Advertisement
Published: February 15th 2008
Edit Blog Post
We decided to book a motorbike tour through the central highlands towards Saigon. We had thought about it, and decided that it would be a cool thing to do. Also, given that we were still kicking ourselves for not doing Sapa, we decided that this would make up for it. We would therefore spend 3 days with out drivers, riding through the Central Highlands, with our backpacks, and a whole load of trust in them. We had not figured on sore bums, and we should have listened to ourselves the days before, as the motorbike trip we did out of the city ended up with sore backsides already. Imagine, sitting on the back of a 110cc motorbike, with not a lot of space for movement, and a fairly hard seat squashing your tailbone!!! Yup....it hurt alright, and then some!!!!!
Our drivers were T and Ng. They were cool guys, and although Ng did not speak much english, we still managed to converse in a funny hand signal, mental telepathy kinda way. Our first day was probably the monst painful, in terms of real pain to our backsides. The first day is always the worst, and thereafter, i think we just
a rice explanation
explaining the harvesting of rice broke through the pain barrier till the feeling completely disappeared.....ahhh, so this is what its like to have a pressure sore on your arse. I'll never look at another one in the same light again!!!
We drove through roads, passing a brick factory. T stopped to tell us how this is done, and it looked really tough work. It was hot already, and with the heat of the furnace and the machines, this made for an uncompromising environment. Still, i could not help but think that its worse working in a steaming hot emergency department, wearing this nylon uniform that sticks to your skin with the mearest of sweat. Atleast these guys (actually they were mainly women) got to choose what they wore (which was much more liberal than we had), and the guys actually got to take their shirts off (i'm sure the guys would love to see the girls with their shirts off, but i'm not sure if that would be reciprocated!!).
We then stopped off to see women collecting the rice from the paddy fields. There are 3 types of rice. These consist of 3, 6 and 12 months old. Obviously the 12 months is
the better quality, and the 3 month the worst. It struck me that everywhere we went, we only seemed to see women at work. Where were all the men? Well, the men work in the fields, growing crops. But by the afternoon, they're done, and so they sit back, and have a few glasses of moonshine (the cheaper wiskey version, but much more potent!!), whilst the women continue to slave away. I could not help but admire this way of living. Why can't things be this easy at home???
We maze through winding roads, with awesome scenery. We pass many people from all walks of life, those returning from school, those returning from the farm, those returning from shopping. Everyone we passed waved to us, especially the children, who seemed fascinated to watch us go past. Crazy Lau Cai!!!!!!We passed through 4 seasons in 1 day, having to don the ponchos one minute, then rip them off, then put them on again. My bike ended up with a puncture, which caused me to wonder if i had put on weight again!!! But it was all sorted out with ease. I could not help but think that we had done
a good thing by travelling with these guys!!
Our day ended as we pulled up at this resort by the lake in Dalat. But we had one more adventurous trip planned for us. Waiting for us at the enterance to the resort was our elephant ride. This big female asia elephant seemed in a peculiar mood when we arrived, and we could not figure out what it was. Now we have seen wild, african elephants, and they have behaved in a completely different way. This tamed elephant seemed distracetd in someway, but we were assurred that everything was ok, and that she had been waiting a while for our arrival!!!! So we climbed onto this elephant, and we started out walk across the village. Led by our very young mahoot (elephant trainer), we soon figured out where we were going. Right across a very fast, very deep looking lake. Hummmm!!!! Not sure if this was going to be a great idea, but we placed our faith in the elephant, andwent with the flow (no pun intended!!). The elephant seemed to have a different path trajectory to the mahoots, and this, we eventually figured out, was because she was hungry,
and was distracted by the search for food!!! thats great, but not now mate!!! Not whilst we are on your back, in the middle of a lake, with the water level up to your head (about 5M high). I found it hillarious, but I can't say this was the same for Carmen. I think the picture may tell the story. However, we eventually made it (after some scary persuasion by the mahoot), and we finally got to our resort i one piece. That night we had dinner at the former summer getaway of the former king. It was a stunning place, although the meal was decidedly average), but we slept well that night, and awoke with dread at the prospect of another painful day in the back seat of the bike.
Day 2 started off with a puncture to my bike again, so we pulled in to get it fixed. Except this time, it was the same tyre, and by the looks of it, it had one too many punctures repaired, and we had to get a new inner tube. All sorted within 20 minuted (in England we would have waited a whole day for that!!), and we continued
again. The bikes took a bit of a hammering, and they were pretty old bikes, but they did the job. Carmens bike had a problem with the starter motor, but its was all dealt with easily, without hastle.
We raced through more mountainous valleys, stopping to take the occassional photo and rest our painful backsides. That evening, we ate with our travel mates, eating goat stew with taro, and chicken feet. lovely!!!!!
Our last day, we were taken to the chuchi tunnels. This was a series of maze like tunnels, built by the vietcong during the americal war, and infact was responsible for the withdrawl of the americans, mainly because they were getting killed from all angles, and they could not deal with it. The vietcong lived in these tiny tunnels for up to 4 years, and we tried to move inside one of them, and it was hot, and sooooo small, it was ridiculous!!!! I then got to fire a few rounds in a AK47, which was amazing given the force of the recoil. I don't think i hit anything, but i had a good time firing it anyhow!!!!!
We finally arrived in Saigon, and we
entered into another mad city. Sitting on the back of the motorbike, i was sure my legs were going to get whacked by another motorcyclist. They came at all angles, and i was constantly tapping my riders back, telling him to watch out for this guy and that guy, and eventually closing my eyes and laughing, as i felt completely helpless!!!!!
And so our adventure through the central highlands ended. Its was a strange end, and we were kinda sad to say goodbye to our drivers, who we had been with for 3 days. It was fun, and well worth it, but for the pain in the backside. It took us a week to get the feeling back in our arses.........somehow!!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0449s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb