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Published: January 17th 2007
Free-Camping in Vietnam!
Despite being told that Vietnam is the most populated land in Asia per sq km - we managed to find some really ace places to set up our 6 tents!Day 228, 14th January
Tan Mai - Dam Ha - Tien Yen
I sweated so much last night that my sleeping bag was soaked this morning. All of our tents were wet too due to the high humidity. We said our farewells to the farmers who’d let us free-camp and were on the road for ten. Me not feeling fully up to strength, probably due to that home-made hooch last night, and having to stop to rest regularly at cafes along the road. It was difficult ordering veggie stuff, so strangely enough, I just decided not to eat and bought one of those colonial-style Vietnamese hats instead - just don’t ask about the logic here!
Later on I managed to eat some tofu, rice and salad, and also bought some nice chopsticks for two quid. The town of Tien Yen was beautiful and rustic with a picturesque river and colourful market. Tribeswomen from the hills were to be seen wandering about in their colourful clothing and box-shaped headwear. Their hair seemed to be shaven beneath the head-dresses.
On the way out of town we bumped into three other westerners on motorbikes. They were from Holland and, sorry
Motorbikers
On the way to Halong City we met these folks from Holland who had bought their motorbikes in Thailand and were touring SE Asia. to say this, but quite ugly looking. Nevertheless, we chatted and exchanged stories before leaving to find a place to camp. We found an idyllic spot - not! A quarry next to the sea! As it went dark we noticed that the noises from the animaly are getting more and more bizarre…
Total Miles: 10562.79 Todays Miles: 53.38 Average speed: 11.3 Time on bike: 4:42
Day 229, 15th January
Tien Yen - Cam Pha - Halong City West
I was up again in the night with the shits. My stomach was also in knots and I had no appetite. We de-camped early and were at the first café at 7.30 which had Englisg football on TV. Rory drank a beer and smoked fags while watching the match - the animal! (joking Rory dude). After eating fried-rice for breakfast, we continued, making slow progress.
Near Cam Pha, the landscape became very industrial with coal mining going on. There was a busy railway and loads of dusty trucks plying the way. The green landscape was turned black by the coal dust. It became digusting, filling our lungs, covering our clothes, turning our skin black and our
Filth Caked Landscape
On the way to Halong City this industrial area really tested our lungs! eyes red. In Cam Pha we sat down at a café and Rory, Toby and Nick discovered you could buy big pitchers of beer for 10,000 Dong.
Three pitchers later, and very merry, they continued to order while Scott, Stephane and I decided to leave then there to catch up with us later in Halong City. From the hilly parts of the road we could see the many rock islands that made up Halong Bay. The landscape continued to be dramatic after the industry was left behind with huge pinnacles of rock standing out from the fields.
We reached Halong City East late afternoon and saw the islands from the lovely promenade, then crossed by ferry to Halong City West to try and catch the 4pm ferry to Cat Ba Island - we missed it. So, we ended up buying pitchers of beer before finding a nice and cheap hotel in town. The other guy had disappeared - they never arrived?
Total Miles: 10618.29 Todays Miles: 55.50 Average speed: 11.5 Time on bike: 4:49
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Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0837s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
