The Everywhere blog

Getting off the beaten track is not a new concept to all you intrepid travelers, but Cheryn Flanagan takes steering clear of the crowds to new heights in her article Riding the Ho Chi Minh Trail… And Off the Beaten Tourist Track. Cheryn recounts her journey down Vietnam's eastern seaboard and avoiding the popular Highway One, which connects Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. Tourists who take the common route usually buy an open bus circuit ticket, which allows them to get on and off the bus as they please. While certainly a cheap and effective way to see the coast, there’s one problem: everyone is doing it and it’s getting a bit crowded.

The alternative is to do it Cheryn’s way: by motorcycle. Easy Riders, a group of freelance motorcycle guides based in the Central Highlands and South Central Coast, take travelers on the back of their bikes for a four-day adventure that spans over 500 miles. Cheryn signed up the moment she caught wind of the alternate passage. Here's how she describes the end of her 4-day journey:

When the road we’d been traveling met up with Highway One, congested with tourist buses on their way to Nha Trang, Dung (the tour guide) pulled over... “I show you real Vietnam,” he said... I looked at the bored faces staring out from windows of the tour buses speeding by and replied, “Yes Dung, you did."

Riding the Ho Chi Minh Trail …and Off the Beaten Tourist Track isn't the only delectable contribution in Cheryn’s travelogue. This lady has chock full of all the goods we love getting at Everywhere, check it her out here!

(Photo: Easy Rider, by Cheryn Flanagan.)