Kon Tum to Khâm Đức - 173 km

Khâm Đức – now we've cumulatively ridden 1,373 kilometers (853 miles) – which is about the half way  point of our south to north journey of Vietnam.

During the war there was a US Special Forces camp there and some major fighting in 1968 involving the Australian-led 11th Mobile Strike Force. Today there seems to be no traces of the war.

Kham Duc is currently known for one thing: Gold. I knew very little about it until I did some internet reading, and everything written was about the gold mining. Considering the location along the HCM Trail, Kham Duc is a fairly large town with hotels and guest houses and lots of cafes and some rather extensively stocked appliance stores. We stayed at the Be Chau Giang Hotel (Address: 94 Phạm Văn Đồng, Khâm Đức, Phước Sơn, phone: +84 510 3681 555; GPS 15.438769, 107.793045) with rooms for $18.00. Really nice three story hotel with a large restaurant and outdoor patio. Large room, very clean and very quiet. (A/C, hot water, no bugs, very large bed). After checking in we walked to a nearby food stall for a snack – and wandered back to the same the area for dinner.

As usually I probably asked too many questions about local conditions (old habits die hard). The story is that the gold mining is being run by a French company (ies) and they have imported a number of Filipinos to pan for gold in the river while the Vietnamese work the mines. At the hotel I noticed a few Frenchmen who seemed to be involved in the mining (easy to identify as they wore polo shirts with writing about a gold company, spoke French and smoked incessantly).

Leaving Kon Tum, and after a few turns, we hit the Ho Chi Minh (HCM) Trail.  ONLY 1,500+ km to Hanoi!

Old US Airforce Landing Strip used during the Vietnam War.

The scenery changes quite a bit during the ride - converting old forests to farmland.

Here's the final result - lots of beautiful terraced ride fields.

Bridges always seem like the perfect photo op!

While stopped for a coffee break, I saw this gorgeous Massey Ferguson cruising down the street.

Apparently the Shake Weight is a pretty big deal here.

Well, this was about the best stretch of road on our trip - built to Western standards. Unfortunately, we were only on this marvelous road for about 15 minutes.  I even went the wrong way hoping that it was the way up to Kham Duc (so I could drive on the road a bit longer). Strangely enough, we were the only ones on this road.

Stopped in for a lunch break (a bowl of Pho) in a town just before Dak Pek.  Although the food was good, if we had ridden another 5 minutes north, we would have landed in a larger village with more food options (GPS 15.089519, 107.736053).

Some Soviet ere SUV's still running around town.

Yeah - that landscape!

Looks like the afternoon commute is starting!

10% grades are no laughing matter.  Poor little motorbike never saw it coming.  Riding two up, with our backpacks - required first gear, despite getting a good run at it.  110cc's of pure fury was no match for the steep grade.

Towards the top of the hill, the scenery changed to more of a jungle landscape.

This is the Walmart of the town - apparently you can get your motorbike fixed, laundry done, and access the internet.

After settling into our hotel in Kham Duc, this is where we found dinner.  And what is it with these tiny chairs and tinier tables????

This apparently is the rage in town.  Steamed duck with duck porridge.  And it was pretty damn good.

Cooking is very rudimentary here - wood/coals, pot, and there you go. Not too many fancy kitchen accouterments. 

The next morning - I saw a bike shop that had upgraded headlights.  While I was waiting for the headlight upgrade, I noticed the "mechanic" next to me rebuilding the head on another 110cc Honda motor.  They knocked the dirt off the bike, pulled the chain between the engine and tranny off, and proceeded to tear the head down right there on the asphalt.

Here's the Yamaha shop where the headlight upgrade was done.  Honda and Yamaha Dealership.  56 Quang Trung - TT Kham Duc.

The people there were quite pleasant, and had fun talking with them!

From Left to Right: Random delivery guy, my mechanic, yours truly, and the owner.

Buon Ma Thuot to Kon Tum - 255 km

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This was a high mileage day, so we got up extra early, saddled up, and hit the road.  255 km, I estimated, was going to be nine hours of riding.  I estimated wrong.  My calculations were based on paved roads.  Not this rutted out, gravel strewn, water logged construction site they called a highway.

Potholes were about hub deep, and large enough to be a fish farm.

And to add insult to injury - riding a motorbike without a windscreen took its toll.  I had a beetle of some sort fly into my shirt, and lodge itself into my belly button.  At first, I felt a small stinging/itching sensation, and finally stopped a few miles later.  Took my gloves off, and basically smashed it to pieces and pressed it further into my belly button.  In the end, I basically had to scoop (what I hope) was the rest of it out with the motorbike key.

After seemingly endless miles of dirt, gravel (which is terrible and scary as hell on this motorbike), and the rear suspension constantly bottoming out - it finally happened.  Another part broke.  I knew something was about to let go, but I wasn't quite sure what it would be this time.  I had mentally gone through a checklist of all the parts that have been replaced. BAMN. One good pop, and we were down for the count.  Chain had popped loose, got caught in the rear sprocket - twisted the chain and chipped the sprocket.

With a limited amount of tools, all I could do was tighten the chain, and find the next mechanic.  No luck - chain popped off again.  Pushed it downhill, to a residence, and asked if they had any more tools, or could take me to a mechanic. But first, we inspected the bike, and straightened out as much as we could.

And this is what restores my faith in humanity.  They assembled as many tools as they had, and started working on the bike.  And these were complete strangers, whom we had met mere minutes ago.

After showing them that we needed new parts, Grampa got dressed, and took his own motorbike and told me to follow him to the mechanic down the road.  And he helped explained what was wrong, and I told the mechanic not to fix the chain, but just to get a new one, and new sprocket set.  Grampa waited there with me for over an hour as the mechanic went to fetch the new parts.

Here's the family - which we apparently are a part of now.

Left to right: Margaret, Daughter, Gramma, Grandaughter, Grampa.

We wanted to give them a parting gift, but didn't have anything on us.  We tried to give them money, but they wouldn't accept it.  Grampa saw that we had a couple of spare bungee cords, and he looked like he wanted - so I gestured him to keep it.  They said there was rain off in the distance, and said we should eat dinner with them, and stay over night.  We obviously could not accept yet another gift, and decided to make up some ground.

Losing over an hour and half, Kon Tum was not looking likely.  So we stopped in Pleiku (46 km short of Kon Tum).  That was a great decision, as it was dark, and no more than 5 minutes after checking into a motel - the downpour began.

The best part about this unexpected stop was that we found this really restaurant that sold delicious Hai Nam chicken - a friend variation of the Hong Kong Style Hai Nan chicken.  I could have easily eaten two plates.  The owner was really friendly, and brought us more rice and vegetables.

Heading into our actual destination, this is what our little rolling motorhome looks and sounds like.  110cc of raw power!

The route between Pleiku and Kon Tum was beautiful - lots of green rice paddies, rubber trees.  All quite lush.

Rice paddies as far as the eye can see.

A required selfie, of course.

And the mandatory Vietnamese coffee break.  Can't get enough of this stuff.  $0.50 goes a long way here.

Here is the flood plain, next to levy as we entered Kon Tum.

Margaret found this place called Eva Cafe, in her blog readings of Kon Tum.  The place is pretty neat - really artsy feel to it, with many of the pieces either built or designed by the owner.  

Lots of outdoor seating.  I found a nice quite corner and passed out for an hour.

They even have a tree house.

One of the local specialties is Cà Phê Trung - coffee with egg. It's sweet egg froth, almost like meringue that hasn't set on a lemon meringue pie.  It was delicious, albeit a bit spendy - $2.50.

Here's the owner - he had quite the conversation with Margaret on how to build a better fish pond that didnt' leak.

Kon Tum has a very unique history - The French had set up a colony here, with a heavy dose of Catholicism.  The missionaries traces back to the mid 1800's, and their legacy can still be seen today.

Wooden Catholic Church built by the French.

Even more Catholic Churches.

Right across the street from the white and yellow church above, here is where they held their outdoor mass.

Another interesting thing about Kon Tum is the large number of ethnic minority villages around town.  If they don't have a Vietnamese flag up front, you'll need special permission from the local police to visit them.  Here's their traditional ceremonial meeting house.  Given the pitch of that roof, you'd think it snows here!

Here are the villagers, kids included, as they process and package the vegetables planted out in the fields.  

In the middle of the day, even the cows take a break under the shade of a tree.

This is the Cau Konklor Bridge - 292 meters long, 4.5 meters wide.

This is NOT an old bridge - it was completed in 1994.  Seems like a coat of paint would go a long way.

Of course, no trip is complete without a great meal.  We found this place called Quan Com, on 572 Nguyen Hue.  Their specialty? Why, roast pork!

As you can see, that was a great spread.  

With all the different side trips, we ended up staying 3 days here in Kon Tum.

Lak Lake to Buon Ma Thuot, Vietnam - 54 km

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Due to logistics of our ride, our next stop to Buon Ma Thuot (BMT) was only a 54 km ride.  So, in Vietnamese riding time, that would take two straight hours of riding at a good pace.  (Out here, you bookmark 30 kph on average, and that’s moving at a good clip.)

That resulted in a lazy morning in Lak Lake, as we headed out toward BMT.  On the way, we stopped for lunch in a fairly large village for pho, a basic Vietnamese soup noodle that fills you up, and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner – which is genius I tell you.

Here’s our noodle shop.  Typically we like to use crowd sourcing to find our restaurant.  Unfortunately, we had chosen to eat at an odd hour, so there was no one else eating to help us identify a place to eat.  (Typically, with crowds, that means there is high food turnover, meaning there is less food sitting around, and reducing your chances of food poisoning.)

After eating, and a quick pit stop out back, we couldn’t help notice the use of firewood for cooking.  Even in this modern age, lots of people still use wood fires as a primary heat source.

Here’s where the broth is cooked to all its beefy goodness for hours over the fire.

Even up front, where the smaller pot is used to finish the noodle soup, it’s still fueled by fire – this time by a charcoal stove.

Back on the motorbike for just another 30 minutes, it started to drizzle.  From past experience, we knew what this meant – torrential downpour and flooding within the next 1-2 minutes.  A quick check to the right revealed a hammock stand serving iced coffee (café sua da) and sugar cane drinks, along with plenty of hammocks.  This, by default (and luck) became our next stop while we waited out the storm.

The proprietors of the stand, as with nearly all the locals we have met here in Vietnam, were very generous.  They probably do not get a lot of tourists stopping by, so they knew that language was going to be a barrier.  Nonetheless, they still offered us slices of delicious jackfruit (so far, my favorite fruit in SE Asia – and a pity we can get this back home).  Needless to say, I was happy tornado in a trailer park, and graciously accepted seconds when she offered me more.  I had my coffee, my jackfruit, and my hammock.  That, my friends, is the life.

Margaret made me sit up for this photo.  Before that, I was gorging myself on jack fruit while laying comfortably in my hammock.

How all truck rest should be back home - lined with hammocks and cold drinks.

As the rains petered off, we made our way to the hotel that Mr. Chan had recommended, and where him and Oliver were staying.  Running into them in the lobby, we asked to join them for dinner, and they were okay with having a plus 2.  Mr. Chan found us a fresh spring roll place in town:

There’s Margaret, with our new friends, Oliver and Mr. Chan! The best part about traveling is meeting new friends.  Cheers!

And here’s the spread.  All the food was great – so great, in fact, that we ordered seconds.

Walking back through town, we couldn’t help notice more propaganda. This time, in the shape of a tank, in the main traffic circle in town.

Thinking if I can't hot wire that tank, and let 'er rip down the street....