We're super-excited to be picking up our motorbikes today! So excited that we show up an hour before the rental place opens. Also, we've been up since 3AM this morning due to our jet lag, so we're just itching to go, go, go! The problem is, later on today, probably around 3PM, we'll most likely be itching to sleep, sleep, sleep... The rental place is in a newer part of town and everything is so shiny and clean. We walk down the street to grab some breakfast and find a Bahn Mi place that's a lot more swankier than any place we've been to so far:  Bahn Mi 362 is a Saigon chain, similar to Subways. Unlike all the other places where you eat whatever they are cooking, this place actually has a menu with different options! I got the 362 Special, with different kinds of meat, it's like an Assorted Cold Cuts sandwich! Except these were all thick slices of cooked meats. Assorted Hot Cuts sandwich? Delicious! I think Bahn Mi is quickly becoming my favorite meal in Vietnam, mainly because of the crusty French baguette, that is always served fresh from the oven. We both love warm, fresh bread!  We walk back to the rental place and they've wheeled out all the bikes onto the sidewalk. I wonder which ones are ours? We're renting from a place called Tigit Motorbikes, they seem to be the largest outfit in Vietnam with three outlets situated in south, central and northern Vietnam. Inside, Todd helps us with check-in while Tom walks us through the bikes. Most of the workers here have Anglicized names for the foreign customer's benefit. Neda asked Tom what his real name was. When he told us, I embarrassingly had to ask him to repeat it twice. I normally have a pretty good ear for picking up accents. Usually, I only have to hear something once and I'm able to repeat it back with accurate fidelity, even if I don't understand what I'm parroting. But there's something about Vietnamese that my ear just can't seem to latch onto. Disappointed, I concede: "Okay, we'll just call you Tom..." Tom's face is like: "Yep". Ugh. We're *those* kinds of tourists, now... :(  The staff quickly installs the GPS mount and seat cushions we've brought from Canada Although the rental place offers a variety of "big" bikes like the CB500X and CRF250Ls, they recommend we take the much lighter and more comfortable XR150Ls for Vietnam roads. We spent two seasons riding all over SE Asia on CRF250Ls and the hard and narrow enduro seats totally destroyed our butts, plus the tank range was pathetic. Not making that same mistake this time. Upstairs, Todd goes over some things we need to know about riding through Vietnam: traffic rules, how to deal with police who stop us for "coffee money" (something we're very familiar with: "mordida" in Latin America, "tea money" in Thailand, "hello" in Africa...), etc.
In the US, you keep a stack of Benjamins for paying out bribes. In Vietnam, we'll have to keep a stack of Colonel Minhs... Same, same. Todd asks us what our route is and where we plan to stop tonight. Neda is the planner for all of our stops and accommodations and she shows Todd the place we're staying at. It's about 300 kms away, and his reaction tells us that our reach is exceeding our grasp: "That's a very long day. You shouldn't ride at night in Vietnam". He advises us that we should be aiming for around 150 kms a day in South Vietnam. In the North, where the roads are narrower and not in as good condition, that distance shrinks to 100 kms/day. Very helpful information! We cancel our hotel reservation and look for places a bit closer. Todd also tells us that in Vietnam, the speed limit within the city is 40 km/h and once outside, it only goes up to 60 km/h. That's another reason why the 150s are more suitable: on a big bike like the CB500X, anything above 3rd gear is basically wasted. If we're going to be paying for five gears, we want to be able to use ALL five of them, dammit!  Small bikes are a hoot! They remind me of the beginner beginner motorcycles that we use at the MSF school that I teach at. After all the paperwork was finished, Tom asked me to take the bike out for a spin around the block to make sure they met our approval. Actually, I think he was just trying to assess whether I could actually ride a motorcycle before the rental place allowed us to take their bikes out on the roads. Before I left the lot, I asked him what the lever on the left handlebar does... Then I laughed. He didn't laugh back.. :(  Locked and loaded The set-up we're using is very similar to the way we've packed our old CRF250Ls: a couple of drybags, a backpack and a topcase for our valuables and electronics. Plus a whole mess of Rok-Straps to keep everything on the bike and off the road behind us. I'm very happy that we've managed to fit everything we brought in our suitcases onto the bikes. I feel like we've become pretty good at this moto-traveling thing. And it only took us a couple of decades of practice...! With a wave to the staff at Tigit, we set off on our two-wheeled Vietnam adventure! ... and run smack dab into our first snag.  My high-tech office The GPS that I've so diligently set up beforehand, loaded with all the Vietnam maps and routes, is sending us on all the wrong roads. Just like we discovered in Bangkok, in the big cities, motorcycles aren't allowed to take the highways like all the cars and trucks do. Two wheelers are shunted off to smaller, secondary roads parallel to the highways, but my GPS kept routing me to the Big Boy roads. I hate using smartphones for navigation. I used one for the first time in Gran Canaria and had a terrible time with it: the touchscreen doesn't respond to a gloved hand and when it rains, you have to cover the phone with a plastic bag. Much to my chagrin, I end up having to use Google Maps on my phone anyway, since it has a special motorbike option which keeps you on the two-wheeler roads. Thankfully, like most rental companies these days, our bikes come equipped with a phone holder on the handlebars. No charging cables though, so that's another point of consternation. I hate clutter on my dashboard, but now my low-tech motorbike has a cockpit that looks like the space shuttle. Nice. :(  And then, we hit another bump in the road... Less than 40 kms into our maiden voyage, Neda exclaims over the intercom, "My bike is dying!" Really? Mechanical problems so soon?!? I'm quite a bit ahead of her when we both pull over at the side of the road. I watch from my rear-view mirror as she checks everything over while trying to restart her bike: choke, reserve switch (it's already on), kickstand... bike still won't start. Finally, she pulls the fuel filler cap off and peers inside: "It's empty! Bone dry!" WTF? They didn't fill our bikes up before we left?!?! From where I am stopped, I can see a gas station on the other side of the street. What a stroke of dumb luck! I pull in and get off my bike to help Neda. And by "help", I mean take pictures of her. Yep, Husband-Of-The-Year nominee, right here! Neda has already pushed her bike up to the crosswalk and is waiting for a break in traffic to get to the other side. I check my tank. It's empty as well. I'm dumbfounded. I've never had a rental company, bike or car, ever give me a vehicle with an empty tank. Neda is fuming. She's sweating buckets from having to push her bike 100m down the road and across traffic in the middle of the afternoon's tropical heat. After we gas up, the lady pumping the gas must have felt sorry for Neda because she gives her a free bottle of water. What a nice gesture! Despite finding it difficult to learn the local language, we both latch on to one singularly important phrase: how to say "Thank you" in Vietnamese. It's written like this: "cảm ơn", but is pronounced like "Come On". Neda thanks the lady at the gas station: "cảm ơn!" and she receives a big smile in return for trying to speak her language. "Cảm ơn". We're finding it to be quite a useful phrase, because it can be used both to thank someone, and also when something goes wrong: Gas station attendent gives you water: "Cảm ơn, that is very kind of you."
Later on, one of my friends commented that he had the same issue on a scooter rental in Thailand. Perhaps it's a SE Asia thing - they don't top up the tanks on rental vehicles up here? I dunno. Whatever it is, it sucks Dong. >:( (Dammit, I went there) Edit: Just had another Tigit customer DM me. Tigit policy is indeed to supply the bikes without gas. Must have missed that in the briefing. Okay, our bad... I guess the thinking is you pay for what you use. We'll return the bikes empty then.  Neda replenishes all the liquids she used up pushing her bike to the gas station Only 10,000 Colonel Minhs for a bottle of water. I'm not sure if that's a good price or not?  Both the bikes and us are re-hydrated. Ready to hit the road again! The plan for today is to get out of Ho Chi Minh. That's it. Just leave the city. That's the only objective, and we seem to be failing quite hard at it. With close to 10 million people living within it's city limits, HCM has a quarter of the population of Canada, and they all live inside a 2,000 km² area. And for some strange reason, all of those 10 million residents are on their scooters this afternoon, on this very same stretch of road that we are on. Because of this, it takes us all afternoon to escape the urban sprawl.  "Pop quiz, hotshot: there's a scooter parked on the side of the road, and another scooter coming at both of you on the same side. What do you do? What do you do?" The road on both sides is lined with endless food stalls and tire shops, one after another. The sidewalks are full of parked scooters and miscellaneous stock, supply & equipment, so we have to contend with pedestrians walking along the curb-side of the road. And then there are the scooters, like incoming missiles, riding the wrong way on the right-hand-side, as well! What. The. Heck. It takes 100% focus all the time to manage same-direction traffic in front and behind you, as well as oncoming vehicles both to the left and right of you. Riding in HCM is like trying to thread a needle that is constantly moving, while a dozen other people beside you, behind you and in front of you are trying to push their thread through the exact same needle! We've traveled in so many different countries that it's impossible not to compare things with what we've seen and experienced. All throughout our ride, I was thinking, "Not as hellish as India, but definitely more chaotic than Thailand..."  Just like in Latin America and all over Asia, Vietnamese use the hot asphalt to dry beans, vegetables, etc. We try not to run over people's food "How does your rice taste?"
After a couple of hours of ceaseless urban sprawl, the traffic seems to thin out and we are able to relax a bit and enjoy the ride. We reach Hồ Trị An Lake and stop to watch the community of fisherman below us from La Ngà bridge.
These fishermen(people?) catch and sell fish caught directly on rafts built at the mouth of the Dong Nai River. At the foot of the bridge, stalls sell fishcakes and dried fish, and restaurants serve up delicious grilled fish. We're only an hour away from our stop for the evening when spots of rain start to appear on my visor.  CÁM ÓN!!! We purposely planned this trip so we would be riding during Vietnam's dry season. What DF is this?!?! *sigh* We stop on a side street and huddle under a shop's awning to crawl into our sausage suits. The shopkeeper came out and gave us chairs to sit on. OMG, so nice! We thanked her, "Cảm ơn", and she gave us a quick smile and a nod. 😃 Feeling very gummy and sticky as we ride in the rain *and* the sweltering heat. Sweat pools inside our plastic second skins. We are probably getting just as wet as we would without the rain suits. :( Ever since we've left Ho Chi Minh, we've been traveling on the main QL20 (Quốc lộ means "route") and we finally leave chaotic traffic behind to turn off into Nam Cat Tien National Park. A much smaller road, but still good pavement quality. Just as I predicted, jet lag hits us right on schedule - 3PM. We're also mentally exhausted from acclimatizing to new traffic rules and behaviour, drenched in sweat and generally miserable. I know, I know - we're riding motorcycles in February. Feel sorry for us. Waah waah waaah....  Just outside of Nam Cat Tien, we see a temple that looks like a Disney castle. The rain has let up a little bit, so it's a good place to stop and tear off the plastics. We ride the rest of the way in very light drizzle to our destination, a place recommended by Todd at Tigit. It's a river resort right beside the Dong Nai. So glad we didn't try to push for 300 kms today. At just 160 kms for the day, we're ready to curl up in a ball and go to sleep right then and there in the parking lot of the resort!  These are the rustic cabins we are booked into. Thankfully, they're only a few meters away from where we parked our bikes! :D Inspired by the fishermen we saw earlier in the day, we order some grilled fish for dinner. I saw the owner pull one out of the tank as we were coming in, still flipping and flopping in the net, so I know our meal will be super-fresh!  View from our cabin There were a few bumps on the road today. Small issues with our equipment, the rental bikes, big city congestion and the weather. But despite all this, at dinner, we toast with iced Vietnamese tea to a pretty successful first day's ride in a brand new country! Gibbon monkeys in the forest chatter and whoop with us in celebration, which we found quite funny. However, they kept up their cacophony into the late hours of the night. We didn't find them that funny anymore. Neda screams out the balcony at them: "CÁM ÓN!!!"
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