On the Road (Nha Trang to Hoi An)

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On the Road (Nha Trang to Hoi An)

 Asia » Vietnam » Central Highlands By Ruairi
May 14th 2007
Ruairi MolloyWell the following explanation will be short and sweet, cause I have alot of pictures to upload. I will stick plenty of info in the explanation bits for each one. After having such a good time with Dong on the river tour, and realising he was so genuine, we decided to take a highlands tour with him North up the country. We are now just over halfway through that tour, and heres what we have seen .....

thanks again for all the comments !

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Photos

Fungus
Just thought this would be a cool picture to start this entry of the blog. It a fungul growth on a fallen tree near the waterfalls.

Vietnamese Bricks
This is how they make brick in Vietnam today, its all labour intensive. The only machines used are those fr pushing out the clay. It costs $12 US for 1000 bricks.

Agent Orange
During the Vietnam war, the Americans used chemical agents to kill the tree growth around their supply routes, to help against VC attacks. They also used it as a weapon to kill any VC in the area. They sprayed over 70,000 hectares of land. The biggest proble was lng after the war, those infected who did not die (often civilians) ended up having severly deformed babies due to the chemicals. Today noting grows there, only grass !...... but the Aussies have helped by sending over Eucalyptis trees, (being a tree which will pretty much grow anywhere) and they are in the process of regrowing. The area used to be dense jungle, like that in the far bakground.

Poser
This guy was a bit of a poser for the Camera.

Up in the Highlands
The weather was so much cooler up in the mountaind, also a bit wet. The clouds felt real close, you could almost touch them !

Rush Hour
livestock rules the road !

Boy Racer
How about drivin up and down Main Street Arklow on this bad boy ! Rock up outside the Church and park it ! Better than some souped up fiesta !

More PIGS !
Poor bastards !

Village Dance
We stayed a night near a Minority Village. We went to see the M'Nong People do their traditional tribal dancing and stuff ......

Skull Skull Skull !
We took part in the tribal celebrations by drnking (suckin)the traditional wine. I cannot desribe how bloody awful it tasted. Even Peter Whelan would not drink it (and you know yourself Whelan, youd drink off a scabby leg !) Drinkin it was pure torture. I'd sooner again drink my own urine !

Lillys !
We stayed in a guest hose near the Jun Village. The place was a $hithole, we had rats in the room, the gecko's were fine company at night, but the rats $hit all over the place. This pic was taken from our 'floating cafe/restaurant' next to our rooms. The guesthuse was beside this lake.

All Aboard
Well we went Elephant trecking around a nearby lake. At first we felt bad sitting on the poor bastards back, but due to the fact that he can barely feel us .... we felt better about it !

On the Way to the lake
The ride was rally good , kinda freaky at first, but we got used to it ! It was amazing how well trained they are.

In the middle of the lake
took this of an elephant going in the opposite direction, just to give you an idea of what our elephant was doing !

Dray Sap Waterfalls
We trecked to a few waterfalls.

Bridge !
We crosed a few suspention bridges along the way !

Pepercorn Kids
When we visited the Pepercorn Plantations, we were followed by the local kids.

Big Roof
When we visited another Minority Village (the Bhana People) we got to see a traditional community centre. The roof is tall and in the shape of an Axe head, to symbolise their working in the jungle.

Stairs
Tese are the steps up into the tall house.

Rubber Plantation
Rubber trees were introduced to Vietnam. Now its amont their exports !

Collecting the Rubber
How the rubber is collected from the trees.

On the rocks !
Sine breaking my leg, i have become way too cautious when climbin along rocks. I used to (well used to think) i was as nimble as a goat !

Near the Laos Border
I took this near the Laos Border. The actual border is over the hills on the other side of the River. About a days treck.

Comments

[MyKe W.]

Was That You On The News Trying To Dispose Of THe Dead Stripper??!! :o)
Keep up the bloggin' man...reeeeeeeeeal cool stuff. Wish I was there :o( give Laz my best! Hope you enjoy the rest of it man... M.