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SCOOT TOURING VIETNAM
PHAN THIET/MUI NE
29 June 2008
It was quite an eventful weekend
to say the least. Firstly the Ride Leader, Mr. Cordura couldn’t get up and
meet the RV time as planned as he was still drunk from the previous night’s
drinking session. Morale of the story; never drink the night before a ride
no matter how early you intend to stop drinking. Poor Donald had to wait for
1 hour before we had breakfast and started our journey by 7.15am. It seemed
that from the get-go we had to change our plans. Apologies are in order
again as there’s no excuse for not making it on time. The traffic getting
out of HCMC can be a bitch as such we had to endure a good 30km of crawling
before getting in some comfortable riding. One will understand why as this
is the only road that leads out of HCMC and heads up all the way to Hanoi
for a good total of about 2000km.
Other than this there were a few other firsts to be announced. Andy our BAGster from KL who has only recently been posted to Vietnam had his first bike ride and tour only after his first month here. For the record he hasn’t even ridden in town yet. He’s really got B@lls I should say. He rented a Honda SH150 for his virgin ride and it ended up being the right choice for him based on this being his first time and all. Incidentally, the SH is considered a premium model in HCMC. After this ride and under the conditions we were exposed to I guess there’s some merit to this claim.
We also had another first in the ride and that was Eric and girlfriend Luan taking up the challenge on their Yamaha Nouvo for the whole 200km journey. The only consolation was the many stops we made for coffee (Vietnamese coffee that is) ala BAGster style to ease the monotony of the ride. Some things in BAGsterdom never change.
OK here’s some facts for some orientation to where our ride took us to. Phan Thiet (and not Phantit as I was corrected earlier by Don ) is a coastal town about 190km away from HCMC. Built along the banks of the Phan Thiet river and the Muong Man River, its still crowded with fishing boats on its banks amidst a modernizing city emerging. Other than it being a former colonial town for the Europenas in the 16th century, its economy today is pretty much driven by tourism. What’s interesting is also that there used to be Chinese, Malay and Indonesians living in this part of Vietnam. This explains the beautiful mosque we passed by on the way a few kilometers away before getting into town.
Mui Ne on the other hand is a small town about 12km away reminiscent of
Tanjung Bungah, Penang as you coast in to the town with all the resorts
lining up along the beach front. Other than it being famous for its Sand
Dunes which was something rather unique, it’s also a popular spot for
foreigners who enjoy wind/kite surfing.
We ended up staying in Phan Thiet that night and had a good hearty breakfast of local noodles before heading back to HCMC passing by what we saw as a very thriving Dragon fruit supply industry.
All arrived safely the next day, Andy’s rented scoot and all by 5pm with good memories of a well deserved weekend in Vietnam. Thanks once again to Donald, Andy, Eric and the only rose amongst the thorns, Luan for the company and blessings that we were bestowed with during the trip i.e. without any untoward incidents. As always we leave together and come back together safely
Mr. Cordura.Vn
