Ho Chi Minh Road is a route less traveled........

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After we arrived in the highland capital of Dalat we spent two days exploring the various tourist attractions and strange these were!!. Dalat is a number one holiday destination for the Vietnamese. So what did it have to offer? Well, it was certainly interesting with its very own cowboys, including ten gallon hats and horses at the "Lake of Sighs", not to mention the full size kitsch African animals!? It didn't end there either, as there were also the various "swan" peddalos, and for a small extra fee you could dress up as a "indian-squaw" and shoot a cross-bow!! Very interesting......

After two days in Dalat, we took a local bus to the non-discript town of Buon Ma Thuot in the central highlands of Vietnam. After playing the games of "musical chairs" and "sardines" we were all on the bus......this including about an additional 10 passages who did not have seats! The scenery along the winding road from Dalat was spectacular in places, with the back drop of the mountains and the tiered rice paddies nestled in the hills along the route. Unfortunately the winding road was not so great for a number of the travellers on the bus, Katherine included, and having seen one of the other passengers dispatch a "sick-bomb" out of the window, I encouraged Katherine to do the same. With pin-point precision the bag and its contents landed in the middle of the river....a few seconds later it could have been on someone's front door!!

We stayed a couple of nights in Buon Ma Thuot and visited a number of the minority villages. One of which was the "tourist village" of Ban Don, constructed in 2001. As we entered the traditional "long house" two elderly people quickly dressed themselves in their traditional costumes. Needless to say, once we had proceeded past the gift counter and reached them, they were ready for action! We were personally entertained to some local music and were greeted as friends for a small contribution! The other highlights of our time were visiting the spectaular waterfalls at "Gia Long" and "Dray Nur".

Our next destination, along the Ho Chi Minh Trail was the town of Kom Tum. Compared to the previous jounery to Buon Ma Thuot this journey was a breeze and we were in Kom Tum by lunch time. As on all the previous journeys the continual use of the horn and overtaking around corners will continue to haunt me!!.

Kom Tum soon became our favorite desitination. Tourism has yet to really impact on the everyday way of life in the town and this meant that we were not continually asked if we wanted a moto-taxi or to buy something that we didn't really need! In fact, no matter where we walked around the town there were greetings of "hello" from everywhere!! At one point we were nearly dragged off the street and invited into someone's living room - not sure the rest of the man's family appreciated being asked to get out of their seats to make room for us - we politely declined and made a quick getaway. Had we accepted, I am sure were would have been there for the evening, along with the rest of the extended familiy!

One thing that was also different with Kom Tum was the level of "genuine" people who really just wanted to practice their english/french. Most of the other experiences we have had is that people are more interested in the contents of your wallet! We once again visited some local minority villages and this time there was no "stage-show" - just real life and lots of smiles!!

Leaving Kom Tum we took the local bus to Quang Ngai and to our amazement we actually had numbered seats!! A fantastic bus ride compared to the 'sardine' mini bus rides we had previously endured!! The scenery on this route was the most spectular as we passed through the rural villages and rice paddies. At one point the bus stopped and the conductor told me to "get off!!" - What was this? Were we going to be robbbed on the road side!! No. This was the toilet stop next to the road side - no "squat" toilet luxury here - just mother nature. In fact the 85 year old lady who had been pacing up and down the aisle on the bus now made sense as she threw herself off the bus, pulled her pants down and relived herself next to the bus for all to see.......

Other memories of the bus ride included the elderly gentlemen who kept apologising to us saying "I am sorry!"(not sure he knew what he was saying!), including his rallying of the troops when the DVD player would not play the Karaoke music..... unfortunately no one joined with his clapping and singing??!!

Quang Ngai was no tourist hot spot!! The main reason for us visiting the town was to visit the nearby village of Son My. Having haggled on the price for the moto-taxi we went to the site of the infamous massacre which was politically covered up by the USA during the Vietnam War after it had liquidated the entire village. A very sad place surrounded by some beautiful countryside.

After one nights stay in Quang Ngai we headed for Hoi-An via Danang once again using the dreaded mini-bus. Our efforts to go on the local bus failed as the lady behind the counter at the bus station agreed with the mini bus operator that we could not go by local bus! We knew we could, but it was getting way too hard!!

So having arrived in Danang we found out that we could travel by local bus to Hoi-An for a fee of 7,000 VND each. No hiding that white skin of ours and within 5 minutes of the bus setting off we were asked for 30,000 VND each - even with the price displayed in the bus?? We eventually paid 10,000 VND - the conductor wasn't very happy though!! After 5 hours of travelling from Quang Ngai to Hoi-An we had finally reached our destination!!

Trying to travel around Vietnam without the aid of the 'Tourist' buses is hard work - having said that, some of the experiences we had during our travels from Dalat to Quang Ngai were fantastic. As for Hoi-An this was a tourist "hotspot" and it couldn't have been further away from the minority villages up in the highlands.........time to have a pamper!!

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