Southern Vietnam | GlobeRiders Indochina Expedition

It's early September in the northwest. Across the Pacific Ocean in Southeast Asia, the rainy season is still in full swing, and we're headed right into the middle of it. We're going to go to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon, and from there we're going to go up north through Vietnam, Laos, and then into Cambodia. We'll go way up into Thailand, up north to Chiang Mai, and then head back south again. We're going to cross into Malaysia, and then we'll come home from Singapore. For 70 days we traveled by motorcycle through Southeast Asia, crossing boundaries in culture, politics, and geography. I don't think people have seen the big bikes, and they're very, very curious. Through dense urban jungles to remote hill tribe villages, we pushed on, always looking for that new discovery around the next corner. So we got a couple of spiders to go here, so we'll have lunch on the road, maybe a little picnic. It's just another day on the road in Vietnam. This is definitely not for the timid. Amazing roads and spectacular scenery, peaceful rice paddies, and colorful floating markets. Get back, get back, come on in. I don't know if we're going to make it to Thailand. From the smiling face of the Buddha to the smiles of children we met along the way, we found what we were looking for, the spirit of adventure and discovery that has no boundaries. People are so open and friendly, especially when you're a traveler, and they know you're on the road. Especially for a motorcyclist, I think it's perfect. Our quest was aided in no small part by the people we met along the way, from professional guides to rice farmers, ordinary citizens, artists, and fellow travelers. Each one had a story to tell, and each one gave us insight into the place they call home. Almost every Cambodian people, they have the same story. A place far from ordinary, with a spirituality that transcends the history of war and violence. It's amazing, nice people here. A place where dire poverty still exists, alongside new wealth and opulence. A place where the past stares back from ancient stone faces, and the future rushes forward in unpredictable new ways. Welcome to the GlobeRiders Indochina Expedition. Helge Pedersen is a motorcycle adventure traveler living in the United States. In 1982, he left his home in Kristiansand, Norway to ride his BMW motorcycle around the world. He rode through more than 77 countries, covering 250,000 miles on a journey that lasted for 10 years. When the trip ended, he moved to Seattle and published a book called 10 Years on Two Wheels. A few years later, he started a company called GlobeRiders. I organize tours GlobeRiders, which is my company. We organize motorcycle tours, in particular, all over the world. After two and a half decades of traveling by motorcycle around the world, there are fewer and fewer blank spots on the map, but one remains in the heart of Southeast Asia. We wanted to have a destination in Southeast Asia, particularly Indochina. The Indochinese peninsula lies roughly to the east of India and south of China. Indochina refers to the former French colonies of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. To the east, Thailand and Malaysia. We're starting this expedition in Ho Chi Minh City and riding all the way to Singapore. By air, it's a two-hour flight between these cities. We're taking the scenic route, and our journey will last for 10 weeks. I've got a 1200 Adventure here. It's a 2007. It's a BMW, and I think it's gonna be a pretty good bike for the trip. It's a little bit heavy. It's a big bike, but it's really nice, really smooth. It's got ABS, and it's very dependable, and you can float them up pretty good. They handle real well. It worked actually for two years now to get this trip all together. We had to have different itineraries here and there, and finally now I think it's narrowing down, and it better be because we are leaving just in a couple of weeks here. We are out the door. But today, hey, it's a pretty day in Washington State, and we've been out riding, taking pictures, and I feel kind of energized after this little outing here, so we should go back now and start packing the other stuff. I think so. Well, I'm going to be documenting this trip on my Sony FX1 video camera, and I've got Chris and Helge bringing along small cameras like this. I have never used a video camera before. Telling stories, making media, that's what GlobeRiders is all about, so that's why Chris and Helge are being schooled on the arts of filmmaking here. Brand new right out of the box here, and we've got to figure out how to use it, or I do. I think going into a project like this, putting together a team, and planning, and also getting the funds, because it costs a lot of money to be gone for so long to a foreign destination, equipment, investment, and stuff. It takes a lot of effort to do it. Our goal is to make a documentary series about this expedition for television. I'm in charge of the filmmaking, Helge's in charge of organizing the trip, and Chris is coming along purely for the adventure. The project is bigger than anything we've ever done before. We're funding everything ourselves, and we don't have any sponsors. If anything goes wrong, we're completely on our own. When people hear about the film crew coming, they don't realize how much work it is. It takes us eight to ten hours to travel 150 kilometers, because we have to stop, set up the cameras, do the sound, and look at the environment. Normal people will do this in four hours, no problem. The only way to accomplish our objectives is by being thoroughly prepared, so we've contracted a partner in Asia to work with us in developing an itinerary and pre-booking our accommodations. We don't want to waste valuable time looking for a place to sleep every night. We're staying at some of the best hotels in Southeast Asia, but we'll have little time to relax. We're motorcyclists, and we end up riding all day long, so we get into these places, and they have all these beautiful swim pools or a nice beach, and we get in there late, and all we want to do is have a shower, eat, and go to bed. Another day at the office, I'm telling you. It's tough being a co-pilot. Okay, pretty good. Turned out okay. That's great. At the start, we were going to go into China and stuff, but things like that didn't work out, so then we added Malaysia and Singapore on at the end, so it's kind of fun in that respect, and then you never know for sure quite what's going to happen, so it's always you got to be prepared for anything. It's important we have the driver license and international driver permit. He wants us to have a Carnet de Passage, but I say it's too expensive. What is this international circulation permit? Do you have one of those? You know, I never heard about international circulation permit, but I tell you, Mike, Paul, and me sat down, and we made this little thing, because the Chinese, they had all of a sudden changed their laws this year when we went on the Silk Road, and they needed a proof that the bikes were worthy of riding on the roads, so what did we do? Well, we made a motorcycle road worthiness certification, so we might have to do international circulation permit. I think, yeah. Can you make one for me? I'll make one for you. Yeah, sure. I've got Microsoft document producer on my computer. Yeah, I think we'll be good. Despite our ability to customize documentation, there's still one big problem. The big hiccup with this whole project is permits to get the big bikes, foreign-registered motorcycles into Vietnam. If we can't secure permission to import our motorcycles into Vietnam, the trip ends here. Helge spent two years looking for a partner in Vietnam with the right connections. I met Pan Tan through the internet, and he's been doing motorcycle tours before with some people we know, and they highly recommend this fellow. Our partner in Vietnam is a man who's spent years dealing with the inefficiencies of the state-run system, and he believes that he can get our bikes into his country. We need to offer easier policy for special tours like motorcycle tours. Of course, we are much easier for normal program, but we still very difficult, if not one of the most difficult countries on the world about motorcycle tours. So now my next big step is getting all my gear collected and ready. I've got stuff here that I've just pulled out of the closets and drawers and things that I might take. Most of the stuff is not going, but it's kind of just the first step where I kind of go through and pick out stuff I want. My BMW underwears, this stuff is definitely going. I like this Buzz Off stuff, Buzz Off clothing. This is really nice. It's good. It's got permethrin washed into it. I'm going to put together a first aid kit here. A Pepto-Bismol, gotta have Pepto-Bismol, suntan lotion, and insect repellent. And then I also have my Seattle Sombrero here. It really keeps the water off you when you're out walking around. Lots of sorting to do. At least everything's clean. I think a tendency for most people is to totally overpack, just bring too much stuff, and you just don't need it. I mean, guess what, they've got toothpaste and, you know, shampoo and stuff about wherever you go. What are these wires from? It's the other end. Chris has come over. We're gonna get the final touches done to the bike, get his GPS loaded up. Plus, we're going to put the transponder on Chris's bike. So this hooks up to the satellites, and it sends a signal that locates us. It sends a position. And on the website, you can zoom in and just see right where we're at. It's really cool. With the Google Earth, you get the lay of the land, and you can see the roads. You can see buildings, rooftops, you know, our exact position. You can just zoom right in on it. So that's going to be going the whole time we're on the trip. So as soon as we land and get going, you'll be able to see where we're at and follow us. You know, Chris and me, we have been looking at what we should have done before Monday, and it's like two days to Monday. So we have a lot of things to do. So I got to work from 3.30 to midnight tomorrow and Sunday, and then we ship the bikes Monday. So we got to get things pretty well wrapped up here. Chris actually have a day job. I hate that part, you know, so I have to do everything for him. I don't think so. No, really. It's going to be a great trip. I've got like a job. We are shipping the bikes in three days, so time is flying. Yeah, so I've had, gosh, I'll bet, 27 bikes over a lifetime so far. Stan County. So now we're going to take off, and we're going to go down to Eagle Transport, and we're going to crate the bikes up. We're going to put them in BMW crates and get them to customs. We're going to put them on an airplane, and we're going to fly to Seoul, Korea, and then into Saigon. So the new bikes get shipped over in from Germany, and so they're pretty cool. They come in four pieces. They've got the base, the two sides, and then the top, and they just come apart. Then you can reassemble them, and they're cool. We've got these little doors here, so for like customs, they can just look inside the crate without actually having to unpack them or anything. It's kind of exciting. This really makes it real that, you know, we're hitting the road. Bob, what's the most unusual thing you've ever shipped? Oh, human remains. I've had human remains to Saigon. So last night, I get the email from Pantan, and he write that the permits are not complete yet, so I need to go to the Prime Minister's office in Hanoi. So perhaps we don't get the bikes immediately, but if we need to go and visit with the Prime Minister, we will do that. Worst that could happen is that they would disappear and be lost. It's going to be great. It's about adventure. Hey, I have no clue what's going to happen, but I'm up for it. It's going to be fun. We're going to learn so much. And you know another thing, if it was just a piece of cake, you wouldn't learn about the Vietnamese bureaucracy and all the teeth pulling that's going to happen. I know it's going to happen, and it's in one way or another. It's going to work out. It's going to be a good story. That's what I'm sure. Yep, looks good. All right. Bye. See you in Saigon. Ciao. After a long flight across the Pacific, we arrived in Saigon. The first thing we noticed was the heat and humidity, and then the traffic, particularly the motorcycles. Sterling and me, we have been on a long flight, and we're so eager to get out into the traffic. We haven't even gotten the bikes out. So here we are in the nearest intersection from the hotel. I don't know if it's the busiest. It's probably not the busiest in Saigon, but it's pretty neat. We're taking pictures, getting amused, seeing three or four people on the bikes carrying everything from glass houses, plants, and everything. And what I see most of bikes, though, it's like small 50cc perks. I've seen some up to, I think the scooters perhaps up to like 200, 175, 200. It's just like everywhere else. We've been in China. We've been around the world in other countries where the traffic is crazy. Not so many bikes, though. I haven't seen that really. But it has a flow to it. Everybody, they have a rhythm to it. You don't see mad people. You don't see people throwing things, swearing at each other. I saw a lady lose a bag in the middle of everything. She think it should be flat in two seconds, but everybody worked around it. It was great. And here come the next field from the other side. But the funny thing is from behind us, there comes another one. So you're going to see them now in the middle. They go right for each other. And you have all kinds of variation of people. You have single, two, three. We have seen up to four people on it, the bikes. Okay, so I see this guy. He's over there. And the way I think it works, when it's red light, he makes sure that they see that it's red light by using his whistle and his little red flag there. So he is like a live red light guy. And look there. Next to him, there are five kids on that bike there. And then there's another one with three there. You see the mama there. But look at that. Five kids on that bike. That's a record for today. That's pretty good. This is entertainment. I can't wait to be a part of it. So Chris is coming tonight. And then we're going to get out the bikes tomorrow. It's going to be very nice to see the bikes again. Good morning. So it's Tuesday morning here in Saigon. Still haven't gotten the bikes yet. But hopefully, this afternoon, we'll get them. Mui is going to come over. He's our guide here in Saigon. And so we're going to go do a tour, a little bit of a city tour. Official name of this city is Ho Chi Minh City. For writing, we can say Ho Chi Minh City. But for speaking way, everybody now until call Saigon because we love to call this city Saigon, especially in the center. We call in the center of Saigon is Saigon. The French colonized Vietnam in the mid-1800s, and their influence can be seen in a number of important buildings. The Central Post Office dates from the time when Vietnam was part of French colony of Indochina. There are big maps of Vietnam on both sides of the main hall, directly above the old-fashioned style telephone booths. It's never been renovated, but there is a large portrait of Ho Chi Minh adorning the back wall. You know that Saigon is a young city, just a dead Tibet about three, more than 300 years. But Saigon now is the biggest city in Vietnam. Saigon contributes almost 40% of budget for the whole country. On paper, around 7 million people, the population. But I think maybe 10 million, in fact, 10 million people. The culture of Saigon is like a united state of America because Saigon has people from everywhere in Vietnam living. In brief, Saigon is the center of the whole country, and the youngest city, and also the most sophisticated city in Vietnam. You're taking us to this market, and tell me a little about this market. What is so special with it? So this is the Ben Thanh Market. This is the central market that we call. For every Saigonese, we know about this because it's very famous. It's very not only popular market in Saigon, but also for a whole country. Even the people, local people from a number of provinces, when they come to visit Saigon, they come to visit this market. The Ben Thanh Market is Saigon's largest market and contains a vast cornucopia of consumer goods. The aisles are narrow, the din is loud, and the hustle and bustle of commerce is everywhere inside this large market. And this Chinese market was built beginning of the 20th century. And you know, this is a wholesale market. So you can see, if you go to inside the market, and you hear a voice, yo, yo, yo, that means step aside, please, because the people, they're moving goods inside. If you're looking for tourist trinkets and souvenirs, you're better off elsewhere. This is a wholesale market, with everyday goods that are purchased here and then distributed throughout the rest of the country. With more than 2,000 vendors, it's definitely not for faint of heart. The vendors don't have a lot of space, but they manage to fill it from floor to ceiling, and sometimes even above. So Mui, when we come to the market here, I think we could maybe get something for lunch? Yeah. Yeah? So it looks good. What do you think we ought to have? They have pork, beef, shrimp, chicken, and also some kind of noodle. Especially you can see here, this is like a seafood noodle. They have squid, shrimp, and real pork together with some kind of fish ball. Okay, yeah, looks good to me. The way to enjoy the soup is when it's hot. Yeah. And you can feel the smell. Oh, it really smells, yeah. Very good. Don't wait for the cooler. The cooler is not good. It's very good. Even though it's a hot soup on a hot day, it's very good. This is an application for exchange of driving license for foreigners. So we got the passports here. Then we have our driver's license. And what's important in driver's license is that they both stand for motorcycle and for car. And then you got all these photos, pictures. You can never travel with too many pictures. You're always good to have pictures when you travel like this. So you got it all sorted out. Get out of here. Go and get something. I hope you enjoyed the start of the Indochina tour. And we are now ready to head on. Actually, we should have had our bikes. Yeah. Do you think we'll ever see them again? I sure hope we can see the bikes. Yeah. Remember what yours looks like. It's blue. Yeah. And the problem is customs here in Vietnam. But what can you do about it? You just, yeah. But I think tomorrow. So we have decided that we are going to go into the Mekong Delta without bikes. We are going to go on a nice little trip. So we don't need to sit around here and stress and build up a big bar bill. No. That's no good. We are going to be tourists. We are going to see things. Yeah. Take a look. Yep. So hopefully when we come back next time, then we will be on our bikes. So for this time, we are heading out to the Mekong. Yeah. It should be good. Yeah. Great. You have your mosquito repellent? I think there are going to be some. I think, yeah. Yeah. I'm sweating already. I see you brought your GPS. So you know where we are at or what's going on? Well, I heard we are going to go like 150 kilometers. And I'm not sure about the direction. So I found out we better initialize our GPS. That's right. Yeah. Because we come from Seattle and we are on the other side of the world. Not that it's going to give us exactly the direction, but it's nice to see where you go. And we need to find back to this hotel because in a day or so, we are back here and picking up our bikes. When we came here, we came from Seattle. And last time we used it was in Seattle. So we need to fire up this thing. And now it's starting up the whole process. What we want to see is that it picks up where we are, the location where we are on earth. But the point of this is we are going to lay out breadcrumb. So when we are going to go back from the Mekong Delta to this hotel, we get right to the door. Every day, many people, they come to Mekong Delta and they transfer rice and fruit to Saigon because Saigon is the biggest market from Mekong Delta. Every kind of fruit that we have for home country, supply and provided from Mekong River. The Mekong Delta is the agricultural breadbasket of Vietnam, or in this case, the rice basket. Most of the rice we use in Vietnam was supplied and provided from Mekong River. And not only we use in Vietnam, but also Vietnam is the second brand after Thailand. That's we exporting rice to the world. And last year we earned 1.3 billion USD from exporting rice. With origins on the Tibetan Plateau, the Mekong is one of the world's major rivers. It travels for more than 3,000 miles before it breaks into the nine estuaries that form the Mekong Delta and give the river its Vietnamese name, the River of Nine Dragons. About 90 million people rely on the river, using its water to irrigate rice crops, generate power, catch fish, and transport goods between cities located on the river. To explore the Mekong Delta, you need a boat. To really explore the Delta, you need a much smaller one, like the one we're using here with our guide Nam. A very natural life in Saigon is very different. They hurry to work and here they work very slow, very slow because when they're tired, they go home to sleep and they sing a song. But in Ho Chi Minh City, they're busy to work to get the money because very busy life. The next morning, we set off on foot to explore the local market across the river. This market just takes place in the morning and they finish very early, about 9 or 10 o'clock. Because the local farmers, they just go to the local market every day. They rarely go to the big market. The big market is located in the downtown. It's very far from here. Some local farmers here, they grow a lot of vegetables. They took their garden to the market to get their money. Some local fishermen, they fish in the river. A prawn or mudfish, a shrimp, they sell to this market. Here they're selling a lot of things of pigs. Eels, intestine, kidney. You see here, they're selling this pig blood. Over there, that's lung. Lung and heart, kidney, intestine. She's selling ducks. She bought at the local farmer and she resells. Oh, they are still alive. Most of local farmers here, they follow Buddhist religion. So they will buy some resentment flower. They will put on the altar to offer to the family ancestor. I'm sitting on top of our sightseeing boat in the delta, just 150 kilometers from Saigon. It's so much activity around. It's just bustling. I've been taking a million pictures and I would like to take a million other pictures. And people are so happy. Hey, how are you? What you see here, people are coming in from everywhere and selling their stuff. They have all kind of produce, all from dried coconut shell to the most exotic fruit. Very tasteful. And it's just, for some reason, they decided that they were going to do this market here. Probably gone on for a long, long time. And we've been just cruising up and down, Sterling, Chris and myself, taking pictures, making video. And it's just a very, very colorful experience. This is a wholesale. When you stop here, you ask, you want to buy one kilo or two kilos, they don't sell to you. You must buy the whole basket. And they're selling to this food store. They will transfer to Ho Chi Minh City or maybe they export to Chinese market. People are crossing this little canal. It's almost like the scooters, but on water. You know, it's bustling, bustling. But they have their own system to it. Again, I can see the same forgiveness in the traffic like everywhere else. There are coconuts sitting on top of the host boats because they are really host boats. I'm pretty sure people live on these things. And because you can see their clothes is hanging for drying. There's a guy full of, it looks like potatoes. It's probably not. It's just my, I don't know what it is. Rice husks. That's probably some of the most incredible boats. When you see the boats full of rice husks that they use for fuel or fertilizer. Well, we are coming to our next destination. I have no clue what it is, but the Mekong Delta is cool. So the adventure goes on. As we travel, we're looking for opportunities to learn about the places we visit. In the distance, a factory that uses river sand from the Mekong to make pottery. You see some potteries over there, many designs for exportation. They made many kinds of product. You see here, putting the clay inside the mold like that. He will put the clay inside the mold and turn on electricity and turn around to get a small pottery. Also the same process over there, the same thing, but it's different product. We get the pattern, then we put the clay inside the plaster mold. You know, sometimes he uses a little bit of the ash inside the plaster mold to separate the clay and the mold. It's very complicated. So he's making the small part and then the big part. And then he will connect it together, many parts. And they leave inside the warehouse one half month and they are going to burn inside the oven. When he wants to make a stronger fire, he uses the husk, put more husk inside for making a stronger fire. They use the rice husk for fuel. And one oven can last about 20 or 25 years and then repair a new one. About 30 workers, one month about average, about $60 a month. But they're working here all the time because they want to export more product, they will get more income. This is a private factory. Export more product, they will get more income. A little further, another operation that uses river sand in an entirely different way. He's making pop rice. That's a river sand. They burn it to get the heat. Oh, you look at that. It will become white color very quickly. Look like popcorn. This is pop rice. After popping, he put on the sieve to make the river sand go down. They reuse back to the stove rice husk for fuel. They use this machine to make the small rice husk come down, go through the small hole. And they will get very clean pop rice without rice husk and without river sand. They will mix up caramel, coconut juice and peanut, ginger for making pop rice cake. They press it down here. They use the big roller. They roll it to make it flat. They cut into small pieces. This is the finished ready-made product. Local farmers, local people, they like it. They love this product very much. As snack. Okay, so we are coming out of the channel here. And I think we are going to go back to see if we can get the bikes. You know, we've been in the Delta. It's been wonderful and everything. But I'm ready to go back and get my bike because I heard a rumor that our friend is fighting hard to get our bike out of customs. So with some luck, we get the bikes and tomorrow we'll be on the road, riding north in Vietnam. So see you later. Well, we just came from the hotel here in Saigon after sitting very patiently, waiting for a few days. And we're at the airport in Saigon and now we are ready to roll. Chris has been impossible to be around lately because his baby has been gone from him. Hello, it's my bike. So now we have to wait for customs to just clear them. And then we're going to take them out of the crates and put the front wheels on and head to Da Lat. You may not imagine how hard, how difficult we feel when we try to get permission. We try to take your bikes out from customs because this is the first time for the Vietnamese officers to take the bikes from outside into Vietnam and ride in Vietnam and again re-export to other countries. You don't know that my wife, she even does not encourage me to do this because too much headache. But because I love the motorcycles tour, so I just go ahead. I think every country where you go with a vehicle, foreign registered vehicle, you will have some bureaucracy. But I think Vietnam win the prize for the most bureaucracy, I'm sorry to say. We have to go through many different ministries. Some people advise me to do this, but other people advise me to do different way, so very difficult. And even the customs, they don't agree each other about the way to settle the case. And then we also need the permission from the prime minister. We're told here to copy the frame of the bike over to this paper. It's not going to be easy. It's not engraved. This is impossible to get engraving from because it's a sticker. We don't have a stamped in number on this bike except for the sticker. That's a newer thing they are doing. The frame number and engine number, they had to go with a piece of paper. And last time I saw that was actually interesting enough at the Vietnam wall where kids were sitting on shoulders of their parents and inscribing the name of uncle or whatever who had died in this very country. So that's very interesting. They had to bring in a specialist. They had to call a guy to come in, but he had a little kit. He had special paper and then he had a little special little brush. And he just took a piece of paper and a special paper and then he was like highlighting over it to get a reading, direct reading from the frame embossed where it's stamped in the frame, get that number. And so there's a frame number up here and then there's an engine number and he had to do both. I don't know if that's all he does all day long. I heard it's all he does all day long and that's his job. That's his profession. So being a communist country with a lot of bureaucracy, well, they are living up to it. Like all the red tape, this was white tape he used and he was good at it though. We tried and it was really difficult. And at one point they couldn't find it on mine. We just found a sticker or the win number and the local guide, he just freaked out because he said you can't go through this country without having this inscribing deal going. So fortunately we found another one and it was a plastic thing over. We got that away and we did it. To have an easy policy like other countries in Southeast Asia, I think it may take a few years more. What do you think about people touching and feeling and embracing your bike? Oh, I think they like it. I think there are very tactile people and I don't think we're going to change them. I've seen it before. There are people that wherever you come, they have their different customs. Some just ignore it like in the United States because there are too many bikes. Here there are no bikes. So for them, this is a curiosity. I don't know if it's going to be a problem or not, but I had my key in earlier and one guy, he started to put on the ignition. So I think that can be a problem. We are just waiting for the typist and the typist is going to finish any day now, I think. And then we are going to head out. Well, I think we're going to head out of town right during rush hour traffic. So it'll be entertaining anyway. I don't know how fast we'll be able to go, but there'll be millions of little motorbikes and we'll just kind of be right in the middle of them. Back at the hotel, we put on our riding gear, load our luggage and hook up the transponder that will be broadcasting our location as we travel. After patiently waiting for several days, we're finally ready to brave the traffic of Saigon. We were able to get out and compete in traffic, which was... Actually, it's really easy. It looks just chaotic, but it's got a nice flow to it. You just... It's very gentle. When you come out here as a stranger, a first comer, you just have to be very forgiving. Forget whatever you learned at home about traffic culture and laws and stuff. They just don't apply. Here it is. The bigger one wins, like this bus here. He's just going his own way. Everybody is working around him and it's just the different ranking. By size, definitely. Vietnam's traffic system is very complicated. With such a traffic system, the motorcyclists may feel very difficult to travel. We worry more about the security for you on the way. When you drive through your not very good road, something may happen. Motorcycle tours also, you need more freedom. Not like a normal tour, everybody sits in a bus, travel all the time together in a group. But for motorcycle tour, you need more freedom. We just arrived a few days ago in Vietnam and finally today it's going to be on our first official riding day, full riding day. We're going to go to Da Lat and then to Nha Trang. We're not riding alone. Our host has decided to accompany us on the back of his assistant's bike along with another mysterious gentleman. We're not sure who he is or why he's following us. Perhaps he's an agent sent by the government to keep an eye on us. This is a staff of mine. He is also a mechanic and the guy behind him, he likes motorcycles very much. So he just wants to ask our permission to let him go with us for the whole trip from Saigon to the border in the north. With the addition of our new riding partners, the size of our party has grown to eight people. In Da Lat, it's about 1,500 meters above the ocean and we will go up to a mountain today, more than 1,800 meters. We've been traveling now from Saigon where we started yesterday and just looking around me here, you see pine trees. As our guides say, it's cold here. Well, in my opinion, it's just beautiful. You think that's the Eiffel Tower? Chris told me that Mr. Eiffel here made this tower up there because this is the place where people come from Saigon. They come up to get away from the humidity and the heat down in Saigon and I can see why because the locals call it, oh, it's really cold here. Well, Chris and me, we are just enjoying it very much. But again, as you see, there are no traffic here compared to other places. Yeah, so look at that Christmas tree there. Pretty cool. Our first taste of the highlands in Vietnam. These are real mountains with little traffic and good roads. We're taking the new road down to the coast. It's so new that it isn't even finished yet but that's okay because this is an adventure and we're prepared even if our big bikes are a little heavy in the mud. We're so happy to finally be on the bikes that we barely notice how late it's getting until the sun goes down and we find ourselves riding in the dark hours away from our destination on the coast. Until next time, I'm Sterling Noreen for the GlobeRiders Indochina Expedition. Thanks for watching. To purchase a DVD of this program or learn more about the Indochina Expedition and other GlobeRiders adventures, please visit our website.