Riding Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh Highway: a motorcycle odyssey along twisty, perilous mountain roads
Mountain scenes, quaint villages, chaotic traffic, cheap motels and repetitive noodle soup, punctuated by the occasional flat tyre
“Look over there! It’s so beautiful!”
I take a quick peek, but all I see is a blur of green before I have to steer us around a right-hand curve. I lean the motorcycle into the turn and before the bike is straight, I am calculating my approach into the next left-hand curve.
As if to goad me, a road sign warns of more for the next 330 metres. About 400 metres later, another sign cautions of more curves in the next 350 metres.
The highway is not to be confused with the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a complex system of primitive military supply roads and jungle trails in Laos and Cambodia used to move men and materials between North and South Vietnam during the Vietnam war. The Ho Chi Minh Highway, also built for military traffic, is made of concrete slabs and connects a string of remote mountain villages. In many places the slabs have shifted over time, creating a jarring rhythm of bumps when riding at higher speeds.
