I realise soon that it's boredom. The road is great but there's nothing to keep you on your toes, you basically decide what speed to travel at, hold the throttle there and go. I guess in a lot of ways this is a good thing and I can see why so many people prefer to travel on this road, but I kind of miss the traffic on Highway 1.

After a while the road starts to climb some hills and gets a bit twistier and the scenery becomes more dramatic so the boredom fades a bit. After quite a bit of driving I arrive at Phong Nha and stop for some lunch. Phong Nha is nice, on the edge of Ke Bang park with some caves to explore, etc. but something in me decides that I ought to get through some more of the miles between me and hanoi so I decide to continue on.

Shortly after leaving Phong Nha the heavens open and it pours with rain. I decide to press on though as the road is good and I can see bright skies ahead. After putting on my rain coat and making sure my bags are covered I continue on and get absolutely soaked, pretty fun though. Shortly I'm out the other side and continuing on as normal except for being very wet.

The scenery on this section of road is fantastic. The Karst mountains jutting out of the ground are awe inspiringly pretty.

After a few hours I realised I had no idea how long I'd been riding for so look at my watch and see it's almost 6pm. Despite the fact the road is good and there's not much traffic it doesn't make sense to keep driving in the dark so I pull off to the nearest town and hope there's a hotel. It turned out to be a dusty little town called Pho Chau and there was a fairly nice hotel in the middle of town that I managed to book a room in.

After checking in I headed out to the market. I guess they don't get many western tourists here as absolutely everyone wanted to say hello and burst into laughter when I replied. At the market they didn't even try to rip me off with tourist prices. I'd been wanting an orange for ages but whenever I ask at a market they tell me they are around $4 per KG which I refuse to pay, however this time I really wanted some and would be willing to pay even that much. So after miming my way through ordering a kilo I pull out the equivalent of $5 expecting to get a little change when the stall owner shakes her head and holds up 2 fingers. At first I assume she's asking for 200,000 which is ~$10 and am about to walk off when I realise she actually only wants 20,000 or around $1.

As I leave the market the rain catches up with me and it absolutely throws it down so I dive into the first restaurant that looks open. The owner looks incredibly happy to have me here, sits me down and pours me a cup of ice tea. I order chicken rice, one of the few things I know how to say in Vietnamese and a few minutes later I have a massive plate full of the best chicken rice I've had so far. We try to have a conversation, but with no common language other than mime, it's pretty difficult but regardless he and his wife seem happy to be having it. Again a reasonable price is asked and I head back to my hotel to get some sleep before another early morning.

28th May - Hoi An to Hue

Out of the hotel and on my way by 7am in the hope I'd get to Hue in time to spend the afternoon there.
Headed out of Hoi An on Highway 1 and before too long was climbing over the mountains on the Hay Van pass. This is the road that Jeremy Clarkson described as "a deserted ribbon of perfection" in the Top Gear Vietnam special which pretty much nails it. A tunnel was built a few years ago which bypasses this section of road so there's very little traffic and it winds its way up the side of some fantastic mountains with a great view of the coastline on the way up.

Before too long I was in Hue and once I'd found a hotel I headed out into the old town. I hadn't had anything to eat this morning so looked in the Lonely Planet for a recommendation. It suggested a small cheap restaurant near the citadel walls that was owned by a blind, mute guy. It sounded interesting so I made my way over to the street, only to find there where a few restaurants claiming to be the original blind, mute restaurant. This seems to be the norm in Vietnam; if something becomes popuar or gets a good reputation, suddenly a whole load of places open up with the same name on the same street so you struggle o find the one you're looking for. Anyway, the food at the place I went to was good and the guy I paid didn't seem to be able to hear me or speak so at least it seemed authentic.

Once I'd entered through the citadel walls I realised that the town was too spread out for me to really see on foot, so I debated going back to get the bike but decided on a cyclo tour. I'm not sure why I keep doing this as they always turn out to be rubbish. Anyway, this time I agreed the price up front in full detail so there would be no surprises and away we went.

First my guide took me to part of the citadel wall where we could get up on top for a view of the city, however the road around the entrance was being dug up, I assume to fit new sewer pipes or something as the hole wa pretty deep. This didn't deter my guide though and we clambered over some loose scaffholding planks, dodged our way around the moving JCB bucket and climbed up the stairs to the top. The view was fairly underwhelming to be honest. The old town walls are well preserved but apart from that most of the city is just a normal modern vietnamese city that was heavily destroyed during the Vietnam war. The guide explained that the citadel was around 250 years old, which I was really disappointed with for some reason.

We got back on the cyclo and rode on for while until we came to Tinh Tam lake where I alighted and had a quick wander around the lake and gardens.

Next was a "pagoda" although it appeared to just be an "ancient" artifact shop, followed by a quick stop at a military museum where I was instructed to climb through a gap in the fence, take a few pictures of the tanks and quickly leave. After this the end of the hour was quickly approaching so we stopped near the Imperial Enclosure and I paid up. I had a walk around the enclosure and the flag tower before sitting down in the shade for a bit of rest from the sun.

A vietnamese girl of around 6 years old came over to me and asked my name in pretty much perfect english and then ran away before returning with her brother and mum to introduce me. They didn't speak any english but it was fun to try to talk to them. The brother gave me a caterpillar then grabbed it from my hand, threw it to the floor and stamped on it. I think this was to prove his superiority.

Took a walk along the river before returning to my hotel room for a bit of a nap. Woke up fancying Ice Cream and a beer so wandered until I found them and then back to bed for an early start.

27th May - Hoi An

Woke up fairly late and decided that I ought to do what it seems everyone does in Hoi An and visit a tailor to get some shirts made up as the stuff I have with me no longer fits properly.

After a quick wander round and having no idea which tailor to pick as pretty much every second shop is a tailor in Hoi An I decided on the shop recommended to me by my hotel. They seemed professional and their example shirts seemed nicely made. I decided on two different fabrics for my shirts, was measured and asked a few questions about how I'd like my shirt, the fit, etc. I'd also taken along one of my current shirts so they could copy the style. I was asked to come back at 7:30pm for a fitting and that was that.

The old town of Hoi An is small and well preserved, it's a nice place to wander for a few hours depsite how touristy it is. As I mentioned before, every other shop is a tailor and the ones between sell souvenirs, fake North Face bags and everything else the tourist desires. Still, I had a pleasant few hours wandering the streets.

I eventually meandered to the river and sat down for a coffee (Vietnamese coffee is awesome) and to read my book on the river front. After a while I noticed the table of Vietnamese teenagers next to me looking like they wanted to talk so I put the book down and before long one of came over and asked for a photo. It turned out that they were all tourism students at Danang university who'd come to Hoi An on a trip with their lecturers. It was funny talking to them, as I'd ask a question and they'd all confer with each other to create the english response before passing it on to whoever was talking. They were all very nice and after I'd finished my coffee they asked me to walk up to their bus with them so we could carry on chatting.

After a bit more wandering it was time to head back to the tailors for the fitting. Everything seemed fine with the shirts so I took them there and then saving a trip in the morning.

26th May - Qui Nhon to Hoi An via Quang Mai

Up and out of the hotel by 7:30 today with the intention of getting to Hoi An before dark.

Headed out of Qui Nhon on the coastal road as Highway 1 looks pretty boring for a while. This turned out to be a good choice as the road swept along stunning coastline, through lush green agricultural areas and past some lovely lakes.

Saw a lovely deserted beach with some fishing boats on it so decided to stop for some photos. I decided to drive down the dirt and onto the sand to find a good place to take photos. It turns out a Honda Win with my fat ass and bags on it does not cope well with sand.

After a while I stopped in a small town for some food. I pulled up at a random cafe and wandered in. I mimed that I'd like some food to the owner. She nodded and wandered off, I assumed to get a menu, but came back with a plate of rice, random meat, seafood and vegetables. I imagine this is all the leftovers but I'm starving so eat it anyway and she returns again with some soup. If I'm going to get food poisoning at any point on the trip I imagine this will be it.

Eventually rejoined Highway 1 at Tam Quan and continued on fairly uneventfully, for Vietnam anyway, until Quang Ngai where I headed off towards the village of My Lai, the site of the Son My massacre during the Vietnam war. Here there is a monument, a museum and also the remains of the houses that were burnt down by the americans. It's a strange place and almost feels a bit like a film set. The concrete paths around the houses have foot and boot prints moulded into them as if to show the panicked villagers and soldiers running about and the houses have almost kitch statues of massacred animals around them; all very odd.

After walking around the monument and museum I carried on up the road a few km to the fairly empty My Khe beach which obviously was, at one point, going to be the next big thing in Vietnamese beach resorts but never got the visitors. There are a couple of half finished hotels and perhaps 30-40 sea front restaurants with staff that practically drag you from your vehicle as you go past. I'd half decided to give up on my journey to Hoi An and stay here but the only hotel was $20 a night and the nearest town had nothing going for it so I decided to continue on.

 

I realise that I've not really written much about driving in Vietnam so here goes. On major roads like Highway 1, there is generally 1 lane with a small lane at the side that we would use as a hard shoulder. This appears to be for motorbikes, at least that's where most people drive them so I followed suit. I soon realised that this isn't always the best option as this lane is also used for a number of other things including:

• Pulling out from side roads/petrol stations/houses without looking
• Driving at full speed in the wrong direction because you can't be bothered to cross to the correct side
• Storing bricks/gravel/sand/cement/wood, etc.
• Drying rice/chillis/hay/vegetables
• Walking 
• Parking bikes/motorbikes on blind bends
• Picnics
• Teaching your 5 year old child how to ride their first full sized adult bike
• Childrens games
• Restaurant/cafe seating

which makes it a rather difficult place to ride.

Buses and lorries also like to overtake each other without neccesarily checking whether anything is headin towards them, especially motorbikes. They can get out of the way, right? At one point on this leg of the journey there were about 20 motorbikes (including me) riding in formation when a bus decided to overtake a lorry. Normally this wouldn't be a problem as we would all make sure we were over in the "motorbike" lane and out of the way. Unfortunately on this ocassion we were passing through a town with a market that had spread out into the road. Cue 20 odd motorbikes slamming on their brakes and dispersing into the market with people jumping out of the way, god knows how nobody got hurt but I guess this is a daily occurence.

Anyway, I digress. Quang Ngai to Hoi An is around 170km so seemed doable so I started on my way. Again the journey was fairly uneventful. I missed a turning for a bypass as Tam Ky but a quick look at the atlas suggested that I could continue through the town and rejoin the highway. I'm sure this is true, but following the signs through town led me to a dead end where I could see Highway 1, one which it appeared lots of others had been led to as there was a mud track straight up the embankment and onto the highway. I thought about it for a moment and decided to go for it.


Once back on Highway one it was starting to get dark. I'd really hoped to avoid driving in the dark as I was pretty sure my headlights would be rubbish and a large proportion of the vehicles on the road don't appear to have working brake lights let alone other lights. There can't possibly be an equivalent of an MOT test over here. For a start, all motorbikes are only registered to their first owner, the records are never update when the bike is sold on, so there'd be no way of actually enforcing it.

As it fell dark my worries were confirmed. My headlights, once I'd worked out they only turned on once the switch was in the parking ligh setting, were rubbish and only really worked when the bike was revving high. Also, as I suspected, most vehicles didn't have working rear lights. Those that had working front lights though had super bright main beams, fog lights, driving lights, in fact, whatever lights they could possibly have to dazzle oncoming drivers, they had.

Now imagine the list of hazards above but in with rubbish headlights whilst constantly being dazzled by oncoming traffic. Awesome.

After a while I found a lorry travelling as a reasonable speed with a full compliment of working lights plus some pretty bright side lights that illuminated the entire road so I kept pace with it stealing whatever light I could. Eventually he turned off and I was plunged back into darkness. At this point I was overtaken by someone on a motorbike who was holding his mobile phone and writing a text message. They really couldn't care less.

I decided something had to be done so I pulled into a petrol station and had a think. Before long I had my fancy pants ultrafire torch gaffa taped to the front of my bike, which at least let me see more than 50cm in front of me, and a couple of litres of fuel. You don't want to run out in the dark as the lights on my bike only work when the engine is running and I don't want to be sat by the side of the road completely unlit. Not that that bothers most people here.

Eventually I got to a street lit part of the road and breathed a sigh of relief, before realising I had completely overshot my junction. There was no way I was going back and turning across all of the crazy traffic (it's so busy at this time of night) so I took the next turning off the highway and took a bit of a circuitous route towards Hoi An. These roads were pretty badly surfaced but at least there was less traffic.

Eventually I saw the signs for Hoi An and headed towards the old city to find a hotel. Checked in and, after finding something to eat, fell into a well deserved sleep.

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25th May - Qui Nhon

Woke up fairly early as the bike was due an oil change, they recommend every 1000km here and it's done ~900. Asked the staff at the hostel if they knew a good place and they said they could arrange for a mechanic to come over to the hostel later and do it there, all for the princely sum of $4. I agreed and we arranged for him to pop over at 6pm.

Headed out of town on the bike and took a few random turns along the coast until I came to a stange looking building by the sea that offered entry tickets at 5000VND (about $0.25). Curiousity got the better of me and I bought a ticket and drove in.

Turns out I'd found a leprosy hospital with a private beach that was open to the public. They also offered tours of the hospital but there wasn't one running today. I wandered around the grounds for a while where there was a "celebrity statue garden" with busts of famous philosophers and people of a medical background.

It seems that the people that come for leprosy treatment live in chalets amongst the grounds with their families. I bought a beer and some mangoes from someone who I assume was a patient there and went to sit on a bench looking out sea and read my book for a while.

I headed back into town and had a wander along the beach front for a while before the skies darkened and it started to rain quite heavily. Decided to head back to the hostel to wait it out and ended up watching Rambo. It was still raining so I had something to eat before watching Rambo II and falling asleep. Not a bad thing as I need to be up early for tomorrow's mammoth journey.

24th May - Nha Trang to Qui Nhon

Set off from Nha Trang at around 9:30 heading along a quiet coast road for a few miles before joining back with Highway 1. It was a pretty uneventful but pleasant journey mostly following the coast. Around half way I noticed a lovely looking stretch of empty beach so pulled over and had a bit of lunch that I'd brought with me.

I noticed today that a lot of the lorries here look the one in the movie Duel so I decided that would be todays fantasy chase. The terrain had become quite hilly and I was thudering up and down the switch back hill roads at ever increasing speeds attempting to out run the murderous lorry. I ran out of fuel at the top of a hill and had to coast down each descent hoping that I had built up enough momentum in order to reach the top of the next ascent. Eventually I realised that there was no way I could continue this madness so I steered towards the nearest cliff edge, jumping clear at the last moment leaving my motorbike and the persuing lorry hurtling over the edge towards their certain destruction.

OK, so none of this actually happened; apart from running out of fuel and having to coast down the side of a mountain road to find fuel. Fortunately, after coasting down the hill and not finding a petrol station straight away, I noticed that when I looked in the tank I could see there was still a little bit of petrol. It occurred to me that there must be a reserve so after fiddling about with the unmarked fuel tap I was on my way again to find a petrol station.

Once fuelled up it wasn't far to Qui Nhon which is a fairly large beach town. I drove along the beach front looking for somewhere cheap and cheerful and found Barbara's Kiwi Backpacker hostel with dorm beds for $3 so checked in and had a well earned beer followed by a well needed shower.

I'd been fancying fish and chips for the past few days and noticed they had it on the menu so treated myself to it. It was nice, catfish fillets, but nothing like home.

Later I had a wander into town to get my bearings. The streets and parks are completely covered in small plastic chairs and tables and it seems everyone goes out to these street stall type bars instead of the sleazy tourist bars of the type Nha Trang is filled with. It was really nice and had something of a street party atmosphere. After a while wandering I decided I might as well join in and found a tiny plastic table and chair of my own and ordered a beer. I asked how much it would be and it came to 15,000 dong or about $0.75 which seemed OK. Little did I realise that for 15,000 dong I wouldn't be getting one beer but an entire pitcher to myself, it arrived along with a bucket of ice, and I settled into drinking. Turns out I'd found a Bia Hoi place, something I'd read but forgotten about. Bia Hoi is brewed fresh everyday without preservatives.

I could see a group of lads on another table daring each other to come and speak to me, eventually one did and we had the usual basic english introductory conversation before he said goodbye and returned to his table followed shortly after by another and another, etc.

After I'd finally finished my beer and convinced the waiter I didn't want anymore I continued wandering the streets until I came across a fairground set up in the midle of a roundabout with more chairs and tables set up around the edge. As I was wandering around it I heard someone shouting me to join them and I sat down with a group of four vietnamese guys with a very basic understanding of English. They plied me with beer and various different food, including dried fish and some crazy spicy vegetable thing before we said goodbye and I wandered off rather drunk and a bit lost.

After taking a few random turns I found myself back on the road to my hotel and started walking back towards it. On the way a moto rider pulled up next to me and offered to give me a ride back to my hotel. I politely declined but he wouldn't take no for an answer and started to follow me. After a while he started on the "Massage? Boom Boom? Smoke?" routine that has annoyed me in every town in Vietnam so far. I really thought I'd be able to avoid it here but obviously not. This continued for a good few minutes until he started tapping me on the shoulder. Drunk and annoyed as I was this really got to me and after telling him in no uncertain terms that I'd had enough, he still continued to badger me. It took a hard shove to convince him that I wasn't interested and he eventually got on his bike and left.


Today's journey

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23rd May - Nha Trang

Not much to report today. Spent the day on the beach reading a book and didn't do much else at all.

22nd May - Dalat to Nha Trang

I wasn't sure about visiting Nha Trang as it sounds like just another beach town, but a few people have told me it's unmissable and the road from Dalat to Nha Trang is meant to be great so I set off on my way at around 9:30.

At around 9:33 I notice that the gearbox is feeling sloppier than usual and as I pull up to some traffic lights I can't change down, so I pull over to the side of the road to investigate and find that the splines on the gearshift shaft are all worn away. The lever has been jammed on with some old braided wire used as a spacer which has obviously held out for a while but has now failed. I push the bike around town for a few minutes until somehow mimes that there is a garage around the corner. I show the mechanics the problem and they set to work trying to jam a new piece of bent wire around the shaft but it's too worn to hold so they suggest welding it into place. I agree as I don't want to wait around for ages but get the feeling this might come back to bite me in the future if it needs to come off again. The mechanic also notices the fuel tank leak and mimes that the bike could go up in flames so we have the difficult mimed conversation describing the options of replacing the tank or welding up the old one, both options seem too expensive to me so I tell him just to weld the shifter. I unload all my stuff and he gets on the bike, I assume to move it into the workshop but he pulls out onto the road and into the distance leaving me stood outside wondering if I'd ever see my bike again.

I got chatting to another guy who was having work done on his bike and could speak a little english. This was his usual garage and he seemed to trust the place. Sure enough about 5 minutes later the mechanic was back with my bike and a newly welded on gear lever. He also had a cigarette on the go, so it seemed he wasn't too worried about the petrol leak. After paying up, the princely sum of $2, I was on my way with a gearbox that felt a million times better than it had up till now.

Once out of Dalat the road to Nha Trang, which is marked as a tiny minor road in the atlas, is a perfectly surfaced curvy mountain road that I'm sure any motorist would love to drive on. It has wonderful views out over the highlands with waterfalls cascading down huge drops, seemingly endless forests and the ocassional bird of prey swooping down. There are a few parts of the road that suddenly become unsurfaced or absolutely covered in potholes just at the apex of a corner, but the vast majority of it is perfect.

I spend a good few hours slowly descending the hills and ocassionally stopping to take in the views and find myself in Nha Trang before I know it.

The route

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Once in Nha Trang I'm harrassed by hotel touts who practically jump in front of me as I'm driving. I eventually give in and follow one to a hotel, once there I'm told it's $25 a night after I've already told him I'm not spending more than $8 so we agree to go elsewhere. However before we leave I see Hou, the "Easy Rider" tour driver I'd had a beer with in Dalat just outside the hotel. We arrange to meet up later for a beer.
After checking into my hotel I go for a walk along part of the huge lovely beach before it starts to absolutely throw it down with rain so I seek refuge and have dinner in a small street cafe before heading back to the hotel for a shower. It doesn't stop raining for quite a while so I decide to watch "Platoon", it seems fitting being in Vietnam and all, before phoning Hou to arrange where to meet.

Hou suggests a "local" bar which sounds great until we get there and it turns out to just be his friends guesthouse and the night turns into a pressure sales talk for motorbike tours and guesthouses. After a while though it settles down to normal conversation, or maybe I'm just drunk and not listening any more. I leave and agree to cal Hou in the morning to say Yes or No to the tour. On the way back to the hotel it's more of the usual hassle for drugs and prostitution which is starting to become a bore.

21st May - Dalat

Not much to report today. Wandered around the town and markets and purchased something that resembles a real motorbike helmet rather than the sub bicycle helmet standard things that most people wear here. Also managed the find a denim jacket that fits for $3 which should provide more protection than a shirt if I do fall off.

Had a nice walk around the lake which was bigger than I remember when I rode around it. Relaxed in a couple of cafes and that's about it.

20th May - Mui Ne to Dalat

Wanted to get an early start today but for some reason didn't get ready to leave until ~10am. Had decided to leave Mui Ne as I wasn't in a beach mood so planned a route to Dalat which is a former French hill resort.

Not long after leaving Mui Ne, I stopped by the side of the road to check a turn on the atlas when a russian couple pulled up next to me on another Honda Win. They asked me how the bike had been, how much I paid for it, etc. They'd paid the same for theirs but it seemed to have no end of problems, apparently every day it broke down at least once and it had a absolute top speed of 60KM/h which is weird because mine will do at least 100 and it feels like it will do more. We did both have crap headlights though. I carried on feeling smug that my bike was doing well but also wondering in the back of my mind what problems my bike would end up with.

The journey continued along Highway 1 swhere I stopped for fuel, not wanting to run out again. The girl operating the pump spoke a little english and asked me where I was headed to, when I replied "Hanoi" she looked a bit shocked, looked at my bike and said "you not get there". I explained I was stopping along the way and pointed out Delat and the other places but she still seemed incredulous. She wished me luck and I carried on until I reached the coastal town of Phan Rang where I turned off onto the decidedly less busy Highway 27.

On the map Highway 27 is the same thickness and could as Highway 1 so I'd foolishly assumed it would be a similar road but that couldn't of been further from the truth. The vast majority of it was an unsurfaced dusty track with more potholes than road and a few lorries and buses throwing dust everywhere. On occassions the road would turn into a beautifully surfaced dual carriageway and I'd get my hopes up that I could make some progress before it quickly and without warning turned back into a track.

After a while though the road started to climb up the side of the hills and, whilst the surface didn't improve, the views certainly did.

The climb was tricky and the road often washed out with boulders everywhere from landslides. I thought I was doing really well to make it up here but I'd ocassionally see a bog standard mini bus like the ones you'd see on any UK road flying over the rocks like they were nothing. It's weird how what seems like an extreme adventure is actually just someone elses every day life.

Part way up the hill the skies darkened and it was clearly going to rain very soon. I really didn't want to be climbing this hill in the rain. Some of the potholes were more than big enough to swallow the bike whole and obviously if they were full of water I wouldn't be able to tell which were OK to drive through and which weren't; it's basically impossible to avoid them all together. Also it's clear that this road suffers from landslides. This part of the road is called the Ngoan Muc Pass and zig zags underneath two huge pipes that lead down the mountain to a hydroelectric station.

I had my raincoat in my bag so when it was safe to do so I stopped by the side of the road at a little roadside stall where I was beckoned over by the owners for a coffee. Realisng I hadn't actually had anything to eat all day I ordered an ice coffee and the only food they had, a pineapple. There were a couple of local guys there and they saw my Vietnam atlas and wanted to take a look. For some reason most of the Vietnamese people I've met along the way are fascinated by it, I guess not many people own a copy. I asked them where I was along the road and it turned out that I'd missed a turning a bit futher down but that I could continue up the way I was going and it would only add a few extra KMs to the journey, which was good as I didn't fancy going back down. I said my goodbyes and carried on up the hill.

I stopped again for fuel in Phu Than not wanting to run out on the steep parts of the slope and a woman ran over from a shop telling me that it was raining further up and that I should be a poncho, I pointed out my coat but she insisted it wasn't enough. I declined the offer though as the poncho looked just like the emergency one I had in my bag. As we were having this conversation the boy operating the pump had filled my tank right up to the point where it leaked. Everyone near the pump then started pointing out the leak and I explained through mime that it only happened when full. They suggested going to the mechanic across the road to get it welded but I thought it wise not to get a tank full of and covered in petrol welded right now and headed off up the hill to Dalat.


Dalat is centered around a man made lake with hotels, etc. everywhere and I had no idea where to stay. I circled the lake and parked up to take a look in Lonely Planet for somewhere to stay, something I normally don't like to do but I'd been riding for over 7 hours and it was getting quite dark (it seems the 6v electrics on my bike don't quite provide enough power for a decent headlamp) when a local guy pulled up next to me on a motorbike and asked me if I was from Sweden; quite an odd greeting I thought.

It turned out he was an "Easy Rider", basically a motorbike tour guide that either takes you on tours of the central highlands as a pillion or that you can follow on your own bike. He asked me which hotel I was looking for and as I had none in mind he recommended me one that was cheap and fairly nice. He was also wearing a decent looking, almost western style, motorbike helmet and, as these seem to be a bit of a rarity, I asked him where I could get one. It turns out they sell them in Dalat so I'll take a look tomorrow as the one I got with the bike, which is also the same as most peoples, is nothing more than a thin piece of plastic, not even as protective as a UK bicycle helmet.

In the end I followed him to the hotel and took a look. For $7 I got a 4 person room with TV bathroom with hot shower, tables and chairs and a balcony. No AC or fan but it's pretty cold up here anyway.

I stupidly turned the TV on and ended up getting sucked into "The Green Hornet" before heading out for a wander round town.There isn't a great deal going on around Dalat at night so I just walked the streets for a while before making my back towards the hotel. When I was nearly back I heard someone shouting hello to me and it turned out to be another easy rider with an english guy who'd just been on a tour with him. They were sat drinking on the pavement so I joined them and chatted for a while before we all headed off to our beds. Unfortunately I hadn't realised what time it was and when I got back to my hotel all the shutters were closed and locked so I had to bang on the door and wake the owner up, which he wasn't to pleased about.
I think I'll probably stay in Dalat tomorrow as it seems quite nice and laid back and if I keep up this pace on the bike I'll be in Hanoi far too early.

19th May - Saigon to Mui Ne

Got up early and checked out. Asked for the best place to find at Atlas and headed to Farasa books on foot. I was hoping to also find some kind of bracket to attach my phone to the handlebars for sat nav or at least a tank bag with a map pocket but couldn't find anything. Got a good map though and returned to the hotel to load up the bike.

At this point I was really quite nervous but decided to just get on with it so I entered Mui Ne in to Sygic on my phone and battled my way through Saigon traffic. Before long I noticed that something was rubbing on the back tyre as I went over bumps so I nipped back to the place I bought it from where we discovered it was the home made rear rack. I guess it had cleared before a new tyre was fitted.

If in doubt, smack it with a hammer

Danh wasn't there but the mechanic, who could only speak a tiny bit of english, gestured to me to follow him so we both jumped on bikes and headed through the Saigon traffic to a small engineering shop where I bounced up and down on the bike to show the problem. After a few moments of head scratching the guy went away and came back with an iron bar and a large hammer and started smacking the rear cross member of the rack to bend it out of the way. This worked a little but it still fouled on the tyre so he grabbed an angle grinder and cut the piece off, showering the diners at a nearby cafe in sparks,  before propping it up on the iron bar and wailing on it with the hammer a bit more. Once happy he'd bent it enough he offered it up and welded it back into position and it cleared the tyre fine. After saying farewell I was finally on my way.

I followed the directions to a river ferry, off the other side and onto some absolutely massive new empty highways which seemed to be leading into a huge industrial park. There was absolutely no one else around and it seemed odd.

 

After a while I ended up going through some small villages where they obviously didn't see so many tourists as I caused quite a stir. The sat nav then instructed me to turn onto a dirt track for a few miles and into the middle of nowhere. This really didn't feel right compared to the route I'd looked at on the atlas but I had no idea where I was and thought that the sat nav quite often takes an odd route but gets there eventually so I ploughed on. After getting further and further off the beaten track I came to a dead end where the sat nav showed a cross roads that it wanted me to continue over. It was at least point I finally realised the sat nav was talking bollocks. I don't know what was going on with it but when I zoomed out it was quite clearly not locked onto to where I was and as I watched it I noticed it was flicking between 3 different roads. None of which looked like the one I was on.

I decided the only course of action was to backtrack to the nearest major road and try to head east which was roughly the direction I needed to be in and hope that I could at least get the sat nav to tell me which town I was near. It was at this point the battery died in my phone. Awesome. I carried on with my plan until I hit a town where I stopped for a drink and asked in the cafe if they knew where I was on the map. They didn't so I asked at a few other places and they didn't either. Eventually I found a steamed dumpling seller who did and I could finally start to head in the right direction.

Once I eventually got onto Highway 1 I could start to make some decent progress. It's quite a busy road, only a single carriageway with what we call the hard shoulder used for motorbikes. The miles were flying by on the nice paved road and it was good to be finally making some progress.

Something to note about the Honda Win is that it doesn't have a fuel guage or even a fuel light so the only way to know how much fuel you have is to remove the cap and look inside or just run out by the side of a busy highway. I chose the latter, but fortunately you are never far away from a petrol station or at least a small shop selling petrol in 1l plastic drinks bottles and I managed to coast most of the way to a large petrol station. I gestured that I'd like the tank to be filled up, which was a mistake as it appears the tank leaks into your crotch when completely full which isn't the nicest feeling in the world. Regardless I carried on thinking that I'd get this fixed at some point in the future.

I eventualy hit Phan Thiet which is where I had to turn off Highway 1 onto some local roads. This seemed like quite a nice little town and had lovely fishing boats on a river so I briefly stopped to take some photos, but having all my stuff strapped to the back of the bike, I didn't wander far and soon started on the short coastal road to Mui Ne.

Once in Mui Ne which is basically just one long road next to the beach (which is a pretty stunning beach) I was a spoilt for choice with accomodation. I pulled into Mui Ne Backpackers which looked nice but wanted $6 for a dorm bed so left and carried on up the road. Not really knowing which to choose and with the bike now deciding it didn't want to idle, causing lots of fun in traffic I stopped at a random place and negotiated a nice room for $7 with AC/TV/Hot shower.

After a quick bite to eat I wandered along the road that is Mui Ne but didn't find it very interesting. It was pretty dead to be honest, despite the fact that there were clearly a lot of tourists here. Maybe they were all waiting to watch the football game that was advertised at every bar? I soon got bored and wandered back towards my hotel. Along the way I was acosted by various moto drivers offering me the same services in Saigon which I politely declined.

By this point I was knackered and had pretty much decided that Mui Ne was not really going to be my kind of place so I went back to my room and ended up watching crappy movies on TV before falling asleep. Not very exciting.

18th May - Saigon

Slept longer than I intended to so quickly showered and headed out to see if I could find somewhere to buy a motorbike. I've been toying with the idea of riding from Saigon to Hanoi for a while and decided that if I'm going to do it I need to start now.

I enquired at my hotel to see if they knew of somewhere and they couldn't understand why I would want to do it and didn't know anywhere so I headed off around the backpacker area to see if I could find any suitable bikes for sale. I'd assumed this would be easy and there'd be rows of bikes lined up outside hostels from others that had done the journey from Hanoi but I could only find a couple of semi-auto Honda Dream's and I really wanted to do the ride on a manual bike, despite the fact I've never really ridden one.
I eventually stumbled upon a little workshop right near my hotel that had a few Honda Win's for sale, which were one of the bikes I'd been thinking about. It turned out to be http://www.saigonmink.com which are a company I'd read about online and seemed to have a fairly good reputation so I decided I'd test ride the bike after I'd had some lunch and carried on walking. I'd been walking for quite a while when I realised I was just putting off the test ride. If you've ever seen the traffic in Saigon you'll probably understand why it's quite a daunting place to test drive a bike, let alone take your first ever ride on a manual bike, but I eventually bit the bullet, thinking that if I couldn't do this part I had no hope of completing the journey.

I got back to the workshop and the owner Danh got the bike out and explained that it had just had an engine rebuild, new tyres and battery. It also had a big rack on the back and a fold down rack on each side which would be good for when Anji gets back. I get on the bike and try to pull away, instantly stalling it but eventually get going. I hadn't realised that the Honda Dream's I'd been riding up till now had the gear shift in the opposite direction to most bikes and, even though I'd only ridden them twice, had got this stuck in my head so kept shifting down instead of up and vice versa. I took a few turns and started to get the hang of it before taking a longer ride around the area, I must've been gone quite a while as Danh looked releived then I eventually pulled back up the workshop. The bike seemed fine so we got to bartering and I bought the bike for $300 which seems to be about the going rate.

After getting all the documentation sorted, which consists of being given a small laminated card that proves you own the bike (if you lose this you're screwed) I took off around Saigon on the bike to see some sights. This was quite a baptism from fire and I had a few interesting moments like stalling in the middle of a huge roundabout with traffic coming from every direction but I was starting to get the hang of it. The main problem was that I only had a very sketchy city map from a tour company that was completely useless on foot, not that I could think of much other than trying not to get in the way of the traffic that comes in every direction of both sides of the road. So basically I got completely lost for a good few hours before finding a few landmarks I recognised and eventually finding my way back to the hotel.

I parked up the bike and decided it was about time I had something to eat so went for another wander around the block to find somewhere cheap, my search was quickly drawn to an end by a torrential downpour that forced me into a small cafe that ended up having some pretty fantastic noodle soup.

After the rain had stopped a cyclo driver came into the cafe and started talking to me about a city tour. I normally just tell them I'm not interested but he seemed genuinely nice, spoke very good english and had lived in Saigon during the war so had plenty of stories to tell. The tour worked out to be $10 and, whilst I thought this was a bit pricey, I realised I hadn't really seen any of Saigon and it would be nice to perhaps learn something about the city so I accepted and we went on our way.

The first stop was the War Remnants Museum, which was an intersting look at the Vietnam war from a side we don't often see in the west. It was of course very one sided and felt a bit like communist propaganda but most of the photos of american brutality were actually from american photographers with the US military. There was also a lot of information about the aftermath of the use of Agent Orange on the country and people.

After this we carried on to a *something or other* factory where I could see how *someting or other* was made. This started alarm bells ringing as it was obviously going to just be an excuse for a hard sell, but it wasn't so bad.

Along the way the driver pointed out lots of interesting buildings with stories from the war but I can't remember any of them. So there.

The next destination was Notre Dame cathedral where I bumped into the German girls from the bus. We had a quick chat and one of them was off to the riverside whereas one was going into the cathedral. I thought she said that there was currently a service and we coudn't go in until 5 which was only 5 minutes wait so I waited with her to take a look inside. What she actually said was, there's a service in at 5 and I'm going in so I ended up stuck in a service in Vietnamese. Now I'm not a big fan of church services anyway, especially not in Vietnamese and the church itself wasn't really very interesting inside so I made my excuses and left. Once outside I bumped into the american girl from the bus so again had a quick chat before climbing into the cyclo and heading towards the river front.

At the river front the driver pointed out all the different types of bonsai trees which to be honest I wouldn't have noticed on my own, they were quite interesting. We headed back via the antiques market where the driver pointed out some antiques from Vietnam's history but again it just seemed like a shopping trip.

On the way back to the hotel the driver started to tell me about how poor he was and how many children he has to support. This really started to ring alarm bells so I was getting prepared for some hassle after the tour. We got back to where he'd picked me up and I got my 20,000 dong ready to pay when he now decided that the tour was 20,000 per hour and we'd been 3 hours so it would cost $30. This really pissed me off and we had an restrained argument in the street where he showed me his leaflets, which he'd not shown me before, where it stated 20,000 per hour. In the end I just gave him 20,000, said that was all he was getting and walked off. I hate it when this happens but I really should've known better.

I headed back to the hotel annoyed and fairly fed up with Saigon.

Once back I skyped Anji to let her know about the bike and then went back out to pick up some waterproof covers for my bag and to buy a road atlas. As it was now dark the streets were absolutely full of people offering marijuana, "massages" and just plain prostitution. It's weird travelling as a lone male instead of in a couple as it just makes you a target for every tout on the street. I got the bag covers but couldn't find an atlas so decided to leave it until the morning. I really wasn't in the mood for dealing with the touts and needed to be up early so returned to the hotel to sleep.

17th May - Kampot to Saigon

Woke up early to book my bus and had some breakfast whilst waiting for my 9:30am departure. Double checked how long the bus journey would take and was told 13 hours which I wasn't looking forward to but seemed bearable. Went off to buy some bread for the journey.

The minibus arrived to pick me up from the hotel pretty much on time and we set off on our journey after picking up a few other people from other hotels. I got chatting to a guy who was originally from Cambodia but moved to America as a refugee after the Vietnamese "liberation" of Cambodia.

I'm not sure the bus driver had every driven a manual vehicle before as he constantly tried to pull away in 5th before restarting the engine and doing the same a few times. He had a tendency to accelerate quickly take the bus out of gear and then jam it back into the gear he was already in causing us to slam into the seats in front and also to take the bus out of 5th gear at speed and ram into 3rd gear having the same affect. Maybe he just like torturing us, I'm not sure.

After around 2 and a half hours we reached the border and got stamped out of Cambodia and into Vietnam with very little fuss. In fact it was all going much better than I thought, even the minibus came through and we all piled back on until we got to Ha Tien city. At this point we all got off and had to wait around 1 1/2 hours for another bus to arrive. I was OK with this as it meant I could have a wander, buy a Vietnamese sim card and change some dollars for dong (snigger). One of the western girls on the bus, an American named Rachel got quite pissed off as they initially refused to give her an onward ticket to Saigon a she'd let the bus driver take her original ticket off her. After lots of swearing and name calling from Rachel they gave in. Not how I would've dealed with the situation but it seemed to work and was quite amusing.

The bus arrived a few minutes late and turned out to just be a small local bus full of Vietnamese. Not that this is a problem, but it really wasn't turning out to be the "VIP" service that always gets promised. This bus was quite annoying. It had been raining heavily whilst we were waiting for the bus and the roof was leaking above the only seats that were left. It also spent the first 30 odd minutes of the journey driving at walking pace, and I'm not exaggerating, bicycles pedalled by 70 year old men were flying past us. After this the driver then decided to drive at the speed of sound, as is the norm it seems for buses in Asia, for the rest of the journey. I've got used to this but the two German girls that were also on the bus looked scared to death.

After a while once of the westerners, I can't remember who, got talking to a vietnamese family who spoke good english and we discovered that this bus was actually only going to Can Tho not all the way to Saigon so we'd have to change again.

After about 4 hours we stopped and I was poked by the driver through my open window, when I turned he said "you go toilet". I said OK and he led me by the arm to a secluded wooded area where I wasn't sure if I was about to sexually assaulted or left to urinate. Fortunately it turned out to be the latter.

I got back to the bus and noticed everyone else was still on it. Not sure why I had been singled out for the toilet but eventually other people got off and we had a few minutes before the driver started pushing me back onto the bus and then beeping the horn frantically to hurry everyone along.

It was a good few more hours until we got to the next stop, which I don't remember the name of and we were bundled off the bus and left standing around not knowing what was going on. After a while the driver started throwing everyone's bags onto the dusty bus station floor so I went to pick mine up and noticed it was wet and that it stank of fish. When I looked in the luggage compartment of the bus I noticed it had been rammed in next to an unsealed polystyene container which obviously contained fish and dirty stinky fish water which was now all over my bag. Awesome. Of course the bus driver wasn't in the slightest bit interested.

We crossed accross the dual carriageway and were bundled onto a local minibus, hoping it was actually the correct one, and set off at warp speed. The only seat free for me was on the back row and the back row is not somewhere you want to be on a road as bumpy as this one with a driver that slows down for nothing.
This bus stopped constantly to pick up and drop off until eventually I had the back row to myself so I could lay down and try to get some sleep between being lifted out of the seat by another bump. This was short live however as I was shortly woken by a Vietnamese guy kicking my legs because he wanted to sit down.

By this time is was about 10-10:30pm and Rachel, the loud american girl, had decided she was hungry. As she was sat next to the driver she badgered him constantly by loudly repeating "Food, I need food" for about 30 minutes until the driver finally relented and pulled up next to a steamed dumpling stand. The dumpling stall owner I'm sure doubled the price at the sign of white faces and decided they were 20,000 dong or about 1 dollar but we couldn't be bothered to argue and bought some. I was so tired that I ended up paying with a 200,000 note instead of a 20,000 but fortunately the seller gave me my change.

We then continued on at insane speed with the usual constant beeping until we arrived in Saigon. Only of course it wasn't in the center, it was a good few miles outside and the normal moto drivers pounced telling us that we had to go with them as it was the only/cheapest/whatever lies they tell to get your money way to get to where we wanted. I'd heard about this scam with buses before so argued with the driver about being taken to the main bus station but he point blank refused to let us on the bus. By this point Rachel had flagged down a taxi and we gave up and were taken to the backpacker area on the meter.

Everyone else had a room booked so the german girls went off to find theirs and I went with Rachel as hers was in the cheaper area of town but, as it tuned out, at $15 a night, not cheap enough for me so I started looking elsewhere and eventually got an OK room for $8.

By this time it was well past midnight and I'd been travelling for 17 hours so, after a quick Skype with Anji, I had a well deserved sleep.

16th May - Kep

Got up reasonably early and discovered that Alfred sleeps nude, obviously this is fairly normal but I'm not sure many people do it in dorms full of people.

Anyway, that aside, I decided that I'd head to Kep for the day rather than moving there, finding a guesthouse, etc. so I went back to the same place to rent the same motorbike I'd had the day before. I specifically wanted this one as the guy had told me I'd need a full tank of fuel for Bokor when in actual fact it had half a tank left when I returned it. So I asked them to pull it out, even though it meant they had to move half the other bikes there, only to find that they obviously siphon off all the left over fuel and use it for theirselves. Oh well, at least I know the bike is fairly decent.

After a quick trip to Kampot market to buy some deodorant (I stink - Anji had the only deodorant) I head out on the ~25km trip to Kep. It was all uneventful but nice.

Sorry kids... Kep Beach

After arriving in Kep, I realised the town was fairly boring. Nothing much to do but eat crab or lay on the beach which wasn't very nice so I took a look at the map and noticed a hiking trail that lead around the "mountain" in a nice loop. Me being me, I decided walking it would be a waste of my motorbike rental so I decided to see if I could ride it.

To begin with I was on the wrong road which I realised once I came to a dead end so came back down and decided to take any road/track that took my fancy. 9 times out of 10 these lead to nothing more interesting than a hole in the ground. On the 10th time it lead to thousands of decomposing multilated crab laid out on various old tarpaulin sheets, which was a little odd.



After finding the start of the trail, I decided it would be worth a go as it actually started out as a road, albeit an unpaved one, with a $1 toll entry fee for the national park but no one to take it and an open barrier. So off I went.

The road soon degraded to a rutted path but I kept on going up and it was lovely, with benches every so often and signs pointing out the various points of interest. At one point I passed a couple of tourists walking up the path and thought to myself how foolish they were until it occurred to me that I was the one doing the wrong thing. Oh well.

I reached the summit and stopped for a well deserved drink before heading back down the other side of the loop where unfortunately the entry booth was manned and I had to pay $1.

After carrying along another dirt road I noticed another signposted trail to the very top of the hill so decided I may as well have a go. This was pretty foolish as I soon discovered this trail was very steep and in fact was more of a storm runoff for the mountain streams with loose rubble everywhere. I wasn't about to give up though and powered my way up slowly but surely. After a while the trail came to a temple and narrowed into the forest so I could no longer ride. Feeling that I really ought to do some exercise today I got of the bike and walked through the forest/jungle until I got to "Sunset Rock" which was a lovely viewpoint. There were already a couple of people there who'd obviously walked all the way up, the idiots.

A lot steeper than it looks

I wasn't feeling quite so smug once it came to the descent as it had started to rain and the cable operated drum brakes of the Honda Dream leave quite a lot to be desired. The front brake actually won't hold the bike on even the slightest incline so it was quite fun. On one of the flatter bits of the descent a huge bird, an eagle I think, soared out of a tree along the path and flew in front of me for a while. It was most impressive but I couldn't really take my eyes off the rutted surface.

Once eventually down I decided to head for a tarmac road into Kep itself to see if there was anything to do.

I wandered the crab market and the seafood stands but wasn't hungry so after a short ride along the beach front road I started to head back to Kampot. Realising I had over half a tank of fuel left I decided not to head straight back and to just find an interesting looking dirt track off the main road which I did. This led into the countryside proper, with traditional houses on stilts, people working the fields and children chasing me along shouting hello. At one point I had to cross a river on a bridge that looked a bit like the one in "The Man With The Golden Gun" only flat and without a massive gap in the middle. Still it was fun riding over it whilst it twisted and creaked.

I decided to keep taking random dirt tracks to see where I ended up and stumbled across a lovely temple where I stopped to take a few photos. The locals didn't really know what to do until a boy ran up to me and said "money, money, money".

After leaving the temple I rode the dirt tracks for another half an hour or so before meeting a raised train track. The only options were a steep wooden plank rested on the track and then bumping over two set of tracks or to follow them until I hit something, preferably a road. This is obviously a common choice as there were plenty of tyre tracks. It wasn't long before I came to a bridge over a stream, unfortunately it was a railway bridge but fortunately somone had laid planks along it so you could just get a bike across which I did and it wasn't long before I'd got back to a main road. I still had lots of fuel left so just decided to ride until I was bored. This never happened but my aching back (asian motorbikes just aren't built for normal height foreigners) got the better of me and I decided to head back to the guesthouse where I discovered Alfred had checked out. A cheap dorm wasn't really his thing.

Everyone wears pyjamas in Cambodia

After a bit of a relax whilst researching possible Vietnam sat nav options for my phone I wandered into town and had a cheap dinner at a food stall and sat by the river to watch the disappointing sunset. Realising I hadn't sorted out any travel arrangements to Saigon, I then tramped around the various bus ticket offices to work out my best options before giving up and wandering back to the guesthouse only to find that they coud arrange the tickets at the same as the cheapest price I had found. Still 13 hours on a bus doesn't sound like fun and I'd imagine it will take longer than that so I may just book a ticket to the border town and see what happens when I get there. I have until 7AM to think about that as that's the latest I have to book the bus for a 9AM departure.

Getting an early night so that I can be up early and it's absolutely throwing it down outside. It seems rainy season has begun in earnest.

15th May - Kampot - Bokor

Woke fairly early this morning and realised I didn't have my "day bag". Remembered I had it at the bar last night so got ready quickly and went straight to the bar which was closed. Peering through the gap in the shutters I could see the owner was asleep in the bar (this sounds weird but is perfectly normal here) so knocked and shouted to wake her up. Fortunately for me she was a lovely person and despite being half asleep opened up the bar and after rubbing the sleep from her eyes remembered that she had found my bag. The relief! I had the camera in there. She also offered these words of wisdom "It is a bad idea to leave your bag in a bar. Anyone could take it." however I was so relieved to have it back I couldn't bring myself to be sarcastic.

After that excitement I splashed out and had a $0.75 breakfast whilst I decided what to do for the day. It took me around 2 seconds to decide to rent a motorbike and drive it up the mountain road to Bokor hill station, an abandoned french hill station nearby that Lonely Planet describes in their 2011 edition thusly
"The highlight of a visit to the hills station is the shell of the Bokor Palace , which has been stripped of everything of value. You can explore all four levels and the rooftop terrace, from which there's a magnificent view over dense jungles that stretch almost to the sea.

It's possible to wander up and down the corridors, around the kitchens and through the ballroom to the suites above, past variegated ceramic floors, tiled bathrooms and a giant fireplace where cocksure colonial French and wealthy Khmers could warm up on a nippy night. On cold, foggy days it can get pretty creepy up here as mists drop visibility to nothing and the wind howls through the building."

I wandered round the corner to the nearest motorbike rental shop and got myself a semi automatic Honda Dream for $5 and returned to the hostel to grab a waterproof jacket. Once back I found out that Alfred and a lovely french couple had also just hired motorbikes to do the same thing so after grabbing a jacket and fuelling up the bikes we were on our way.

Once out of Kampot, and off of National Route 3, the road to Bokor is a fantastic new, winding mountain road with great views of the area and even though it was throwing it down with rain for most of the journey, it was a fantastic ride. I was the only one with a raincoat and the french couple gave up after around a quarter of the way so only Alfred (who was wearing shorts and Tshirt) and I made it to the top where there is now a massive great big hotel/casino complex and building work everywhere. Even the old hotel described above is being redeveloped and is now off limits (trust us - we tried). However, the view from the top is amazing, with the sheer drop then trees, beach, ocean and islands. A photo would probably help here so I'll upload one at some point.

We spent a good few hours exploring the few empty buildings that we could, including the eerie empty church where mists appeared and disappeared in seconds.

We had lunch at the fancy hotel, a buffet which cost $10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excuse the overuse of exclamation marks here but that is more than Anji and I spend on food together in a day and I had no idea it would be this much. I'd already started once I found out so ate as much as humanly possible to make up for it. I'll not have an evening meal and won't each much tomorrow or maybe ever again.

We had a quick look around the casino where I was impressed by the "Please volunteer to relinquish your hand guns here" sign at the security desk. Once inside we were promptly stopped by security and told we had to hand over our bike helmets or we'd be asked to leave. Good to see they have their priorities straight.

The ride back down was great fun and it has made me adamant that I will get a motorbike licence once I'm back in the UK.

After dropping off my motorbike and discussing bus options for Vietnam with the shop owner I've returned to Cozy Elephant with no desire to leave for the evening and a thoroughly blown budget for the day. Tomorrow will be frugal.