Nomad Lifestyle: Day 2342

This is a journal series of posts on specific days of my life as a nomad. Written in or near real time as the day occurred in central Vietnam.

People wait all week for Friday. All year for summer. All life for happiness… I travel.

Today is December 30 of the year 2018 and it is the 2342th day of my nomadic lifestyle. My current location is Hoi An en route to Hue.

Considered one of the most beautiful and best coastal roads in the road, the 13 mile Hai Van Pass was only recently made famous by Top Gear in 2008.

It’s been on my list for longer than that, and today we got to ride it through and through with my motorbike.

There are few highway roads as steep and curvy with such magnificent views in the world so it makes for ridiculously fun riding on 2 wheels. But alas, we were struck with torrential rain and haunting fog from the very start of this legendary pass.

Our journey started in Hoi An with some of the route through Hai Van Pass and finally ending in Hue, the former capital of Vietnam. The 75 mile ride should have taken 2 and a half hours but the unrelenting rain stretched that to to almost 5 hours.

Regardless, it was one hell of an adventure.

I couldn’t film because of the weather, but I managed to get this one snap of my lunch at a pit stop restaurant near the peak of Hai Van Pass. I waited nearly an hour to get just a glimpse of sunlight through the horizon for this photo…

We waited for the rain to dissipate but it only got worse and visibility getting shorter, so we continued on, slowly. Hours later through some awe-inspiring roads we arrived in Hue, to just as much rain.

The trip was hard and dangerous but the fun and sense of adventure made it a ride to remember forever, but we’ve still got much more Vietnam to motorbike through, all of it actually.

We’ll be here for the new year then we continue North. I hope y’all have a memorable New Year’s eve!