We are heading south through Vietnam, as part of our "sabbatical" - riding around SE Asia (and maybe other countries, tbc) on our tandem (
www.badgerandfrog.com). In the past few days we've been following the main artery through Vietnam, the QL1 which runs all the way from the north to the south of the country.
Our experience of Vietnam has been incredible: wonderful people, beautiful countryside, excellent infrastructure, fantastic food, great quality guesthouses - all perfect to make for a great cycle tour.
However, following this arterial road is tough. We are riding a bullet proof Cannondale MT1000 mountain bike from 1999. It handles everything we have thrown at it - has been shoved inside of and on top of planes, vans, buses (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyFHnC1mpKE), trains - has been ridden over crazy rough roads, handled biblical rain, lightning, sand, dust, rocks, everything! Despite this, the roads have been hard to handle.
Setting the scene
Let me try to set the scene...
Noise
First: imagine a world where engines stop running after 200 metres. That is, unless you beep your horn. A lot. About every 200 metres.
Second: imagine a world where traffic violations are negated if you beep your horn, before, after, and ideally, during the performance of a crazy manoeuvre.
Third: imagine a world where car, bus, scooter horns are so loud that they temporarily partially deafen you as they rattle pass inches from your nose.
Fourth: imagine a world where if you are a truck or bus driver you are expected to drive like a dangerous lunatic, safe in the knowledge that it is part of your job description, and that other road users will respect you for doing this (I will excuse car and scooter drivers from this category - they are by and large good and respectful drivers), as long as you beep your horn!
Fifth: image a world where this is the norm. Where this is established driving culture.
(Nota bene: I seem bitter about this - but remember I have lived in London, Italy, and Boston (MA) so I'm used to crazy driving, but this is unlike nothing I have ever experienced - yes, even in London.
To add on to this - most guesthouses and hotels back on to this main road. They have poor sound insulation, so you are exposed to the ongoing cacophony 24 hours a day.
And, to add on to this even more, in some cities we have what I can only call "The Communist Alarm Clock" - between 5:00 am and 06:30 am public address systems in the streets blare out music and talking which wakes you up.
The bells the beeellllls!!!
Mud and rubble
Like much of the rest of the country, the road is being constantly developed. It is being dug, widened, re-surfaced, extended - seemingly along it's entire length. We can see where houses that used to line the original road have been simply cut through by the developers - leaving exposed staircases and inner rooms exposed to the elements. Maybe in the near future the road will be wide and perfect and wonderful, but for now, February 2015, we find a muddy, dug up road, that forces us to leap between road and pavement, and rubble, and mud. Despite us having a mountain bike tandem we are finding the bike taking a pummeling, and we've ripped up another tyre yesterday, despite us using the toughest continental touring tyres we could find.
We can also add sand into this part. This road kind of follows the coast. I say "kind of" because sadly it does not hug the coast, only allowing us infrequent tantalising glimpses of the beautiful coast. However, there is plenty of sand and salt around, just adding to the fun we've found from the mud and rubble.
PollutionThe roads are polluted. Ignoring the heavy manufacture lining the roads, the heavy lorries and buses kick out visible fumes. It's like how I imagine Victorian England rolling into the industrial age. The exhaust fumes from the traffic hang heavy in my lungs and a few days spending 6+ hours in the saddle. There's a description here
which just covers the tip of the iceberghttp://climate-journal.asia/motorbikes-make-space-for-bicycles-in-hanoi-vietnam/ .
The result
The traffic forces us to hop between road and the hard shoulder/pavement area. Buses and lorries particularly will overtake at any moment, on a single carriageway, approaching a blind hill - and, as detailed above, as long as they beep their horns, then it's all fine. Yesterday, on top of our usual near misses, we had two very very near misses, once from a bus and once from a lorry forcing us to evacuate the road. That's not so easy on a fully laden tandem, with about 235 kg in total, including the riders.
Here's a video showing the view from the back of our tandem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2thP3LDlKM
Other options?
There really are no other options to get from north to south, without spending weeks finding side roads. That's a shame, as the side roads are truly stunning, but it would take some significant time out of our trip, which will sadly not last forever.
Solution:
So, we will fast forward from our current location, in Qui Nhon (
http://badgerandfrog.com/where-on-earth-are-we-now/), thankfully off the QL1 to Ho Chi Min City (ex. Saigon) on the train. This will save us about 8 days and 700 km, and whilst we are disappointed that we will not complete this part of the jounrey, the combination of saving about 8 days, avoiding the pollution, and avoiding the crazy driving, make it an absolute no brainer.
We are very much looking forward to being able to enjoy this awesome landscape again!
