2 men, 2 hogs, 1 Nam...0 passports

Vietnam

 

    This past July was my summer vacation while living and working in South Korea.  I spent my winter vacation in the Philippines, which ended with a few minor glitches (massive glitches really), this holiday would be no different.  I met my friend Axel in Vietnam to spend one of the more exhilarating, intense, amazing, rollercoaster of a ride vacations I've ever had.
I have always wanted to travel to Southeast Asia and Vietnam was very high on my list of places I needed to go.  I didn't know a whole lot about the country but I did know the food would be amazing, the roads would be crazy and the scenery would be beautiful.  I was also a little nervous about how a couple of Americans traveling through a country we were at war with only 40 years ago would be.  As it turned out the people were very nice and friendly, the roads however, were not!

    I met Axel and Sarah in Hanoi which is in the northern part of the country.  You can feel the Vietnamese heat slap you in the face the second you get off the airplane.  After heading outside the airport and having my first real glimpse of the country I was quite unimpressed with the "crazy roads" and "massive amounts of traffic" that bring a new meaning to the word hectic.  Axel and Sarah assured me that the airport was a bit out of the city and  it wouldn't take long before we were engulfed in a sea of bikes, cars, and people.  Now there's a few ways people travel through Vietnam, you either start from Hanoi (North) or Ho Chi Minh previously known as Saigon (South) and make your way to the other side.  Typically travelers give themselves around 3 weeks to a month depending on how much time you have and how you will make this journey.  The most popular way and undoubtedly the coolest is by motorbike.  I think Axel (very keenly) took this opportunity, being away from the chaos of the city, to pitch me the idea of buying motorbikes and cruising down south as our own tour guides on our own hogs.  I was a little reluctant at first (very reluctant), mainly due to the following:
1. I had never rode a motor bike before (let alone own one).
2. I did not have an international drivers license.
3. I did not have travel insurance (kind of a big one).

I figured this was something we should probably do, mostly because I have a real problem saying no (which has been my demise numerous times, but also been the reason for so many incredible memories or lack of I suppose), and also because...well...when in Nam.

Hanoi

Traffic
 

     Hanoi is a very busy, chaotic city, surrounding the famous Hoan Kiem Lake.  Legend has it that in the 15th century Heaven sent Emperor Le Thai To a magical sword that he used to drive the Chinese from Vietnam. After the war a giant golden turtle grabbed the sword and disappeared into the depths to restore the sword to its divine owners, hence the  name Ho Hoan Kiem (Lake of the Restored Sword).  Unfortunately we did not see any giant golden turtles, however, there were a few nights when Axel thought he had a magical sword. 
If you like shopping (and even if you don't), this is the place to be.  Everything is for sale and everything is super cheap.  There are entire streets dedicated to selling shoes, North Face products are at least 70% cheaper than in the States, and probably most important, beers are about 1$!!!
This was sadly Sarah's last night with us so we made sure to hit up the good Pho places and assisted her with last minute souvenirs.  After 1 night and 2 days in Hanoi eating and drinking very well (we are pretty good at both), shopping way more than necessary, and losing about 3 lbs. in sweat, we saw Sarah off to the airport and planned our tentative route through the Nam.  Since we were a little short on time, about 10 days (at that time it was 10 days, timeframe subject to change) we decided to cheat a little bit and take a night train to Hue, where we would buy our bikes and hope for the best. 

Hue

Mr. Kim's bike shop

     I was very happy with our decision to start our adventure from Hue (pronounced Hway, which for some reason I had a real problem with).  The roads were still insane and chaotic, but the city is smaller than Hanoi, so in my mind improved our chances of making it out alive on our hogs.  We got a hotel, which is basically the same price as a hostel, I think we paid around $15 for the room and began our search for some bikes.  We tried to be diligent in our search inquiring through at least 3 hotels, Facebook, and reading travel blogs from recent visitors.  All inquiries lead to one place and one person...Mr. Kim.  He was apparently the man to see about a bike.  We told him what we were looking for and he said it wouldn't be a problem.  When we arrived at Mr. Kim's we told him we had never been on bikes before and basically had no idea what we were doing.  He laughed a bit and took us to a little grass lot across the street from his shop.  We probably looked pretty ridiculous practicing in this little lot stalling and swerving a bit uncontrollably.  At this point however, our minds were set, we told him a couple things we wanted fixed up on the bikes (racks, new tires etc...) and would be back to pick them up in the morning.  We went out on the town to celebrate our new purchases and possibly indulge in a little liquid courage. 

Somewhere along the river in Hue

This was the first time I noticed all the battle scars and friendly reminders that the roads of Vietnam are no joke!  Every bar we went to had at least a few people all bandaged up, in casts, or sporting nasty blisters and scabs.  We played pool with 2 guys from Canada who were on a very similar trip as us, they were heading the same direction we were.  One of them had broken his arm a week ago due to an accident on his bike, the other had blisters on both legs from leaning against the tail pipe.  Axel and I realized that this was going to be an adventure, and I felt a little like fresh meat for the streets to eat up.  We ended up calling it an early night (by our standards) so we were prepared for whatever was in store for us the following day. 
We managed to wake up fairly early, picked up our bikes and headed south, destination  Hoi An.

Axel and his broke bike

Hoi An

     We probably made it 20 kilometers outside of Hue before our first mechanical problems.  We were told to expect the bikes to break down numerous times but this was a little ridiculous, we had only been on the rode for 30 minutes.  At any rate, Axels brakes were locking up and that's not the sort of problem you can ignore for a few hours.  We immediately pulled over and tried to figure out what was going on.  I'd like to reiterate here that this is basically the first time we've been on bikes, (Axel had more experience than me, but it had been 10 years for him.  Also, the last time he was on a motorbike he broke his collar bone...sooooooo) we were still getting used to riding them and had absolutely no clue how to fix anything on them.  We pulled over and within a few minutes another biker rolled up behind us to check out the situation.  This dude spoke no English but made it pretty clear he knew what was wrong and could probably fix it.  We called good old Mr. Kim from the bike shop and had him talk to our new biker friend.  Basically Axels massive pack weighed too much and was effing up his brakes.  Our friend pulled out a screw driver and fixed it all up in a few minutes.  Axel threw him around $2 and we were off.  We were also told these old bikes break down all the time but it's never more than a few bucks to fix them (so far so true). 

July 21, 2015 Axels birthday present to me.
Needless to say I returned it.

The ride into Hoi An was beautiful (would turn out to be my favorite ride of the whole trip).  This leg of the trip had a bit of everything, riding though the mountains, jungle, cities, villages, and along the coast.  Looking back it might have been cool to spend more time in Da Nang, but we were short on time (or so we thought).   It felt really nice to get a full day under our belts, and we had no issues with CC (Axel's bike) and Sheldon (my bike...haven't decided yet if I'm going to explain those names).
Hoi An is a really cool, old city, it's now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  There's lots to do in this ancient town, from cruising around the markets, checking out the local temples and pagodas, picking out a tailor made suit (for around $130 including shipping), taking up a local cooking class or relaxing on the beach.  This is also a popular destination for foreigners making their way around the country, so you're bound to make friends while staying in this lovely place.  This is also where we found one of the cooler hostels we would stay at.  If you ever find yourself in Hoi An stay at the Sunflower Hotel (it's more of a hostel than a hotel at $11 a night.).

Exploring

When searching for a place to stay, I read the Sunflower had a pool, a bar, free breakfast, and the most unfriendly staff in town...sold!!  Everything I read was true, and it was pretty entertaining at times.  My goal from the moment we arrived was to make one of those god for saken staff members smile, and I finally did on the last day (and to be fair, I'm pretty sure she had been drinking all day...booyah)!  We spent 3 days here exploring and relaxing on the beach during the day, heading back to the pool/pool bar in the evening to make friends, then making our way into town with whomever was going out from the hostel.  The nightlife was interesting, everyone heads down by the river where all the bars and restaurants are lined up, then at midnight everything will shutdown immediately.  I mean instantly, they will cut the power, take your drinks and kick you out!  Then, they will try and corral everyone to the ONE open bar in the entire city (not sure how this is decided, it was a different place every night). 


No idea what this is.

This one open bar will stay open till people leave, or pass out I guess.  It turns into a bit of a shit show, you quickly decide what kind of night you want to have and make your decision, get the hell out of there, or try and belly up and prepare for the shenanigans to ensue (for the record we usually chose the latter, not sure I would recommend it though).  We met lots of great people here, ate lots of cheap delicious food and relaxed on the beach everyday, it was a great stop, but it was time to get a move on.  Next stop Nha Trang, aka the Russian capital of Vietnam.



Look closely...see the Russians?

Nha Trang

Me and my hommie

     You might have heard Nha Trang is the beach capital of Vietnam, don't be fooled, it is the Russian capital of Vietnam...it also has some beaches.  This city is a Russian resort first and a beach town for foreigners second.  The beaches are quiet nice, lined with resorts, restaurants, spas, and bars.  The water is a beautiful crystal clear turquoise.  The city itself is different from every other city in Vietnam in that it doesn't shut down at midnight.  Nha Trang is a true party town, the whole city stays open until everyone has had enough.  It also has something for everyone, English pubs, Italian restaurants, Sea food markets, Australian pubs and lady boys...lots of lady boys (right Axel?  Just kidding...sorta).


This move is called the half shirt, very popular in Asia

If anyone makes it to Nha Trang please stay at the Mojzo Inn!  It is one of the best hostels I've stayed at!  Mostly because the staff is amazing.  They made it a point to learn our names as soon as we checked in.  Every time we came home or left they were there to greet us or recommend a nice place to eat or grab a drink.  The best part was they really couldn't pronounce Axel's name, he tried to correct them numerous times and even wrote it down, but for some reason Vietnamese have a real hard time with his name (this was everywhere in the country...which was awesome), so Axel became Axhole.  I actually looked forward to leaving and coming back to the hostel just so I could here, "Oh hey Brendan and Axhole, how was the beach?  Axhole, what kind of food do you want tonight?  Brendan, why is your friend such an Axhole?"  Ok, they never really said the last one, they were really the nicest, sweetest people to ever work at a hostel (free breakfast as well, which was one of the better ones we had).
We were short on time here so we had pick between taking a boat out for the day and do some snorkeling and cruising around, or hit up the biggest (maybe only?) waterpark in Vietnam. 

Getting ready for Friday night beach party...
Russians get free entrance

We chose the boat, not sure if it was the right move.  It was a nice day to be out on the water though, we may or may not have been out extremely late the previous night so it might not have been the smoothest sailing.  In our haste to catch the boat, we bought a big bottle of water from a local lady who first tried to sell it to us for double the price, and then really pulled a fast one us.  As we pulled away from the dock and started slamming the water we realized it wasn't sealed, this sneaky (trying to keep this post classy) lady just filled up the bottle with filthy tap water! 


Out on da boat

Acting like  we are not sick

This did not help our situation...to say the least.  Despite the long day on the boat (and boats bathroom), Nha Trang was a very cool (and bizarre...again, mostly due to the abnormal amount of Russians) stop for us. 
We managed to eat very well, seafood market one night, Italian another night and amazing burgers at an English pub another (not very Vietnamese I know, but, when in Nha Trang as they say...just kidding, nobody says that).  It was actually a little sad leaving this place, we hugged our gracious hostel hosts goodbye and promised to come back one day.  I actually went back about 15 minutes because I left my raincoat.  I went back and it was gone (it was a really nice jacket I've had for a long time, first casualty of the trip!).  I did get to say goodbye one more time to our new friends, and they assured me if they found it they would send it to our next stop in Da Lat (pretty sure one of them had tears rolling down her cheek as she waved her final goodbye).

Where the classy lay out

Da Lat


Pullover on the way up to Da Lat

     The cruise to Da Lat was very nice, once we were out of the mayhem of Nha Trang.  The roads getting out of the city were extremely rowdy.  I did get a nice scare when I cruised passed a semi truck with a bike laying underneath it and a bunch of people crowded around the scene.  It was nerve racking just making a left turn or trying to make your way through a round a bout (or suicide circle as they should be called).  Let's just say it was a good thing we had 110 cc's of raw power between our legs to burn through the traffic (lots of jokes there...I know).  Da Lat is an awesome little town found way up in the mountains.  It's a great escape from the non stop pounding heat of every other city in Nam.  It took us awhile to find our accommodation here, a bit tucked away in the alleys and up the hills.
  We were not staying at a hostel this time around, it was our first time experiencing a home stay.  We had heard along the way that Tiny Tigers ($4 a night) was the place to stay in town, it was a homestay and the owner Leo was a great guy.  Once again word of mouth did not fail us.  It was a really cool experience staying at Leo's house. 


I sometimes ran out of gas

The first night he took a group of us out into town.  He showed us where to get the best Pho, Vietnamese pizza, and eggs (not the eggs your thinking of, probably not the eggs you want either).  Traveling for awhile as it was, our stomachs were never really normal, we were not too keen on having the eggs, which are really duck and quail embryo.  It looks just like a boiled egg on the outside, and just like an embryo on the inside...surprise!  Also, Leo made it very clear that is was bad luck to just eat one or two, the key was to eat 3 (at this point I was starting to rethink Leo being a great guy).  Anyway, somehow, we managed to slurp down some embryo, membrane and all.  Leo then took us to a local bar that had live music and hooked us up with some drink specials.  The incredible thing is Leo does this every night!  He either takes his guests out into town or he cooks them dinner and everyone eats with his family.  It was a great night.  Leo had set us up with a Canyoning tour (which apparently was on Axel's bucket list) the next day so we all called it an early one.

Axel loves his hog!

We had to get up pretty early for the tour, the other couple staying at the house also booked the same tour.  It is actually one of the more popular things to do in Da Lat, along with the Easy Rider tours (motorcycle rides around the mountains).  The tour was pretty interesting, it started with a van ride into the jungle where we were taken to some rafts.  The "raft guides" had never rafted before and were trying out a new option to offer on the tour.  So, along the river we went, the commands we heard from our fearless leader were similar to "Straight!" "Left!" "Faster!" it was pretty awesome.  At one point Axel just took over the guiding reins from the front (however nobody in the raft realized this, so our guide thought he was doing a great job).  The raft behind us was getting stuck on every rock in the river then managed to almost flip numerous times.  It was a pretty impressive show, Axel and I were in tears the entire time.  After the wild white water rafting, we had the 4 wheeling adventure.  This consisted of about 8 of us standing in the back of a jeep with life jackets and harnesses on getting jerked in every possible direction. The driver used one hand to keep the front door closed and the other on the steering wheel to keep us from launching off a cliff.  The grand finale of this adventure was the canyoning (again, I can't stress this enough...major check off on Axel's bucket list).  We first practiced canyoning by tying a rope to a tree and the other end to our harness and pretended like we were going down a cliff (in reality it was flat ground). 


Pho with the locals

Nothing to take lightly as canyoning is a very serious ordeal, Axel actually was sternly talked to for not paying attention and trying to put on his own harness (he was really embarrassing me at this point).  We did eventually get to the actual canyoning part, which is really just repelling down a waterfall.  A little bit too wild for Axel and I, but the scenery was unreal and they did offer an amazing lunch on the river.  I really wish I could post some of the action shots from the day but I made a vow to never show anyone (I won't say who I promised).  It was a fun day and we met some really nice people on the trip.  The highlight of the day was actually dinner that night, which was prepared my Leo's wife. 

Night market

We had a family style dinner with everyone staying that night (8 people) and the family, Leo, his wife and their son TinTin (his wife and son are the "Tiny Tigers").  TinTin was 8 years old and had no fear, he would happily steal your beer and run away.  In our case he thought it was hilarious to steal our hats and fashion them off to the other guests. Dinner was amazing, noodles, soup, rice, vegetables, beef and chicken.  Leo also brought out a massive jug filled with a fermented rice wine, and two straws. 

Not your typical hard boiled eggs

Avocados, big ones

You and the person next to you had to drink while everyone else counted to ten (at the pace they deemed fit).  We passed the jug around until it was empty, I really liked it at first, I really hated it after the 5th time around.  It was such a great experience having dinner with everyone that night, we all hung around and talked for hours.  We were planning on leaving early the next morning to make it to Ho Chi Minh by evening, but Leo said it would be a long and hard ride and would not recommend it.  He told us to stop at a small little beach town called Mui Ne, it would break the trip up nicely and we could stay at a cheap hostel on the beach for around $7 a night...sold!  Little did we know the next day would change the rest of the entire trip...and our perception of the Vietnamese policia!! 

Heading out of Da Lat

Da Lat - Mui Ne

    We left Da Lat very early in attempt to avoid the rain that comes every morning/afternoon.  We had about a 5-7 hr. ride ahead of us and we had been really fortunate in the past  missing most storms and traveling at dark. 

The treachery begins

We were not so lucky this time.  The rain came almost immediately, and it was probably the worst place to have rain.  It came down fast and hard while we were up in the mountains, the roads were full of potholes and switchbacks.  We had to pull over so I could purchase a poncho, which barely helped.  It was a VERY intense drive.  The potholes filled with murky water so you really couldn't see them, the roads were very narrow, you can't be driving all over the place either, massive semis would come tearing around the corners.  In addition to all this madness, you had to keep an eye out for roaming buffalo, cattle, goats and dogs.  It was a miserable drive, we pulled over a few times to check the map and attempt to get circulation back in our hands and feet. 

serious ponchos

After around 3 hrs. of weathering the storm and hammering along, the rain finally stopped!  We pulled over again to try and dry off and rest.  I went to take out my phone and take some pictures when I realized the back of my pack had somehow unzipped, just enough so that everything in it had fallen out.  I was pretty upset that my phone/camera, books, headlamp etc... had been lost along the way, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be replaced.  About an hour later as we were cruising along, I was convincing myself that all was not lost, I've lost phones and cameras before and it wasn't a big deal, at least we were safe and still had our passports...oh shit!
My stomach dropped to my toes and I could feel my whole body collapse, both Axel and my passports were in that part of the bag.  We usually held onto our own passports, and they were usually tucked away safely inside.  However this morning, we didn't check out until after we had packed up and loaded our bags onto the bikes.  I checked us out so I had both the passports, my bag was also a bit more accessible, so I was able to cram both of them inside.  Riding through the mountains all day in the storm, there was no way we could turn around head back to find them.  It was going to be dark soon and we had no idea where or when they could have fallen out.  At this point we had to get to Mui Ne and figure out what in the world we were going to do (I was due to leave in 3 days).

Last known photo taken with passports

I wish we could have pulled into Mui Ne under different circumstances.  It is a beautiful quaint beach town.  Our hostel had a nice pool and tiki bar where everyone hung out.  I could have stayed here for a week and relaxed, except we only had 1 night and there was no relaxing.  We did have lunch on the beach and then attempted to relax by the pool.  The owner of the hostel was an Australian war veteran named Mr. John.  We got to know Mr. John pretty well, speaking with him throughout the day trying to figure out what we were going to do.


First picture sans passports.  I call this one light at the end of the tunnel.
It's called forshadowing...er something

  He ended up sitting with us after dinner attempting to console us and telling us old war stories.  It was a really interesting evening and he was a joy to talk with.  If you find yourself in Mui Ne stay at the Backpacker Village and pick Mr. John's brain about the history and culture of Vietnam, you won't be disappointed.  Unfortunately we had an early morning, we had to B line it to Ho Chi Minh City in hopes of  new passports and visas.

Pulling into Mui Ne...wasn't in the mood to be in pictures

Ho Chi Minh

    The drive here was uneventful (relatively speaking).  The roads were just as hectic and treacherous as the worst roads along the way.  The highway was crammed with trucks, tractors, bikes, people and animals.  We didn't have time to enjoy the sites or stop for resting, we basically hammered it the entire way until we got to our hostel.  Ho Chi Minh is a lively place, to say the least and probably the least desirable place to be cruising around on a bike (at least when you first arrive), it truly brings a new meaning to the word chaos. 

Nice spot for taking in the chaos

We parked our bikes and headed into the hostel, which would not give us our room due to the lack of passports.  We found this to be a very common theme, no passports equals no accommodation.  After searching for a few hours we did find a place that would take us, it seemed they also took in cockroaches and I'm sure rats were welcomed as well.  The next morning we went to the U.S. Embassy to share our sob story and hope for the best (I was leaving the next day, so this was truly an emergency). 

We had to take a Superdong to the island.  Axel thought it
was hilarious, I think he's immature.

We could not have been happier with the Embassy.  As soon as we arrived we were ushered passed the long lines and right through the entrance.  The employees were very generous and explained that they could definitely help us, we could have emergency passports within the hour, we just needed to get file a police report!  Okay, well that seems like good news we thought.  We hightailed it to the nearest police station to file a report.  There was 1 person who spoke English and 0 people who wanted to file a police report for us.  They actually worked harder to not help us than it would have been to file a report.  They told us to leave numerous times, they told us we had to go back to the town we thought we lost the passports and file a report in that district.  At one point they were so unhelpful Axel pulled out his phone and started recording the absurdity that was occurring (they did not like this...at all!).  After two and a half hours of begging, pleading, yelling, refusing to leave the guard went back to his boss for the 5th time to pass along our request.  This time he came back with a smile and said his boss would file a report. 

Island life

We ran back to the U.S. Embassy with police report in hand and praying that it hadn't closed yet.  We were again ushered to the front of the line and right up to the counter.  In about 30 minutes we had our new passports!  Now, they said, all you need are your new exit visas, you can get those at the Vietnamese Immigration office...oh for crying out loud.

Now we booked it to the immigration office, not as accommodating here, we definitely did not get ushered to the front of the line.  It was kind of the opposite actually, numerous people cut in front of us and all the officers basically ignored us.  Finally, we mustered up the courage to jump in front of everyone and slap our passports on the table.  First, nobody here is impressed to see an American passport, second, nobody here is impressed with anything, it's like they were all sleep walking and pretending to work.  After finally getting someone's attention she gladly told us she could get us visas.  She took our passports and then told us to come back in 8 days and maybe they would be ready.  Again, more yelling, pleading, begging...this time to no avail.
We walked out of the office with our heads hanging low, we were so close to pulling this off, but now we were stuck here for god knows how long and again, passportless! 
It sucks being in a foreign country with no passport, you cannot book a hostel or hotel, you cannot travel by train or bus or fairy, you certainly cannot book a flight back home!
It took us a few days sulking about to pull it together a bit.  We were stuck here whether we liked it or not, we might as well start making the best of our extended vacation.  We had been around the block a few times at this point so we were able to find decent accommodations, we made some friends and new of all the good spots for food and night life.  We even managed to book a ferry to Phu Quoc off the south western part of the country. 

Me if I was in the Vietnam war

This was a bit of a mission and we may have told some white lies to get on the ferry.  Phu Quoc is the largest island in Vientam, known for it's tropical climate and waters.  It's a very beautiful place that has been occupied by Cambodia, France and America.  Currently Vietnam is trying to stake it's claim by blowing this island up with resorts and casinos.  Unfortunately, in the next 10 years this island will look and feel very different.  Fortunately for Vietnam, after they own every casino and resort on the island it will be very difficult for any other country to stake its claim.  After 3 days of island life we headed back to the mainland for round 2 of mission PASSPORT. 
This time we were not messing around.  I had already missed one flight and wasn't about to miss another (I was again supposed to be leaving the next day at this point).  We went into the office that Saturday morning and noticed it was completely empty.  We had with us a note from the previous week signed by an officer, it said to come back on this day to get our passports and visas.  There was nobody here, no customers and no employees, there was one person behind the counter replacing a light bulb (I thought to myself that he probably worked harder than everyone else in this building combined).  We went outside and walked behind the office in hopes of finding anyone that had a uniform on.  We spotted a guard walking around and immediately ran up to him asking for help.  He immediately told us to get lost, they were closed!  At this point I considered myself a pretty decent beggar, pleader, yeller, basically anything I could do to persuade him to help us.  As I was doing this, Axel snuck around into the building in search of someone with a little more authority.  After about 20 minutes and this jerk not budging (all he kept saying was "closed, come back Monday"), Axel appeared from around the corner with a man in a suit and tie.  This guy definitely had more authority, whether or not he wanted to help still remained unclear.  He also worked very hard to not do any work, he said the office was closed, he said he couldn't help without seeing my plane ticket home, etc...  We finally convinced him that it would be so much easier to give us our passports than deal with us for the next 72 hours.  He walked around front, unlocked a cabinet door and handed us our passports.  It literally took him 45 seconds to do this!  He then said it would be $200 and there was no receipt (pretty standard business transaction here I imagine). 
Finally!  We had passports (temporary) and visas (also temporary), so I could legally leave this country! 

Incase they didn't give our passports back

We did have a bit of a celebration that night (it may or may not have included subway and pizza), and really enjoyed my last night in Vietnam with passports and visas!!!!!!!!

BFF

I made it back to Korea (without my Korean Visa...that's a whole other story), only missed 1 week of work, only missed 1 flight, and only spent a little over double what I had planned. 
Once again, my holiday in Asia hadn't gone as exactly planned, had a few serious casualties.  But considering what we had been through and the way we went through it, I considered it a moral victory.  For our first times on motorbikes and hammering through most of Vietnam in 3 weeks, without dying or serious injury is pretty impressive, there were definitely times where it didn't look that way.  All in all one of the craziest holidays I've had, thanks Axhole for braving the storm with me and even more so for being a great friend.  Thanks CC and Sheldon for the memories...we rode you hard!


Bman & Axel 2 - Vietnam 1 (I told you we are counting this as a moral victory...Vietnam may disagree, but I don't care!).


Meeting Axel in Thailand this weekend for Chuseok holiday...as usual, we plan for a very safe, smooth, uneventful trip.  I can't imagine anything going wrong, what's 3 days in Bangkok?

Just felt that I had to post this one.
Sometimes you just have to follow the lights Axel.