Vietnam road trip day 2

After a good night sleep in a hotel room for what we paid 8€ in total me and Max were ready to hit the road again and enjoy the scenery on HCMR. We drove trough villages, towns and cities and enjoyed the freedom and the wind in our hair. Well to be honest we did use helmets so just ignore my last comment. We arrived to a dot on a map and and decided to explore the town a bit. I noticed a big damn and drove towards it to take some pictures.

There is the damn dam.

On a slight uphill it happened. I heard a noice and lost all power. Engine was still running so it wasn't that. Maybe the gearbox? No, I lost my chain. Well I was kind of expecting it to happen at some point since I had heard the chain skip a couple of teeth of the cog already every now and then. Well, it was my turn to push the bike to a garage. As said we were in a town so it wasn't hard to find a place for my bike to get fixed. I just pointed the problem and they knew what to do. New chain and sprockets. Total cost 12€ including work. I wasn't complaining.

The problem

The garage

The fix (look at that shiny sprocket)

A cold Coke and back on the road again. I just managed my first breakdown and I felt quite good about it. Of course it was shit but now I knew that I can handle such an event. The scenery also started getting better and better so I felt really good about my choice to buy a bike.

We got a word from the other group and they had also managed to leave Hanoi and were driving along the coastline. Me and Max wanted to reunite with the other group so we headed to the notorious AH1 highway to catch up with them. After a full day of driving we arrived to the city where we were supposed to meet them. We asked directions to the place to sleep when we found out that they had decided to continue about 70km further down to south. Shit. That meant riding without day light on a non light highway with busses and trucks. No sir, didn't like it but we made in the end. Pack was together but Lee was still M.I.A and no word from him either. 

Finally some countryside!

Me and Max. Sun is shining and life is good.

We were the sight of the day in this noodle soup restauran

Dirt roads!

The rest of the group was drinking beer with locals when
we finally met them again. Bastards.