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Writer's picturedeenawhitwam

Motorbiking Vietnam is the Asian Camino de Santiago

In May of 2018, I spent 28 days hiking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across northern Spain with my mother. We spent 5-6 hours per day walking 20-30 kilometers, hauling our light-as-possible bags across the Spanish countryside. These were long days of reflection and easy conversation with a wonderful traveling companion. These were evenings of ordering local food with broken Spanish, planning the next day’s route, and meeting interesting people from around the world.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that my motorbike adventure through Vietnam during November and December of 2018 would feel so similar.

After buying a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh, I drove north with a friend for 55 days, all the way to the city of Ha Giang in the northern mountains of the country.

We spent roughly 3-4 hours per day covering 150 kilometers of Vietnamese highway, stopping for local foods and Vietnamese coffee along the way. It was such an involved experience to drive through the natural wonders of this beautiful country on a motorbike because you were really a part of the world around you.

By the end of the day your brain hurt from the extreme focus of navigating Vietnamese traffic and potholes all day, but most of the time our destination for the day was nothing more than a town with a place to sleep. The drive was the experience.

I knew when I set off on the Camino that it would be an exercise in reflection, and was even more spiritual than I had anticipated. But I found myself reflecting in the same way during my long days on the bike.

Even the paths of the Camino Frances and the Ho Chi Minh Trail were marked in the same way!

Both journeys presented challenges.

Injuries slowed progress - my mother’s circulation problem on the Camino mirrored my own sprained ankle and damaged MCL in Vietnam.

Language barriers resulted in random assortments of food - cultural experiences we were able to enjoy thanks to no dietary restrictions.

We collected stamps in journey-specific passports...

And had a wonderful time meeting locals along the way.

2018 has been a non-stop adventure that stretched across 19 countries. I have learned so much about culture, flexible thinking, and risk taking. As my comfort zone has been challenged and grown, these two long distance trips specifically have allowed me to reflect on who I am and who I want to be.

I cannot wait to see how my experiences in 2019 will connect back to this trip of a lifetime.

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