I landed in Hanoi, Vietnam on August 1st, where I met up with my old Ski Team friend Kristin Bersani IN customs. Literally. We hugged in front of the visa approval desk, to the stares of the whole room (little did I know this was the first of many times an entire room full of eyes would be following me over the next month).
Bersani had been traveling Thailand, Laos and Cambodia the last few months and saw my Insta posts, so we connected and decided to meet up for the first few days in Vietnam before I met up with my cousin Matt and his buddies. Bersani (B-san for short) and I embarked upon our first Vietnam experiences together and it was pretty epic to have someone to share the madness of Hanoi with.
Our first night we made a bee-line for traditional Vietnamese Pho (pronounced phuh) and had a few beers on the rooftop of Flipside hostel. Did you know that Phi is actually a breakfast meal to Vietnamese people? We’ve been living a lie in the USA! Anywho, the next morning we were picked up by a bus to head towards Ha Long Bay. As we boarded, the tour guide told us conspiratorially that we were upgraded from the 2-star boat to the 4 star boat, but to keep it to ourselves so as not to make the other tourists jealous. SCORE!
After a bumpy 3 hour bus ride, we got to the docks where all the massive boats leave to take tourists out to Ha Long Bay. As the small ferry boat got us closer to our waiting cruise boat, the crew began pounding a drum, adding to the excited atmosphere aboard our little dingy. The boat, Royal Palace, was a gorgeous old wooden cruise ship with intricate carvings inside and out. Check out the pics below.
The other travelers were a merry bunch. We had four other Americans aboard, two rambunctious women from Texas and a young couple from NYC, as well as an incredibly friendly Canadian (more about him later), a Brit girl, four Colombians, some Kiwis, and an odd set of Dutch guys with Vietnamese “girlfriends”. To no ones surprise, after a long, overly-choreographed day of kayaking, swimming, and hiking, the 6 Americans were the only ones singing Karaoke late into the night aboard the ship. Things got strange when someone found the traditional Vietnamese costumes in a closet…
The next day, Gary (the Canadian), BSAN and I were transported from the boat to a tiny island deep in Ha Long Bay. We went kayaking right before sunset and partied with some Scottish friends in bungalows on the beach. The next day we nursed our hangovers back aboard the Royal Palace as it drove through an incredible rainstorm back to the docks. I felt like as I was in a movie as the massive mountains loomed out of the misty rain when we passed.
I spent 5 hours on a boat, 3 hours on a bus back to Hanoi, and met up with my cousin Matt and his buddies Brock and Trevor, only to get on another overnight bus for 6 hours. Fortunately, Matt and crew had picked up what came to be our signature uniforms for the next 10 days - MATCHING BANANA SHIRTS!!!
The Banana Boys Adventure
We arrived in Ha Giang at 4am, went to sleep at QTs Hostel, then picked up our motorcycles from QTs Motorbikes first thing in the morning. QT has things dialed in and offers an incredibly professional service in this region. In fact, while we were checking in he got a call from another group who had had an accident, and he proceeded to send out people to pick up the damaged bike and escort the group to the hospital in order to be the translator and ensure they got all the care they needed. Now THAT’S service.
QT spoke plenty of English and had us set up and ready to rock within a few minutes. He was over the moon that we were wearing matching banana shirts and took a bunch of pics with us. He posted these on his FB and Instagram, and we became celebrities throughout northern Vietnam when all the other tour and hostel owners saw us, recognizing us from his posts. We brought in a cool 200 likes within a few hours. Talk about an influencer.
I was a little apprehensive about hopping on a motorcycle after only a few weeks of real riding under my belt, but the moment I cranked up to 4th gear on the way out of town I knew it was the only way to travel. We scooted up in to the hills, heading north. Within an hour I was absolutely spellbound by the sights, which is pretty dangerous as a newbie on a motorcycle on tiny one lane roads. We probably stopped every 5 minutes to take pictures because this road was INCREDIBLE. I don’t use the word spectacular lightly, but that’s simply the only way to describe it.
When you’re on a motorcycle, you can’t help but be insanely immersed in the scenery around you. You have to be in order to avoid potholes, chickens, falling rocks, cows, dogs, kids, and crazy Vietnamese drivers in all sorts of vehicles. This heightened level of awareness makes you really experience a road trip in a whole new way. In a car it’s easy to zone out a bit, but on a bike you can’t do that for a single second.
The first day was a dizzying rollercoaster of sights, sounds, and smells. We were in a rural part of Vietnam where they see very few westerners, so when 4 guys on big motorcycles wearing banana shirts roll through, the ENTIRE town stops to watch. At first we thought we were getting mean stares, but quickly discovered that when you smile and wave, the Vietnamese folks immediately crack up, smile, and wave back enthusiastically.
We finally arrived at our riverside hostel in Du Gia as the sun was going down. To cap off an absolutely epic day, we all went down and showered in the river, mountains sprouting up around us. It was surreal.
The next day was equally epic, fortunately this time I had my camera on my hip so I could take photos. The one above is my cousin Matt’s, cause he was smart enough to have his camera readily available on the first day.
We cruised up north to a larger town the 2nd night, Dong Van. It’s very close to the Chinese border, so after dropping our bags at the hotel we zoomed up to the furthest point we could reach. A massive observation tower was constructed here, and we could see in to China from the top. It was a pretty impressive sight.
That night we got a little rowdy. Spurred on by the popularity of our Banana shirts, we found our way to a family karaoke establishment. We managed to take turns with the locals, one Vietnamese song then one English song (maybe two). The echoes of our singing found their way back to our hotel, where the manager said we sounded great.
Next morning we began the trek to Bao Lac. We went through yet another incredible mountain pass, through Meo Vac. We had rain pretty much the entire day, which made riding tricky, slow, and nerve-wracking, but we made it in one piece (mostly).
Despite our best efforts to make it otherwise, this town was a little sleepier than Dong Van. We still had a good time trying some local food and chatting with the manager of our hotel.
From there, we made our way to Cao Bang, one of the furthest northeast points of Vietnam. It was to act as our springboard to get to Ban Gioc waterfall. When we first arrived in Cao Bang, we didn’t have a hotel planned out. We stopped in a park and began scouring Trip Advisor. While we were doing this, a 14 year old kid came up and asked if we needed help. He told us where the nicer hotel was, just around the corner, in pretty darn good English considering what we’d been hearing recently. His advice was spot on- a nice hotel that had 4 twin beds in a single room and a balcony overlooking the river - SCORE!
As we were unpacking and showering, we heard a knock on the door. It was the same kid from the garden who had given us the recommendation. Totally confused as to why he was here, we let him in. After he shyly chatted with us a bit, we realized he just wanted to hang out and practice his English. His real name was Mowvin or something, but he wanted us to give him an American name, so we called him Mike.
It was super fun to talk to Mike and ask him about his life in Cao Bang. Most Vietnamese kids never get the chance to leave the country, so he was equally as fascinated by us as we were by him. He chilled with us for about an hour and a half, when it got dark and he knew he needed to be home.
That night, thanks to a new friend we made on Tinder, we found our way to the most happening club in town on a Tuesday night. When we walked in (Banana shirts ablaze, of course), we were a bit overwhelmed by the pounding electronic music. Fortunately, this is also when we discovered that Nitrous balloons are not only legal in Vietnam, but sold at the bar for the same price as a Heineken. After a few huffs from the massive balloon, the electronic music was downright pleasant. We were celebrities in the bar that night thanks to our matching attire and skin color. We starred in at least 7 Facebook Live videos.
The next day was dedicated to reaching Ban Gioc Waterfall, a 180km ride from Cao Bang. This road differed from everything else we had ridden in that it had TWO LANES! This was a first for us. Nothing like extra room to make extra big turns!! The scenery was incredible and we pushed our bikes faster than we had all trip.
Before we reached the waterfall, we made a quick stop at the Buddhist temple that overlooked it. I actually liked visiting this temple more than the waterfall. It was serene, quiet, and we were the only people there. I snapped a few glamour photos of the boys in the amazing setting.
At the waterfall, Matt made friends with a Vietnamese guy who was traveling with a group of friends from Saigon. They invited us to join them for a picnic at the base of the waterfall. This ended up being SO awesome. Not only did they insist on sharing very good food with us, but they taught us all sorts of cool stuff, including how to Cheers in Vietnamese. We did at least 3 rounds of shots of rice wine before stumbling (a bit) back to our bikes to ride back to Cao Bang.
Unfortunately, something I ate that afternoon did not agree with me, and I was bed ridden with horrible stomach pains that night. Matt, Brock, and Trevor went out with our new Vietnamese friends though, and I’m totally jealous with the amount of fun they had while I ate bread and drank water.
I felt much better the next day as we sailed out of Cao Bang, onwards to Ba Be National Park. This was another beautiful ride, culminating in a very fun cruise through the national park itself. We had our first water hazard to deal with, but luckily our Yamaha’s took it in stride. It was super fun to be riding a motorcycle without shoes, toes skimming the water.
The next day we had a whopping 260km to tackle in order to get back to Ha Giang to return our bikes. Every other day we had done maximum 180km, so we knew this would be a rough one. We started off by taking one of the boats across the lake instead of riding around it. While this may not have been faster than just riding the road, it sure as hell was more fun.
Fortunately the roads were, once again, in great condition. We may have gone 30km out of the way in the morning, but we’ll chalk it up as just part of the adventure. We took our time, taking a few landscape pictures and making sure I got some badass riding shots of the boys.
The last 60km was on busy highway, at NIGHT. This leg was probablythe most dangerous and scary part of the whole trip, with buses and cars flying past us while we dodged other scooters who may or may not have their lights on. NO LIGHTS! At night. On a small road. Crazy shit, Vietnam.
We dropped off the bikes with QT and hopped aboard another night bus back to Hanoi. These buses are not comfortable in any way but they sure are convenient. We arrived at Central Hanoi Backpackers in the wee hours and got some real sleep. The last day in Hanoi we toured a few of the sights and geared ourselves up for a big night out for Trevor’s birthday. We wore the banana shirts one last time and joined on the hostel’s bar crawl. As you can see by Trevor’s face below, we had ourselves a thumpin good time.
Gotta give a shoutout to my cousin Matt for organizing this whole trip. Riding bikes in Northern Vietnam has been his dream for awhile, and he put together an incredible itinerary so we could all experience this place together. Here’s him takin' care of business and looking good doing it.
Thanks for an incredible trip, Matt!!
Keegan out.