Somebody get the Freebird on!

Before going out the night before, we’d organised a 5 hour motorcycle tour around the temples and monuments of Hue for the afternoon.

Now I’m not a big motorcycle fan but we’d been told by Gareth & Ange that this was THE way to get the sightseeing done in Vietnam so we were ready to throw caution to the wind and get stuck in. This was going to be my second time on a bike, the first being a taxi ride down a long straight strip in Halong Bay

From a safety point of view we needn’t have worried because, as you can see, we had the very best and up-to-date safety equipment:

We had a bike and driver each so we saddled up and hit the roads in the rain. Once out of town, we were soon racing through rural Vietnam and passing rice fields that stretched as far as the eye could see before dodging pigs, chickens and children as we hit the single-lane mud tracks through the villages at 60mpm. Nervous at first, I didn’t want to get off by the time we arrived back at “The Cafe on Thu Wheels.” (Thu’s the owner, ba-da-tish…)

We were lucky as well to have a really friendly and knowledgeable guide running the show and keeping us amused with commentary like:

“Nice group, no French [here he made a stuck up gesture with his nose and finger] and no Isrealis. Same same but different – fuck ‘em.

“Here the tomb of 13th Emperor. He had 104 concubines. One banana many coconuts”

“Another bridge like this in Hoi An. This one same same but better.”

All in all, it was great fun and the only way we’re doing day-tours for the rest of our time here.