This article is written by Shivam Gupta. Shivam is a a traveller at heart and an adventure lover based in New Delhi

I was in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, about three weeks back. Like always, I didn’t have a Lonely Planet or any other guidebook with me, as I believe they make one reach the touristy popular places and hide the real charm of a place. I was wondering how to explore and experience the real Vietnam while making this travel unique and mine.

At the bar at a backpacker’s hostel I met two guys, English and American respectively, who had just finished touring entire country. They did this on a Honda motorcycle and rode from the Southern part all the way up till Hanoi. When I enquired more, I learned that it took them roughly two weeks and they had purchased the bike and not rented them, which is what I had assumed. This seemed like a wonderful idea to me, as I wanted to witness the authentic culture, meet real people and go with the flow. Also, it sounded much better than booking tourist packages and taking buses/trains from one city to another.

Within a few days, after more research and enquiries, I found out that these Honda/Sym/Suzuki bikes can be bought by a foreigner for anything between US$ 500-1000 depending on the condition, year of manufacture etc. However, there was one make that was way cheaper and had a classic feel to it – the MINSK, an old soviet make which is hardly ever seen on the roads as they aren’t manufactured anymore but is commonly used by working class heroes to transport pigs, cows and bags of rice from a village to another.

A black Minsk

I bought it for 275$ from an Austrian tourist and spent another 20$ tuning her up at a local workshop. It’s a 125 cc, single cylinder, classic black Minsk.

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