Vietnam Week 2- Ninh Binh, Vinh, and a hell hole

After recovering and leaving Cat Ba I began to try to play catch up with Matthias (my German friend). It took quite a bit of time to catch up. I headed first to Ninh Binh. It's an alright city but most of my time was spent in the small area outside of it called Tam Coc.  Here I met up with a few other travelers and did some exploring of the country side on my scooter. It was a beautiful area and after hiking up the Bich Dong mountain I was able to see one best views Vietnam has to offer, the sprawling mountaintops reminded me so much of home. I only spent 2 days here then continued on my way down south.

The desert like area

Riding the scooter down makes it so you can only cover so much distance in a day unlike in a bus where it can all be done in one day. I stopped in a city called Vinh and got my first taste of Bun Cha (a traditional Vietnamese soup with pork) which was amazing. After the one night there I continued onto my travels and had the hardest day of my travels on June 14th. I was making good time on my way to a city called Hue until I hit this crazy desert wasteland that I did not know could exist in Vietnam.  I was running out of gas with nothing around for miles. I luckily made it out and got a few bottles of gas from some locals.

The mechanic that made things worse!

When I tried to drive away the tire would not turn. I could not drive. Luckily for me the guy I got the gas from was a mechanic and he replaced the timing belt for me which was the issue. Earlier that day I was stopped by shady police and I had to bribe them (that's how it is here sometimes) so I did not have any money to pay for the repair.
I had to go to an atm yet the closest one was back across desert area about 45 mins backtracking.  On my way through the desert for the second time the belt broke again! I was hot and in the middle of nowhere. Luckily some guys stopped and loaded my scooter into their truck and took me to a mechanic. I then went to get money and had the belt replaced again. I tried to explain that I just had it repaired yet the language barrier made this difficult so it was just a simple replacement. I eventually made it back to the original mechanic and shortly after getting my back and continuing on my way the belt broke a 3rd time! I walked the bike back to the mechanic and had to stay the night at a hotel in the middle of nowhere. In the morning I was able to get the scooter to a bigger mechanic shop and with the help of the local guy I communicated there was a bigger issue and was able to get the complete repair I needed. This was a very stressful and expensive couple of days.

Once I finally was able to travel again I decided to skip Hue and meet up with some friends in Danang as I wanted a familiar face. This ride from the area around Hue to Danang was the most beautiful and my favorite drive of the entire country. There was fun curvy mountain roads with green forests covering the hills on your right and then suddenly the ocean appeared on my left. I was able to just forget about all my troubles and enjoy the beauty of Vietnam. It was here that I began to enjoy the country once again.