Easy riding motorbike tours boom in Southeast Asia

HANOI -- The large European motorbike purrs with pleasure as the road -- a concoction of gravel and broken asphalt peppered with potholes -- curls up the face of a 1,500-meter-high mountain pass in Dong Van, a remote frontier district in northern Vietnam. Whatever nature throws at it -- mud, rain, river crossings and even snow and ice -- is child's play for the BMW 800GS, which has suspension that can be adapted for different terrains.