Ha Giang Loop, Vietnam

[Dombo]

Just spent six days riding this area of northern Vietnam with my son and a local guide. We were all on Honda XR150’s. Excellent bikes, suitable for on and off road, and about as powerful as our 125s but not available here as no real market for them in that engine size. Absolutely stunning scenery riding on mostly twisty mountain roads, three days dry and sunny and three days pouring rain thanks to Typhoon Talim. 
 

[Bender]

Looks great, did you apply for motorbike licence or ignore the max 50cc limit for UK licence holders, we're looking at going but the license and insurance or lack of it is a pain.

[Dombo]

31 minutes ago, Bender said:

Looks great, did you apply for motorbike licence or ignore the max 50cc limit for UK licence holders, we're looking at going but the license and insurance or lack of it is a pain.

We didn’t have time to get full licences here before we went so only had our recent CBTs. For Vietnam you need a 1968 IDP and ours were both stamped in the motorbike box (as well as just about everything else except buses and HGVs on mine). This satisfied the police when they flagged us down. Apparently they tend to assume that a foreigner on a “big” geared bike is likely to have a full licence back home - most tourists ride the smaller semi-autos or point and squirt automatics. They’re only interested in the IDP, not our UK licences.

[Bender]

I'm aware they will pretty much let anyone ride anything it's only going to be an issue in the event of an accident, it's not a risk I can get the wife to ignore looks like you had a great time, I will be more like Clarkson on a 50cc

[Dombo]

Traffic was generally very light and overall much slower than we are used to. The locals all ride smaller bikes and even car drivers would have grown up riding them so tend to be more aware of motorbikes than in the UK. In towns the traffic looks like total chaos but seems to work and everyone seems to expect everyone else to look out for them. Our little XR150 bikes had a fair amount of road presence among all the Honda Blades and Visions that made up the bulk of the other vehicles, and in heavier traffic the law of gross tonnage seems to apply.

Compared to the locals I was also very over-dressed with proper helmet from UK, armoured summer jacket, boots, gloves and knee/leg pads. 

My only near miss was passing some water buffalo just as one decided to make a bolt for it.

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Dombo

[bonio]

Looks amazing!