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Published: April 14th 2012
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Tuy Hoa to Phu Toc We left the luxuries of our 5 star hotel after 2 days to head into the central highlands. We meandered in land following the course of a canal. The hills began to rise out of the rice paddies and we caught our first sightings of the adorable pot belly pigs roaming around the minority villages. Once we parted from the canal, the land became dry and dusty and the road a single bumpy lane. Traffic was sparse so we only disappeared into the odd dust cloud! The hillsides were stripped of any trees leaving a brown and rather depressing landscape. The houses were different, long wooden homes with chickens, pigs and the odd cow wandering about. Living standards appeared quite basic although an essential to every home was a satellite dish 😊
Arriving at Phu Toc suddenly a grand 2 lane dual carriageway appeared from nowhere. Generous sized empty pavements emerge leading into a sparsely populated town. We stayed in an ex-colonial hotel now mainly used by travelling officials. Like so many other hotels, it had large wooden furniture in the reception...so that's where all the trees have gone! In the evening the locals
all gathered at the cafe beside our hotel for en masse coffee drinking with music blaring that prevented any form of conversation. Thankfully, a night out in the highlands is all over before 10pm.
Phu Toc to Chu Se Continuing our journey into the highlands we left Phu Toc and continued our steady ascent. The road degenerated a little and became very dusty and the mountains showed little sign of life after all the clearance through slash and burn methods. We reached Chu Se, a crossroads town, late in the day and searched for a place to stay. The first hotel didn't understand that we wanted to see a room, or perhaps just stay in a room, or perhaps what on earth their business was supposed to offer. The next place we tried, we were treated to some hairdryer hospitality, being told that we must want to stay there at the top of the landlords voice. The last one ended up being pricey with the grumpiest receptionist of the trip so far and the room had damp and after changing dirty linen, it would do. Surely a good nights sleep must lie ahead!
Enter the Cicadas. The
tree outside our room was home to the entire province's displaced Cicada population, the din was incredible, at first I thought the fire alarm had been set off! The Cicadas serenaded us for at least 3 hours of the night at various times. Causing us to require a long lie in (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). Chu Se did have some perks; we had some lovely popcorn from the street stalls, we enjoyed our brunch in a cafe at the top of the hotel (the largest high rise in the town) and got to chat to some local kids at what we later found out was the “Rong House” (essentially a community hall). Amusingly, we also met a Vietnamese man who had lived in USA for the past 8 years but couldn't engage in a basic English conversation with us. No idea how he managed in the USA. As we left Chu Se we looked forward to finding somewhere a little more cultured and hopefully surrounded by green, lush highlands. It didn't look promising, the landscape looked flat as a pancake from the hotel.
Chu Se to Pleiku The highlands were not proving to a
beautiful place to be, in fact they were rather ugly. The riding was pleasant enough rolling along the hills but I struggled to feel positive seeing the land gutted of its vegetation and smoke rising from the latest burnings. Some patches were cultivated with cassava, others with young rubber trees and the rest abandoned.
One event of interest in the day was a funeral. It seemed ceremonial affair, with a long procession of decorated trucks including musicians in the back. The attendants (included many in official uniforms) were composed and seemingly dutiful.
At the end of the day we sailed down from the plateau into Pleiku. After our experience in Tuy Hoa, George was tempted by the 4 star hotel, which turned out to be triple the price of our 5 star hotel and a bit average! Then we had a weird experience, the next 3 hotels we visited denied us...it was difficult to ascertain why. They spoke no English but they just waved us away in a rude manner, saying 'no room'. They had keys hanging up for rooms, what was the problem. Can Westerners only stay at a 4 star place or did we really smell
that bad?!
At hotel number four I refused to be refused. I pointed to empty rooms on her booking sheet and showed her our request written in Vietnamese but I was struggling to win. I was saved by a Vietnamese English teacher who asked again for a room and this time success!
Once again food cheered us up. We followed up a Lonely Planet recommendation and it was tasty. Fresh rice paper spring rolls, with herbs, cucumber, pork and rice noodles inside, dipped in a yellow bean sauce...yum. Onwards to Kon Tum tomorrow.
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