Motorbike adventure on the Hai Van Pass and in Hue

The next morning a motorbike was ready for us. No, not a scooter, but a real one! A Honda to be exact. Because today we wanted to ride over the Hai Van Pass, which separates the north from the south of Vietnam. From Hoi An, we first drove back to the beach. Along the sea, we then went to Da Nang, the next larger city, which has beautiful beaches but unfortunately has already been paved over by huge resorts and hotels.

On the way there, you pass by the Marble Mountains. We decided not to take the glass elevator to the first platform, but to walk instead. On the way up the steep steps, you step on white marble stones again and again, which have been worn down by many feet and are quite slippery. Through a small narrow cave, you reach the top of the mountain. From here you have a beautiful view of the sea and the other marble mountains, which are named after the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. On the next ride, you will encounter many stonecutters with huge marble figures and Buddhas.

In the north of Da Nang, there is a "fishing village," which, however, is directly connected to the city and only differs from it by the fishing boats on the beach. Then we left the sea behind us and drove a bit further inland to the start of the Hai Van Pass. Here beautiful motorcycle bends awaited us. On the drive up, on the left, there was the beautiful mountain with great rock formations, waterfalls, and jungle, and on the right, the sea with its different shades of blue and lonely bays. The Hai Van Pass used to be the only way to travel from the north to the south. Today there is a tunnel. That's why there is hardly anything going on on the pass, and you can ride carefree. As the name suggests, the Hai Van Pass is often covered in clouds that obscure the beautiful view. But today we were really lucky! We had great weather all the way to the top, even if it was a bit hazy.

Militarily, the pass was of course also important as the only north-south connection. That's why there is a bunker at the top that was used by the Americans and French and can be visited. Apparently, it is also interesting for Chinese people because they were brought here in busloads. Still, it's a beautiful view from up here.

Then we continued north, going down the beautiful serpentines again. When we reached the bottom, there were two options: either take the normal, fast road along the highway or turn right onto small roads past lakes and through small villages. Those who know us know which way we took: the adventurous way! And we didn't regret it... it was a bit bumpy again, but we are already used to that. We passed by lush green rice fields, fishing boats, cute children who were happy to see tourists, many brightly decorated huge graves and cemeteries, and some small villages. Here, once again, you could get a glimpse into the real Vietnamese life, which seems simple but happy. When the sun was almost setting, we arrived at the beach of Hue, our destination city. Just half an hour through the city and we arrived at our hotel.

A long journey that was definitely worth it!

>Our luggage was conveniently delivered to our hotel in Hue, where they also picked up the motorbike. So you can ride carefree :) Almost every rental station offers this service because many people want to ride the Hai Van Pass.

In Hue, we rented a scooter again for the next day because there were no bicycles available at the moment. With that, we rode to the great Citadel of Hue, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is currently being rebuilt after being destroyed several times in the wars. The Nguyen Dynasty ruled there until recently. For a long time, the imperial city was even the capital of the country. At some point, the emperor handed over the power to Ho Chi Minh. The entire area is surrounded by a large wall with impressive gates. Inside lies the so-called Forbidden Purple City, which only the emperor, the empress, high mandarins, and servants were allowed to enter. The World Heritage Site also includes the writings and printing blocks created there, as well as the traditional court music played in the nearby theater.

After a coffee, we continued to various mausoleums of the former rulers. Also very impressive pagodas and buildings, but the entrance fee was clearly too expensive for us, so we just passed by. Since the fuel gauge (as usual) didn't work, we realized too late that we ran out of gas. Fortunately, the next gas station was only 300m away, and Carsten could push the scooter there. The scooter still didn't bring us luck, but more on that later...

Back in the city, we went to the Walking Street to grab some food. Since it was still before 6 p.m., we could still ride the scooter through the street. We parked the scooter near the restaurant and had a snack. When we came out half an hour later, there was a grill set up where our scooter was. We thought they probably just moved the scooter around the corner, and when we asked where it was, one of the staff members laughed and ran around the corner to get it, but unfortunately came back without the scooter. We walked to all ends of the Walking Street with another staff member because we suspected that the scooter was in one of the parking lots there, but there was no trace of our scooter! One of the security guards said that the scooter was with the police, but he wasn't completely sure. So we walked to the nearest police station, which was not responsible for traffic matters. About a kilometer away, there was another station we were sent to. So we walked there and after some back and forth, we actually found someone who could speak English and took our statement. His first assumption was that the scooter was stolen, but after a few phone calls, he sent us to a third address. Supposedly, the scooter should be there. When we arrived there, there was only a man at a gate who didn't understand a word of English. Using Google Translator, we conveyed to him what we wanted, and he pointed in a direction... the scooter should be somewhere there. When we couldn't find it, we went back to him and asked if he could show it to us. He brought out his scooter and drove off with Carsten. Tina was supposed to wait at a corner at a roadside stand. The ride went to another police station, where the officers looked at Carsten angrily and said things like: "You!", while pointing at him and then thumbs down👎. One of them wrote something in Vietnamese on a piece of paper and said we should take it to our hotel, where we had rented the scooter. The man with the scooter drove Carsten back to Tina, and both of us took a taxi to quickly find out what was written on the paper. When we arrived at the hotel, the receptionist explained to us that the scooter had been confiscated and could only be released again in two days for a fine of $20. But we didn't have that much time, as we had already booked a flight to the capital for the next day... He made a few phone calls and found out that this parking regulation had only been in effect for two days. He himself didn't know that yet and said he would be pretty mad if he were in our shoes! Well, at least we now knew that the scooter wasn't stolen. So we paid the fine, and the hotel was so kind to cover the loss for the rental company and settle the rest with the city administration. Another adventure that ended well...

After all this stress, we went to bed early because the next morning we had to get up early to catch the 8 a.m. flight to Hanoi. Off to the bustling capital!