Tet Scooter Run 2010, Vietnam 2010 Feb 13 - 21
2010 Feb 13, Hong Kong -> Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)
A bag with scooter parts is already checked in and the Japanese helmet is with me here as I await the flight from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City with a glass of vacation-wine in my hand. VVV here I come! Vietnam, Vacation and Vespa!
When I left Hong Kong it was 14°C and Pat comes and pick me up in his newly finished army jeep and yeah it feels good to cruise around in Saigon at 32°C and see my dear matt black Vespa again.
2010 Feb 14, Saigon
The day went along without even driving 1m scooter, however did succeed in delivering one tourist from Netherlands on a KTM, tomorrow is the start of the adventure and a good night sleep is on the agenda.
2010 Feb 15, Saigon -> Vung Tau
The team meets up here at Vespa cafe zoom. This year's team consists of Pat and Linh in the Army Jeep, Hamish on a Lambretta RB25 cut down, Mark on a Lambretta Silver Special RB20, Paul on a Lambretta Li Mugello, Scott on a Lambretta Silver Special, Yen and Bong on a Yamaha RS and myself on my Vespa Super 200. The drive out of Saigon goes smooth and the South Vietnamese country side is for us to explore! The first scooter to need attention is Hamish Lambretta RB25 as his rear hub nut gets loose and just some kilometres more Paul's U-bend needed re-tightening. Next in line is Scott with an exhaust bracket that snaps off, however some rounds of wire and a bungee gets it sorted and we are ready for the road again. Mark guides us along narrow dusty dirt tracks to an amazing place by the river for a lunch and Hamish pulls out a complete scooter run DIY dry martini-kit and serves us some vacation drinks. As I where heading out to the highway two guys on a Honda smashes right into me and we have a minor crash, leaving their Honda and my Vespa quite scratched and my ignition key snapped of, apart from that everything is all right and the sun is shining. Apart from Hamish side panel lock snapping of we make it all the short way to the beach town Vung Tau.
2010 Feb 16, Vung Tau->Mui Ne
Early start of the day and our scooters takes us to down town Vung Tau where we have a great breakfast with an even greater sea view. It is time for me to get a puncture on a busy motorbike road and it takes me a good 6 minutes to change over to the spare tire and give the scooter full throttle again. The drive takes us along sand dunes and along the coast with amazing view all the way. Paul and Hamish do succeed to finding a guy with a welding machine that also knows how to weld so he got Scott's exhaust fixed. We speed away along the cost and while we wait for Scott and Mark to catch up we get a phone call from Mark telling us that Scott had a crash. Scott is okay but not his Lambretta, we plan to patch it together but as the steering column is bent we give up that idea and lift up the scooter on the back of the Jeep instead. We dump the scooter at Pete's resort and it looks quite sad there all by herself. Pete is a fellow scooterboy and having a beer with a sea view at his place is a great way to spend the evening.
2010 Feb 17, Mui Ne->Nha Trang
The drive today is long and so are the Lambrettas and we head off early and at good speed. The first stop is for Pat, Linh and Scott to get some crazy straw hats giving them a great hilly billy style in their cool Jeep. We stop at a beach restaurant for a good lunch and head off through the mountains on one of the most beautiful places I ever been to. We find our self having a strong Vietnamese coffee and a baguette at totally the same place we where three years ago. Hamish, Paul, Yen and Mark speeds away while I got stuck in the traffic so I drive together with the hilly billies in the jeep instead. At a busy cross road the Jeep decided to die and with Scott at his throne in the back with a beer in his hand cheering us up we push the Jeep to the side of the road. With some love and rocker's speed mechanics it is on the road again within 10 minutes. Nha Trang is entered in style and we meet up the rest at The Shamrock for a good beer and later at the evening we're having seafood dinner outside of the city at a restaurant looking over all the lights for the squid fishing devises.
2010 Feb 18, Nha Trang
A good days rest in Nha Trang and a Party at Jody's place is on the agenda. It's handy to have a friend with a large grill and a proper workshop as well as a huge ice box. The day went into night and the scooter stories became crazier by the beer. It all ended quite well with some frozen Polinis at the new Guava bar before it was long time passed normal bed time, but we are in Nha Trang and we are in vacation mood.
2010 Feb 19, Nha Trang
Pat, Linh and me decides to stay one day more in Nha Trang and the other scooterists head towards Dalat with Jody and his two kids on a CD 200 leading the way up to the mountains. I follow them the first 25km and goes along on a rideout by myself. The ride is great without a real plan, some 100km on the back roads and I'm back in Nha Trang and park up the scooter by the Jeep that is also parked in the reception of the hotel. The hotel owner is a great guy blessing both the Jeep and the hotel with rice wine and incense sticks as well as being a former car mechanic. The guys that did go to Dalat reports of the worst roads ever, 2 punctures, cold temperature, rain, full hotels, cancelled buffets while we are having a river side dinner in the bush and I suddenly thinks about Sex Pistol's 'Holiday in the sun'.
2010 Feb 20, Nha Trang -> Mui Ne
We wake up early as we booked rooms at Pete the Scooterboy's resort and want to have a day in the sun, even if Johnny Rottens sings the opposite. We are driving on the dreaded highway and looking out for totally lunatic bus drivers. Half way to Mui Ne as I speeds on in about 90km/h a bus just in front of me suddenly turns sharp right in to an open square of dirt, sand and garbage, it is impossible for me to brake or avoid driving of the road so I bump on the dirt, sand and garbage and skidding from side to side until I'm free of the bus and manage to stop the scooter. How I manage to do it without crashing is a mystery it's also a mystery why the bus driver did as he did, but it where no time to stop and discuss politics nor driving behavior with the stupid bus driver. The scooter feels soft and unstable after the crazy dirtbiking but still it's good enough to drive. The 230km drive takes us about 4h and we arrive at Pete's place around lunch time. Paul and Bong arrives from Dalat just 5 minutes later than us, the last leg of our drives where the same, quite amazing that we did just miss them. Pete do for us, as well as for all the other guests at the resort, put on some great northern soul music while we have some good cocktails in the sun and stains the pool with our road and two stroke dust and dirt. Paul had lost one exhaust stud on his Lambretta and the other stud is just hanging there in the stripped cylinder threads. The one that was lost is replaced with one of the bolts from my carrier plate and the one with stripped threads is replaced with the long M8 bolt from my spare wheel holder. Life is sweet then you are in the sun in front of a great place in an awesome country repair a Lambretta with parts from a Vespa, however I wonder if Paul's Lambretta like the Vespa parts and my Vespa will get jealous of losing some parts to the enemy? Also in Mui Ne is a Guava bar and any place where you could say that you want a Polini and get a great cocktail is a good place.
2010 Feb 21, Mui Ne -> Saigon
Pete is still playing his Northern Soul and we loves it as much as the breakfast. We meet up with Paul and Bong at early morning and we heads for Saigon at high speed and only stopping for petrol or cows jumping up in front of us. Today is the last day after the lunar New Year holiday and a lot of people are heading back home with all their family and luggage on a Honda, it's an awesome sight but it also makes the roads to Saigon very busy. At about half way my front wheel bearing gives up and I call up Pat to stop at the next Honda workshop. I removed the front hub and gave it to a Honda guy who speeds of to the next town to get new bearings, he is back within 30 minutes later and charges me 70000VND (~3.5€) for the bearing and the 20km drive, a bargain I must say, actually so cheap that I doubt the quality of the bearings and surely will get some good bearings sorted out when the scooter is home safe in Saigon. The front damper have now finally gave up; surely from the dirt biking yesterday, by this and the cheap bearings I can only drive safely in 80km/h. As the traffic tightens up Pat give me his keys and I head along alone to be sure to be able to both have a much needed shower as catching my flight back to Hong Kong. The traffic from the outskirts of Saigon to Saigon Scooter Centre is as mad as it could be with tens of thousands of motorbikes criss crossing like drunken birds with bird flu. Paul gets a puncture and rolls to the next Honda workshop to get the inner tube patched up while I continue on by myself. I arrive in good time and succeeds in getting clean enough for my flight back, and I must say, I haven't been so dirty since I was a kid rolling around in mud so it's an achievement more worth to mention than that my Vespa engine did run as smooth as ever. As I now sit on the plane back to Hong Kong I'm writing this with a smile on my face thinking of yet another amazing scooter adventure in Vietnam, awesome wicked place, great people, friendly friends, interesting roads and tanned as a farmer in T-shirt. Thanks Mark who organized part of the trip and Pat for his hospitality for me and my scooter.
/Calle The text and the pictures are copyrighted to Soulscooter