Long way up

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Wow what an amazing 3 days so far!! We're currently 3 days drive out of Dalat, in a remote town near the Cambodian border, although it is quite a big town called Play Cu. Just finished our 3rd day on the bike and I think we'll have 3 more before we get into Hoi An, our final destination.

So been on the bikes for about 9 hours a day, about 6 hours driving (150km - 200km a day) with lots of little stops seeing various things. Been really enjoying the whole process and being on the bikes makes you feel much closer to your surroundings than if you were in a bus or car. The surroundings we've been driving though are probably the best I've ever seen, I seriously recommend to anyone to come here and do this route - you should stop reading this now and start booking your flights! It's nice to be out of the cities and driving a long being able to stop and take in the view that you can't do on the bus. Also is a different experience being able to high-five farmers and school children as they drive a long looking astonished to see you.

Our guides, Lulu and Tong, have really shown us a different side of Vietnam and it's been really fascinating, both the culture and the history. They've also taken us to eat local food, and each meal has been different but sooo tasty! Pho Bo is the national favourite, a beef rice-noodle soup that is eaten at any time of day. They bring it out with loads of different things to put in it, salad, garlic, beans, chili sauce, a real random mix is all thrown in and it tastes great. Becoming an expert at using chopsticks, the other option would be going very hungry!

Really beginning to see that Vietnam is a fascinating country, beginning to understand more about the politics. It's so interesting listening to the Vietnamese talk about their country. Never been in a communist or ex-communist (depends who you talk to whether they say that Vietnam is communist or socialist) and seen a lot of war memorial statues, which after studying the Russian Revolution and the Cold War you can see that they are very communist in style. Often have women farmers in them, which I found surprising at first. Also a lot of the buildings are the same, for example all of the big Vietnamese schools look identical, the buildings are exactly the same, just some are bigger than others. There are a lot of communist propaganda billboards on the roadside.

2 days ago we drove from Dalat to Lak Lake in the Daklat province. The drive was up through the mountains and some of the scenery was the best I think I've ever seen. It rained all day, so hard that it hurt!! We were fully covered in plastic pac-a-macs and waterproofs but it was still a bit miserable. We stopped at a roadside cafe for lunch, just full of truckers and bikers, and the rain was so hard we could hardly hear ourselves think. The rain didn't stop, which is unusual apparently, especially as the wet season isn't until May. The roads became quite muddy and at one point Tong (my driver/guide/new best friend) was forced to drive into a big muddy puddle by an oncoming truck. The bike slipped from beneath us, all very slowly so we'd both jumped off - but my bag!! Luckily it was wrapped in 3 waterproof layers, but it was soaked and slightly damp when we got to the hotel that evening! Eventually the 2 of us managed to pick the bike up and push it through the mud, I was coated in mud. The rest of the drive was a bit miserable, but as soon as you stopped thinking about how cold it was and looked around at the mountains it made it all worth it! Driving through scenery that continues to amaze you for 8 hours is quite an experience.

We went into 'minority' villages which is what the Vietnamese call the 50 or so small tribes that live in the countryside. Was really interesting, the our drivers are very keen on promoting minority culture, and that is one of the aims of the 'easy rider' organisation they belong to. They have arrangements with them, allowing us to visit, and they pay them or something like that. They were very poor, and there were just young children and old women around, everyone else was working - cutting down bamboo. We met a girl who was only 14 (looked about 10) who was already married, she had 2 years to produce a child or her husband would marry someone else as well as her - a completely different universe to the one we live in. We stopped for the night at Lak Lake, we stayed in a resort on the edge of the lake, as we were driving up to it we say an elephant just chilling out on the side of the road! It was perfect, beyond perfect in fact. The lake was so still and you couldn't see any buildings or cars, and it was completely silent. There was a full moon over the lake and in the background you could see the mountain range - absolutely beautiful!! More than picture postcard perfect, I've never seen anything like it and feel very lucky to have stayed there. The bugs there were huge but it was worth it!!

The next day was a complete contrast weather wise, it was very, very hot, even by Vietnamese standards and we were all roasting on the bikes. We were having to stop regularly and drink loads - Tong made us all have re-hydration tablets in our water which was probably a good thing, even though they tasted yuck. The scenery was different to the previous day, started with lime green paddy fields with mountains in the distance. We went to walk around another minority village, they lived in long-houses on stilts, and had pigs running about everywhere. We went into the local primary school, it had about 20 students, and they sang us a welcome song (very loudly) and all ran around shouting a lot. We gave them sweets and there was a bit of a scrum but the kids were adorable. Throughout the whole day there where swarms of butterflies everywhere, yellow ones that looked like gold flecks with the paddy fields in the background. I've never seen so many, they kept hitting my helmet! We started to wind our way up the mountains and the scenery changed again, it became very dusty, reddy orange dust, almost as red as African dust. There are a lot of coffee plantations in this area, and the butterflies are here because of the coffee flowers. I tried some local coffee (I normally don't drink coffee at all) and it was like black soup. At one point the road turned to sand and we couldn't see for more than 2 yards in front!! Luckily it didn't last for long and when we came out of the dust we were all completely brown.

Stopped at another roadside cafe for lunch, was hectic but amusing to watch. Restaurants here only serve 1 dish, it's pretty impossible to understand if your not with a Vietnamese person. When we were kitting up to leave me and Helen got a little crowd watching us. Not many westerners around, so watching 2 western girls (Helen's particularly interesting with her fair hair and skin!) putting on suncream and arranging neck-scarves etc was highly entertaining! We finished the day on the edge of one of the national park, driving through the jungle road, swimming in the waterfall - again absolutely fantastic scenery and swimming was so refreshing. I don't think I've ever been so hot and sweaty as I was after that days driving! We stayed last night in a town in the highlands in a nice hotel, which had a strip club next to it and 'karaoke and massage' in the basement. Karaoke and massage here is code for what the locals call 'boom boom' or 'happy ending', but the hotel seemed fine and there wasn't any wierdness! We had a lovely dinner, a local rice pancake with meat and green leaves. When we went out to get milkshakes afterwards a small child started hysterically crying because of me and Helen. The guides say that people think we are white aliens from the moon!

Today we have been driving through more mountains, not jungle like yesterday, more barren, still fantastic, reminded me a bit of Spain or Northern California. There's a lot of clear-cutting or slash and burn farming taking place (I'm not sure which is the correct term) and there is some agent orange damage still meaning that there are less trees. Where there are trees you can see huge gaps on the mountainside where whole areas of forest were destroyed by American bombs. Despite all this the scenery is still wonderful. The last part of today was through a rubber tree forest, we walked through it for a bit, it was wonderfully cool after a long drive. Covered a lot of miles today and been through towns where very few westerners ever go. We went into a market and people were astonished to see us. They were particularly interested in Helen again, but kept touching our skin where it hasn't tanned, on our backs and legs! Old women where the funniest, stopping the guys and asking all sorts of questions about us. The market has such random stuff, someone offered us a cows head as a present and they sell paper $100US notes which they burn at funerals as the idea is it goes with the person to the after life. Stopped at a few Buddhist temples, and both our drivers are Buddhist so has been interesting finding out about the religion. The Vietnamese Buddha is a women which is different, but we still have to rub the Chinese happy Buddhas belly for good luck. The town we're staying in tonight has no westerners and I think it's very rare that people stay here, been getting a lot of stares! No one speaks English and we ended up walking through the back and beyond trying to find this internet station! I just had to ask a kid to point out on Google maps where the town is that we're in!

So another 3 days driving, tomorrow afternoon we'll be on the historic Ho Chi Min trail, the history is fascinating, particularly coming from 2 Vietnamese who lived through it. The people here are still so lovely and still really friendly. They are very interested in us and don't mind us wondering around they're farms or villages. We don't get as much attention as I did in Africa, and just a lot of stares, but mainly smiles. So excited for the next few days, even though your bum does start to freeze up after a while and your knees begin to complain - completely worth it though!

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Comments

[Thomas]

White aliens
Remember to tell them that you come in peace:)