VIETNAM ON A BIG-BORE
As one of the most populous and financially successful countries in South-East Asia, Vietnam has gone from flat broke when it threw out the Western forces in the 1970s to now providing one of the highest standards of living of any country in the region.
A part of that comes from tourism — the county is beautiful, safe and awesome to ride, which might explain why your ARR editor has toured there twice. When I was given to opportunity to do an adventure ride on a modern big-bore, it wasn’t a journey to miss.
Tuan Nguyen has moved on from the early days of offering Soviet Minsk and Indian Royal Enfields to tourists and now runs the only tour company we know of in Vietnam offering BMW GS models.
With an 80 per cent import duty on big bikes it was an expensive undertaking, but it means you can ride a bike well suited to the terrain and capable of going places smaller road bikes can’t.
Now, Tuan and I have history. Five years ago, I travelled to Vietnam and rode with
