Motor Bike Trip to Mia Chau

Trip Start Jan 04, 2008
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10
13
Trip End Ongoing


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Where I stayed
Mia Chau Guest House
(Hanoi hotels)

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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

On Saturday, 30th August, 14 of us headed off from Ciputra, Hanoi for a weekend motor-bike ride to Mia Chau, approximately 200 km. south-west of the city. The group consisted of 12 teachers from UNIS and two parents. all riding a variety of bikes. Many chose their belching, never-say-die Minsk, which all performed well. Others had hired trail bikes and a couple of smaller tour bikes. One guy even rode a Honda 750 Shadow, which although looked impressive, was a little impractical for this type of trip. But he enjoyed himself even if he didn't get over 80 kph at any stage. Mind you, that speed on these smaller bikes was enough, especially with the unpredicable road conditions and local traffic. I rode my trusty 200cc Honda which did a great job.

Getting out of and back into Hanoi was the worst part of the trip, as the traffic is chaotic and it is very easy to loose contact with the group, so we stopped often to make sure everyone was together. Once out of the city, the traffic died down and things became much more relaxed. The scenery also became very interesting and and the roads good for riding. It took us most of the day to get to Mia Chau, due to the mandatory bia hoi and lunch stops every couple of hours.

Mia Chau is a hill village where the local White Thai people have set up traditional stilt-house accommodation, which suited  us fine. They knew we were comimng, so there was plenty of cold beer and fresh local food. We had a great night with lots of laughter, jokes and "deep" conversations.

We decided to come home a different way and followed a river valley through some great country with fantastic motorbike roads. It was funny to see the local people come out and wave when our grooup road through their village. We finally made it back into Hanoi at around 6:00 pm, then had to fitght the traffic for the next hour to get back to Ciputra. At our final de-brief at our local bia hoi, we began planning out next trip, which we think will be up to Sa Pa, which is up in the moutains near the Chinese boarder....can't wait!!!
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jem_gret
jem_gret on Sep 2, 2008 at 12:38PM

first comment on yeah
some really great photos dad!! think it was a good idea mum didn't go - sorry mum just not sure you would have coped eating wild pig in 50 degrees...!!
bring on some more posts! - dad do i need to remind you where the spell check button is? ha xxxx

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