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Since 1995 I've spent several months during the winter in Vietnam, 14 trips, mostly in and around Saigon, my wife's home town. Always wanted to go on a moto trip to the mountains in the north, each time being discouraged by my wife and the family, " it's too dangerous ". It was no more dangerous than the traffic of Saigon that we ride in every day. This year my son, grandson and I did a 6 day trip in the far north, close to the Chinese border. We used Flamingo Travel Vietnam, out of Hanoi, took the overnight sleeper train along with our guide to Lao Cai and ate breakfast right outside the train station where our bikes were waiting. We had arranged 2 Kawasaki Versys X 300cc and a Honda XR 400. These bikes were perfect for the various types of roads we encountered. They do have 650cc bikes, but considering the traffic conditions we went with the smaller more agile ones. Roads varied from small main roads, to narrow concrete paths some which were very rough and damaged, to new construction or roads under major repair. Flamingo offers guided or self guided tours where they provide a GPS with suggested routes. We chose the guided tour so we didn't have to make hotel arrangements and have more time to enjoy the riding. Our guide Mr. Cong lives just north of Saigon but has 15 years of riding experience in the north. He took us to areas that we probably would not have found on our own and is very knowledgeable about the culture of the local people. He was also very helpful getting our backpacks bagged and strapped on the bikes, and an enjoyable person to be around.
Our 6 day trip was just under $1000 each and included the bikes, gas, helmet, riding jacket, meals, hotels or homestay, and entrance fees for a couple of boat trips along the way.
The mountains of the far north are truly amazing, from the Hmong people farming steep mountain slopes from the rivers to as far as you can see up the mountain, to all the friendly people you meet everywhere. I don't have the time and space here to talk about all the all the great experiences we had, but can say it was worth the time and effort to make it happen. We have decided to do another trip of another area of the country in the next few years. I will try to post a few photos soon.
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Originally Posted by Visian
