Motorbike madness

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And so, another day, another country. The bus to Ho Chi Minh City (henceforth Saigon as it's less to type!) took us right through the border so less complicated than last time and we arrived into Saigon mid-afternoon.

Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam and is chaotic to say the least. This is locally known as the motorbike city for obvious reasons - there are said to be 3 million of them and most of them seem to be in the way when we try to cross the road. After sorting a few things we gave in to a friendly cyclo driver and hired two of them on a tour of the city. This was a relaxed way to have a look around and Nghia was full of information, if a little difficult to understand some of the time.

Our first stop was the War Remnants Museum though sadly cut short by them closing for lunch. The main part we saw contained photographs from the war, many by famous war reporters, some of whom were killed in Vietnam. There was also a section with details of the damage done by Agent Orange both then and to people born since. What can I say that hasn't been said before....?

Having mentioned lunch Nghia whisked us away to a very local restaurant which I was pretty unsure of but when in Saigon.....! The only thing on offer seemed to be Pho - beef noodle soup - which turned out to be very good if a little large. I was pleased that I had given up on mine by the time Nghia pointed out the sign on the wall advertising bear bile for sale. He confirmed my worst fears when he said that the restaurant kept a bear at the back from which they extracted bile while watched by person buying in order to prove it's real. This is used in traditional Chinese medicine. Again, not a lot I can say to that either....

The following morning we were picked up early for a trip into the Mekong Delta south of Saigon. We spent much of the two days on various small boats seeing floating markets, islands and generally watching the world go by. There was also lots of food, particularly great fruit. There are millions of people who live in the area and survive on fishing and/or fish farming and fruit growing in the main. Nam, our guide, said that life had improved for them in recent years as they were paid good prices but it still looked a pretty hard life to me. Most of the houses were fairly basic and all water seemed to come from the river.

Nam also took us to see local people making various foods including a range of sweets involving bananas, coconut, rice etc. Some were lovely, some not so good. We also learned how to make rice paper and rice krispies (cooked using hot sand!).

We spent the night in a largest town in the delta called Can Tho which has a population of 1 million. However, it felt like quite a small town after Saigon. The hotel we checked into had a huge room but sadly no hot water so we had various hotel staff trekking into our bathroom while I was wrapped in just a towel! We had arranged to meet the German girls for dinner and within minutes of leaving the hotel I had demonstrated my true accident prone self by colliding with a passing motorbike. Not really sure whose fault it was though the rules we'd been told were that you cross the road at a steady pace and they get out of your way - there's clearly no other way to do it as nothing stops, not even at red lights! I think we both briefly thought the damage was much worse than it was - Hugh said that there was a real crack and he was surprised I wasn't on the floor. But luckily the skin was not broken and I just ended up with a couple of huge, beautiful bruises.

The evening improved significantly once I'd recovered with good food, a couple of drinks and some interesting conversation.

The following day Nam also took us to meet an impish elderly man, Din Lur (my spelling!), who farmed snakes and grew fruit. With a big grin on his face he took us around his garden showing us various fruit and getting us to try it. We were also persuaded to hold one of his snakes. There was also no getting away from the rice wine despite the fact it was before 10am. He had two types - banana wine, made using the seeds from a special kind of banana, and snake wine. Yes, they keep a dead snake in rice wine for over a year before drinking it. Both are supposed to be medicinal - the banana for bad backs and the snake for general health and strength and both were remarkably good. Hugh couldn't resist a small bottle of the snake wine for less than 1 pound - Din Lur said that one drink before bed every night had helped him live till 78. There's obviously something in it as there were two tombs of relatives in his garden, one that lived to 78 and one to 97!

Back in Saigon we had another quiet day - a good job as the temperature had increased since we were last there & I was struggling a bit. Air-conditioning is a godsend! It also meant that we were looking forward to our next stop even more as we were heading up into the Central Highlands where we expected it to be much cooler. The bus journey, described variously as 5 to 7 hours, actually took 8.5. We were on the front seats so a great view but not always what you want when there's a truck heading straight for you! The last leg of the journey the views were beatiful but we just wanted to get off the bus by then.

The bus stopped at a hotel near the centre of the city and we got the hard sell about how good the hotel was and the trips they could organise. They also tried very hard to get us onto motorbikes to take us to the guesthouse we'd booked when we said we didn't want to stay - it was beginning to make sense why the driving had slowed down so much for the last couple of hours! We managed to get away and get a taxi to what turned out to be a beautiful guesthouse with a huge room and huge bathroom with whirlpool bath, great breakfast and free internet.....all for $20!

Loath as we were to leave such luxury we somehow fell for the banter from a couple of guys from a local organisation called the Easy Riders - guys on motorbikes who take you on trips to see various sites around the area. As discussed above, I am not keen on motorbikes and was still pretty bruised so was rather unsure but it was clear that it was going to be a good way to get out of the town and eventually we gave in. It turned out to be a great day and the guys, Hien and Hung, were very careful. We were only on country roads so the biggest obstacle was crowds of school children on push bikes and we got to see some great views. They took us to a number of local farms where they grow vegetables, coffee and cut flowers and explained the production methods. Hien had fought in the war and was able to point out areas of deforestation by the Americans and other important strategic points. We also saw a couple of whacky pagodas, a Catholic church in the style of a pagoda and an amazing waterfall with virtually nobody else around. We finished at a rather bizarre house/minihotel in the town which is still being built by the architect daughter of a previous Prime Minister of the country. She is apparently inspired by Gaudi and the design is all curves and wacky statues and paintwork but the rooms look rather uncomfortable and the whole place rather strange. The only irritating part of the day was that Hien and Hung spent large amounts of time trying to persuade us to do a much longer trip with them - while it sounded great, the day had been the most bum-numbing of my life and I could not imagine spending a week on the back of a bike with them!

We're still in Dalat and having another rest day when we might sample a little more of the local wine - rather palatable at 50p a glass! The temperature is much more comfortable and even requires a couple of layers at night which is a pleasant change. Hope you're all reasonably warm and dry? I know a few of you are reading the blogs cos the site tells us how many but we're not hearing from many of you - go on, drop us a line - it is good to hear about what's going on at home (well, some of it!).

Lots of love

S & H xx

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Comments

[jonathan]

Phew
You never stop do you? It all looks and sounds fantastic though. When do you get a week off? News from home - Dave Hartnett a on the front of the Sun today. Above his photo it said "Up a Creek" and under it it said "No Paddle" (or something similar anyway - not being a Sun reader...) They're about to ask every member of staff of HMRC to search their desk area. Everyone. They're completely mad. And there's a reward of £20,000 for the discs, no questions asked! J x

[Hugh and Sarah]

Reward!
I thought the reward was just Jonathan's joke so that really made me laugh!