The Occasional Adventure

1,2 big city energy

3 layered with tradition

4 wonderfully quirky moments

5 a trippy light-and-mirrors art show

6,7 stylish cafés (often tucked into crumbling old apartments)

8,9 bold, brilliant, endlessly varied food

10 seriously cool bars

Time for Plan B. With help from the incredibly kind hotel staff, we track down a sleeper bus that can take the bikes. By noon we’re onboard for the three-hour run to Sài Gòn. It’s a bit surreal, lying flat in the middle of the day for such a short trip – but it works. Mostly. The bus only goes as far as the outskirts, where everyone transfers to smaller vans. Not an option with bikes.

So it ends the only way that makes sense: back in the saddle. One last 10 km push into the city centre. And what a finale. Traffic is heavy but (mostly) manageable, and watching the skyline of Sài Gòn slowly rise ahead of us feels pretty special.

The final kilometre? Pure mayhem. Loud, chaotic, electric – and somehow the perfect finish. ⚡️

But there’s a reward waiting: a beautiful boutique hotel, ocean view, and the feeling that we’ve almost made it.

1/ First light on a rocky shoreline 🌄

2/ Morning reflections 💦

3/ 101 km to Phan Thiết! 🏁 (And from there, we plan to train to Sài Gòn)

4/ Meeting locals at coffee ☕️

5/ Back on the highway 🛣

6/ Another working fishing village 🛶

7/ Cleaning up after the catch 🐟

8/ A neglected beachside stand ⛱

9/ Hugging the coastline 🌊

10/ A local family head home from a swim 🛵

1/ Fisherman at first light 🎣

2/ Sunrise over Vĩnh Hy Bay 🌄

3/ Sorting the morning catch 🐟

4/ Breakfast with a view ☕️

5/ Grinding up into the mountains ⛰️

6/ Sweeping descent back to the coast 🌊

7/ Another picturesque fishing village 🛶

8/ Lunch stop (eggs for a bánh mì) 🍳🥖

9/ Rural traffic jam 🐃 🚜

10/ Headwind highway finale 💨

It makes for tough riding: sustained 11% grades over five kilometres, switchbacking up mountainsides that drop straight into the sea. But the payoff is enormous. Every hairpin reveals a new, jaw-dropping vista.

By late afternoon we descend into Vĩnh Hy, a small fishing village tucked into a perfect crescent bay. Our guesthouse sits right on the water, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the harbour. Kids play along the shoreline as fishing boats return with their catch – we have front-row seats to daily village life.

A top-five day of the trip.

🌅 Catch sunrise

🌊 Swim in ocean

🥐 Linger over breakfast buffet

😴 Recovery nap

📖 Read, intermittently stare at ocean

🍹 Sunset cocktails

🍽️ Dinner at resort’s Italian restaurant

The route hugs the beach, crowded with international visitors baking in the midday sun (the locals, wisely, wait until after 4 pm), before climbing onto a busy coastal road for the final stretch.

This beach resort is our biggest splurge of the journey, and expectations are high. Early returns are strong. A welcome glass of fresh sugarcane juice. An oceanfront villa with a deck suspended above the waves. A serene infinity pool. A lunch of mango salad, bánh xèo, and fruit smoothie, followed by a swim, then a beer in the lounge as the waves roll in.

For a day, at least, we’ve arrived in heaven.

We zip past Daphne. He finds this hilarious. So much so that he keeps doing it.

For the next few kilometres he keeps at it, pushing and laughing, ignoring my attempts to say please stop. We’re moving so fast I can’t even turn around to check where Daphne is.

Finally, a scooter appears, coming straight at us against the traffic (normally alarming, but in this moment oddly welcome). The motorbike driver lifts his foot. I brake to a stop.

He pulls over to the side of the highway and gestures me to rejoin him. I try to wave him away. After a few minutes he walks his motorbike back to me, points to the chain – now dangling on the ground – and says: “Money to get to Nha Trang.”

How … coincidental.

Daphne rolls up, relieved to find me, and slightly baffled by the whole scene. We hand over $5 and push on, chalking it up as a kind of unofficial road toll.

🌊 ocean views

☕️ coffee

🌊 more ocean views

🌴 windblown palms

🛶 fishing boats

⛱️ ocean resort

The reward is immediate. Quy Nhơn is one of the most charming cities we’ve visited on the trip: a world-class seawall, lively beaches dotted with locals playing volleyball (and mercifully free of garbage), and a growing scene of funky breweries and cafés. We end the day with a Vietnamese craft beer under a full moon, listening to the waves roll in.

Plus: the biggest statue of Ho Chi Minh yet (with his dad!).

Ever since hitting the coast a week ago, the afternoons have meant headwinds. Today, they don’t wait. By 10 am, we’re grinding forward against gusts that nearly push us back. Add a punishing sun and a steady run of 10% climbs, and we’re in survival mode by halfway. (Coffee helps, but only for a few kilometres.) The day’s saving grace: the road. Quiet, coastal, and offering enough jaw-dropping views to keep us moving.

And then, salvation. We roll into a sprawling oceanfront resort and are upgraded to a private pool villa. A swim starts the recovery process, followed by a set menu that features our new favourite: bánh xèo, a crispy, stuffed rice pancake. Oh, and the beach? The kind that makes you forget the ride entirely.

Our struggles are put into perspective as we learn this stretch of coast witnessed one of the darkest chapters of the American War: the Mỹ Lai Massacre. In the village of Sơn Mỹ, hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed by US soldiers – an atrocity later exposed to the world, sparking outrage and deepening opposition to the conflict.

By mid-afternoon we check into an oceanfront resort, the first of several in these final two weeks of the ride. It’s not entirely our scene – bingo and free cocktails by the pool – but the beach delivers an unforgettable sunset.