I know you have been eagerly awaiting my next installment, well wait no longer.  I spent 15 days in Northern Vietnam, north of Hanoi driving around on my motorbike.  I did four separate routes, part 1-4, but first is getting from HCMC to Sa Pa

So the journey started in HCM with Oscar taking a ride on the train to Hanoi.  It took 10 days and I flew up to Hanoi to meet him.  I landed at 4:40pm and was in a taxi by 5pm and made it to the train station by 5:55pm. That is pretty good going for Hanoi.  Now as I have found, somethings are not as simple as you would think they should be.  Luckily I had someone to help me from Tigit Motorbikes to help me navigate through the Vietnam Railway system.  So we found my bike all wrapped up, we unwrapped it and siphoned petrol from one bike to the other so I could drive it to the other side of the tracks for my journey to Sapa.

I bought my ticket and then had to wait till 8pm to check my bike in. I came back at 8pm and they said, come back at 9pm!  We finally boarded and left at 10pm.

Now because I wasn’t sure if I could get my motorbike on the same train as me, I only bought a ticket that night so I was not in a sleeper car.  I went how the locals travel so that was fun.  We arrived at Lao Cai about 6am and I had hooked up with a motorbike tour group so we had breakfast together and they gave me some fuel to get to the petrol station.

We filled up and I said goodbye to them and set off.  Now, I don’t know what it is but the hardest part about navigating in Vietnam is getting out of the town.  It took me 3 goes to find the right direction to Sa Pa.  I also noticed that my speedo wasn’t working so I found a Honda Head and got that fixed before I left. This is me at the petrol station ready to go.

It is only about 35km to Sa Pa, once you find the right way, so off I headed.  The road is pretty windy and there are lots of buses, so it was exciting.  I made it to Sa Pa, found a hotel and slept.

I did a bit of exploring; local market and had Bun Cha, City Centre and got  duped into buying a bracelet from a 1 year old.

I had a great meal and view, planned for my first trip and went to bed.