Riding Motorcycle on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam

An eleven-person, a 18-day trip with 11 -day motorcycle trip through Vietnam during the hottest part of the year may sound like an endurance test to some, but for John Kerry, vice president of Motorcycle Travel Club in USA. It’s a vacation.

Motorcycle trip on Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam

From August 30 to September 17, Kerry, two guides and nine others will make the 800-mile journey from Hanoi to Hoi An riding small motorcycles down the country’s eastern coast. A combination of off-road and highway riding, their route will take them to sites such as the Phong Nha Cave, widely hailed as the most beautiful in the region; Hue, the imperial capital of feudal Vietnam; and China Beach, the site of the first major Marine landing of the Vietnam War.

Active Travel Asia, a professional adventure company that offers bicycle and motorcycle tours throughout the country, is arranging the trip. Kerry’s group paid $1,954 per person, but prices vary depending on the size of the group and the route.

The company provides most of the essentials: motorcycles, fuel, escorted van, camping equipment, food and guides. Tourists need only supply their own clothing and transportation to and from Hanoi. But Kerry, an Adventure Travel Editors, is preparing for the trip in other ways.
“I’m taking motorcycle tour here and I’m eager to travel to Vietnam war in the past,” Kerry, 65, says, adding in an e-mail: “I’m happy to challenge this historial trail on a motorcycle after more than 30 years, and handling the rougher parts of the Ho Chi Minh Trail [the route that the North Vietnamese used to travel to South Vietnam during the war]. I’m told some of it is no more than a cow path.” Though Active Travel Asia’s Web site (www.activetravelvietnam.com) warns of the “no rule” nature of Vietnamese streets in several alarming sections, it also promises that the company takes tourists on the safest roads. Despite those reassurances, Kerry is taking few chances. He requested that the tour begin outside Hanoi, though it usually starts within city limits.

“I was not going to drive in that crowded traffic, probably the bad traffic in Vietnam,” says Kerry, who plans to write about his experiences for your daily newspapers. “I do know Hanoi has one of the highest fatality rates in the world.”

Though cool on the prospect of motoring through Hanoi, Kerry does plan on spending several days in the capital before his tour begins. “I’ll visit the site where John McCain was held prisoner for 5 1/2 years, known to American POWs held there as the Hanoi Hilton,” he says. “I’ll also revisit Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square. I’m curious if the Vietnamese still line up to file past his open coffin to view his preserved corpse… And, of course, [I'll see] the French architecture, which dominates the Old Quarter of the city.”

As excited as he is about the visceral thrills of the motorcycle trek, the chance to immerse himself in Vietnam’s history is even more enticing. “As a young reporter the war was going on and I covered a lot of campus demonstrations working for MTC,” he says. “Having traveled there in the spring of 1993, I got even more interested in it. Hanoi was just coming alive then. Southern Vietnam was obviously much more developed than the North so I’m looking forward to seeing it now, almost 17 years later.”

By Bobby Nguyen

Recommendation about motorcycling tours in Vietnam:
- Motorcycle Vietnam Travel Guide
- Ride Ho Chi Minh Trail tours
- Motorbike Tours in Vietnam

Dalat from a different perspective

Dalat, the city of flowers, is not strange to tourists with its famous sightseeing spots such as Lang Biang Mountain, Xuan Huong Lake and Than Tho Lake. If this is your first time to this romantic land, you are advised to visit the places just mentioned which have become legends of Dalat. But for those who have been to Dalat many times, you are advised to visit places that will bring you a different Dalat.

Seasoned tourists can augment their itineraries with completely new destinations. Dalat flowers are well-known for their beauty. The local flower farm is one of the ideal destinations for those who prefer a trip towards nature.

A greenhouse growing colorful flowers in Dalat city, Vietnam

Visiting the greenhouse is an opportunity to admire at close range Dalat roses and gerberas. Standing in front of the glass with a furrow of flowers stretching on and on is an amazing feeling. The weather is cool, even under the noon day sun, while the flowers are full of colors that compliment each other.

The Travel Bug by John Soltes: Vietnam

Vietnam, with its verdant countryside and bustling cities, has a lot to offer adventurous travelers and those wanting to put a face on the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is a metropolis that moves like the rapids in a river. Motorbikes putt-putt-putter down the avenues. Artisans sell their wares from street-side stalls. Teenagers line up to get their nightly dose of pho noodles and dancing at the local discotheque. Devotees walk to their churches, their pagodas and their shrines to light candles and incense for someone who came before.

Vietnam – Photo by John Soltes

It’s a city that seems endless. But there is an end to the throngs of humanity — a semi-quieter place where a few lessons can be learned.

On the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City is a network of underground tunnels that was used by the Viet Cong during the war, particularly during the Tet Offensive.

Four decades ago, the tunnels were a harried place of strategizing for guerilla fighters.

Today, Coca-Cola is available in the gift shop.

A visit to the Cu Chi tunnels is chiseled into most tourists’ itineraries. Located roughly a one-hour drive (depending on traffic) outside of Ho Chi Minh City’s center, the underground ravines should be visited as a means to engage with the history of the tumultuous war. It is sacred ground that cost many a soldier’s life — and it should be visited with a respect for the casualties of conflict.

As tour buses pull up to the complex, the first stop is a meeting hall where cool drinks are served as plentiful as the propaganda. Before entering the tour, visitors sit through a video presentation that pushes the Viet Cong’s righteousness and the strategic mastery of the tunnel system.

You’ll probably get more satisfaction out of the cool drink.

Next is the actual tour of the tunnels, which stretch for miles or kilometers, depending on who’s talking.

In this particular area — in between Saigon and the border of Cambodia — where the tour buses corral like vultures, there are several holes that have been maintained for passersby to take a look and even take a descent.

Most groups visit the tunnels with an official tour guide, which can be booked back in Saigon.

Along the tour, you’ll have the chance to see grisly contraptions of torture, the place where the Viet Cong and their families ate and slept and a few demonstrations of what life was like in the tunnels (from eating fresh tapioca to an artillery range where visitors can pay money to shoot firearms such as an AK-47).

A group of tourists in front of me were clamoring at the chance to shoot a gun. I kept walking, slightly disgusted, to where visitors can crawl through one section of the tunnel (widened, rumor says, to accommodate larger Western tourists). The experience of crawling through the tunnel starts off easy enough — it’s kind of like ducking under a blanket to play in the dark.

But when you realize how far the tunnel goes, that the walls and ceiling are made of unsteady dirt and that the light from which you entered quickly becomes a pinhole, fear does sidle up next to you.

When you emerge, sweaty and panting, you’ll be thankful for the light in the sky.

Anyone who visits a sight like this probably has a curiosity for war stories and what exactly happened in this country in Southeast Asia. Visiting the Cu Chi tunnels may not provide any answers, but it may set you in the right direction.

It’s a preserved testament to days of sorrow. And for that, it can boast an importance beyond the ubiquitous gift shop selling war propaganda.

Source: leadernewspapers.net

Recommendation in Vietnam:
- Travel Guide in Vietnam
- Adventure tour in Vietnam
- Short Excursion in Vietnam

Buffalo tours of pottery town, Vietnam

Among the tourist sites surrounding Hanoi, the Bat Trang pottery village with 500 or more years of history, is an ideal place to visit, attracting a large number of people from the city – and foreign tourists. Slow and steady: Japanese visitors enjoy a buffalo cart tour around the pottery village.

Buffalo tours in Vietnam

Just 14km from central Hanoi, the village is easily reached by motorbike – the most popular transport means in Vietnam.

Conical hats draw many visitors in Vietnam

Visitors to Phu Cam village in the former imperial capital of Hue will be instantly impressed by its traditional way of making conical hats. Poem-hat is a distinctive feature of culture in Hue. Locals say they like to do the job not only to earn money but to preserve their age-old tradition.

Hat-making village Phu Cam (also Phuoc Vinh) lies on the southern bank of the An Cuu River in the centre of the former imperial capital of Hue. It’s a village famous for its traditional way of making conical hats for hundreds of years.

Making conical hats in Vietnam

Buying a touring motorbike in Vietnam – Vietnam Motorcycling Travel Guide

By far, the best way to experience Vietnam is by motorbike. As with elsewhere in southeast Asia, here, the motorbike is king. They are cheap to buy, easy to repair, and they can take you places the tour bus would never dare to go. What’s more, there are no restrictions on foreigners buying motorbikes. All you need is a passport and valid visa, and you’ll receive a title of ownership and a deed of transfer. Rentals will suffice for most, but if you plan on serious bike time, buying is more economical — you can even sell the bike before you leave and recoup most of the expense.

We know the traffic seems crazy. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll learn there is a method to the madness. Travel by motorbike has its dangers, to be sure, and should be undertaken conscientiously. But the vast majority of foreigners come away from their motorbike trek with nothing but great experiences to talk about back home (and maybe a few tail-pipe burns to remember them by).

Vietnam Motorcycling Travel Guide

You can buy a bike almost anywhere, but bigger cities will have a better selection and be more comfortable selling to foreigners. Naturally, it’s best to shop around. When you settle on a bike, insist on taking it for a spin — and to a mechanic for a once over.

Dray Sap Falls and Yok Don National Park, Vietnam

Several years ago we visited Buon Ma Thuot on a trip from Dalat through the central highlands. Although sadly I have no photos, the drive from Dalat to BMT was one of the most beautiful of my life, although perhaps one of the least comfortable – the stack of plastic bags at the front of the bus was extremely well used by the passengers..

Dray Sap Falls

I was drawn to BMT for the coffee – which was wonderful – but at first glance the town looked fairly uninspiring, so we hired a motorbike for a few trips out into the countryside.

How Vietnamese People Cultivate Wet Rice?

Some 70 per cent of Vietnam’s population is engaged in agriculture, which uses over 20 per cent of the country’s area and produces 15 per cent of its GDP.

Vietnamese Cultivates Wet Rice

Vietnam has two huge deltas: the Mekong in the south and the Red River in the north. From time immemorial the Vietnamese have known how to build dykes and avoid flooding, creating more land for wet –rice cultivation. Thousands of kilometres of dykes have been built along the Red River to protect this vast fertile delta and its population.

Exploring the Mekong River – from Laos to Vietnam

Some of the most amazing adventure destinations center around the great rivers of the world. Whether it’s rafting the Rio Grande, kayaking the Congo, or simply taking a leisurely cruise down the Nile, we seem to have a fascination with these waterways that have played an important role in human development. One of those rivers is the Mekong, which stretches for more than 2700 miles as it meanders through Laos, Thailand, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

Mekong River – Vietnam

Little village on the paddy, Vietnam

Rising from the rice fields of Ha Giang Province, Tha Hamlet offers a glimpse of rural northern life.

In the remote mountains of Vietnam’s far northwest, Tha Hamlet still has one paved road