Vietnam North to South

Day 1 - Home Country - Departure

Day 2 - Arrival Hanoi
On our way to the hotel we will gain our first impressions of this typical, busy Asian city. During the colonial era, Hanoi was the capital of French Indochina. The French history is still plainly visible, for example, in the wide boulevards and the old villas. Depending on our time of arrival, we will do a small city tour on our motor cycles. Alternatively, we can discover some of the highlights of Hanoi. In the evening you can enjoy delicious Vietnamese cuisine at the welcome dinner.

Day 3 - Hanoi – Mai Chau
Our journey to the West will start in the busy morning rush hour of the capital City. From Xuan Mai we will follow a part of the Ho Chi Minh trail untill lunch time. This legendary road was once just a trail through the jungle that the North Vietnamese troops used to supply the Vietcong in the South during the Vietnam War.

Continuing our travels, we will follow calm and small country roads along the Pu Luong National Park to Mai Chau. Here we will spend the night in the home of a Thai. It isn’t luxurious, but it is an extraordinary experience. Of course, that evening we will enjoy rice wine that will be served by the village elder.

Day 4 - Mai Chau - Thai Hoa
Along and through the Pu Luong NP, we will ride on calm country roads towards the Southeast. After which we will get back to the Ho Chi Minh trail. Then we will ride along the Cuc Phuong and/or Ben Em National Park. We will find our way through rice and corn fields and along multiple lakes. Parts of the road can be unpaved. We will stay in a small town.

Day 5 - Thai Hoa - Pho Chau
We follow the Ho Chi Minh route further south. The road is now slightly narrower and the region more sparsely populated. Tourists hardly come here. We will gain insight into life in the countryside of Vietnam. We will ride through small villages, along rubber plantations, tea and corn fields and past bullocks that graze and plough in the rice fields. It is remarkable that in this area there are more churches than temples. We will spend the night in a trading town.

Day 6 - Pho Chau - Phong Nha
Today we will get up early. We follow almost deserted roads through spectacular mountains. We will ride along the Vu Quang National Park, a remote area on the border with Laos. Several years ago, the Saola or Spindlehorn, also known as the Vu Quang ox, was spotted for the first time. It is one of the rarest animals in the world. People of the Muong ethnic minority group live in and around this national park.

To conclude this wonderful day we visit the Phong Nha caves. These caves were formed about 250 million years ago and are the largest and most beautiful caves in the country. The cavern is at least 8 kilometres deep with a network of underground rivers. We spend the night in a small village nearby the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.

Day 7 - Phong Nha - Vinh Moc
We follow an adventurous route today. We will ride through a part of the Ke Bang National Park.  Ninety percent of this park is primary forest meaning humans have not influenced the area and it has a high level of biodiversity. Here we also find the most covert part of the Ho Chi Minh trail: the section which ended in the DMZ - Vietnam’s Demilitarized Zone. During the Vietnam War, this was a neutral zone between North and South Vietnam. The US Secretary of Defence at the time established a defence line here named after him, the McNamara Line. This line joined a ribbon of US bases across the entire width of the land.  Vietnam is at its narrowest here, a mere 90 kilometres between Laos and the coast. The new road, passing through undulating parkland, comes out in Khe Sanh. This was the most well-known American base on the defence line. Decades after the war, entire villages in the vicinity lived on the proceeds of scrap metal from this base, ranging from bullet casings to bulldozers buried in their entirety. This region is mainly populated by the Bru-Van Kieu ethnic group. These people are recognizable by their black, betel nut stained teeth. In the afternoon, we will head towards the coast and end in Vinh Moc.

Day 8 - Vinh Moc - Hue
Today will have a short travel time. We will visit the tunnel complex Vinh Moc. Where the Chi Chi tunnels in the South – near Ho Chi Minh City – mainly functioned as war routes, the Vinh Moc tunnels are shelters for village inhabitants to escape the intensive American bombings. In that time, approximately 60 families lived there and 17 children were born there. After the guided tour, we will get back on our motor cycles and ride via the coast to Hue - the former imperial capital city of Vietnam. We will try to arrive here early in the afternoon, so we still have enough time to visit the ancient Hue Citadel where the Forbidden Purple City is located.

Day 9 - Hue - Hoi An
If there was no time yesterday to visit the Hue Citadel, we will visit it today. After this, we leave the city and ride further towards the south to Hoi An, a well-maintained historical trading port noted on the UNESCO World Heritage List. We follow a section of Highway No. 1, leaving it to make a brief detour through the Bach Ma National Park. It is a stunning route by means of which we also avoid the busy main road. On the way, we can stop for a drink or bite to eat near the ruins of Hai Van Quan Gate, which was built in 1826 under king Minh Manh. From Danang onwards, we ride on the highway to the south and make our way through Marble Mountains. During the war, American ships on the coast were bombarded from caves in these mountains. Nowadays, it is a marble quarry and the surrounding villages are home to marble artists. From there it isn’t far to Hoi An anymore.

Day 10 - Hoi An – stay
Hoi An is a small town with traditional houses that many travellers experience as one of the most attractive and fun places in Vietnam. You will have to readjust to the large amount of foreign tourists wandering around here.. It is definitely worth spending a whole day in the town. Situated along the river is a colorful market and traditional streets filled with historical Chinese-influenced buildings and small Chinese shrines. You can take a boat trip across the river and ride to the nearby beach. Delicious restaurants and charming cafes are in abundance in Hoi An.

Day 11 - Hoi An - Dak Glei
30 km from Hoi is My Son. My Son was the political and religious center of the Cham people who held sway in Vietnam from the fourth to the thirteenth century. Although the war has left its mark here as well, it is still an interesting and attractive place to visit. Thereafter, we quickly leave the other tourists far behind us and withdraw into the unknown mountainous region of the central highlands for a few more adventurous routes. We make our way along a narrow trail to Route 14 which will take us to Kham Duc. This is a quiet, lonely village located far from anywhere else in the central highlands. The hotel and the restaurants here are simple.

Day 12 - Dak Glei - Plei Ku
We follow the Ho Chi Minh trail further south. The road condition worsens here, but there are hardly any other people on the road. After the beautiful Lo Xo pass we come to the region of the Rong ethnic minorities. Their villages are instantly recognizable by the unusually high roof of the communal building. This building style is also  found amongst ethnic groups on some Indonesian islands. It is a fantastic mountainous region, riding through villages of different ethnic minorities on a good road which follows the Dak Po  river continuously. We ride through Plei Kan and follow a challenging unpaved road to Kontum where we’ll have lunch. Kontum is the center of the peoples of the central highlands and has changed rapidly in recent years due to the intensive production of tea and coffee in the region. We will stay in trading town Plei Ku.

Day 13 - Plei Ku - Dak Mill
Today will be long, but beautiful and  exciting. This part of the Ho Chi Minh trail has been a busy connecting road between the big cities of the central highlands for years. So watch out for big trucks and busses. We will ride lots of kilometres in the morning and follow  an unpaved trail to avoid a part of the busy highway if the water level  permits! Therefore, this part will be without the support car in procession, so we will meet each other lateron. Then, we will ride via Ea Sup and Yok Don National Park to Dak Mill, a small village next to a lake. Oh and watch out for crossing elephants!

Day 14 - Dak Mill - Thac Mo
Today will be another exciting day, as we will try to ride along the Cambodian border. Westerners are actually prohibited to be here, but that will make it even more exciting! We will try to ride via the Bu Gia Map park: an important battlefield during the Vietnam War. If the road is closed off, we will ride via Dak Lac to Thac Mo. The province of Dak Lac is home to 44 ethnic groups, the biggest groups being the Ede, the M’nng and the Thai. The Ede is characterised by their matriarchal system: women are the head of the family, the children take their mother’s last name and only daughters have inheritance rights. Thac Mo is located next to the Thac Mo lake.

Day 15 - Thac Mo - Ho Chi Minh City
The last leg of our journey will be to big and busy Ho Chi Minh City. In the past, it was called Saigon city after the Sai Gon river. We will ride into the city, past the central cathedral and the Reunification (Independence) Palace. This palace was the workplace of the former president of South Vietnam and is memorable because a North Vietnamese tank once drove into its gates. There is a lot to see in Ho Chi Minh. A must is a visit to the American War Crime Museum. The Benh Tanh market is very suitable for getting souvenirs. But it is especially fun to ride or walk around in this gigantic city. Despite Hanoi being the political capital, Ho Chi Minh is the biggest city of Vietnam. It is the industrial and commercial centre of the country.

Day 16 - Ho Chi Minh City - Flight departure
Today you fly back home.

EXTENSION

Day 16 - Ho Chi Minh - day trip to Cu Chi
Today you will visit the Củ Chi tunnels in a van with a local English-speaking guide. You will be impressed by the ingenuity of the corridor system and how people lived here.

Day 17 - Ho Chi Minh City - stay
This is an extra day in Ho Chi Minh City; there is still much to see here. You will, of course, visit the War Crimes Museum for a different look at all the wars which have ravaged Vietnam. You will visit the Reunification Palace too where the South officially surrendered to the North in 1975. The Ben Thanh market is also one of the places not to be missed.

Day 18 - Ho Chi Minh City - Departure