400km to Hue

After getting up early and enjoying a local breakfast and coffee it was time to hit the road for the 400km to Hue.

I usually try to limit the daily drive in Vietnam to 100km to have time to do it comfortably and taking the scenic road. Doing 400km in one day sounded like a lot but I knew it wasn't too difficult to do with an earlier start and shorter breaks in between.

Despite having a long distance to go, I chose to go via the best route and take the Ho Chi Minh Road south. It's really the best way to travel in Vietnam.

While I didn't want to miss out on taking photos but didn't want to stop for this, I just took photos while driving.

The journey is great and very scenic but you need to watch your petrol since you can easily run very low and not have any town or petrol station around.

After a long drive, I made it back to Hue a bit earlier than even expected and without being too tired but in need of a cold beer.

Sunset on the Way South

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/440, ISO 200, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm LTM)

Another day, another change of plans. After relaxing and going for a (very unusual for me) swim in the sea and relaxing having coffee till around lunch, I found out that they can't deliver my motorbike in Hue any faster either from here.
So I just decided that enough is enough and will just drive all the way to Hue. While it wasn't possible to do over 650km in a few hours of daylight left, I at least wanted to go as close to Hue as possible before getting dark.
Vinh would have been the obvious choice but I wanted to go a bit further still so decided for Tanh Hoa.
After changing the front tire on my bike (which set me back even more time), I decided to take the most direct but also worst route down south via AH1. This allowed me to drive fast enough and make it to Tanh Hoa just after it got dark.

Tam Coc to Sam Son

The day started a bit grey and overcast but the area around Tam Coc and Ninh Binh is still great and very scenic.

Since the plan was to take the late evening train back to Hue, I had more than enough time to just enjoy driving around the area, enjoy the landscape and take photos.

It was great and I spent the whole morning just taking in the landscape without visiting too many places around.

After lunch, when trying to buy the train tickets was when I had to change plans slightly. While I could get a train ticket for myself, they could only deliver my motorbike in Hue in 5 days.

While I don't need my motorbike on a daily basis and it would probably be good for me to start doing some more walking, having it standing around in Ninh Binh wasn't really what I wanted.

So instead of waiting around, I decided to try my luck in Tanh Hoa, around 60km south or 80km via the scenic route. As far as government employees go, the ones in Vietnam all go home at 4pm so I didn't make it in time to the train station so had to spend the night.
Sam Son is only 16km from Tanh Hoa by the seaside so I figured it's the nicer place to stay at for the night.

Hanoi to Ninh Binh

After spending over a week in Hanoi it was time to head out and go for a road trip somewhere.
The plan was to go north to Sapa and Ha Giang but timing and some things with my cafe to sort out meant that I had to head back to Hue earlier.

It was pouring down with rain the whole morning so I almost expected to have to cancel he trip. Lucky it stopped by around lunchtime so despite being a bit late, I decided to head to Ninh Binh and Tam Coc via a scenic route.

The drive was great and indeed very scenic, I enjoyed being on the road and seeing the great landscape and nice small towns pass by as I made my way to Ninh Binh.

It started pouring again halfway through my journey but I didn't let that stop me and with a raincoat on I continued till the rain stopped and I could enjoy the remaining drive to Ninh Binh and then Tam Coc to spend the night (after having some bia hoi).

Vietnam Independence Day - 70 Years

After lots of preparations in the past days and a practice parade on the 29th, Independence Day came along and the parade started early in the morning.

While I didn't plan on staying in Hanoi that long, it didn't make sense to leave without staying for the parade and the fireworks in the evening.

Not being organised enough meant I arrived a bit too late and since it was packed I didn't get the best views. Still, I did manage to get some photos of the parade and the people around.

The parade was pretty cool and something different although I had hoped to see some tanks and other military vehicles included, too.

The fireworks in the evening were packed and it took ages and climbing over lots of motorbikes to get to a place with a decent view.

As soon as I made it to the square and had the view it started really pouring down so the fireworks were not as spectacular as they could have been if it would have been dry.

Still, it was cool to see the celebrations and be around Hanoi for the day.

Boat on West Lake

OPO, f2.0, 1/3720, ISO 100, JPG