Looking to share ride North-East Vietnam mid January 2011
 

Hi:-)

I am in the midst of planning an 7 to 9 days road trip to North-East Vietnam which so far looks like this: Train to Lao Cai, then motorbike Sapa-Bac Ha-Ha Giang-Dong Van-Meo Vac-Ba Be-Hanoi. I have already started queries for the rental of motorbike in Hanoi and in Sapa (the choice is to train with bike Hanoi-Sapa, or send it back alone Hanoi-Sapa at end of journey).

Is anyone looking to do a similar tour? I am bilingual French-English if any French speakers interested out there. Ideally would like to avoid fully organized packages (mostly for costs reasons) and focus on renting + hiring a guide/mechanic to make the whole trip smoother and interesting, but if a few get together then organized tours by the likes of Cedric in Sapa, or Flamingo, Go Bamboo or Off Road Vietnam become more accessible.

Looking forward to companions for all or part of this motorbike trip:-)

Cheers, Noemi

Hi
 

Hi, I am looking at doing a trip to Vietnam by mid jan. I am from india where motorcycling is a tradition.
I wanted to do Ho chi minh - Hanoi but I am giving up on that considering it takes a lot of time. But the trip is for sure on. I am looking at like minded riders to join. I am not very keen about an organized group but since the place is very new I am wondering if it makes sense to go all by ourselves! But if you have a good route map and if we can ensure to have atleast 50% of fun in an unguided trip I think the purpose is served. And I do not speak french! let me know if you wanna discuss and I think we can plan smthn.

That's an amazing area to bike around - don't need a guide or a mechanic as there's a lot of nearby villages along the way within a few miles with people that'd be happy to help. Most convenient way is definitely to rent it in hanoi and bring it on the train to sapa (a lot of operations will do that for you for $5 or so and since the train leaves at night that can save a lot of headache!) Especially if you're getting a minsk or something you can hang out in sapa for a couple days w/o worrying about racking up the day*rental fee (They're only $5 a day or so) - Enjoy and make sure to sync up your town visits so you hit the good market days!