Like a bat out of hell or a bike out of Hue…

What a great start to the New Year!  Back of a motorbike and a white knuckle ride through the backstreets of Hue, taking in major sights like the Imperial Citadel, a huge cemetery where the local people were out en masse paying their respects to their ancestors on the first day of the year; a museum where we learned how rice was farmed and processed in previous times and most importantly seeing the environs of the city.  All of those little moments can have their own blog entry in due course, this one is to capture the comedic value of the Intrepid Hell’s Angels heading out on bikes together.

I have to accept I suppose that there is no way words can do this trip justice, it was soooooooo much fun!  The day began early, the majority of us were profoundly hung over and sleep deprived, but definitely up for it.  We trooped out of the hotel en masse with whoops of Chuc Mung Nam Moi to anyone and everyone we encountered having learned, if nothing else, that for the Vietnamese it is really important that this is a positive and happy day to set up good fortune for the day ahead.  We were primed to be positive and greet everyone and it really worked, what positivity we encountered.  But that isn’t the point, the point is that bumping along on the back of a bike at 40 km an hour feels like travelling at the speed of light when you do in the context of winding back roads up and down hill scooting round hazards (children, dogs) or cutting across junctions of bikes like some sort of elaborate motorbike stunt of elite police riders.

It began innocently enough.   Our tireless guide gave a demo of getting on and off the bike, where to hold on and so on.  I don’t know how, but then the guides each appropriated one of us.  It did remind me a bit of being picked for a sports team at school all over again.  I don’t know how we were divided up, but I can guarantee there had been negotiation amongst the drivers and it was impossible to know which were the winners and losers.  However, given the petite frames of our guides, I’m sure that there was some complex formula used to decide who got to take the living giants that were included in our mix.  It did feel pretty precarious at times to be honest, but I kept reminding myself that the locals transport everything from entire families, to Tet celebratory trees and buffalo carcasses on the back of their scooters, so surely a lumpen Brit shouldn’t be beyond their capabilities!

My guide had no English, though we smiled at each other and said ‘cum urn’ (thank you) a lot.  He carefully put on my helmet tightening it up for me, and did so with such graciousness every time I got on that I didn’t like to take over and do it myself.  They must think us Westerners are very needy as a consequence, but it was so attentive and sweet.  The first surprise was the pack mentality of our biker gang.  An enormous shout went out, ‘Are you Ready?’ a shout of response, then a ‘one, two three, beat it!’ and we roared off, straight into the streets of Hue – which granted were pretty deserted due to New Year, but it was still an enormous adrenalin surge to be out in the city traffic.

For the first leg we all hung on quite carefully, but confidence grew during the day and we began to experiment with snapping shots on the move.  My guide spoke little, apart from vocalising strangely everytime we went over a really bumpy bit (which was quite a lot).  I couldn’t work out if the noise meant ‘we are all going to die’, or if it was just a vocal acknowledgement of uneven terrain!  He also became quite animated on taking evasive action to avoid a stray dog and then child; on making an emergency stop when oncoming traffic didn’t behave quite as anticipated and positively expressive when a be-suited Vietnamese guy on a fast bike breached the subtle protocols of the road and veered through our convoy at incredible speed sending out various bikes in all directions!

     

My photos were inevitably blurred and do little to capture the interactions we had as we rode through villages.  Maybe because of new year, lots of immaculately dressed families were at home and children waved and people hailed us as we came past.  Shrieks of Happy New Year from them, and Chuc Mung Nam Moi from us.  Perhaps our obvious delight was infectious, combined with their happiness at New Year, we fed each others happiness.

Here are some of our fabulous drivers on the day:

As it was Tet, we were advised to give our drivers twice the normal tip as they were working on the holiday, that was 100,000 Vietnamese Dong. For me, this was the only cringe worthy part of the day.  I’d carefully put my note aside, but when it came to digging it out, it took me a while to locate, the currency is to my eyes incredibly confusing, it all looks the same and so many noughts!  I got there in the end but it was awkward.  So my tip is, do this tour, it’s great, but make sure you have your tip money ready in a different pocket.  Also check your travel insurance covers this activity, not all do.

We were out all day – left the hotel at 8.30, back 4.30 I still can’t quite believe how much we saw and did.   This holiday is surreal, because we cram so much into every 24 hour period I feel like I’ve been away for weeks and weeks, it’s like time travel, it really is.  Still sad at missing the end of Broadchurch though, but a price worth paying, definitely!