Before hitting the road
a bit more on preparations
PART 2BIKE & TOOLSBy some luck Jerry came ready fitted with some sturdy pannier racks and a very generous rear carrier rack.
I packed a basic toolkit and a handpump for emergency. N[]va had a huge bike lock ready for us and I borrowed feeler gauges and gasket maker as well.
The seating is fairly comfortable for such a small bike but understandable gets cramped after a few hours. The narrow handle bars felt strange compared to the more aggressive position I’m used to.
In retrospect I should have fitted some form of high-way pegs as well.
LUGGAGEIt was very important to keep weight down and we used a small pack on each side for most of our stuff and a 15L drybag on the rear rack for the toolkit and wet weather gear.
Total weight of luggage was around 15kg.
GEAR Helmet laws are in place across Vietnam and enforced in the South but less so in the North. The average Vietnamese barely pay attention to what they put on their heads and mostly it’s something resembling a baseball cap.
You can buy these ‘helmets’ for around R20-30 from sidewalk vendors. Suffice to say full-face helmets are far from the norm and we turned heads wherever we went.
Before leaving I fitted Bluetooth communicators in each helmet which really worked a charm.
My recommendation is to bring all your own gear if you plan on riding there. We took our oldest full-face helmets along (with the idea to pass it on along with the bike when selling).
Waterproof boots (our only shoes apart from flip-flops so they have to be comfortable); Richa Deep Summer jackets with armour removed; Gloves;
It wasn’t feasible to deal with riding pants due to the bulk and heat so we took some lightweight pants and had Kevlar/Cordura patches put on the lower legs/knee area.
We each had rain pants as well as a waterproof jacket to wear over gear as well as for general use if need. We got extremely lucky and never had any rain on the road and it also was never cold enough to need a jacket anyway.
The heat, in fact, can become rather exhausting especially in the South so keep that in mind when choosing appropriate gear.
Now you can always argue “do as the locals do” and ride around in sandals but do so at your own peril. The sun will burn the living daylights out of you if you have any exposed skin and I reckon some sort of abrasion protection is the minimum you should have. We saw and met quite a few tourists with bloodied hands, elbows and knees.
MAPSSome of the paper maps on sale in Vietnam is indecipherable and pretty damn useless but if you’re persistent you will find a good one.
I wasn’t prepared to risk it and especially having to navigate cities filled with alleys and one-way streets decided on taking a GPS along.
Garmap South East Asia 2012 proved to be pretty accurate and even gave turn by turn routing when necessary - I ran it off my trusty eTrex Legend mounted on the bars.
GADGETSWe met a Dutch couple with humongous backpacks at a train station where they were contemplating the main cause of their over-sized (and hefty) luggage.
She proclaimed with some shame that it was mostly due to all the “computerapparatuur”.
Never being one to shy away from the odd gadget we realised it was our curse as well.
Internet connectivity was surprisingly good and available virtually everywhere – mostly for free – so having the odd gadget makes sense if you need to stay in touch with home, backup or upload some photos or do some online booking or research.
Electricity sockets accepts both the round 2-pin plug and the US flat 2-pin plug so charging was very easy.
N[]va kindly arranged a local SIM with some airtime for us which came in very handy throughout the trip.
SAIGON Finally the day came and we arrived in Saigon around 8pm on a sweaty Friday afternoon.
Great was my surprise when we stepped outside the airport to find N[]va standing there to welcome us.
We had our first encounter with Vietnamese taxi ranks and finally made it to the city and onto our first beer.
The heat was overwhelming and feeling the effects of the long trip I was really relieved we had decided to not hit the road the very next day but to stick around to find our bearings until Sunday.
Saigon was an assault to the senses - one of the first things you notice when arriving in Vietnam is the absolutely ridiculous number of motorcycles on the streets. Like in most Asian countries bikes here are used to transport the whole family as well as whatever else crap you need to carry.
Saturday we got our stuff together and headed over to N[]va’s place to give Jerry a shakedown and sort our kit out.
It must have been a very long time since I’ve been on a 125 as the less than .. ummm.. explosive power of these bikes took me by surprise.
That being said it never really is necessary or safe to go very fast in Vietnam. (I will get to the overall driving experience later though).
We swung buy Hien Moto so I could meet the mechanics and also pick up a spare spark plug for the road. We took the plug out and it was clear the bike was running a bit lean so they adjusted the jetting.
That evening N[]va treated us to a proper braai on the roof of his building along with he’s missus and a friend. What a great way to start our journey!
With a lot of excitement and some trepidation we hit the sack that night........
Topic: Vietnam - how to ride 2000km and not die >> PART 8 (Read 15302 times)
