If anyone does this, consider getting a 3 month Chinese visa first (they&#x27;ve recently been a pain to get in Vietnam due to frosty but thawing relations - Chiang Mai or your home country are good bets) and continuing either to or from Yunnan in China (where I&#x27;ve lived mostly for the last 15 years, despite being Aussie, and trying LA and London). I&#x27;ve done part of the HCM highway by motorbike, but a lot of cycle touring in the region, eg. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pratyeka.org&#x2F;bike&#x2F;southern-yunnan.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pratyeka.org&#x2F;bike&#x2F;southern-yunnan.html</a> - never took a laptop though, that&#x27;s nuts!<p>It&#x27;s a shame the author skipped the Cham monuments in the middle of Vietnam. It&#x27;s truly fascinating to see such robust physical evidence of ancient Hindu civilization amongst a modern, Sinitic one. This is part of the real beauty of Southeast Asia as a region. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;M%E1%BB%B9_S%C6%A1n" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;M%E1%BB%B9_S%C6%A1n</a><p>My family are actually about to spend a couple of weeks down in Yunnan&#x27;s Wenshan prefecture on the Vietnamese border. It has great karst scenery, villages historically inaccessible except by boat through cave systems, cliff tombs, neolithic cave paintings, etc. That&#x27;s just one corner of Yunnan (we also have Tibetan zones, tropical zones, etc.)<p>Another good option cycling out of Vietnam is northern Laos, toward Phongsali from Dienbienphu - really &#x27;out there&#x27; villages, still real - and you can include your bike on boat trips down some of the rivers in the area.<p>Finally, if anyone&#x27;s dead serious I am thinking of shipping two Weta trimarans - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;wetamarine.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;wetamarine.com&#x2F;</a> - I sail on Fuxian Lake in Yunnan down to Halong Bay for a sailing&#x2F;camping exploration of the archipelago before selling them. Been once before by public boat, there&#x27;s some great beaches!