Advertisement
Published: August 30th 2009
Well, It is the 3rd night out on the road with the motorbikes. I sit a bit nervous right now. Many strange things happening yesterday and today with guide. I am actually alot nervous. I will get to that story in a bit. First though yesterday.
I thought I had seen such beautiful country the first day but oh man, it just got even better. We got up and had breakfast then headed up. It started out foggy and I hoped it would clear in a while which it fortunatly did as the day went on. We went to the very top of the Tonkenese Alps and then started heading down. We were so high up that it took most of the day to get down actually. The road, which I thought was a bit hairy the first day only got worse as we continued. Its hard to imagine worse but its true. Only motorcycles can pass and just then on alot of it its barely. There has been alot of fine balancing on the bike so thank goodness that I have had a couple of days of practice again.
This little road is very funny. It seems about
the same size as the bike path I use to ride up to Beaver Creek back home. Almost every 1/4 mile there is debris and clutter from landslides along the sides of it. As we drive down the road, little huts are built along side it and above us and below us are corn fields that the Vietnamese are harvesting. These corn fields are straight up and down too. There are paths that are worn from centuries of farmers walking them to the fields. These mtns are so gigantic and steep yet still they are utilizing the land. Its incredible. I stopped a lot to take pictures and I think my guide was getting a bit frustrated. However, I figure that as we go south back to Hanoi there will be nothing approaching this. I have a feeling this is the climax of my trip to the north and everything else is going to be a motorcycle ride.
The small road also passed through numerous villages. In almost every village of any size though, the govt has built these big yellow and red concrete buildings. They are the govt buildings and they are in every town and village. However,
they are very run down and it seems that the paint has not been redone in a decade or more. The other thing that is interesting I just found out this morning is that every govt building begins to broadcast very loudly to the whole village and town a wake up call. And the national anthem. This occurs at 6 am on the nose every morning. We dont want to have any lazy workers do we?
At about 2pm we pulled into a fairly decent sized town called Bac Ha I think. As we were going into town we made a turn into a muddy almost single track trail. We followed that for about a KM then pulled into a small hut and drove around to a yard. A Vietnamese man came out to greet us and we went inside a large open room with a concrete floor. The wife was in the doorway with about 5 giant bags of corn sifting through it getting all the husks out. In the room was 2 wooden beds and a table in the middle. I was thinking ok, must be a little tour of village life here. We sat down and
the man served some tea. They talked a little bit while we drank our tea. I just sat and looked around. About 5 min in my guide looks at me and points at the one bed and says ok, ok. At which point it dawns on me that he wants us to stay here. In my minds eye I turn around and look back down the road at the nice little town about 1 or 2 Km away. I saw several hotels in town. I look at my watch and its only 2:15pm and I am thinking that there is now way in heck that I am going to sit on that wooden bed waiting for bed time staring at them and them staring at me. It feels about 245 degrees out. If it was any more humid it would be raining and I am soaked in sweat. There is not a shower or bathroom to be seen. I shake my head to my guide and say no. Hotel. Town.
Here is where it all starts. This is where I pay for hiring a non english speaking guide from a guy in Hanoi who barely speaks english. My guide's
boss's name is Alex in Hanoi. My guide Zhun calls Alex on the phone and hands me the phone. In broken english I hear the words, you must stay in house. I politly tell Alex, no. I stated that I hired a guide and that I was choosing the locations. We are going to hotel. I hand the phone back to the guide and for the next several minutes a very angry and hostile conversation takes place. My guide is definitly agitated. We get back on the bikes however and head to town. We go to a littole dive of a hotel. Its clean but very basic. Its $8 a night. I head back downstairs and find a person who speaks a few words of english. through some effort I get the name of a hotel I can see down the block called the Sa Mai. I head there on the bike and when I pull up I am greeted by the receptionist who speaks pretty good english. She shows me a room and its great.; Super clean, Air/Conditioning TV, and best of all wifi internet. I ask how much and she says $20. I say sold! I head back
to my old hotel, pack the bags, leave the key with the receptionist and a note for my guide on where I am staying, and head off for the promised land.
I clean up, have a great dinner in the hotel lobby for $3, enjoy a 50cent beer and book a one hour $7 massage with the hotel's massuese. Great night. During dinner I enjoy the company of some of the staff who are happy to talk to me as they wish to practice their english.
The next morning my guide shows up and hes visibly upset. I am pretty sure what is happening is that the guide does not really care but is getting huge flack from his boss for not forcing me to stay in the places he wants me to stay at. I am prepared though. With the help of my english practicing friends I have had them write many phrases i need to use down in Vietnamese. The one thing I really want to know now after last night is where are we going? The hotel gives me a map and I force the guide to show me the route. He says he only
knows the route for today and tommorrow as his boss has been telling him where to go as he sets things up from hanoi. His boss sends me a text message on the guides phone and it says that tonight I will be staying in a Tay family stilt house.
I have learned something about myself. I really have enjoyed experiencing the local flavor from a first hand perspective. However, 2 nights has been plenty and I dont need to be sleeping in huts for the next 5 nights when its pretty obvious that there are towns all over. The receptionist forces the guide to reluctantly show me where the Tay stilt house is and on the map the receptionist points out a town in the same area called Loy Keyen. Its mispelled i know. but thats how it sounds to me. She writes down the name of a hotel then writes down the phone number of a friend who she says teaches english in the town. She calls her friend and says if I stay there her friend will come by and would like to talk to practice english.
Lets see. Tay stilt house in the middle
of a steamy hot jungle after riding a motorcycle through dirt all day or a hotel with a/c? Sitting staring at a Tay family for the whole evening or talking english in a town with cold beers. Dang. Still not sure. I am slightly leaning towards the town. I have the receptionist explain to the guide what I want to do. He gets on the phone and again another 2 minutes of agitated conversation. He gives me the phone and Alex says you must stay in Tay house. Already made reservations. I said no, and told him where we were going and the name of the hotel.
We take off. Several times during the day the guide gets text messages and hands them to me. They all say that I am going to stay in house. I reply back to each one no. Each time I think my guide is getting yelled at as he definitly seems upset. We ride for hours today and come to more civilization. We have definitly left the mtns and are back down in the lowlands. And the temp has risen about 15 or 20 degrees as well. Also, the roads are better but
crazier now as I have to deal with obstacles and trucks and cars. The road is 2 lanes but hardly ever is the 2 lanes available as things are piled in the lanes as you go. Pretty crazy. I have to constantly be on my toes. Its been ok though as the view is back to just the normal jungle and I am not looking around as much.
This is where I got really scared actually. After lunch we have riden till about 2 pm and we turn on a small road to Loy Keyen. About a mile up it my guide pulls over under the shade. We sit there for a bit. He gets off the bike and motions for me to do the same. I get off and he comes over to check out my bike. He then jumps on it and starts it off and takes off back the way we came. Now you have to understand that my luggage is attached to the bike he just took off with. At first I dont think anything. But 30 seconds later the light bulb goes off my stomach feels like its been punched. Did my guide just
take off with my luggage? My bike is newer and in much better shape. The bike still here with me is much older and not in as good of condition. My guide and his boss have been fighting for 2 days now and I could not help but think I just made a huge mistake. Here I am in the middle of nowhere and my money and luggage just disapeared around the corner. I grew more and more agitated as the time went by and about 5-10 min in I was just getting ready to jump on the old bike when he came around the corner. I never felt so much relief. It is a mistake I vowed to not make again.
I ask how far to Loy Keyen. He stated about 20km. We head out on this really awful little one track road and I wonder how there could be a town out here with anything? About 10 km in my guide stops again. Its his boss again. He again states that I must stay at stilt house. I say no again. This time the guide and him really shout at each other. This time the guide hangs
up and throws the phone on the ground smashing it. I am thinking great. Now our only means of communication is done. I had learned my lesson from earlier and was taking no chances. He has been carrying my backpack on his bike. So I went to his bike and removed my backpack and strapped it to my bike. He then says go ahead. I look at him and point and say him first. He wants me to go first and I keep thinking hes just going to bail. For all I know he just quit his job and is waiting for an oppurtunity to take the nice bike and vamos. He finally relents and takes off. I dont see him till town.
Surprisingly, this little one lane awful road leads into a really large town. The largest I have seen since leaving the north. We find the hotel that was recommended. As I park the bike I pull out a small cable lock I have been carrying and lock the newer bike up. I am not sure what my guide thinks about it but I just am too nervous to take the chance. I check in to the hotel and find that its older but clean and has a/c. its for $10 per night. Sold! Also a young man comes up and speaks the best english I have heard in awhile. I grab the guide and with this mans help try to deduce what is going on. I find out that the boss gets a commission from having me stay in certain places. Also the places he wants me to stay are super cheap. So he makes money from that. Even though atm I am paying for all my own hotels. Sarah, I owe you big time for reminding me to not pay the whole amount! I am holding back $200 from the balance due.
I then found out that my guide does not have a place to stay if I stay here. So I arrange with the hotel 2 rooms for $15. Also, I called and I am meeting with the friend of the receptionist in Bac Ha. She comes by and she, the guide myself and one of the hotel staff who speak english all go to dinner. During dinner we seem to get things better straigtened out in regards to the final 3 nights. I just dont know what to think. We all have a great time but I just feel like something is going to happen. My radar is going. The problem is that when we get to the hotel, my guide asks for me to take the chain off the bike. I dont want to. the receptionists friend states that its ok that they have to be able to move the bikes indoors a bit later when they close everything up. I go ahead and take the lock off. As I come up to my room to finish writing this part of me is saying its going to be ok and part of me is saying that I am getting up in the morning and hes gone with the bike. Worst case scenerio though is that it happens, I have all my stuff and I can stay in the room for days if needed. I figure I can find someone or something that could get me back to Hanoi. At least I am in an actual town now and not where I have been the last 2 days in the frontiers of Vietnam.
I have my fingers crossed that tommorrow night when I type my blog that it will be from a new place and after a new adventure. Wow, did I ramble on in this blog or what? Oh well. The computer has been an awesome time filler in the evenings and its really helping me to put the trip together in my mind. I am sure that looking back I will be glad to have these memories and this blog will help with that. If your reading this Peter, thanks again for the loaner notebook! Its been amazing to have and one of the things I almost did not bring but now I am so glad I did!
Signing off for now
Dave
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0537s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Brenda
non-member comment
What a story!
Dave, I have to thank Foster for forwarding me this link. What an amazing trip for you. I am jealous. Our trip in a couple of days to Thailand will only be 15 days. I am hoping to check out your blog every couple of days to see how you're doing. Your narratives are great....almost can feel the heat & humidity. Be safe & enjoy.