The spesh-tacular Hai Van Pass

Filling up on local street food breakie, we enjoyed a completely non-verbal conversation with the grandma and grandpa who run this little Banh Mi joint.  There's these kind of carts all over Vietnam, where you rock up, choose your filling and right there on the spot they make you tasty baguette.  There's a little fire tucked under the counter to toast the baguette, and the often grubby finger-nailed lady has a gas element to fry your eggs.  We need to learn how to say 'coriander is not our favourite, so please save that for someone who'll appreciate it' but that phrase isn't in our Vietnamese repertoire just yet.  

In fact part of what was charaded in our conversation was that the previous day we had enjoyed watching this very same grandpa cutting down his tree with a small-sized hacksaw.  The Vietnamese twist in the story was that he had been entwined with electrical cables as he precariously stood on the top rung of his bamboo ladder.  At one point he stepped down a rung, and actually sat on a wire!  

Pulling into a spot to get the oil changed on the bikes, our timing was fortuitous.  Dark grey clouds let out their contents, and for a good while we waited for it to ease.  An inch of water surrounded us underfoot, hmm maybe it was time for a little coffee or another passionfruit tart! 

Rain often has a good turn, and after an hour or so of the biggest raindrops you could imagine, the sun pops out again, and Incy Wincy spider climbs up the spout again.  

Heading through the port town of Da Nang, we started the ascent of the spectacular Hai Van Pass (petrol heads, you might have seen the hilarious Top Gear piece on this same pass).  The ride was reminiscent of the stunning Queen Charlotte Drive, with lush green hills plunging into dark ocean below.  

All along our journey we've had marker posts like the one above, they denote the distance to the next town (in either direction), plus on the road edge it tells you which highway you're on.  Still trying to figure out what the red numbers mean, if you've got the answer, let us know!  

Back to the Hai Van Pass.  To date, this has been the most scenic coastal road we've enjoyed!  It's such a great view from the top.  Quite a lot of people have appreciated this pass, so much so that it was heavily contested during the Vietnam war.  The visual vantage point and the transport route was a prize to fight for.  Apparently at this latitude of Vietnam, there were only two north-south routes, and to control them would've been a strategic priority.  Agent Orange was heavily used through this region.  A local hawker told us the the bunkers at the top of the pass were American, they were riddled with bullet holes.  

In contrast to all of that, when we arrived a bride and groom were getting their wedding photos taken at the top... What a sweet backdrop!  Amazing how nature always rejuvenates. 

We rolled down the north end of the Hai Van Pass and built up some decent speed with neither engine running (sorry Grant).  A great thing about this road is how quiet it is.  Most go through the tunnel, leaving a scenic high road clear for thrill seekers like us.  Trucks carrying gas or livestock aren't permitted through the tunnel, so they head over the top too.  

The inlet at the base of the pass was picturesque.  Fisher families had constructed houses on stilts, with rumpled rickety boardwalks to the shore.  Instead of doorbells they had dogs, mostly lying on the road in the sun, snoozin.

Another downpour of rain, and we pulled in to the closest driveway.  The bloke offered us a very expensive can of coke, but to enjoy his shelter was worth it.  Thinking about his rain-hostaged visitors, he gave us a tour of his eucalyptus oil factory (consisting of a couple of 44 gallon drums, 2 pipes and a tap), and tried to make a swift sale.  Both of us are not really into buying stuff.  And besides, our bikes had needed to be in first gear to lug us and our bags over that pass.  Luckily for us we had a bottle of tea tree oil in our bag, and after they passed it around their quality control circle, we said chuc may mung (good luck to you!), and made a very fast getaway.  Onwards to Hué!

(Sorry our map isn't quite accurate to our route today.  We went up the mini coast roads from Hoi An, along Da Nang coast road, over the Hai Van, to the west of the mini inlet, which means that only the last little bit of the blue line is correct!  Know of a better app to track our route?)