Vietnam: Kon Tum > Charlie Hill

Apr 24-25 2025 |

Section 6 of my Vietnam 2025 south-to-central tour. If you are considering a ride up to Charlie Hill, read this post in detail - and don't make the same (nearly catastrophic) mistakes I did.

After a 16-hour stay in Kon Tum (too short), I was heading back to the Ho Chi Minh Road for the last few days of riding on my way to Da Nang (I took the HCM Road south from Hanoi to Da Nang in 2024). Looking at the map going north, I only recognized one place name: Charlie Hill.

No surprise, the "American" war is all pervasive in Vietnam. And more so during this trip, as the 50th anniversary of victory was coming soon. I had visited several museums and sites on previous visits, places like Khe San base or the showcases of US military hardware in Da Nang, Saigon, and Hanoi. But I had never been to an actual battle site (and you may be thinking, "and why would you want to?"). In 2024, I rode near Hamburger Hill, but didn't go as it was a half-day excursion. Google Maps was showing that Charlie Hill was only 30 minutes off my route, so I thought I'd give it a go and ride up there. On my Honda Dream 110....

Before setting out, I did some quick research. The only solid info I could find was the overview of the book "Extraordinary Valor: The Fight for Charlie Hill in Vietnam". (I haven't read it, but will). The details in the introduction are pretty grim. It was clear this wasn't just going to be the normal tourist jaunt to a waterfall, temple, or cave.

I headed out, following Google Maps (which I keep swearing I will not keep using). Got to the turn off to Charlie Hill, continued on a decent rural road. Then onto a concrete slab paved road. Dirt soon thereafter. Next, a creek crossing followed by an intersection of 3 goat trails.

At this point, I was rethinking my travel plans. But Google Maps showed I was only 17 minutes from Charlie Hill. So I continued, up a muddy trail, the type my bike was technically not designed for (though it is the ride of choice by the tribal people who live in areas like this). The road actually got better as I got further up the hill (mountain) - along with a mix of terrible sections of deep ruts and mud. Again, I considered turning back. But I kept going.

The 30-minute ride was now 60. Though I started the day with a full tank, I suddenly realised my gauge was showing near empty. And I was offline with no data connection. And I had no more water. But I was so close, I had to push on.

Further on (up) and at the 90-minute mark, Google Maps showed I was 5 minutes from the destination. I came around a bend to 100 meters of insanely steep road. My 110cc bike made it halfway up, then conked out.

Was I out of gas? Was the bike just too underpowered? Regardless, at this point, abandoning the ride and heading down was not a great option, as it was so steep I probably would have lost control and crashed. And I was fairly certain I didn't have enough fuel to complete a ride back down. Although I hadn't seen any other people up here, I had a premonition that there would be someone at the Charlie Hill memorial, and/or that enduro moto tours must take this route, and that some riders would come by who could assist me with fuel and support.

After a rest and some soul searching. I decided that, being a 5-minute ride to Charlie Hill, I would walk up the final section. I removed the bag from my bike, put it over the side of the road out of sight, and started walking. Note: it was about 35c, and I was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.

I walked about 1km up the hill until I could see the peak. It was a bit perplexing as there were no signs, markers, or buildings up here, as I expected - just high grass covering some old tracks that no vehicle had been on for quite some time. After 20 minutes of walking up and around and finding no clear sign of Charlie Hill, I noticed a pagoda on the next peak, about 1 km away. I then realised I was in the wrong location - Charlie Hill was over there, another long, ascending walk away.

At this point, I wasn't sure it was safe for me to keep walking in this heat, with no water. After thinking it through, and being so close, I decided I had to keep going. At the base of Charlie Hill, the final stretch is an extremely steep concrete slab road, about 200m up. I walked halfway and was so winded and overheated that I almost gave up again, had to stop and rest. Sitting there, I had a view of one side of the barren gravel hillside - literally scorched earth.

I finally got to the top. There was no one up here, no attendant as I expected (so my notion of finding fuel was squelched). And though there were some storyboards around the site, they were all written in Vietnamese only. While the views were incredible - a clear line of sight in every direction - there wasn't much to actually experience. But that changed.

Given I was alone and couldn't read the signs, I walked a bit off the summit, over the side of the peak. And the scene here was stunning. The ground was cratered and littered with smashed items, ranging from broken glass to shoe soles. Incredibly, I came across bullet casings on the ground. It was disturbing to realise I was standing on the battle site, possibly desecrating it.

After 30 minutes at the site, I headed back down the steep paved road. I noticed a pagoda on the next peak, but didn't put much thought into it, thinking it must also be deserted. I walked back towards my bike, and as I got closer I heard to buzz of enduro motorbike engines. Hailieulia!

Right when I got back to the bike, 2 riders on dirt bikes ripped by me on the steep hill, roared by me, even though I was pathetically waving my arms and yelling at them to stop. I was crushed, thinking they just ignored me and rode on. But, thank god, I heard them stop, above the steep section, on flatter ground (the incline being totally unsafe to stop on).

A Vietnamese guide and his Aussie tour customer walked down to me and bike. They were kitted out in full motocross riding gear The first question was "What are yiou doing here?", roughly translated to "hey dumbass, who in thier right mind would ride that bike up here solo". They had no fuel. The Vietnamese guy jumped on my bike and rode it up to their bikes. Once back on flat ground, my fuel tank was at about 35%. The guide gave me directions to follow, basically "go straight and turn left". Then they rode off. A better approach would have been for me to follow them, but I didn't really get a response to that idea.

I got my bag back on the bike and rode on. After passing by the paved road at the base of Charlie Hill, I went past the other pagoda that I had seen from the top of Charlie. It was set back a bit from the road, and there was no signage. So I rode by looking for the road I was supposed to turn left on. I kept going straight, and soon came to another crazy steep hill, down this time. And again, I was not sure I could safely ride it down. But I also felt like I had no option, so I rode down at a snail's pace, sliding in some sections. At the bottom, I continued and came to a fork in the trail. The right turn looked more used, so I took it. Pretty quickly, I realised this was not the right route and I turned back. Back at the fork, I decided to try and backtrack up the steep hill. But as on the prior section of road, I only made it halfway up. So I rode back down, and this time went left.

It quickly became apparent that the road going left was not the right route. But, after about 1km, I came across a rudimentary shelter, a farmer's hutch. No one was there, but there were clear signs of habitation: a puppy running around, a teapot on the table. So I decided to sit tight and wait, hoping someone was nearby and would come back and help me.

I sat there for 1 hr, no one arrived. At this point, I was starting to come to grips with my situation: lost, low on fuel, no phone signal, no food or water, underpowered bike stuck. Was I going to have to walk out of here? If I did, would I get more lost? Would I be able to find my bike later?

I gave up and decided to try and ride out. I was on my bike, ready to go, when I noticed a hole carved into the gravel slope beside the hut - and it had a couple of water bottles lying in it. I walked over and took a look, and sure enough, the bottles contained gas. In sheer desperation, I filled my tank, left a handful of VND under the teapot, and rode away.

Next, as I had tried both forks in the road, I had no choice but to try again to ride up the slope I previously could not get up. I took a longer run at it and used my feet to "run" up the hill. This time, I made it to the top.

After a short ride back towards Charlie Hill, I came to the second pagoda I had driven by earlier. And I could now see a road up to it that I had missed earlier, riding in the other direction. As I got closer, I saw there were some people working there! They had a big laugh at me, but also gave me a bottle of water.

Here's the incredible thing: the people there were working on the final stages of a paved road from this site to the bottom of the hill. Turns out, this site is called Delta Hill. And it is only 1km from Charlie Hill, and the road between the two is decent. I followed the road from Delta down, and it took me about 10 minutes to get to the bottom, back onto the main rural road.

So in a nutshell: Google Maps gave me insane directions up a goat trail, that took me about 3 hours longer than projected, that ultimately could have had serious consequences to my well-being. Although there is a paved road that takes 15 minutes to ride up. Yee haw.

By this time, it was getting late in the day, and I wanted to ride further as I had planned. It started raining. Then it got dark. Then I couldn't find a hotel in the sparsely inhabited area. Finally found one, and it was full of old Vietnamese men (former soldiers, I am sure) who had their doors open and were yelling at one another across the floor, ending at 11 pm, and starting again at 5 am. What a day.

Lastly: while the challenging ride is a fairly trivial memory now, the Charlie Hill battlesite keeps growing in the deep and dark regions of my psyche. It was a bit disturbing to see the place and the artifacts of what went on there. And to imagine the guys doing it, few that survived.

Thinking of riding up to Charlie Hill:

• Take the Delta Hill road

• If you do take the Charlie Hill dirt road, you need a Honda 150XR or bigger with little weight, and go with a guide

Questions or comments?

Drop me a line terraxplor1@gmail.com