Echoes of Vietnam and the Open Road: : Johnny's Motorcycle Odyssey Part Two...

Ever wondered how a labyrinth of tunnels could change the tide of a war, or what it's like to handle the very weapons that once echoed across the jungles of Vietnam? Join Johnny and me as we retrace the steps of history, delving into the remarkable resilience and ingenuity of the Vietnamese in a time of conflict. Amidst tales of survival and strategy, we promise an exploration that's not just about the past, but about the lessons that continue to echo into the present.  These are just some of the subjects we discuss about Jonny and his adventure across Vietnam on a motorbike! 

Strap on your helmet and rev up for a ride across terrains of culture and miles of open road. As Johnny shares his motorcycle adventures in the heartwarming embrace of Vietnam contrasted with his next trip, the more reserved British shores, as he sets his sights on the Nordic landscapes of Sweden and Norway. Planning a journey that tests the limits of man and machine, we uncover the rituals that bind us to the bikes that carry us, and the bonds formed in the shared pursuit of adventure. Listen in for a narrative that celebrates the spirit of travel, the camaraderie of riders, and the meticulous art of motorcycle maintenance that becomes a metaphor for life's own winding journey.

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Stephen: 0:00

Hello, welcome to StevenSpeak. Today on StevenSpeak is part two of Johnny's episode. If you haven't listened to it yet, go back and listen to it from a couple of weeks ago where we talked about Johnny's trip to Vietnam. And if you haven't listened to the first time Johnny was on the show, go back to series two and listen to his Arctic adventure, and then you might actually kind of realize what we're actually talking about, because they all flow into one another. So go and listen to that. This episode is part two of Johnny's Vietnam adventure and a little taster of what he's going to get up to soon. Welcome back, johnny. I'm going to spoil again like the other episode, like we've not gone anywhere, was we literally just stopped recording for a second?

Jonny: 1:00

Are you killing the illusion?

Stephen: 1:01

No, no, no, no, I didn't drive 160 miles back again to do this one. So yeah, so part two of this episode is going to be again more of Vietnam and also talking about your next trips. So yeah, we'll get into that. So, like Vietnam, so go back and listen to the first episode if you haven't already listened to it. But, like Vietnam trip, you said in the first episode that you did a bit of the you know, obviously Vietnam war and you went to obviously what to do, a bit of the history stuff. So like, talk us through a bit. Like you know, I know you went into some of the tunnels and shot some guns to talk us through what you did there, like the historic stuff.

Jonny: 1:45

Yeah. So we'd looked at Saigon and what was around and it seemed that there was quite a large area northwest of Saigon that was obviously one of the central points for the Vietnam war. So we went there and they've almost simulated the setup still. So you go there, the camps are all set up and you can. Really it gives you an idea of how life must have been for them and it sort of set up in the jungle. All the creators are still there from the B52 bombs and you can go down into the tunnels. I mean, to be honest, if you can fit, obviously made for very small people.

Stephen: 2:19

There was no hope at all, I'd be all right then. Well, actually, good, good wise maybe not, but you know, high wise maybe there was very little chance of me getting down in the little entrance holes.

Jonny: 2:28

I know you went down one of them. He was adamant he had to go see. So I sort of sat him down with a camera and said get as many photos as you can. I'll keep going at the top, but it was good and you sort of went around all the tents. They had the videos playing of things that happened from there and then at the end you would sit down and they'd prepared food for you that the Vietnamese would have eaten during the war.

Stephen: 2:49

Oh really.

Jonny: 2:53

There was certain tapioca, the root tea made from that, and there was like some sort of potato sort of thing that they would have eaten. But I didn't realize that they were building tunnels on three different levels. The first one was maybe three meters down and then it's six meters and then below that at 12. Really, yes. Yeah, the idea was apparently that they could. If there was hit by a B 52 bottom, the first two would be gone, but you were safe in the bottom tunnel and they had chimneys and everything set up so you would walk along the routes and there'd be little holes in like termite mounds, so they were using termites almost as chimneys. It's insane, yeah. And obviously there was certain little booby traps and things. They were almost the way the guide was explaining. The guides were fantastic, you know, absolutely incredible, very knowledgeable and were speaking good English as well.

Jonny: 3:40

So we asked them a lot of questions, almost setting the Americans up at the time to explore the wrong areas and then sort of jumping out on them, sort of thing, you see a lot of the Vietnam War films, don't you?

Stephen: 3:53

You see them like setting big things up, as you say, lowering them in and then ambushing them stuff. It was very much like a hit and run kind of scenario for the Vietnam War.

Jonny: 4:02

I'm no expert on the Vietnamese war by any stretch of imagination, but you could get a feel there as to why the superior firepower did very little against them. Because when we were going through the jungles, where the tunnels and everything were, everything was redundant, they were able to send in tanks or artillery. We found there was a few remnances of it, but generally I mean it was fighting people that know the terrain and obviously at the time as well, the videos that were showing us the.

Jonny: 4:31

It wasn't just Vietnamese soldiers, they had women, children all part of the effort, all fighting for the same cause, and I'm not saying that was right or wrong. I have no idea, I don't have the knowledge base for it, but you could see it how galvanized the country was against the issue that they had in front of them.

Stephen: 4:48

He said in part one about how proud they are of the country and the heritage and stuff like that. I think when you have that like kind of force of national pride and defend a new country, and for whatever politics or anything, as you say like that's a force to be reckoned with, isn't it?

Jonny: 5:02

Yeah, I mean what surprised me was the ingenuity. So the guys were saying that the Vietnamese were using weapons and unexploded bombs to make their own ordinance with the American supply.

Stephen: 5:15

Using their own weapons, using their own stuff against them.

Jonny: 5:17

Yeah, and that was it, because essentially they only had very basic weapons, as it would, as it was put to us. But yeah, it was incredible, it was a really good day and I think it just gave me a full appreciation for you see the war movies and it's all. Obviously it's glorified, which it shouldn't be, but when we were in that environment, I mean, even the American soldiers must have been through absolute hell as well. You know it's on both sides, but what a hostile environment to have to do that sort of.

Stephen: 5:45

And especially when they didn't really want to be there. I think that's the thing, isn't it? You know, you find a war in another country that you probably think maybe we shouldn't be involved in anyway, and then that's a morale killer, you're against. You know, a nation of such passionate people defend their own land, and it must be a juxtaposition to be in that situation.

Jonny: 6:05

I mean the toll was quite crazy because we went through it and it was, all you know, very humbling and, you know, very insightful. And then you got to the end and they were like, oh, do you want to fire some guns? And we were like, yeah, and they were like I'll just take your pick. And there was literally the American influence there.

Jonny: 6:21

Yeah, there was everything you could imagine and they'll just the tourists firing bullets into a sandbank. You know it was like this is there was no sound, so just took all the some e-defenders there, pop them one if you want.

Stephen: 6:33

That's the weirdness of it. You've just been with this there. Humble experience like learning about the war and how they went.

Jonny: 6:38

You know all the things they went through and here Then you finish like oh, do you want to ice cream?

Stephen: 6:46

That is kind of a very Americanism isn't? It Like you have some ice cream.

Jonny: 6:49

fire a gun, yeah but it was a really good day and I think it sets up for the. It was one thing. We didn't go there to really do touristy things and I wouldn't class that as a tourist thing. It was more find out about the history of the country. It was brilliant.

Stephen: 7:01

Yeah, yeah, it's a thing that's ingrained in history, isn't it? The Vietnam War, I think, even if you don't know much about it or you kind of know kind of that it was probably a wrong war it was. You know, it was a lot of suffering, and that everyone knows about the Vietnam War and kind of like the Awkwardness around it kind of thing, and that the Americans won but didn't really win anything, yeah, and I think when we were there, the it was just gives a sense of realisation as to the conditions it was.

Jonny: 7:30

Incredible and what it was, the strange little things that the Vietnamese one of the things the guy pointed out was there. They were making rubber shoes, obviously out of the rubber trees that they had there, but they would make them Reversible. So they would turn the shoes around back to front, run around and it would give the impression in the soil that they'd gone the other way. So they were running around and these things leaving footprints that were facing the other way. The Americans would go the other way, straight into the Genius.

Jonny: 7:56

Yeah, so they were showing us how they were doing it and it was just, it was crazy, things like that that were like how would you even think of that?

Stephen: 8:03

That's one of the things in it. You think, such a simple idea in a simple premise. But why, you know? And why would you not believe footprints in the in the soil? You wouldn't think, well, that's been made by somewhere. And backward shoes, yeah.

Jonny: 8:16

So they were like this like a, like a rubber strap over the middle of the shoe and they could turn it round either way and it was like that people obviously tracking them and they're going straight into the I can't remember what they call the traps and things. There's so many different varieties that they showed you operating. Yeah, crazy little things like that to give a country that obviously didn't have the technology. Gave them An advantage in an environment they're familiar with. Yeah, definitely.

Stephen: 8:39

I think it's. I think it says something about. Well, in the first episode you said that everyone was so happy and welcoming and Inviting and willing to look after you. Really, and you know you have a problem when you bike and they're like, oh, we'll fix that.

Jonny: 8:51

I can honestly say Having ridden all over Europe before, I Don't think I've been to a country where I felt so safe all the time and the night times you're going out, at no point did you ever worry about someone pinching your phone or any sort of crap? There was nothing. That's what I was gonna ask about, like, obviously, because where did you store?

Stephen: 9:08

your bike, because I was something I was thinking outside of the hotels.

Jonny: 9:11

I was thinking now when you're on when you're on it, and I was looking at, thinking I wonder where he's putting his bike.

Stephen: 9:15

So I thought they're gonna be safe, like yeah, no, we just, we would just get off them at the coffee shops and just leave them and go to the coffee shop or at the hotels.

Jonny: 9:21

Leave them at the hotel and the car packing thing, and I mean we were staying at those nice hotels. I'm not gonna pretend that we're, you know. But there was never any indication of any Prime or anything like that, like any anywhere. You, if you're sensible and you don't look, you know, like, if you pay attention, then fine, but no, it was Street savvy about.

Stephen: 9:42

You know you're not walking around my headphones in oblivious to what's around you, but it was no, it was just a little bit of a mess.

Jonny: 9:47

It was no, I've never felt so, to be honest.

Stephen: 9:50

I think that's because I was definitely something I was thinking of to myself, like I was like Hang on where these doing the bikes because I was, I was Don't stare about. I was half expecting a post saying one of the bikes has been nicked or something like that. And that's sort of my bad reflection on Vietnam, but I think it was me reflecting what it'd be like in Britain.

Stephen: 10:08

Yeah, it's like bike theft in this country is ridiculous yeah there's small bites like moped and crosses and stuff like that, so nothing that we didn't see any any sort of crime.

Jonny: 10:17

We didn't see any any people arguing in the street, any sort of unrest whatsoever. Everyone was just happy, light, friendly, keen to show the country off, genuinely. The point where we were even saying to ourselves, because obviously we had the intercoms for half it before the brook, but we were saying, help me, though nice everybody is, you know, from the minute you land To the minute you left, it was just the best people I've ever seen.

Stephen: 10:44

It's a nice thing to take away from. Yeah, like have that lovely trip, you know, do something you wanted to do, even if it was a little tough and time. Yeah, but you take that away, that you know People but were and that's that's kind of what makes the holiday in some sense interaction with scenery, but also the people live there, that culture and and and. Yeah, you don't speak the same language, but you've got things in common and I Like I need help. We're willing to help you, kind of thing.

Jonny: 11:09

Yeah that's.

Stephen: 11:10

That's kind of a beautiful thing, really not to get too mushy about it, but like I kind of think like if I broke down on my bike in this country.

Jonny: 11:17

Everyone approaches dry pasture if you left it to go ring for help someone stay with. Yeah, and that's the thing you know that's my impression of this country.

Stephen: 11:24

I just think, would that happen here? You know it probably wouldn't, like we can't kind of take stuff so much for granted and and you know we're all in our own little worlds.

Jonny: 11:33

Yeah, and we weren't sure things like the police, as I mentioned the first episode, if we were slowing down, if there was blockades for traffic or anything, they were just waving at us. They weren't waving you through ignorantly, they were like waving and like saying hello in the thumb up. So brilliant.

Stephen: 11:48

I'm acknowledging. Yeah, we know you're a visitor to our country. We want to make the experience good for you exactly, yeah, which is so nice, doesn't it? Yeah, which is when I think that's the thing I take away from if we go abroad or any.

Jonny: 11:59

any holidays, like the interaction with people is important, yeah, and I think that's the the outlook, especially in that part of Asia, you know. I mean, I've been to a few places around there and that seems to be the attitude of everybody. Yeah, you know, and it's not, unfortunately, the attitude that we have in this country or the West. So much I don't want to categorize everybody, but generally out there, everyone Very positive.

Stephen: 12:23

Yeah and very willing to help, whereas it'd be nice if everyone's like I wouldn't ever. Yeah, no, the holistic world, yeah we're the hippie.

Jonny: 12:31

Hat on. It'd be nice.

Stephen: 12:33

Would be? Would be, and I think no, I know I know for myself, like Everyone like that, because we're not all like that, are we? You know we're good eggs, so yeah, so when Vietnam to one side for moments, that's definitely on my wishlist. You, especially after seeing some of the pictures now We'll share some pictures on the social media so people can see what we've been talking about you are planning that's another trip. Yes, so.

Jonny: 13:05

We have to the Arctic before through Sweden, and I think we're missing last. I think last time I mentioned to you that there was a lack of Mountain. It seemed to just forest with a grant before.

Jonny: 13:15

It's all the time. It's great. But so we looked at nowhere. Oh, initially we wanted to go further north. What we're doing in July is we're gonna ride back up through Sweden for a certain extent and we're gonna go to the sort of national park and the mountains and the fjords in the south of Norway, so places like pulpit rock. You see, everyone stood on that huge slab.

Stephen: 13:39

Yeah, it's like teaching on the edge. Yeah, it's all about the Lion King. Yeah, I was taking out there.

Jonny: 13:43

So we're gonna go to, to the, the area, sort of bag bag and strong time that way on and do a big loop. So it's probably only 1500, 600 miles to get there. But we're gonna spend three nights in a pulpit rock then move, then three nights at the fjords and move and three nights and come back. And now initially that wasn't the plan. What we wanted to do was go to Nord Cap, so the, not the North Cape, which is the highest road in Europe that you can drive to. So when you get there it's higher than the entire country of Iceland. It's sort of on the map it's. It's only about 1200 miles from the North Pole.

Stephen: 14:21

So it's as high as you can drive. Yeah, yeah.

Jonny: 14:24

And when I planned the route out we wanted to capture that southern part of Norway. It was just too far to do on both together. So what we're gonna do is do the southern part of Norway in July, and now we've planned the route for Nord Cap as well, which will be following that, and the route is about five thousand mile round trip Nice.

Jonny: 14:44

Yeah, we're gonna do it in the usual 20 day time frame, so we're averaging 250. But obviously when we get to North Cap over a couple of nights there and there's no place couple nights so we'll start with doing 384 miles a day for the first few days. But we were looking at somewhere that he's probably the last wilderness in Europe. Yeah, I think once you get up to sort of northern Sweden, where we were before, we're gonna go about 800 miles past that. So we really have to pick the time a year.

Jonny: 15:16

Not just a little stones through past it, but like, yeah, britain, yeah, three more days right riding, yeah and so, and obviously last time I did it on the 500 quid bargain bike.

Jonny: 15:26

Yeah whereas this time I'm gonna do it on the African twin, which should at least give us a comfort because we have to. So that's gonna. That's the next year. July is the warm-up for later on hitting Nord Cap, which does look incredible, I mean. The downside is we have to do it in the summer and the flip side to that is it is 24 hours a day lights. We don't see the northern lights. If we do it outside of that, we can't do it because the roads are icy.

Stephen: 15:55

I was gonna say the weather be too. Yeah, we go extreme.

Jonny: 15:57

A really small window of Late June to August. That is it, and the highest temperature get will be 12 degrees. So we really pushed us. So next year the cold is the ice.

Stephen: 16:12

I struggle with yeah, that's they're gonna be the killer.

Jonny: 16:14

But next year, I mean it'll be good to see Southern Norway. I mean it looks spectacular. Oh yeah, yeah. I think it's probably out of all the trips, the one to Southern Norway is the one that's most like a holiday, because we have Three different locations for three nights a piece, so we can do a bit of like hiking or stuff on the on the fjords and Do some hiking, which would be great, and it'll be more. Let's enjoy this.

Stephen: 16:37

We don't have to always push it have a chill out, yeah it seems like the last few trips we hammer it.

Jonny: 16:43

We'll do the usual warm-up in April, which is 1300 miles around Scotland from here. So we'll do all the Highlands, the West Coast, apple Cross, sky, just again to test the new bikes with all the new luggage and things. Because, like anything, the better gear you have, the easier the trip is. Oh yeah, definitely.

Stephen: 17:07

We've done a lot Prepared. Yeah, we've prepared as well, Having a little bit of preparedness, and you just say doing that trip like it's nice to do a trip like that as well.

Stephen: 17:16

But you'll learn how to pack your gear where things fit, where's the best place to put something. When I did my trip years ago, like I put something in one of my bags and I didn't realize how often I'd need it and I'd packed it underneath everything and I was like you know, it's just stupid things like that. We think why would I think to pack it and why don't I think like I'm gonna need that every so often?

Jonny: 17:34

I need that. I think for us as well. It's the fact that you're coming out the winter period. You haven't ridden.

Stephen: 17:39

So to go to.

Jonny: 17:40

Scotland and do 13, 40 and 1500 miles. People go that's a long way, but when you trip's 5000 miles you need to be used to sitting on the seat for that long. And I mean we went up to Scotland before and I remember just popping around with Ian this year and we said, oh, we'll just have a quick ride up there and have a brew, and a quick ride we did the full width of the Highlands Like popped out near the NS, like shit. You know we've only gone out for the day, oh, for a few hours. And so because we're used to doing so many miles, there has to be a warm up period. We can't just go from the winter not riding to right, you're gonna scan the navel and you're gonna do so many.

Stephen: 18:17

You've got a whole new skill again. I mean, I think that's what's gonna be hard for me, because I've not ridden a bike for a while now. I'm gonna have an experience around a bike in around a bike for 20 years. When I buy a new bike soon. Hopefully my wife will be like, hmm, grown, because she keeps telling me to buy one and the only wife in the world actually says here, take loads of money and go and buy a bike, Like, and I'm not listening to her, but that's gonna be the same with me.

Jonny: 18:37

I'm gonna buy a bike and be like, I'm really experienced, but I'm gonna get on it and go.

Stephen: 18:42

Oh Christ, it'll be almost like I'll have to do. I've got a good excuse.

Jonny: 18:46

I'll have to do a couple of trips to get back into biking a little bit, and I think this is the difference with people going on holiday on a bike and people doing long distance Is if I go out on a weekend I blast out, I have to do 150, 200 miles because I have to feel like I've been. If I go up to Whitby, I'm sort of like it's a really nice run, but the tours and the trips are that excessive. And I know when we go back to the Nord Cap one the plan is that in the first three days we'll have done 1100 miles and that'll get us on to the E45 road that goes up to Spina, sweden. We're only having two nights to get there, so it's a case of right. Well, 400 miles, you know, never got to find miles not too bad on a bike. It's hard work, it's physically.

Stephen: 19:30

It is, it is. It's like when I did my chair. I'm not bad with it. I did 500 miles a day for five days in a row. That was hard.

Jonny: 19:37

It's intense, isn't it?

Stephen: 19:38

Like the fourth day, especially when I was wet. I got to obviously piss wet through. I was just like, oh, get back on that bike, like it's just like. I've been riding it for 12 hours solid every single day for five days.

Jonny: 19:49

And I've never been more excited. Now I've got the Africa Twin, because obviously in the past I've done it on the other bikes that have been doing it for a challenge of rarity, and now I've got that. I'm sort of like, oh, so much luggage, you know I've got so much space, you know heated grips.

Stephen: 20:01

Even on that, which is a bike made for that.

Jonny: 20:03

It's still gonna be hard, it's just a big bike, you can carry all that stuff.

Stephen: 20:06

It's still gonna be difficult, like it'll be more suited to it and more comfortable. Yeah, I do a certain degree, but that's a long way to go in a short space of time.

Jonny: 20:14

Still, it is I mean trying to get up there in seven days. Is the target to get to the top in seven days of Europe and then maybe spend 12 days coming back as you have the break a couple of nights here?

Jonny: 20:27

a couple of nights there, so we're not having to really kick the ass out of it. The idea is fly up through Sweden because we know it and we know it's familiar, we know the route's amazing and we don't have the limitations of an old bike, and then go with it, I'll take advantage of some nicer roads as well, maybe as well you know, because you maybe can get miles eating up.

Jonny: 20:48

Yeah, and having that bike to do it on. I know that we're doing more fuel economy. I've got cruise control if I need it, so it's. You've got to have the comforts there. Some people do take the piss and go, oh, you've got to have it. When you know with a cruise control and the DCT that's not proper riding, I'm like I've done the proper riding thing, I've earned that. Now I need to. If I'm going to eat 400 miles up, you need to make it as easy as possible.

Stephen: 21:09

You know, it's ain't not proper riding. You do 500 miles a day and figure out yourself, you know what I mean. Like I came into that fire, I thought you want a bike. Who doesn't mind? Like, how far do you go on your bike? Well, I go. I go down the roundabout like four times in the summer. You're like oh brilliant, Well done. You see, the adventure bike ride is going to the cafe on a Sunday.

Jonny: 21:28

That bike has never seen off road. You know I think when I bought that I came back I took it out around the back lane jammed here and off road. A bit fell off, it snapped some off the handlebars and I need to take it back in and say, can you replace this? And the guys were just laughing at me, like normally people just use them for a weekend, blast out with you know for coffee and ice cream and then go back.

Jonny: 21:46

I think I put 5000 miles on in five months of riding it this year and it's that's the. If you're going to do anything like the long distance round, you have to be confident and it's more the concentration. Yeah, it is, it's sitting there and thinking especially on your own and we're lucky that we have the intercoms and meaning I have a great relationship where we literally will chat complete bollocks on the ride about scenery, about the bikes. We'll be asking each other how the bikes are performing about anything.

Stephen: 22:16

Maybe we should get Ian on next time as well. Oh yeah, that would be it. We just chat shit. It would be like a three hour extended episode. You can literally just do it for it.

Jonny: 22:25

I mean the amount of nonsense we speak about. We talk for six, seven, eight hours when we're doing it, and you've just. It keeps the morale up.

Stephen: 22:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jonny: 22:32

It's the loneliest place ever. If you don't have the intercom and you've got 400 miles to ride, you are literally in your own head Sometimes don't get me wrong I'm in Vietnam. The intercom went down and it was a pain. But in the past you do want a bit of quite time. Sometimes we'll pull off and we'll be like Ian might say to me I just put music on or something for a bit.

Jonny: 22:49

I'm like, okay, so we'll sit there and have our own music on, and then you stop me. Oh, did you see this? Do you see that? You know, and it does help you get it through it, because it can be some and not, and sometimes as much as you're enjoying the amazing scenery it's lovely you still look concentrate isn't it Like anything is on a motorbike as well, like driving a?

Stephen: 23:07

for me, driving a car in comparison to a motorbike is just winning shooters of cars.

Jonny: 23:11

And then where's a?

Stephen: 23:12

motorbike, You've got a literally constant look at the road surface. What's around the corner and what are they doing?

Jonny: 23:16

What's going on and you?

Stephen: 23:17

have to do that the car. But on a motorbike is a whole different thing. Yeah, you're exposed to that, you've got to think about how far I've got to lean. What?

Jonny: 23:22

speed I'm doing. Can I lean that side? Yeah, exactly, and you think you can't see thinking is that car? Am I visible to them?

Stephen: 23:28

It's your brain. Even after going out for a nice leisurely ride, sometimes you come back and you go. I need a rest now, like so my thing was always to wash my bike afterwards and that was like my wind down of like what you know, wash my bike, put it away, kiss it, kiss it goodnight and go and have a beer or something like that.

Jonny: 23:46

That was how I wound down from it, so I just love the fact that for me, when we went to Sweden, I'm always happiest when I'm in the complete wilderness, if we can get away from everybody and there's just forests, mountains and rivers and lakes. I mean that's my ideal, like break for me. We're gonna follow the same route up to where we went before and then go past it, because it was incredible and obviously I don't think we appreciate it because, well, I certainly didn't, because it was hard work on the bike I had. It'll be nice now to be excited about getting up in the morning putting just throwing everything back in the panniers that I've got and then hitting the road thinking I can really enjoy this ride. I've not got to worry about. Is the bike gonna be all right? Because nine times I'd say the bullet proof and it's not a 15-year-old bagging bike. It's ready to go and it'll be amazing. I think it'll be a great trip.

Stephen: 24:39

I can't wait to hear about it. I can't wait to hear about it when you get back, man, honestly, honestly, I think we'll wrap the episode up. I'll ask you a question. We're on the spot a little bit here. Yeah, advice for anyone planning a trip like this what would you say if anyone's going to, because I know you do plan into a degree, but what would be the one piece of advice? Anyone that wants to plan a trip like to Vietnam, or even do Norway, sweden or even just up to Scotland, what's the one tip you need to prepare or plan it?

Jonny: 25:06

I think importantly, you have to have a sat nav. That has just been absolutely mission critical. Wherever you are nowadays, you've got to have one, whether it be offline or online. The other thing when you're planning the trip and you put in the distances in, look at the times. So there's been times when we've planned things and said, oh well, we're used to doing 300 miles a day, so where's 300 miles from there? Then you look and it says it's 12 hours ride away because of the roads or how difficult they are.

Jonny: 25:37

I would always say if you're planning a trip, look at the time, not the distance, and where you can make time, make it. So, if you're going through Europe on the Autobahn, make as much ground as you can and then enjoy. So we use central Europe almost it's just a bypass to get to where we want to go. Don't deviate from it, though, because when we did the last time you were often we lost. I think we went from doing 350 to 420 miles and took 14 hours. It was awful, but you had planned time based on the routes, based on the time, not the distances, is always the most key thing. And then preparation for the bikes have backups, have spares. You know, I mean what we look at it. What could feasibly go wrong? That would be a killer. Tires, something going through the radiator. Get the guards on, have spare inner tubes, have tire foam and really just the intercom systems. Again. You know, I know I harp on about all the time if you're going with somebody or even if you're not have the music there.

Jonny: 26:34

It makes everything so much better If you can sit there and you can sing along to something or you can chat to your friend. It just it takes the laborious nature of you know, especially the hard days on the motorways. It just makes it so much easier. But I think some people try and jump from our pop all around on a bike on a Sunday to all go to a tour on Europe. You've got to be gradual. If you're not comfortable doing 200 miles a day, then you need to get up to that speed in the UK and be able to do it day after day after day. I know people that have said oh well, I can do 200 miles, I might do it, but can you do it for 15, 16, 17 days consecutively? That's the hard part.

Stephen: 27:14

That's the, that's the euro part, isn't it? Yeah, I think knowing your bike as well, isn't it? It's like knowing how your bike will handle in different situations is it's key, but it's definitely there.

Jonny: 27:23

It's set in targets. So we would go um if we were doing 300 miles. The target is we don't, you don't have lunch till we done 200 miles. Yeah, you know. So I'm not saying we ride continuously. We'll stop every 60, 70 mile. Have little girls, but you want to get lunch where you've only got 100 miles left, yeah, yeah. So always think oh, we stopped for lunch.

Stephen: 27:42

We can relax. You broke the back of it, so the next bit is like shut off early.

Jonny: 27:46

Yeah, set off early, good breakfast and hammer 200 miles out. And it's all about those little targets and those little goals to get you through the long distances.

Stephen: 27:54

That's tracking advice. I definitely agree with the time scales rather than distance, because that will give me up on one of my trips once, because Scotland's notorious for passing places and little mini kind of narrow roads and obviously in Britain they're 60 miles an hour. There's no way you can do 60 miles an hour and half of them. So a road that said it was like oh, take me about half an hour to get down, take me about three.

Jonny: 28:16

So yeah, one thing we did we did mess up on the past is that we planned the route out and then just we put it in the sat nav. Always check it a few days before on Google Maps because we found those road closures and things that are not live and the free cancellation on booking If you have to change your trip, change it. Yeah, everything we do is always very fluid. If we think we're going to be pushing it or we're going to have more time, then move certain destinations around. Yeah, I think they're probably the most important things Tracking tips there, johnny.

Stephen: 28:47

Well, thank you very much again for letting me come up and join you in your humble home and it's been lovely and I'll enjoy the rest of the room that you've given. So we've been slowly sipping it throughout the episode. That's why a lot of it smile on my face. So, yeah, thanks very much and my pleasure and everyone check out the previous episodes and I will share some pictures and hopefully, and Johnny's successfully done these trips, next year We'll hopefully have another episode or two for you to talk through them, if Johnny's willing. Hopefully we'll be. So thanks very much, man, and thank you.

Stephen: 29:21

Thanks for everyone for listening. Check out the website and check social media for the pictures. They'll be up soon and, yeah, we'll speak to you soon.