Inspired by my brief ride on the back of someones motorbike, I decided it was about time I tried to drive my own. Clearly a massive error of judgment considering I don't have a driving license and haven't even had one lesson but hey its Vietnam what could go wrong? Paying a woman outside our hostel 300,000 Dong (£10) I was able to borrow a bike from her from Hoi An and drop it off in Hue (8 hours by bike with sightseeing) and they would take my luggage up in a bus for me and meet me there which was a great deal. A little bit put off that they just asked for my name, no identification or proof I could drive just a demonstration of how the breaks work and handing me a helmet. So with this information understood, we joined a group we'd met in our hostel and started the journey to Hue (I'd recommend making friends and doing it in a group especially if you have no sense of direction like me). I'd already driven a little of the distance by bike the previous day to see the beautiful Marble Mountain next to Da Nang which I would massively recommend going to see, the stairs are really steep and you will sweat buckets but the temples and caves in the mountain are incredible.
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| on the edge of the mountain |
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| the view from the top |
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| Buddha garden |
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| The White Buddha |
Back to our roadtrip, the way to Hue from Hoi An is so beautifully scenic driving through paddy fields coastal roads and up through the mountains, its crazy how diverse the scenery is as you go along. I didn't take that many pictures as I was driving the whole time and was already a bad enough driver but we made a few stops along the way. The best part of the journey which was towards the end of the trip was Hai Van Pass which is a long winding road up into the mountains quite steep but easy to navigate, it was the best view down into the bay with loads of viewpoints to stop off at, again not many pictures as we wanted to keep going to Hue in good time.
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| new friends |
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| Hai Van Pass |
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| Clifford the big red bike |
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| Hai Van pass viewpoint |
we got pretty lost after the coastal road trying to find a place called Elephant Springs, eventually we found it but had lost most of our group and ran out of time there but it looked really fun and if theres tours running there from Hue I reckon its worth a day trip.
Elephant Springs was basically a collection of pools going down the mountain with wooden shacks built alongside where the locals would cook food or lay down on mats they had brought with them, it literally looked like a place out of the Jungle book.
Not my photo but a better view of Elephant Springs, after we left here it was pretty much straight motorway to Hue for an hour and a half all of us pretty tired and not looking forward to navigating the city traffic..
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