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Published: December 6th 2011
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On the Road from Hue to Hoi An
Mike, Zoe, Matthius and I. In the piss wet rain. Surprisingly the previous night’s beer fest was resting OK after the standard fare of bread and jam for breakfast. At 9am the Easy Rider’s arrived. I was with one Easy Rider and a Swiss guy, Matthias, who we had met the previous day, was on another. Mike and Zoe were braving it on a scooter. We loaded our gear onto our bikes and set off. Not 10 minutes down the road and the heavens opened. It was still rainy season in Viet Nam so we expected the odd downpour, but the rain didn’t subside for a while. Even so, the road out of Hue was fine and we were soon I the countryside, cruising alongside rice paddies and lakes.
Our first stop was a place called Loc Hoa Lagoon where we pulled over for a short break and to take a few photos of the local fishermen, as well as a few of us all in ridiculous poncho’s, worn by everyone in Viet Nam when it rains. The local catch here and along the coast to the Hai Van pass is shrimp, crab, eel and squid. From here we started to venture into the hills and the mountains
Loc Hoa Lagoon
Loc Hoa Lagoon where fishermen trawl for shrimp, eels, crab and squid. in Bach Ma National Park. We stopped on the roadside a few times to see locals making tea tree oil and also selling some sparrow-like bird for food – hardly appetising, but apparently a local delicacy.
The main point of an Easy Rider tour is that you have more freedom to do what you want on the bike. We certainly had some of that, but sometimes (and this is where it pays to research and meet your Easy Rider beforehand) the Easy Riders take the liberty of taking you to some standard issue tourist place because being Westerners, that’s the kind of place we like to go. Our guides spoke OK to good English and I tried to advise mine that I wanted to meet and eat local. His questions back to me were how old am I, was I married (and why not) and how much money did I earn. The next stop however was to a dreadful ‘luxury’ tourist resort called Hai Sang Lan Co, where we were due to stop for lunch. Terribly over-priced and geared towards ‘wealthy’ (stupid) tourists, it was hardly traditional (and for $2.20 for a plate of chips they can
kiss my ass). So, we cut short the stay and hopped back on the bikes re-iterating that we wanted local food, locally caught by local people, in a local place near to our locality. Finally the message seemed to sink in and we pulled over at a road-side restaurant for a fish hot pot, which was just the ticket.
After lunch (and by this time the Sun had come out) the Hai Van pass loomed. We left Loc Hoa and headed up into the mountains. The vegetation was a very lush green and the air temperature started to drop as we climbed the steep path. The road was quite good initially but soon turned into gravel. Mike and Zoe took their time on the scooter as conditions were precarious. We did see one guy slip and fall off on the gravel, but he was on a mobile phone (and was unharmed). The views were fantastic and we passed several waterfalls along the roadside as we meandered through the mountain pass.
Eventually after a few hours we reached the summit. Although a bit misty, the view down to the bay below was worth the trip.
Enroute to the Hai Van Pass
Children on the way back to school crossing the rail tracks. Someone forgot their poncho - the rain was torrential! A carpet of green down met the ocean. We saw a train far below cutting through the forest – the train tracks take a similar route to the road, although more to sea-level affording great coastal views and a very #pleasant train journey. Like most of Viet Nam, at the summit of the Hai Van pass was a collection of market stalls and cheap guesthouses, targeted at tourists. ‘Hey mister, buy me, buy me, you help me, only a few dollar, where you from?’ is the usual plea for ‘help’. On average Vietnamese earn about $8 a day, which is barely enough to live on and many literally eek a living. But the street and beach hawkers are the worst, almost guilting you into parting with money for a fake plastic mobile phone or $3 imitation Ray Bans. It may only be a dollar here or there but after 6 months on the road all those dollars will add up so you just have to be firm and say no, or if you are going to buy then barter hard and never accept any more than 50% of the starting price.
Once I’d escaped the clutches of
the hillside street hawkers I was free to roam up the path to an old abandoned American/South Vietnamese bunker that resided on the top of the mountain. An eerie place, the buildings were strewn with bullets holes and evidence of mortar shell fire. Rather randomly a newly-wed Vietnamese couple were having a wedding photo shoot, hardly the romantic affair of Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, but a nice backdrop of the mountains nonetheless.
The trip down the mountain took us past a sweeping coastline where in the bay below, American GI’s used to holiday and then onto Danang, Viet Nam’s fourth largest city and main business hub. The Vietnamese Government are investing millions into developing the area and the coastline into a World class resort and this is very evident from the plethora of large 5-star hotels now appearing there like the Sheraton as well as golf country clubs (Colin Montgomerie and Greg Norman competing for custom on opposite sides of the main coastal highway). It sounds like good business until you hear that the local people who used to live, fish and farm the land there were ousted by the Government with a greased palm. As
Easy Rider
EZ Rider - the best and easiest way to travel in Viet Nam! I passed through the stretch towards Hoi An was still a thriving local community, but it won’t be too long before the encroaching metropolis of Danang sweeps through to Ang Bang beach as well.
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