Faces

From Hue to HoiAn or being an easy rider

After a day of sightseeing in Hue that included some pagodas and tombs and a most delicious lunch in a so not tourist place, I decided to change my means of transport. So far I’ve travelled by plain, by train, by bus, by boat but not motorcycle. So I took the offer by a so called easy rider to have a two days ride through the outback of Vietnam away from the tourist tracks.

We started early in the morning with a good breakfast; a banana pancake, coffee for me and for him just a cigarette. This should become a habit through our two days we spent together – me eating and him smoking. We left the big and busy streets and enter narrow and hidden side streets going through village after village. Slowly going higher and higher. After a couple of hours ride I got the surprise of a hidden waterfall. I had a swim at the most enchanted place. Being on the road again I loved the breeze of wind and sun in my face, I had my camera on my knee all time ready for the snapshot …

We made about 180 km on the first day and about 1400 altitude difference. I saw jungle, mountains, people, beauty and poverty, I waved at smiling children, had a power cut while I was having a shower and then again while we were having dinner, I got wet while we crossed a rainfall, I met str5ange Germans with crazy business ideas, I got tired sitting on the motorbike for so may hours and at the end - I was very happy.

Halong Bay - Mountains are glistend by water shadow, water spills all over the sky

After all the rain in the mountains of Sapa I was looking forward a lot to the seaside and the strange landscape of Halong Bay. The bay consists of a dense cluster of about 2000 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise spectacularly from the ocean. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. Some of the islands support floating villages of fishermen. They live on floating houses and are sustained by capture fishing.
The landscaped changed a lot with the weather: with sun it was beautiful and peaceful, though without the sun it became grey, mysterious and fabulous.


I stayed on a boat that cruised through this beautiful and also strange landscape. I had very nice company by Monika and Angelo, two Swiss travellers who are exploring Vietnam via bike. We slept on the boat, had very good food and enjoyed the breeze. We had a stop to explore one of the caves and some of the islands, did some kayaking.