Hai Van Pass to Hue

Our next stop on our journey north was Hue. There are various ways to get between the two, including the train and a bus, but by far the most exciting is by scooter over the Hai Van Pass.

Having had a taste of riding scooters earlier in our trip, we decided to drive ourselves as it gave us more freedom to do what we wanted along the way. As this is a popular route with backpackers, there’s a company, Motorvina, that will hire you a scooter to drive one way and then transport your bags to Hue for you.

There are many stops along the way, the first being the Marble Mountains about half an hour outside of Hoi An. Needless to say, we chose to walk up the steps rather than take the lift! There were lots of caves and temples to see at the top, as well as great views out over Hoi An, Da Nang and the beach.

The highlight however was Huyen Khong cave, which due to the significant amount of incense being burned resulted in a spectacular sunbeam coming in through a hole in the roof. It was magical.

Back on the bikes, we continued to Da Nang, driving over the aptly named Dragon Bridge, which we’d spotted two days before on the way from Da Nang to Hoi An.

From here it was on to the main event, the Hai Van Pass. This route was made famous a few years ago by Top Gear and gives great views over the sea. It was a challenge not to get too distracted by the view and concentrate on the road but we made it to the top unscathed.

After wandering around a ruin at the top, we carried on down the other side, passing trucks full of pigs on the way. By this time it was getting quite late so we pressed on to our lunch stop at Lang Co Bay. Despite the party music blaring out from a local group on the beach, we had a relaxing lunch looking out over the sea.

The next stop was the Elephant Springs. The road to get there was pretty bumpy and so took a while to get down. We hadn’t brought our swim stuff with us and as we still had an hour and a half drive ahead of us, we simply walked to the river to see the pools then walked back, although not before James was asked by some (rather short) locals for a photo with them. They barely came up to his armpits!

The last leg of our journey was pretty straightforward, just following the road north. We did see a stunning sunset as we were driving along, however that did mean by the time we entered Hue it was getting dark. James was excellent at navigating and got us to the bike shop first time. The whole journey took about eight and a half hours, so we were pretty tired and sore by the end!

By sheer luck, our hostel happened to be on the same road, which was great as our luggage hadn’t yet arrived. So we checked into our hostel, had a shower then headed back to collect our luggage, which finally turned up at 7:30pm. Back at the hostel, we had a lovely family dinner, chatting to the other guests and enjoying some tasty dishes.

The rest of the evening was spent planning our onward travel. This proved to be quite difficult, as we’d hoped to go via the DMZ, but couldn’t find a bus to take us there and onto Phong Nha afterwards. So instead we opted to spend the next day looking round Hue and just go straight to Phong Nha that afternoon.

The Imperial City was really interesting. It was heavily destroyed during the Tet offensive in 1968 but since becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site, some of the buildings have been restored. It was fascinating to learn more about the Nguyen empire and the Vietnamese monarchy, whose reign ended in 1945. The long corridors were especially stunning and the complex was surprisingly quiet which made it much easier to enjoy.

After a quick Banh Mi, we slowly wandered back to the hostel along the Perfume River, passing a rather odd statue of fruit on the way!

Our bus to Phong Nha was cramped to say the least! It just wasn’t designed for someone who is 5’8”, and definitely not someone who is 6’3”! However the view certainly made up for it.

We initially passed through paddy fields before suddenly embarking on a very long stretch of sand dunes. This was made even more strange by the fact that we were watching Ski Sunday on the bus and the sand was so white it looked like snow!

Finally, north of Dong Hoi, we started entering the karst landscape of Phong Nha national park. However by this time it was getting dark so the view was less interesting!

I couldn’t let this post go by without a special mention to my sister who turned 30 on the day we drove the Hai Van Pass. Happy birthday Child!