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ruairi and i set off on a 5 day, 4 night highlands tour with dong (the dude that took us on the river cruise). it was a private tour, just us 2, dong, and huan the driver. it was bloody nice to get off the tourist track and into the jungle and mountains! the first day we stopped to see the area where the americans sprayed agent orange during the war. the affect of which is still prevalent on the streets of vietnam, affecting pregnant mothers and causing severe deformities at birth. the land where it was sprayed is rendered useless as the only thing that will grow is bloody grass.
along the way we stopped too see brickmaking (hurrah!). the bricks are handmade and all the workers are chicks (women make up 52% of workers in vietnam, and they seem to do all the hard labour. the men sleep on their motos waiting for a passenger while the women are hauling big loads and emptying bins). also, you can pick up 1000 bricks for 12 bucks! bargain!
we then went to a little village to meet the m'nong minority people. they live in these 'long' houses on stilts that
can be as long as 300 metres! they start off at a normal size, then whenever someone gets married or has kids, they build an extension at the back. the animals (pigs, cows, buffalo, chickens, dogs and goats), all live under the house. this is also the major cause for the decline of the m'nong people as they live with so much disease.
that evening we stayed in a little place by the lake. the rats were kind enough to offer us their beds for the evening and sleep on the floor instead. we also had a gong and dance performance by the m'nong folk, who also forced us to drink the vilest wine (worse than the de-ruster), i dry-reached a little in front of them.
the following morning we went on an elephant trek. i felt a little bad about this due to the way the ellys are captured and treated, but my selfishness prevailed and we did it anyway. it was bloody amazing. we went through a lake where our elephant was completely under water which was pretty cool (ruairi was freakin). it seems anyone can take an elephant from the forest and train it to work for
them. there used to be like 700 wild in vietnam just 10 years ago, now there is only 100. the problem is basically, that if you own a male, and bob next door has a chick, bob wont let you breed with his at it means she wont be able to work for a year or so. thus, numbers are depleting badly. you can pick one up for around $20,000.
we saw some amazing waterfalls, a peppercorn plantation, and stayed in kontum for the night.
the next day was a bloody long drive to hoi an and ruairi and i were giving each other the shits badly. hence begun the 'foot and felt' game. i have a foot phobia and he has a felt and felt-like material phobia. so he would touch me with his filthy feet, and i would rub my felt neck pillow to see who would crack first. this went on for 6 hours.
hoi an was a nice little town. though it wasnt all that i heard it would be. its a pretty, cobblestoned town with lots of tiny little shops. but if your not there to shop theres little else to do.
the following day
we headed to hue, we stopped to see a rubber plantation and stonemasons, then got on the ho chi minh trail for a bit of the way. hue was really cool. its the old capital of vietnam, so its a fairly large city with lots of bars and eateries (my kinda place). we visited the citadel, which is an ancient palace that barely exists anymore due to heavy bombing.
the last day of our tour, we visited the dmz, and the civilian tunnels (the underground safe-world during the war),which was really cool. i didnt get claustrophobic either which i was stoked about. we visited a market, said goodbye to dong and huan (i got a lump in my throat, how embaressing!), and got on a sleeper bus to hanoi.
i now only have to do 1 more entry till i have officially caught up to 'now time'.
thanks guys for you'r comments (the leprechaun is still winning in that area though).
larry
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