Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam. As a child of the 60’s and 70’s, Vietnam has never resonated in my mind as a place or people.  Vietnam was more a series of events, choices and consequences that defined much of my youth and surrounding generations. I contend that it is a well-recognized word to most Americans, but not a well-known country. Americans generally understand Vietnam through the lens of our involvement in a miniscule period of Vietnam’s vast history.

In early Spring of 2025, I was exploring the idea of going on a gravel bike ride to knock off the preceding winter fat. At 62 years of age, I am aware that I need to quit putting off the fun because of the practical necessities of the immediate.  In other words, there are only so many chances to get out and do epic stuff.  I thought about Vietnam.  It seemed like a great place to explore by bike and a good way to connect with a place for which I had very little understanding.

I have enjoyed bikepacking solo, but always prefer the company of good friends that are willing to explore and get tired and dirty.  My daughter Caroline and her boyfriend Charley have become some of my favorite riding partners. They are always up for bad decisions and laugh at the results.  They are happy if they are well-fed, and they agree that biking is a good way to get from one food source to another.

Charley and Caroline had one month off in between their winter and summer jobs in Colorado, so they decided to spend the time in Vietnam, biking with me for 15 of those days. None of us had any real intel on biking in Vietnam, and searches related to biking there almost always refer to motorized bikes.

Our goal was to create a route that would show us as much of the country as we could see via bike in two weeks. We thought it would be cool to ride from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. This would cover much of Vietnam, north to south, and make for two easy airport flights on each end of the trip. We built a route on Ride with GPS with the goal of mixing rural with cities and mountains with coast. We were relying almost entirely on guess work.

The route we created was just over 1,200 miles, running along the coast and central highlands. Highways, gravel roads, single-track, steep climbs and some bushwhacking were mixed into the route. I still argue we had a great route- I would not change a thing.

Here is what I can report back after 15 days riding a bike in Vietnam (in no particular order):

• Vietnam is a very populous country, and from our experience, it is full of gracious and kind people. In the agricultural areas and small towns, as well as the larger cities, there is an air of industriousness and seriousness as people busily go about their day. Everyone was quick and easy to engage with us, and they were almost always happy to connect. We would ride past a school and kids would come running, treating us like we were rock stars. The standard English refrain from the children was “what is your name?” and “where are you from?” Beyond that, there was very little English spoken outside of the larger tourist areas.
• In larger cities, tourism is significant and well supported. I cannot stress how cheap everything was. Nice hotels were $20-40 per night and we would eat big meals for less than $7 per person.
• The food is better than everyone says. The cuisine changes as you move through the provinces, but it is always based on fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood. I could never say enough about the food, so suffice it to say that the cuisine alone is a great reason to visit.
• The scenery is classic Southeast Asia spectacular. Vietnam is an incredibly diverse landscape with beautiful beaches, mountains, rivers and everything one hopes for when traveling. You will find great beauty bracketed by considerable pollution and poor sustainability practices. There are over 100 million people living in this developing country. It is not Eden, but it is real, and it is beautiful in so many ways.
• The riding was great. We suffered hot and long days on the bike, but we generally had access to food and water along the way. We had very little rain but good gosh did we get hot. Some of the climbs were tougher, simply because of the relentless sun. Accordingly, we usually began our rides by 5:30 am since it was full-sun by 8:00 (they do not recognize daylight savings).

Look at any video from the streets of Hanoi, or any town or thoroughfare, and it looks like a game of Frogger.

• I cannot begin to adequately describe the insanity of riding on the streets of Vietnam. Look at any video from the streets of Hanoi, or any town or thoroughfare, and it looks like a game of Frogger. Large buses and trucks mix with automobiles and huge scores of scooters and bikes to create a cacophony of moving humanity. It appears to equal certain death. The reality is that everyone works the flow by watching and respecting each other in a wildly effective manner. We simply jumped into the stream of traffic and worked with everyone to keep the flow. Even so, have your head on a swivel and both hands on the brakes.

After two weeks of riding in Vietnam, I can confirm that the veil of the Vietnam War that has shrouded so much of my concept of the country is virtually irrelevant. Vietnam has a vast and deep history, of which the American involvement in the 20th century is only a flash. My judgement is that the country sees itself in much broader and richer terms than that relatively brief, albeit consequential, period.

There is a significant appreciation and pride by the Vietnamese in the reunification of their country. It is well recognized that the fighting surrounding the reunification effort and the challenges in the years following resulted in unimaginable hardships. With the clarity afforded by hindsight, American concerns driving our involvement in the Vietnam conflict, in my opinion, were not justified. Vietnam is a vastly safe, peaceful, and increasingly prosperous country.

To me, Vietnam represents a fundamental lesson well beyond the immediate conclusions following the war. People’s right to self-determination is the singular interest that all of us must protect and pursue. We all share a common need for reaching our fullest potential. That only happens when we have ownership of our decisions and actions. The journey towards success is defined in vastly different terms, but it only happens when we own that journey. We cannot be defined in the ways others may wish to impose.

Vietnam would only move in a direction that works for them. That is success, regardless of what others may desire. Vietnam continues to evolve in a direction that will be interesting to witness. Based on my two weeks on two wheels there, they have a great future. Precisely because it is theirs to own. They were never going to have it any other way.