Good Morning Vietnam!!!
 

Planning a trip to Vietnam.....

Fly in and hire / buy bikes, ride them like we stole them then fly home.... Thinking of starting in Ho Chi Min City and riding to Hanoi.... Any advice greatly appreciated!

My brother does this every UK winter for a month. The worst that happened was his hired bike's exhaust fell off (one piece silencer and header) . It cost the equivalent of 12 pound sterling to buya a new Honda pipe.

Hi, having been to Vietnam recently, and wanting to go again, it would be nice to know a bit about where your brother did his research.
My experience was it all looks chaotic but they ride quite slowly (you have to when you've got the whole family on a 100cc step-through), one guy I saw had a washing machine on the back which he held onto with one hand, whilst steering with the other

Research.....bit of a cheat really. He lives in the U.K. but his best friend (a Brit) lives in Oz and his pal is married to a Thai girl, so bruv and his chum bug out and leave Lulu at home for a month. One thing though....even the Thai lass says the cops will fleece you for "fines". But that's Thailand and not Vietnam.....or is it ?...lol!

Hi chalk two, actually, she's not wrong about that AFAIK. Our guide told us that the cops target people easy to get money off, ie. people on small bikes for no apparent reason, and people with connections get away with things.
To that end, I did witness an incident in which we were at a zebra crossing and a copper was actually crossing on it and a 4x4 merc (very rare in Vietnam) just missed him by a whisker, not going fast either, he did nothing.
On that same crossing though, he proceeded to stop a chap on a Honda cub who had done nothing wrong IMHO, who knows the outcome of that?

I suppose that's the risk one takes in S.E Asia in general. My Liverpudlian friend ,married to a Philipina has told similar tales.
I'd still do it in a heartbeat, but my old boyscout "be prepared" motto haunts me, and as a result I'd have to go armed with spare cash and cards just in case.
When I go abroad on a motorbike, people laugh at the amount of tools I take...

Cheers for the comments chaps, Keep them coming please....

I can relate the same about the Ukraine. Myself and my two friends got done by the local village cops there in 2011.... shame as we were warned by other bikers that they target foreigners. Once they stop you they badger you until they have all the cash off you and they wont take local money either....

Having ridden a couple of times in Vietnam on hired bikes, not scooters, I was told on my last trip that unless you have a valid local license all insurance(inc medical/travel from uk) is invalid, that's why the top gear clowns took their test on camera. I get an international license from the RAC for Thailand, but not recognised in Vietnam.

If anybody is going to to Thailand I can recommend the Mea Hong Son loop, 700km and nearly 2000 bends with race track smooth roads, hired a bike from Tony's big bikes in Chang mai.

Al.

Good info xtal, not being a watcher of clowns, especially those three, what was that about a test on camera?
Also, is the local licence available from Vietnam Embassy in UK, to your knowledge?
If not, I'll check with the Embassy myself and post my results back here. Looks like a few of us might be interested...

Excellent!!! Looks like I have started a monsterrrr here.LOL