Press Release And Guide Book Featuring Off Road Vietnam Tours

twowheels, September 2009

Lonely Planet Vietnam, July 2009

Men's Journal, May 2009

ForbesTraveler.com's Top Motorcycle Trips Worldwide, September 2008

MAGAZINES

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twowheels, September 2009 issue (Australia). Click on the link to see a scan page. September 2009 cover

BORN TO LEAD

In enterprise of martial kind, when there was any flighting, Groff led his regiment from behind. He found it less exciting.

"...leadership sometimes requires difficult decisions. Doing nothing isn't easy as it looks..."

I fluked the presidency of the SR500 Club for one year. I didn't accept the nomination the following year to avoid the embarrassment of being voted out of the office. I wasn't a particularly bad president but I am not a natural leader. I was replaced by a gruff truck-driver named Andy who clearly is no graduate of charm school. He's so popular, though, he's been the president two years running. I think the difference between us is he's comfortable with responsibility.

Reclining on the upper deck of a Chinese junk in the middle of Halong Bay in Vietnam was a strange place to be thinking about this but an email from ex-Streetbike columnist, Ned Shaw, was pushing me into the spotlight of leadership again. As usual, it was my fault: I'd circulated an electronic postcard telling everyone what a great time I was having. The intention of this was to demonstrate that my life was better than theirs and to encourage jealousy and resentment, but Shaw read it as a suggestion that the Lemmings MC and friend organise a similar trip and share my pleasure.

Vietnam, at the moment is a pretty amazing place. It didn't really open itself up to tourism until the mid-'90s and it still has the natural freshness that Bali is said to have had in the 1960s. Outside of the city, the locals are genuinely pleased to see you and the relationships are uncorrupted by commerce. I discovered this on a motorcycle trip organised by Offroad Vietnam. There were just three of us with a guide. We loafed around the countryside on Honda trail bikes and stayed with families in small villages. This was in the north-eastern region which is heavily populated by ethnic minority tribes. The scenery was eye-watering and the cultures fascinating. There aren't any straights in rural Vietnam - just a succession of corners joined by smaller bends. Around 70 per cent of vehicles on the roads are motorcycles, the rest being giant trucks and buses driven by drug-crazed, sleep-deprived opium addicts who long ago lost the will to live. If overtaking on blind corners was an Olympics sport, Vietnam would be gold medalists.

It means you tend to ride slowly and great caution but this is good because it gives you the chance to enjoy the environment. A typical six-hours in the saddle might only take you 180 kilometres. Every roadside stall sells beer, there are no booze buses and the police ignore westerners anyway as hardly anyone outside Hanoi speaks English. Besides, the police have enough on their hands with the local population. Helmets became compulsory two years ago but not everyone has the message yet. The villages are poor but everyone is busy. The kids, in particular, look happy and healthy. It was a trip full of bliss.

I didn't need to, of course, but I probably talked it up a little in the reports I dispatched, generating enough interest for a gang of others to desire a similar experience. Who would organise this? Who was the only one who had some direct knowledge? Why is everyone staring at me?

Anh from Offroad came up with a seven-day itinerary which included sections along the mountainous border with China. Outstanding. I circulated it along with the following note in an attempt to discourage participation.
"It's important that everyone understands this is a motorcycle adventure in a developing country. The hire bikes are mechanically good but a long way from new condition. The accommodation will often be in stilt houses belonging to locals. This will involve in sleeping on mattresses (usually very hard) on a wooden floor in a shared environment. Think sleepover in a country church hall. Mostly, there will be no alternate accommodation, meaning if you're uncomfortable, you just have to put up with it. The food is good and there's plenty of it but, again, mostly, you won't have any option to whatever is being served. As your parents probably used to say, "it it or go without". The trip will be worthwhile but only if you've adapted your expectations to local conditions and you're physically capable of some discomfort."

It didn't work. By the time I got back to Melbourne, Guy Allen had collected a list with around 25 names on it. I'd told Offroad maybe five or six. I contacted them again to find out what the limits were.
"We've only got 15 bikes left for January - 10 Honda 160 roadies and five XL125s - and I can't guarantee they'll be available unless you book quickly."

I looked at the list again. Jesus - Snag wants to take his kids. Who are Sandy and Phil? Oh, the owners of the restaurant we go to in Little Vietnam every week. At least they speak Vietnamese. I couldn't even find anyone I didn't like and could cull on that basis. Allen wasn't much help.

"How, exactly, are you going to decide who can't come and how are you going to tell them?"
"What about Steve? He's going to hate sleeping on wooden floor."
"So he can't come because he's too rich?"
"I've slept with half these women - there's going to be trouble."
"That would be an interesting line in the supplementary regs - trip only available to women Groff haven't slept with yet."
"What am I going to do?"
"Why didn't you think about this in advance?"

I good leader would have done that, I suppose. It wouldn't be a problem for Andy from the SR500 Club: he'd just tell the truth. That's out of the question for me - I have a reputation to protect. The one glimmer of hope is that Blackbourn and Robin have already dropped out and natural attrition might get the numbers down to manageable level. It's not until January.

Allen was scathing. "That's your solution? You're just going to do nothing and hope the problems go away?" It's fine for him but he doesn't understand that leadership sometimes requires difficult decisions. Doing nothing isn't easy as it looks.

Blackbourn wrote a very gracious email explaining why they couldn't come but the pleasure it gave me undermined somewhat by the post-script: "We're both still very committed to loM for 2011." Geeze, I'd forgotten about that...tw

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Men's Journal, May 2009 issue (U.S.A.). Click on the link to see a scan page.

Special Edition
Extreme Adventures for Regular Guys
10 Trip You Can Train for and Take in Six Weeks or Less

#9 Motorcycle the Ho Chi Minh Trail

THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY's official history of the Vietnam Way designates the Ho Chi Minh Trail "as one of the 20th century’s great achievements of military engineering."

The 18-foot-wide supply line – built to circumnavigate a U.S. Nay presence in the Gulf of Tonkin – was started in 1959 and ultimately starched 1,800 miles though triple canopy jungle to fronts in South Vietnam. By the late ‘60s the network was moving supplies for hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese troops, essentially turning the tide of the war.

Today segments of the infamous route can still be pieced together in what amounts to one of the greatest motorcycle tours in the world. Winding paved roads, river crossings, tight mountain passes, and hardly any traffic create a kind of grand prix of motorcycle touring through the Truong Son Mountains, the Red River Delta, and the Ashau Valley of western and central Vietnam.

A Belarusian 125cc Minsk – with its bomber suspension and steering for bad roads – is the classic ride on the old communist thoroughfare, and after landing in Hanoi you can pick up a used one for less than $400 (though a rented Honda is probably more reliable).

Swarms of mopeds vanish in the rear-view as you flog it along two-lane Route 32 into the tea plantations and the old growth forests of the Truong Son Mountains. Ease back on the throttle over the switch backs near Bau Pass, then drop down into Phu Yen for fried rau muong (spinach). Pass through Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park – a UNESCO Heritage Site, in which the Vietcong hid from U.S. bombers in 40 miles of spectacular caves and under ground rivers – and then into primitive rain forests once stripped by Agent Orange, and Khe Sanh, and the labyrinthine Vinh Moc tunnels.

Reconstruct your former self after the final 90-mile leg in the seaside hamlet of Hoi An, where world-class tailors on ran Hung Dao Road will stitch you a suit for $50.

Start today. Ride your bicycle.

Motorcycle touring takes strength and flexibility. Ride a real or stationary bike to build muscle and work your core. BRUSH UP ON YOUR RIDING SKILLS Check out the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Rider Course or DirtBike School (msf-usa.org)

Info & Outfitters

Offroad Vietnam offers nine days trip ($1,260; offroadvietnam.com). It doesn't pay commissions to hotels or restaurants, saving you money and needless detours to tourist traps - PORTER FOX.

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ForbesTraveler.com's Top Motorcycle Trips Worldwide, September 2008 (U.S.A.) http://www.forbestraveler.com/adventure/motorcycle-adventures-story.html

... “I’d always been curious about Vietnam and its people,” says Charles Drummond, a 68-year-old retired marketing executive from Walla Walla, WA, who toured North Vietnam in late 2007 with Offroad Vietnam, a motorcycle tour company in Hanoi.

During the ten-day trip, Drummond departed Hanoi with a small group of riders and headed north, close to the Chinese border, on a circuitous route that led up steep mountain passes terraced with ride paddies. "The trip was a challenge as far as my riding skills, but I survived," Drummond says. "It was delightfully grueling… We rode for four to five hours a day and there were mountain passes of ten and 12,000 feet. Homestays along the way made the trip even more rewarding."

The mix of challenging riding terrain and cultural wonderment of motorcycle adventure in Vietnam makes for quite a cocktail. "Adventure riders like North Vietnam a lot," says Anh Wu, co-owner of Offroad Vietnam, "The roads go all around the mountains with many blind curves, and it can take 20 kilometers to complete one mountain or hill because it winds around so much."

What makes the experience even more special are the locals. "The Hmong people who live in the countryside, they cheat nobody and they are friendly,” he says. “If they see a foreigner, they consider it will bring good luck to them, and they welcome them like a god."

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GUIDE BOOKS

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Lonely Planet Vietnam, July 2009(Australia)

Page 119:

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If you plan to tour the north by bike, you'll find several tour operators in Hanoi which offer well-maintained bikes, and who can help you with itinerary planning (and guides). Check out p507 for more details.

For a reliable Honda trail (starting from US$20 daily) and road bikes (US$15) or a moped (US$5 to US$8), as well as great advice, head to Offroad Vietnam (map p92; 39263433; www.offroadvietnam.com; 36 P Nguyen Huu Huan)...

Page 189:

TAKING THE HIGH ROAD

With spectacular scenery, little traffic and improved roads, more and more travellers are choosing to take a motorbike around the northwest loop from Hanoi up to Lao Cai, over to Dien Bien Phu and back to the capital.

Hanoi, where you'll find several specialist motorbike-tour operators, is the place to start making arrangements. Consider joining a tour (p507) or hiring a guide, who will know the roads and can help with any mechanical and linguistic difficulties. Be sure to get acquainted with your bike first and check road conditions and routes.

Most motorbikes in Vietnam are small capacity (under 250cc). For years the sturdy Minsk, built in Belarus, was the bike of choice for travellers and it still has many devoted aficionados. For the full story consult www.minskclubvietnam.com, which even has a free PDF breakdown manual to download. Minsks are quirky bikes, not known for their reliability (though they will deal with rutted, rough roads well). They were common in northern Vietnam for years, and many mechanics know how to fix them. But today numbers have dwindled as mopeds and Chinese road bikes have proliferated.

Honda road bikes (such as the Honda GL160) and trail bikes are other good choices. These bikes have a good reputation for reliability and have decent shock absorbers. Some folk bike it around Vietnam on mopeds (like the 100cc Honda Wave), which tend to be reliable and their automatic gears make things easier for inexperienced riders. However you'll find bumps tough on your butt.

Rental agencies will help with checklists but some essentials include a good helmet, local mobile phone for emergencies, rain gear, a spare parts and repair kit (including spark plugs, spanners, inner tube and tyre levers), air pump and decent maps. Knee and elbow pads and gloves are also a good idea.

Highways can be hell in Vietnam, so it's wise to let the train take the strain on the long route north to Lao Cai. Load your bike into a good carriage (180,000d) while you sleep in a berth. You'll have to (almost) drain it of petrol. Then in Lao Cai, pick it up, fill up, fire it up and off you go.

Take it slowly, particularly in the rain: smooth paved roads turn into muddy tracks in no time, after heavy rain. Do not ride during or immediately after heavy rain storms as this is the time a landslide might occur (many mountain roads are quite new and the cliff embankments can be unstable). Expect to average about 35km per hour. Only use safe hotel parking. Fill up from petrol stations where the gas is less likely to have been watered down.

And if you’re running short on time or energy remember that many bus companies will let you put your bike on the roof of a bus (around 500,000d from Son La to Hanoi), but get permission first from your bike rental company.

Recommended motorbike specialists in Hanoi include Cuong's Motorbike Adventure (p119) and Off Road Vietnam (p119).

Page 507:

Motorbike Tours

Specialised motorbike tours through Vietnam are growing in popularity. It is a great way to get off the trail and explore the mountainous regions of the north and centre of the country - two-wheel can reach the parts that four-wheel sometimes can't, by traversing small trails and traffic free back roads. A little experience helps, but many of leading companies also offer tuition for first-timers. Mounting a Minsk to take on the peaks of the north is one of Vietnam's defining moments and should not be missed.

Foreign guides charge considerably more than the local Vietnamese guides. Based on the group of four people, you can expect to pay around US$100 per person per day for an all-inclusive tour that provides motorbike rental, petrol, guide, food and accommodation. Some of the best companies running trips in the north include the following:
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Offroad Vietnam (04-3904-5049; www.offroadvietnam.com) This is a Vietnamese-run company, and these guides generate really good feedback from their guests. Honda bikes from 125cc to 250cc. Tours from US$100 per day.
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