It almost never happened
Many things were in the way of our visit to this fabulous country. One of the largest one, was our time constraint. Having parked my Van in a friend’s driveway limited our time Asia. Another factor was the tiring nature of this trip.One of our biggest fears however was the border. After China and Burma, Vietnam has the third strictest import regulations in Asia’s south east. Adding to it is the quirkiness of communication with Vietnam’s authorities. The Internet wasn’t of much use either as most travellers write about big bikes that are prohibited anyway.
A difficult crossing
After some research we did find the Blog of world-tourer Martin who made it across recently. Luckily we managed to contact him and he motivated us to try it out with our own bikes.With enough motivation we finally got our Visas in Sihanoukville and slowly headed to the border. When we finally made it to the cross point, it first seemed as if everything was going to be easy. The Cambodian authorities had no interest in our vehicles and we went through with no worries.
However, having reached the Vietnamese booth all changed. Although visa wise there weren’t any issues, the customs official declined entry for our bikes. At this point the only options we had was to carry on by foot, or lose our expensive Vietnam visas and return to Cambodia.
Sucks huh?
Multiple attempts to convince the officials were without success and our hopes started to fade. Being stuck at the border we just sat there, all lost, trying to think of a solution. But in the end the long wait paid off and after hours of sitting there with a long frown, the customs official waived us through.
And so we entered Viet Nam!
DISCLAIMER: We have been extremely lucky with this and do not recommend this approach to anybody! Make sure you don't get stuck at the border and get a multiple Entry Visa.
Arrival in Vietnam
After our bad patch in Cambodia it felt great to be in a new country. Everything seemed better, especially the people. Although different to the north, the friendliness almost shocked us. No one was shouting at us and we didn’t feel ripped off. One friendly lady even invited us into her house for a visit.
Having arrived in the Mekong Delta the landscapes had not been as amazing as we hoped, though the river system had something special about itself. Similarly to Cambodia, the south of Vietnam had also been colonized by the French and you could just feel the influence.
The most obvious relation we noticed was the surprisingly Mediterranean architecture.
Motorbike Country
Another welcome change was the traffic. After the stress in Cambodia we quickly got to enjoy a bit more common sense in the driving style of other motorists. What struck us the most was the proportion of motorbikes vs. cars. Here you can imagine what it would be like if the car hadn’t been invented.
Except for a few stressful sections we finally reached an area where biking became fun again.
Current development
I know this trip is already a bit of a while ago. We are currently back in Australia and getting ready for the next big trip across the Top end.I will write the next bit soon.
