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Published: April 14th 2012
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Kontum to Pleikan A pleasant days cycle digesting the crazy couple of days we'd spent with Binh. We loaded up with cakes for our journey, enjoyed a final avocado sinh to and hit the road. We rode through the usual newly built dual carriageways laying the foundations for new towns, with the propaganda billboards and largely mostly empty government administration buildings. Maybe these towns are awaiting the minority villagers whose rural lifestyle is becoming more difficult to sustain.
We had a fantastic lunch in a village cafe and drew the attention of about 30 primary school children. They were fascinated by George undertaking some bicycle maintenance and then we entertained them with throwing a frisbee which was well received. They all wanted a go to throw the frisbee 😊
We made good time to Pleikan, fuelled with the usual sugar cane juice and had time to walk around the market when we arrived.
Pleikan to Dak Glei The room we stayed in was a bit random, rather like a suite, with two large but rather bare areas and grand wooden doors to a balcony which overlooked the main street. Unfortunately, we
discovered as we settle down to sleep, a really bright light in the corridor shone directly into our room grrr! The next day did not get off to a good start when we were woken up at around 5am by other noisy guests in the hotel and beeping traffic.
Today's ride was more rolling hills. The mountains grew taller and slightly less bald. There was still a lot of deforestation and erosion evident. The government is clearly planning for new towns in the highlands apparent by the new roads and boulevards. Whether or not this is intended to drive the modern Vietnamese way of life into the Central Highlands and assimilate the minority communities it is hard to be certain. Having seen so many villages left high and dry with no forest to sustain their way of life it seems inevitable. The land has been sold off to Vietnamese developers who log the area and either leave it barren or establish rubber or coffee plantations.
After a sunny start the clouds gathered and we were caught in a couple of downpours. This prompted the first outing of the waterproofs since Malaysia. We saw a new design of Rong
House, squat with a top heavy thatched roof, as well as a number of wooden suspension bridges over the river we are following up the valley. In the final hour of our cycle, we heard bird song which cheered us up, the first time in at least 5 days. The mountains had a crown of trees remaining providing a refuge for the dwindling wildlife. The absence of road kill in the Central Highlands dawned on me today. Instead, we see chalk silhouettes of moto-cycle accidents every 3 or 4 kilometres.
We met a variety of drunk Vietnamese today: standing in the road, lying in the road (G lifted him to safety!), driving motocycles, and screaming like half-wits in the internet cafe. We met a whole new crop of grumpy Vietnamese at the cafe, our hostel and the eatery. The bar is set very low for hospitality and social etiquette in this area of Vietnam.
An exception was the son of the hotel owner, who greeted us at the hostel knew a few words of English using Google to translate! He let us use the washing machine which we are very grateful for. We went out to eat spring
rolls and was served by the grumpiest of girls or perhaps just lacked common sense. When we returned to the hostel I greeted the older lady (? mother) and was met with barking orders in Vietnamese to move our bikes and to complete the admin forms. Her manner was abrupt and rude, not another one we thought!
Dak Glei to Kham Duc Leaving behind a very stinky bathroom we were glad to leave Dak Glei. The blaring horns of the trucks and a noisy fan during the night had not left us ina cheery mood, and then we discovered we had no running water. The only perk was the use of a washing machine. Our spirits were lifted when we finally found ourselves surrounded by mountains covered with rainforest. There were butterflies, eagles, birdsong and jungle noises. The cycling was more challenging as we climbed to 1200 metres and we had clear skies most of the day so it was baking hot. During our third climb of the day we found ourselves flaked out and short of water. We stopped to admire the view and cooled our feet in a stream running down the
roadside drainage channel.
We filled our water filter bottle (for the first time!), ate some rambutan,soaked our t-shirts in the stream to keep us cool and then set off again. Round a couple more bends we found a mountaintop cafe and tucked into Pho. The owner chatted to George using his mobile and 'google translate' once again!
Cycling along we passed children walking down from school, a few boys had engineered skateboards to sit on and hasten their descent.
As we flew down from the top we admired several waterfalls. The valley floor gave way to rice paddies and the tress thinned as we approached the town. We were beckoned over to chat by a man who had fought with the US Airforce in the Vietnam war. He was very keen to advise us on our route, but being a bit drunk he was simply repetitive and giggly.
Kham Duc is a small town, not very wealthy but with a plentiful supply of photocopy shops (we counted 6 in a row!) The girl at our guesthouse could not speak English but was smiley and happy to try communicating with pen and paper. A nice change from
the Vietnamese that jabber louder and louder at us in more and more complicated Vietnamese when it's clear we don't understand.
Dinner started well with Dairylea baguettes and ice cream we then faced a very frustrating restaurant with appealing dishes on the menu, none of which they could make for us. Then once it arrived we were given the stingiest amount of chicken (essentially just skin and fat) for twice the price of most restaurants. Having been in Vietnam for over a month, we know they would not dream of serving a local so little. Kathryn went and sorted them out!
Kham Duc to Thanh My Once again we only achieved a couple of hours sleep since the dogs decided to have lengthy discussions through the night.
So we set off fairly late in the morning around 10am after a couple of games of XiangQi and a pot of yoghurt. The days cycle ride followed the course of the river and included much milder climbs. There were more beautiful views, a couple of minority villages and many crazy speeding coaches.
Ever since leaving the coast we've begun encountering cute piglets. These lift our mood with
their active snouts and scurrying runs across the road. Today we came across a large family that kept us smiling even though we were tired and a little fed up of poor food and obnoxious Vietnamese.
So far we've found some Vietnamese are lovely. The rest vary between rude, obnoxious, patronising, swindling, lazy, unempathetic and downright stupid. Can you tell we're feeling worn down and tired from the Highland experience! Really looking forward to Hoi An and the opportunity of a hearty maybe even Western dinner.
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