Northern Vietnam Itinerary Locked and Loaded

Whelp, we’ve finally got the next couple weeks lined up and booked. It’s been a fast and furious pace figuring out where to go, what to do, how much to spend, what to cut, etc. We have roughly 9 weeks in SE Asia, and while that may sound like a ton of time, it all goes very quickly.

So, in a nutshell, here’s the next 10 days or so:

• July 12^th -14^th – Motorcycle ride through the mountain trails and rice paddies around Mai Chau
• July 14^th – Return to Hanoi for an overnight at Nexy Hostel
• July 15^th - 16^th – 2 day cruise of Ha Long Bay
• July 16^th – Return to Hanoi for another overnight at Nexy
• July 17^th - 18^th – Overnight sleeper train to Dong Hoi
• July 18^th – Overnight in Central Backpackers Hostel in Phong Nha
• July 19^th - 21^st – 3 day hiking in Phong Nha caves

• July 21^st – Figure out how to get to Hue

So, in case you’re wondering what’s up with the delay on the blogging, we’re either out motorcycling, cruising, or caving. Here’s a quick rundown of the activities, and look out for the photos and videos to follow!

Motorcycling

We’ve got three days, 2 nights out on the bikes, which will get us deep into some more remote areas here in Northern Vietnam. The two nights are in homestays with local Hmong and White Thai, which should be super special.

When we were on our last trip, we had a chance to rent some motorcycles around Cuzco, Peru, which was an incredible time. We’re hoping for a repeat of some of those moments here.

Cruising

Cruising Ha Long Bay is one of the most iconic Vietnam activities. I did this when I was here in 2005, and remember it as touristy then, so I can only imagine now.

However, sometimes things are simply so incredible that you just need to strap your camera on, queue up, and walk a very beaten path. Take a selfie or two, remember that there’s a reason it’s so famous and try not to be jaded by the throngs of people.

This should be freaking awesome.

Caving

We’re taking the Hang Tien Exploration trek with Oxalis Adventures, which is a “challenging” route. Tough to know the scale here, but they do give you this handy dandy reference. We’re apparently somewhere between splunking and swimming if the chart is correct.

We’re a little concerned about how Erin’s torn ACL is going to handle the trek, but feel that based off the burly Tahitian hikes we were able to tackle, we should be good here.

Next step: Adventure

The next week and a half should be a jam-packed adventure, the type of traveling that we can only pull off in short spurts.  But it's the real deal, and I couldn't be more excited to get out into it all.

Stay tuned for the incoming photos and stories!