On the “most beautiful ride in Vietnam” you are supposed to take extra fuel. It is gorgeous but it is long. It twists through mountains and valleys where you pass through amazing landscapes while riding through the clouds with barely a hint of civilization along the way.
It was amazing and beautiful and I would love to do it again – although warmer weather might make it a little nicer.
As the day wore on, however, it got colder and mistier. At one point we couldn’t see more than about 10 meters ahead. I couldn’t even tell which way the road was curving. All I could do was follow the little blinking yellow light was Jonathan’s alternative to his broken rear light.
As it began to get dark we worried about making Phong Nha before full dark, especially since Adam’s front light was out and it really was cold in all of the mist. Out of nowhere after the long empty road that we had all day two backpackers turned the corner going back the way we came – into the mountains where there was nowhere to stop for the night and no other roads they could possibly be trying to get to that late in the day. After they whipped by Adam pulled up next to me and we shared a look of disbelief and a bit of a giggle because we had absolutely no idea where they could possibly be headed.
We were within 15km of Phong Nha on a steep hill with nothing at all nearby when my bike decided she was tired. Suddenly, no engine. She had been acting up a bit all day, her engine would stop every time I stopped, and wasn’t handling the hills well so my immediate thought was that something was seriously wrong. We tried to start with electronic ignition, a kick start, and a force start down the hill in second gear but nothing was working.
As it grew dark and I grew more panicked Adam asked me the question I always asked him when something went wrong, “Do you have petrol?” It turns out that I didn’t. My bike had burned through a lot of fuel on all of those tough hills earlier in the day so Jonathan filled up half a water bottle with petrol from his bike from a tube I wouldn’t have known how to even get to and I used it to fill my bike up just a little and hopefully enough. We weren’t fully combined that it was just the fuel so we agreed that if my bike started I should just drive to Phong Nha and not wait for the guys in case my engine stalled out again. First try starting, nothing. I thought we were done but tried again and my bike came to life. I was completely unprepared for it to start and basically just started tearing forward with no idea how close the guys would be following me.
I tried turning on my light but only my brights work and they made it even harder to see in a pitch black jungle full of bugs flying at my face. I could just barely see without my light and I was afraid to let off the throttle in case my bike stalled so I went flying through the near darkness hoping that I was going the right direction. Even in a blind terror it was beautiful and fireflies dotted the road ahead of me.
After awhile I turned on my normal lights which only lit up my rear lights but still gave me a little more light. I eventually turned on my brights when it finally got dark enough that they started to do more good than harm. I can’t describe my relief when I finally heard the boys come up behind me and even more so when I saw Jonathan’s nice bright light behind me lighting the way.
After that we made it to Phong Nha with no worries, although if you talk to Adam then even that part was no worries. I literally coasted up to our hotel as I ran out of fuel and had to push the bike the last few feet but we made it! 
