::: LWUp Vietnam and four Greatest Passes North West Vietnam

Vietnam liberty Day, May Day, and Hung King's birthday gave us some days off the work - that's time for a ride
Out team have planned to ride four Greatest passes West northern of Vietnam during this occasion. Some of us ride up north from Hochiminh City, some send their bikes via train to Hanoi then they after fly there to collect the bike. All of us make an appointment in Hanoi for departure.
Great trip, great view, great food, great riding buddies.... and not completed yet

I was planning to ride alone to Hanoi, then lucky me that a friend of mine can join me. He initially intended to see me off after 1 or 2 days ride... Well much better than alone. Better when he 's also with a GSA, same bike range, same riding style, same favorite...
Normally we depart from town early in the morning to get away from traffic as soon as possible.
But this time, because we have only two bikes, so easy to decide.
Not to leave any spare time, after office hours, we headed home for dinner with family, then departed.

Waiting for buddy at a gas station:



After 250km night ride, we checked in a hotel, ready for the next morning ride the mountain.

$10 room, with all the things we need:



Tracklog for Day 1 - actually first 4 hours:

Woke up early and ready for the Day 2.
Rode for half an hour for breakfast on a small highland town:



What a great morning to ride. Clear traffic, a bit sunny, bike and body were fully charged :



My friend's bike with very nice wrapping boxes:



As we planned for the ride at West northern Vietnam, so we have to prepare for serious fog lights.
Those are all normal LED lights, we put amber sticker/vinyl on them, then we have great fog lights :



Another stopped for drinks:





Nắng lên chói chang rồi...











Our light lunch somewhere on road:



We took a nap at the lunch place.
They have some very big wooden beds, ready for any customer to take a nap, or whomever wanna buy one.
I have no idea how and where they can get those big big wood pieces like this:

We arrived KonTum quite early in the evening. We rode around town to find a hotel.
Finally we got one:



Not a very good hotel, but fit with what we need. Funny that they have four pcs of sandal, and all of them are same side. What an interesting anti-thief tip:



Dinner place within walking distance:



Thought I can't remember what meat was this:





Almost 700km from home:





Tracklog for Day 2:

Beautiful! What a great road for motorcycles! Thanks for the RR.

Another good night away from home. We woke up quite early in the morning. Thus we agreed to depart early as well.
Another race with the sun:



We heading to the road #14C. It's border line between Vietnam and Cambodia:



Stopped for breakfast around 30km from Kon Tum. Nice beef noodle (Pho), and we can even ordered some coffee from next door shop. The coffee cup in middle of Vietnam is different from the south. They have very small cup of coffee, very little ice. Unlile in Hochiminh City, a big glass of coffee, with lots of ice :) :



On the road, toward border with Cambodia:











Good that two bikes are same range and same riding style, great for this road:

Soon we reached road 14C - it's near border road, with minimum traffic, mostly for border guard patrol:



It was raining here:







The road surface quite tricky with lots of slippery rocks:

What are the temperatures there and the overall weather like?

Almost to the Bo Y border gate, the road was much better:









.

Turn left we can go to Laos thru Bo Y border gate:



Good morning Hochiminh trail:

We have many type of weather, i meant temperature along the way.
At the point I was being around for the Day 3, it was around 22 Deg C in the morning, 32-36 Deg C at noon time.
This time (May) is beginning of raining season at South, but it's early start of Summer for the North, very hot at the North.

Thanks for the great ride report.
Really enjoyed the pictures.
The ride and the food look awesome.

Can you share a map of your route.
I'm sure many would like to follow in your tracks...

Did you ever get the stickers that I had sent you.....


Cheers..
Chicky .... Sunny Mildura Australia..

Looks like a great ride so far, especially with big bikes like those in the land of 100cc cycles. I plan to ride down to Kon Tum from Hanoi in October/November.

Thank you. Wish I could have better camera. Due to travel with a team, so I have to use small camera as they are flexible in moving. The scenery there really AWESOME! Thought my picture just can capture 5-10% of it. Especially for the West northern part, toward the end of the trip.

Sure for the tracklog, I normally do that in my previous RR, how come I forgot to put 'em here.

Already added them to the above posts.

Hi Chicky. I got them, really got them! Though I informed you via mail and also from ADV as well.
So sorry that you did not know they are here or not.
Thank you very much Chicky, for sending me ADV stickers all the way from Australia.
I really hope very soon in near future I can join you guys and bring the stickers home myself.

Ah, here some of them are:

I really excited when riding on Hochiminh trails, any part of it. Nice, winding, and empty road. People said Hochiminh trail is one of the road you should ride before you die.





Spotted a backpack foreigner on the Hochiminh trail. I really don't like such kind of riding. Foreigners come and rent scooters, without proper license, without any basic protective gears.









Now comes to concrete surface, real HCM trail:



My friend ate all the chicken strip:



Look at mine, so bad :





Almost to Đà Nẵng:

Enjoy every corner:



Found some small waterfall along the way. It's dry season, so not much water.







Well, it was hot, really hot. My waterproof First Gear pants are terribly hot if I am not rolling.





Weather turned strange, it was almost noon time.





We parked at a lunch place, put our shoes outside for a dry:



Our simple Vietnamese food - really traditional meal for lunch:



As usual, we took a nap at the lunch place, for around half an hour, then hit the road again.

Great pictures and report.

Very cool and just my kind of pace! Corners, food, napping and then more corners!

Thanks for coming along and commented.
There are soooo many pictures later on....