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Published: February 22nd 2006
HCMC began to gradually slow down to a standstill for the lunar new year (Tet holiday!) which of course is a Budhist holiday and the time when everyone returns to their hometown to spend time with their family. Most people in HCMC are from another smaller town or village, travelling to the big city of Saigon in search of fame, fortune or simply a better education. Out of the 8 million people who are resident in HCMC, during Tet, about 3 million returned home to play cards, eat watermelon seeds (my new addicition!) and chill out at home, welcoming any guests to your house.
Of course this meant that all English schools were closed and even the week leading up to Tet week my student numbers were dwindling. Weeks prior to the holiday I had planned to travel to Da Lat again and spend the first few days of Tet with one of my teaching assistants (TA) family, and then travel from Da Lat to Buon Me Thout for another 4 days to stay with a different TA's family before heading back to HCMC. So I finished work on the Friday, slept at Elizabeth's house and set off for Da
The yellow blossom
These yellow blossom trees were everywhere during TetLat onn the 8 am bus along with Trang, our TA.
Now this came across as being quite funny to me, but because most Vietnamese are not used to driving cars (motorbikes rule the roads here) they get car sick on buses... frequently. Trang sits on her bus seat, puts on her face mask (I can't stand the smell, she says - Elizabeth and I look at each other in amazement as really, there is no smell....) and then lets us know how easily she gets car sick. Great.
The bus sets off and the journey wouldn't have been too bad (7 hours) had the driver not been so obsessed with his damn horn! Oh my God! Every half a second he would blast his horn... I had my ipod on and had taken sleeping tablets and yet still it wasn't impossible to listen to music or go to sleep with the noise. We arrive in Da Lat less than amused however Trang had not been sick! Uipiiii!
Trang's house was quite big and 7 km from the town centre so she had the most amazing views. We were quite tired so had a nap and then
ventured into town for midnight fireworks by the lake to welcome in the year of the dog (I can't get away from the dogs....!). Alas, not only was it freezing cold but there was nobody out and about and there were no fireworks, so we said chuc mung nam moi to each other and headed home. Pretty uneventful...
The next couple of days we went and visited more of teh area, including a particularly funny place called The Valley of Love (trust me - only the Vietnamese would think of this one... they are probably the most romantic people I have ever met!!!) which is truly beautiful and met some of Trang's friends, which was cool. At one point though Trang turned from being a really bubbly and nice girl to a really bizarre girl with strong view points on how we should act and behave and saying that she seriously disliked western culture and white people (this is cutting a longer story short but...), leaving us feeling a little unwanted! Good job the three days were up! Elizabeth realized that she hadn’t brought her passport with her and if a foreigner is found without their passport and visa
there could be trouble so she headed back to HCMC with Trang and her family, whilst I headed onwards and upwards into the central highlands on my own to meet Hoa in Buon Me Thout (BMT). I have to say I was a little apprehensive about going to stay with Hoa as my relationship with Trang had changed so dramatically after staying at her house. I didn’t want the same to happen between Hoa and I and with these thoughts polluting my head, I boarded the mini van heading towards BMT at 7 am (paying 40,000 dong more than the Vietnamese travelers) and settled into my seat for the 6 hour journey. We head off into the hills, stopping every time a random person on the street with a suitcase waves the mini van down and on they hop, until the mini van is full. But that doesn’t stop the driver… oh no, this was a 15 person mini van that by the time we reached our destination there were 32 people inside. 4 grown men were in the boot (at one point before being stopped at a police check point the driver told the 4 men in the boot
to hide underneath all of the luggage) and I was squashed up to 2 quite interesting smelling guys… well, I was glad to get off the mini van/ can of sardines…
Hoa took me back to her rather modest house and fed and watered me, which I was most appreciative of J! I met her sisters, Quynh, Oanh and Yen and they were all so smiley and friendly that I instantly felt right at home. I had a small nap and then met her father who was smaller than Hoa (Hoa is smaller than me!!!) and he was equally as charming, going on about how happy he was seeing me and how sad he was that Elizabeth hadn’t been able to travel with me. Her mother was traveling from Vung Tau up to BMT and would be there the following day. Major highlights in BMT were:
- riding on an elephant - that’s right guys!!!
- Going to the most amazing waterfall
- Being in a car accident!!!! More about that later!
- Eating amazing food!!
The car accident happened after we had gone riding on an elephant and visiting the waterfall. We were on our way home
in a taxi when the driver made a sharp turn left and an oncoming motorbike hit the taxi square on. The motorbike driver was catapulted into the air, the window next to where Hoa was sitting smashed and cut her face (only small scratches but made her panic like crazy due to shock and blood involved...) but everyone was ok, except the motorbike guy. He had no helmet on and looked pretty much dead on the scene to me at the time. The driver got out of the taxi, headed towards the poor guy and picks him up by the arms. That’s right - number 1 first aid rule - DO NOT MOVE ANYONE AFTER AN ACCIDENT SO AS NOT TO CAUSE SPINAL INJURY! As Vietnam is a law unto itself these things just don’t make sense to people, and I can understand why. It would take so long for an ambulance to get to wherever we were that by the time it did the person may be worse off than if someone just picks them up and props them on another motorbike and drives them to the hospital! It makes perfect sense here in Vietnam. I later learnt that
the guy had actually passed away and had suffered broken legs and arms, as well as severe head injury. His family will also have to pay the cost of any damage as he was above the legal alcohol limit, even though it was the taxi driver’s fault (I was quite annoyed with this but could do nothing as I am foreign…). Hoa’s dad picked us up, took us home and then took Hoa to the Dr and the police station as a witness. I went home, ate and sat waiting, still a little shaken but not too bad when Hoa returns along with a police officer. This concluded a pretty bizarre night as I had to hide from the police officer in the bathroom for an hour and then hide under the covers in bed for another hour until the policeman had gone. As a Vietnamese family you have to register any foreigners who are staying at your house with the police, and I am assuming they charge a fee of some kind in order to do this. Of course Hoa’s family didn’t do this, which is usually ok as the police doesn’t knock on your house door every 5
seconds, however we weren’t expecting to be involved in an accident so I legally shouldn’t have been in the house. As I didn’t want to cause any grief to this family I was more than willing to hide anywhere! After he left I was too tired to get out of bed so fell into a very light sleep where cars and motorbikes were crashing with policemen…
The next day was very subdued and we just got our things together to get on a mini van back to HCMC (this time not that many people but still not the legal amount!) arriving home at 4am. Highlights of the drive back was seeing two very odd things, one was 2 teenage boys on a motorbike, 1 driving, the other holding 8 ducks by their wings (4 on each hand) and letting go of them by accident so the ducks went everywhere, and the other thing was a guy with a huge, dead pig on the back of his motorbike hugging him from behind - so the pig was sitting on its ass, with its front legs on top of the driver’s shoulders, with the driver holding one of the pig’s trotters…
Enjoy the pictures and the captions! Enough written today!
Rooj xxx
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non-member comment
great photos!