Day 1 - Motorcycle from Hoi An to Prao

Today was the beginning of our motorcycle tour. To protect ourselves from the sun, we put on long clothes and pulled our buffs up to our sunglasses. Our guide Dung picked us up at the homestay at 08:30. After our backpacks were stored on the motorcycles, we could start. Dung carried our big backpacks on his motorcycle, we rode together on the other motorcycle and had the daypack with us.

Our first stop was a factory where incense sticks are made. Special sticks are made there that smell like cinnamon. We could watch the workers during their daily work. Then into the mountains. The roads here are sometimes curvy, but in good condition. We are not used to this from previous countries. On the way to the mountains, we stopped to eat fresh pineapples that were sold right by the roadside. The locals eat the pineapples with salt and chili.

After lunch, we visited a small village with 700 inhabitants that still live very traditionally. Today is a special day for the village's residents. For this reason, they were in the midst of preparations for a big festival that would take place in the evening. Chairs were set up, a big banner was hung, and two pigs were prepared for slaughter. Despite the ongoing preparations, the locals took the time to talk to us. A group of men invited us to the community house for tea. We sat together in a circle on the floor. We also got to listen to them playing music. During the tour of the village, we were invited into the house of two old ladies. The house is still traditional, built of bamboo on stilts. The house consists of only one room, where they live, cook, and store things. Chickens live under the house.

The route through the mountains was very beautiful and we got to know a different side of Vietnam. There is a lot of lush greenery and some parts of the nature are still untouched. Unfortunately, there are also more and more areas where industrial farming takes place, such as tree plantations for paper production.

We arrived at the hotel without getting sunburned, although it is unfortunately very dirty. Even our guide Dung is not thrilled, but we can endure it for one night. At least after we exchanged the towels and duvets with holes. Overall, we drove about 140 km today.