Best day ever! After being terrified of motorcycling out of Hanoi, it turned out to be one of the most fun things I have ever done – ever! I was laughing with joy and was utterly amazed at how smooth everything went. It reminded me of why living life epic is so important. I almost let fear win. But by pushing through the fear, I had one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I can’t imagine my life’s epic story without this chapter.
Of course it didn’t go perfectly, we had the privilege of sightseeing Old Quarer a bit more than intended (ok, we got lost), but it just added to the fun as we got to spend more time navigating the chaos.
Chaos. You are riding a motorcycle down a street with people coming directly at you by driving on the wrong side of the street (cars and scooters), cars and scooters inches off your motorcycle, cringing through every free for all intersection, dodging pedestrians and cyclists who are also competing for a price of the road, all while trying to navigate your way to the freeway. Epic fun! We did have a few whoops moments. We landed up in the car only lane on the bridge – no one cared. We missed a few turns to Cat Ba, but locals would ride up next to us to point where we wanted to go. Being allowed to ride the wrong way down a freeway turned out to be a great way to double back to a missed turn ( and ever so slightly terrifying).
We left Hanoi at 10:00 am and arrived in Cat Ba at 4:00 PM. This included a few extra turns in Hanoi Old Quarter, a stop on the freeway to find an alternate route before accidentally heading down a City Highway (scooters and motorcycles are not allowed on City Highways, marked in Orange on Google Maps), a stop for gas, a brief lunch stop and a few rough spots due to road and bridge construction. We were able to take the new bridge to dao Cat Hai, which drastically reduces the Ferry time. The bridge opened September, 2017. The new bridge and surrounding infrastructure is not on Google Maps yet, so we relied on the help of fellow drivers who constantly pointed the way for us, without us even asking! The Vietnamese are incredibly friendly, and I have never once felt unsafe (besides driving that is!).
Quite a bit of construction around Hai Phong as Vietnam is investing heavily in making Cat Ba a major tourist destination. New 8 lane highways, bridges and an airport expansion. This made navigating hard and the riding fun! Sticky mud and gravel. Ironically as we set out for a beer after dinner we came across a celebration of Cat Ba’s 2 millionth tourist and 450,000 international visitor. It was an interesting event to witness, and we were “seat fillers”, being encouraged to sit in the VIP section directly behind the guest of honour. The guest of honour, the 450 thousandth international visitor to Cat Ba, was coincidentally the Czech Ambassador to Vietnam. The Vietnamese put on quite a show for him, and he was honoured to be in the “right place at the right time, again” to receive such prestige.
Todays Tips:
– Recommend a motorcycle helmet with a visor. It was very windy today, with dirt and debris from the road plastering us with grime. The visor helped, even wearing sunglasses underneath. I also recommend a face mask if you have a half visor. There is a reason the locals wear them!
– Gas station scam. It’s a good thing my husband is still mad about getting scammed at a gas station in Peru, as he was watching for a scam today. Nothing elaborate, but the gas attendant was trying to short change us by a) not going us change at all b) giving us the incorrect change by assuming we couldn’t tell the difference between 10,000 dong and 100,000 dong.
After settling into our hotel, with incredible views of the bay, off to Vietnamese Soul Food for dinner. A popular and funky restaurant with incredible homemade food. We had the mixed spring rolls, grillled octopus with lemon grass and sea bass with tamarind. All excellent! Better than any meal we had in Hanoi.
Live Life Epic 