Ho Chi Minh City and beyond: (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

In my last post I was in Nha Trang.  After leaving Nha Trang, it was time to head on down the coast to Phan Rang Thap Cham then inland to see Da Lat. 

 Fish Trap in a Vietnamese stream

 The (pineapple) market lady's "friends" wouldn't let her hide from the camera.

 It's all in the wrist action - moving rapidly toward me

So many people (Vietnamese) asked me if i was going to DaLat that I felt duty bound to go.   Da Lat is in the highlands of south central Vietnam and is meant to be a bit of a jewel.  It was however back into hills and a good ol'climb it was too. I rode inland on reasonably flat ground for half a day then got to the base of the hills for lunch.  The afternoon was spent climbing, climbing initially back and forward under a hydro power penstock (The big pipes that go straight down a hill into a hydro-electric power station).  My map - which has been known to be inaccurate in many places showed the road going up and forking, right to DaLat and left to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) by-passing Da Lat.  When I was many hours up the hill I stopped to eat corn cobs offered by a couple resting by the side of the road.  They didn't speak English, but after studying the map for a while pointed to a position on the bypass road - meaning I must have passed the turn-off.  My heart sank - but I couldn't believe that at 6km/hr I could have missed seeing an intersection.  I was NOT about to head back down the hill looking for an intersection that may not be there.  I decided to keep riding up.  If the man was right and the map too then i'd missed the near road to DaLat but would eventually find the DaLat-HCMC road.  If the man was wrong then I'd find the road I was looking for still ahead.   It turned out that the map and the man were wrong.  The road was indeed above me, 6km past the top of the hill, and the junction was at the town of Dran (clearly shown on the map half way along the bypass road).  I reached Dran, found one and only one Guest House that wanted more than I was prepared to pay, so I bought a meal, filled my water bottles and headed up the road a bit further looking for potential camp sites.  After a month in Vietnam I was about to spend my 2nd night in the tent.  Poor tent, it must be feeling a bit unloved now.  The camp spot I chose just happened to be next to a very large rubbish heap/sorting area.  But it was on the top of a saddle,  flat, overlooked a valley, Dran and a large reservoir and had market gardens on the other side.  All in all, the trade off was worth it.   I enjoyed being in the tent again - it does feel like home, and the view was really good as long as you didn't look in one direction.  The next morning the climb continued - another half day of climbing from Dran to Da Lat.   I did reach the top of the main hill after a couple of hours but I was on top with many large undulations to keep me busy into Da Lat.   As I climbed the hill through the forest the day before I had made a mental picture of what I thought DaLat would be like, as I rode across the top on the undulations with no forest I re-evaluated and remade my mental picture.  Fortunately my remade image wasn't right, because it wasn't favourable.  Da Lat was indeed lovely but not anything like I had imagined.  In some ways it reminded me of Esfahan in Iran, the countries jewel, making the most of the water front that it has - in this case a lake, with Esfahan a river.  The lake was surrounded by beautiful grassy banks and gardens and the buildings of the city centre perched on the side of the hill over-looking the lake (a bit Wellington NZ like but on a tiny scale) 

 Down by the lake - Da Lat

 I picked one of the not too ove-the-top hotels that looked like I might get a view - but it seemed everybody else had done the same.  That place was full - and I think that would be quite rare for most of the hotels, as there are just so many of them in Da Lat.  Every road has Hotel after Hotel after Hotel. It must be very busy in peak season to warrant that many being there.  I moved two doors down and got a room with a view to the side.  It was a great place to spend a couple of days, a nice market and plenty of places you could go and avoid the rest of the tourists that were there in the many "Tourist Cafe's". 

From DaLat the road decends through pine forest on a great bicycle road, allowing plenty of chances to pass the many buses, motorbikes and cars also on the road, then after about 10km you plateau and continue at an elevated but not so high altitude (I forgot to mention that the altitude at DaLat made the sunny days wonderful, warm radiant sun with blue skies and a lovely low 20's air temperature.)  The plateau was warmer than DaLat but not to the extent of HCMC.

 Drying Pine cones for seeds to plant - sounds like corn popping

Whilst in DaLat I did something that I'd actually never bothered doing much before - before entering a big city - I located the backpacker/cheap hotel district in HCMC on the web and download a map of the city (to store and view on my camera) so that when I entered HCMC in a few days time, I would have some idea of where I should be going - not going in blind as I've done on most occassions.  It was a wonderful thing to do, I really dont know why I hadn't bothered doing it before. Hmmm....

 the local industry near Dinh Quan

 Dinh Quan, big rocks

One of the places enroute to HCMC was Bao Loc, home of the silk worm breeding industry according to my maps "places of interest for tourists"  The afternoon I got to Bao Loc I searched high and low, found numerous silk textile weaving factories, none that accepted tourists and no breeders. I did my searching on a motorbike taxi thinking that the information that I had been given by my guest house would be correct and I could get there in the rain directly instead of riding my bike slowly and searching an unknown city with no map getting soaked.  But after three factories I gave up and headed back to the guest house to turn on the TV and watch a few different shows on the "Nat Geo Adventure", "Cable Channel". (National Geographics channel for showing videos that people have made whilst travelling the world, visiting strange places in strange ways and the like.)  It felt really strange watching these things in a hotel room whilst cycling to Australia from Europe.

The entry to HCMC came a couple of days later, I had planned to stay 40km out and go into the city the next morning, but when I got to where I had planned to stay I still had a few hours of cycling time, the weather had cooled off with the sun behind clouds (It had got stinking hot when I came down from the plateau to sea level again) and I just didn't have the self control to stop myself from going on.  It started raining a few km down the road, but that only lasted about 45 minutes.  It made the road (motorway) potentially a bit slippery, but it dried up once the sun came out and made the humidity the enemy.  The traffic into and around HCMC has a really bad reputation, so I expected the worst and was pleasantly suprised.  It wasn't that bad.  No worse than many of the other large cities I've been through.  But I do wish I had a companion with a movie camera to take video footage of me traversing some of the roundabouts there.  I revil in that type of traffic, and love getting through faster and easier than all the locals.  It's all in picking the gaps and adjusting speed, it seems some of the locals haven't worked that out yet.

The HCMC Landmark - The market

 Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - I'm walking on the footpath, the roads to the left

 Cu Chi Tunnels: Sniper hole

Compared to the rest of Vietnam, HCMC was "expensive".  Many of the items I had been purchasing regularly through Vietnam were 1.5 to 2 times the price when bought in HCMC, and it wasn't just tourist prices, marked prices in shops away from tourist areas were like it too.  I ate in a cafe the first night surrounded by Vietnamese, eating off the same menu with marked prices and watched a guy fork out a Vietnamese small fortune for a basic meal for he, his wife and young child. (It was my most expensive Vietnamese meal)  From then on I went just 1 or 2 blocks east to an area where there were absolutely no tourists, but many footpath vendors of street food and ate there.  The prices were still higher than elsewhere, but much much better.  (the other options included eating near my guest house in the back packer area - in what I will again call Latté café's at increased prices, or going a few block north to the 5 star hotel area and picking a restaurant where I could spend my retirement money.)

Leaving Ho Chi Minh City was planned to be direct to the Cambodian border, but I changed my route yet again and went south to the Mekong Delta.  I'd miss the Cu Chi tunnels going that way, so booked a trip from HCMC to the tunnels on one of my days there.  Cu Chi is one of the areas just north east of the city where the "Viet Cong" as we know them had their tunnels for living in and fighting from.  You go through a section of tunnel, but they fortunately don't have the "man traps" that were used during the war to stop troops from the US and its allies .  They do have some of the traps in a display at ground level so you can see the sorts of things they dreamt up, they are no for the squimish.   Also not for the squimish - no I shouldnt say that - it's really a must see - is the War Remnants Museum.  It has equipment displays and photo displays showing events from the war without the coloured glasses that the west would otherwise see them through.  Some might say it shows the war from the Vietnamese side, but many of the photos are really powerful images that speak for themselves, of western troops doing things that we have signed conventions to stop.  They are contained in a memorial display of photos by many photo journalists killed in the conflict.

Heading into the delta means remaining in "Tourist Territory" and so you must play "the pricing game" continually. 

 One of thousands of Channels in the Delta

 Cycle touring the Delta

 The Mekong Delta Vietnams food basket - fruit sorting

I stayed one night on an island along with a dutch guy I met in the area.  When it was dinner time there was only one place to eat. - the restaurant in the hotel.  We'd explored the island and there were other places, but closed in the evenings as they survive on the Tourist Boat trade.  At the Hotel restaurant, the waitress gave me the menu, I looked at it and said that I wouldn't be eating, that it was too expensive.  The prices were 100,000 and   200,000 Dong for mains (4 and 8 USD) and I normally pay one fifth to one tenth of that.  (Willem's Lonely Planet listed mains at this place being around 50,000)  I wasn't going to eat and pay those prices just because they had a monolpoly - even if I did have the money.  (I always have emergency rations and some foods in my bags plus a fuel stove and an electric water boiler that I can use for instant noodles amongst other things.)  It's the principle...   As soon as they realised they were going to make NO sale at all they brought me the "Vietmases Menu" from which I selected a full meal for around 30,000.   OK, I couldnt read it, but I knew enough of the basics to select one of the beef dishes with rice.  Exactly what would come would be a suprise, but it would be Beef with Rice in some format.   The next day for lunch - on the same island - I went to one of the - now open - other places.  Their menu had dishes 200,000 and 300,000 Dong, I'd balked at the price but had not got to the point of refusing when the waiter/owner said "Would you like a Vietnamese meal, 2 Spring Rolls, Rice, Pork, Soup 15,000 Dong?"  "Yes please" was the obvious answer.  (and it came with an extra bowl of rice (when they thought I was a bit scrawny), Iced Tea and a Banana to finish off with.  (Iced Tea is free just about everywhere else in Vietnam except HCMC).  Whilst in the Delta it's normal to do one of the boat tours, so Willem and I hired ourselves a boatman and headed off at midday.  They take you into some of the small canals, visit some of the local producers and generally explore the area.  As we headed into one of the small canals we transfered into small boats with a Vietnamese lady paddling front and back (OK, bow and stern if you prefer - though it sounds a bit nautical for this type of craft).  Of the many many boats emerging from the canal two really stood out.  All the boats were full of tourist in tourist clothes, but two boats stood out with their passengers adorned in bright orange life jackets.  I'm guessing they booked their tour from home.  Judging by one of the accents, back in the litigous USA.

 Late afternoon by the river in Vinh Long

Next was Vinh Long where I was pleasantly suprised with one of the tour agents.  I went in to ask about what there was to see, and once he knew I had a bike he drew maps and explained how to get around the places by bike without ever trying to sell a tour.  And he told me to come in the next morning and he'd do the same with an alternate route to my next days destination of Can Tho.  For anybody going there, find the really cheap hotel right on the waterfront.  The one that would have been a really nice hotel in it's day (but it's day was a long time ago).  In the front of that hotel is a tour agent, and he's really good.  Also in Vinh Long is a good little Cobra Restaurant. No that's not its name that's its cuisine.  I was sitting there having drinks with Caroline from the UK, who very conveniently happened to be vegetarian, when the guy working there, (and wanting to impress the visiting female guest) brought over some of their specialty for us to try.  I'd never thought of snakes being full of bones, but it's not unlike fish, lots of ribs. 

 Cobra - very like fish in texture and bones

The taste is quite neutral, a similar texture to fish but with no fishy flavour, quite flavourless in fact, getting its flavour from the preparation and spices. 

A couple of days after that I'm on a boat from Chau Doc in Vietnam to Neak Luong in Cambodia (and a few hours up stream). 

First impressions of Cambodia, expensive. (is that all I ever think about).  So many tourists in Vietnam told me that Cambodia was so much better than Vietnam because they didn't play the "tourist price" game.  Maybe they don't do it as much, but around Phenom Penh and some rural districts the prices are always high,  typically higher than the "tourist price" in Vietnam.   My first night in Cambodia was in Neak Luong, in a hotel where I paid $5USD.  The room was about as low as I go standard wise - the one around the corner was below that standard and refused to negotiate below there initial price of $6USD.  And yes the rumour I'd heard that Cambodian ATMs dispense USD is true, and so many things are priced to USD too.  As for the tourist price game, they do play.  When they give me a rediculous set of prices I tell them so and the price often changes.  

In Phnom Penh, I spent a morning at the S21 site - a former school turned into prison and torture site by the Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge regime.  Now a museum to the genocide committed under his rule.  A visit here is like a visit to a concentration camp in Europe, chilling and emotional.

S21 former school converted to prison and Torture Centre for Pol Pot. (The frame in the foreground was swings and ropes at the school and used for suspending people by their wrists - behind their backs by Pol Pot.)

From Phenom Penh it was north on Highway 5 along the west side of the lake to Battambang where I'll head across the lake to Siam Reap and Angkor (tomorrow).

 Cycle re-Cycle - Phnom Penh

 Cambodian School Bus

 Door to Door Salesman

 Home Delivery

Well that's it for this time - thanks to everyone that's stayed with me for the past YEAR.  Yes, it is now a year since I was in Barcelona, trying to find my way from the airport to the city at midnight on the wrong side of the road, with no map, on roads with detours, and in a place where I didn't speak the language.   I've learnt alot since then.

Jeff

--
www.whereonearthisjeff.com

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Mmm, just looked and saw that my last post was nearly three weeks ago. Time for an update...

 A very rare shot - A guy stopped to take a picture of me riding, so I got him to take one for me too.   (I've not got others of me riding - my timer wont go that long)

At the time of my last post I was about to go out to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and welcome in the year of the rat.  Well I did, and to say that Hanoi was a bit crowded would be an understatement.  The stage that I mentioned being set up the day before was in full swing and you couldn't move in the crowd.  For some unknown reason people were attempting to "ride" motorcycles through a crowd that you couldn't even walk through, so that just made it worse.  It was ideal territory for pick pockets, and I knew it, so as I weaved through the crowd I had both my hands in my pockets and my arm firmly pressed against the camera that hung on my belt.  But there was one pocket I hadn't covered, outside the ones with my hands and they got to that. I lost a little bit of cash and a plastic ATM card (not a credit card), so the only thing they could use was the petty cash.  But my cards are spread out to avoid loosing more than one in any one loss, and the cash too is spread out and I only have small amounts available for these type people.  So the impact on my trip, basically nil. Aah...  The upsetting part was that the phone call to Australia to report the card stolen cost me $22 USD.  "Which Bank" has the longest telephone queues...    That's a statement, not a question.  - Aussies who remember their advertising will understand) 

Due to the type of loss it wasn't worth reporting locally so I left Hanoi the next morning as planned, to hit what I hoped would be deserted roads.  And they were.  The old part of the city, that had been so full of traffic the day I arrived that you couldn't move for motorbikes, was so empty that you could fire a gun down the middle of the street and hit nobody.  When I got to the highway it too was largely deserted, there were cars and motorbikes there but very very few, and virtually no buses or trucks.

  Deserted streets in old Hanoi on New Years Day -compared to before the new year.

 New Year balloons, Somewhere along highway one - south of Hanoi

As the day progressed and I moved further away from Hanoi down Highway 1, a few places started to open for business, but the major traffic was still couples walking down the street, enjoying the rare peace.  There were many cafe's and hotels closed for the holiday(s) but a few open, so you could still eat, sleep and ride.

For the next week I'd be staying in small hotels in minor cities or towns and in nearly every case I was the only customer (I think this is common in these places when it's not new year too)

Traffic slowly increased each day, just how much quieter it was than normal I don't know, but it wasn't like I'd been expecting, nor like what I'd seen from the inside of the bus when travelling up to Hanoi to start the south bound Vietnam leg.  The quietness of the roads didn't help for some though.  On one day, I saw 2 separate accidents with fatalities that had yet to be taken away, at one site someone receiving CPR at the other site a caring wipe of a loved ones forehead and tears.  Between these, another one where the riders had survived and were still sitting where they had landed rubbing injured limbs and receiving a caring hug.  All involved a motorbike and tin top (car, truck, bus) and it was the bike riders on the road.  And all this happened on what I consider to be a not very busy Highway 1.

 I'd seen many a motor bike on the roof of a bus but never the loading process until this day.

Of the drivers on the road the bus drivers seem to be the worst - as far as driving at crazy speeds though places that they wont fit (Until somebody moves out of their way).  But the bike riders are incredibly unpredictable.  They too do absolutely crazy things, so many NEVER look Left OR Right before entering a major highway from a side road, they just turn onto the highway (left or right turn) and expect a blast on a horn if there is traffic - at which they swerve onto the shoulder (where I am).   Another annoying pastime of the motor bike riders is coming alongside me (the rare bicycle tourist), riding beside me for a while, then pulling in front of me with about half a metre clearance and slowing right down such that I have to hit the anchors to avoid hitting them from behind.

Another crazy thing about the roads here, that contributes to the road toll is the crazy speed limit system. 

 The crazy Vietnam highway speed limits. (why buses blast down the road scattering motorbikes)

Highway one is a single lane in each direction.  Why they have four different speeds for four classes of vehicle I have no idea.  It means that buses doing their speed limit tear down the road blasting their horns much faster than the bikes that are in the same lane.  The slower (by law) bikes have to scatter to avoid being hit from behind by the faster moving bus.  It's traffic mayhem.

As a tourist, most small businesses will try (and in many cases succeed) to overcharge you - some form of tourist premium. When you find one that doesn't you have to remember that price, so you can then quote it back at all the others.  But until then you just pay the premium suspecting you are being ripped off but not knowing by how much.  Many businesses would rather miss out on the sale than lower the price for you though.   If you don't know the real price, you convert back to your home currency and think that it is cheap, or reasonable, and pay, even though it is twice the normal price here.

 The old North/South dividing line - the old bridge across the river is closed and been replaced by a new modern one on the right.  

All that said, I'm really enjoying Vietnam.  I like the people, the place, the food, sure it would be nice to have prices printed on the labels like in India and Nepal so that you couldn't get ripped off, but then that only works for packaged goods.  You can pay 5000 VND for  1 kg of apples here, I have twice, but the rest of the time they are 16000 to 25000 per kg and they refuse to lower, preferring to miss out on the sale.   You can get Pho for anywhere between 5000 and 30000.  10000 seems to be the going rate for locals (and me at a few places), but 15000 & 20000 seems to be increasingly popular.   (An Aussie dollar being around 13000 VND, so its all still cheap with foreign currency).   I'm glad I didn't listen to the guys that told me to stay in Laos and skip Vietnam, it may have been cold and wet for the first month here, but I wouldn't want to be missing any of this.  Its even good when the food ordering doesn't go as planned, I really enjoy getting things that I never would have thought to order, or wouldn't know how to order.  And given the lists of "body parts" that you can get in your soup in Richmond (Vic, Aust) I was expecting to get all sorts of things here, but if you get a Pho Bo (Beef noodle soup) the pieces of "steak" that they slice into the soup look truly splendid.  In DaNang I had the pleasure of the beautiful "Tu Nga" showing me some of the local cuisine, she took me on her new motorbike to several places to taste their speciality, and again when I returned to DaNang a week later for my Visa Extension.  Thanks Tu Nga. :-)

 Tu Nga adding some personal touches to the new bike

The cost of accommodation here varies mainly due to the size of the city you are in, the larger the city the larger the price - the one exception to that I have seen was Hue which is very touristy and has an over-abundance of competing empty hotels so was cheaper than I'd have expected.  But generally 10 USD will get you a very comfortable room anywhere that I've been, and in the cheaper places you'll get an even better room for 6 USD.    I've posted a few photos of rooms to show what they are like - after being challenged by a friend - & USA traveller) who wanted to compare my 10 USD room with his 240 USD room in New York.   To date my best room would be that in Hue, where for under 10 USD I had a room with big windows on two sides, beautifully light and airy, complete with the normals, including a fridge and TV, but also with an Internet computer with no usage charge.

I didn't waste too much time as I headed south, as I was wanting to get to some better weather.   Leaving Hanoi, and for many days after I was very pleased to have my Frosty Boy riding fleece, with the weather each day being cold and rainy/drizzly.   The wet weather mixed with the amount of dirt on the roads meant a maintenance nightmare for the bike too.  The derailleurs would fill with mud restricting their movement and the gears would no longer change.  I would have to wash down the gears and chain once or twice a day and re-lube in order for things to work.  (you could feel the grit in the chain through the pedals it was so bad).  There was a definite change in the temperature when I came south across a range of hills that meet the sea just north of DaNang, but the brief encounter with sun in DeNang was just that - brief - rain still continued as I headed south from there and continued when I went back a week later by bus to get a Visa Extension.   

 DaNang, beside the river

 An informal fish market on a beach near DaNang

In the past two days, down below Quy Nhon the weather seems to have changed, it has rained each night but the days have been sunny and hot - stop press - today was rainy again. 

 An old friend that's been with me most of the way from Spain, but that I'd not seen for along time.  (Taken during the short sunny break in DaNang.)

 Can you pick the difference between the sky here and the pictures above? (Taken during the two days of hot sunny weather near Ninh Hoa)

 We'll see if it continues.  I suspect now that I will get better and hotter weather, but just how hot will it get when I get past a few more hills to Ho Chi Minh City?  (I'll start complaining about the heat soon).   I can take it more leisurely now anyway, with my 4 week extension (from the other day) I have an extra 3 weeks in Vietnam - more than enough for a leisurely ride to HCMC.   (Why do all the buses I see have signs saying Saigon?)   And for a total change in cycle touring tradition, for the last week I've had tail winds.  If ever you are thinking of cycle touring Vietnam at this time of the year go North TO south. 

 Not too often it's like this and blowing your way - but it's still unpleasant and I'd rather it be still.

(The wind has really been too strong, you never have it behind you ALL the time and the times when it is against you or side on is very unpleasant, but going South to North now would be hell.

I've mentioned a few times a visa extension in DaNang, I tried to get one in Quy Nhon, being the last touristy provincial capital I'd be going to before mine ran out.  (Internet searches indicated the immigration dept in provincial capitals could do it.)  But the Immigration Officials in Quy Nhon couldn't extend a "C1" visa - or so they said through an interpreter.  That needs to be Hanoi, HCMC or DaNang (where i had intended to do it but forgot).  This left me with either a rushed ride to HCMC seeing nothing along the way or a bus ride from Quy Nhon to DaNang to get a renewal there before continuing at a leisurely pace.  I opted for the trip to DaNang. After being unsuccessful with the immigration office during the day I arranged to head to DaNang on the early bus the next morning (giving the immigration people in DaNang more time to sort things if needed.  It would be Thursday so I wanted to make sure the application went in OK to give me some chance of getting it back on Friday).  The early bus - I was told was a paper delivery van with one or two seats that the driver let out for pocket money. It was to leave Quy Nhon at 4am, but as a consolation he would pick me up at the hotel. When it rocked up at 3:30am the next day (fortunately I was ready, just un-showered), it was in fact a bus, a small transit van 16 seater with at least half a dozen passengers.  The back row of seats folded down to make room for the newspapers we were yet to pick up.  At the printers we filled the back area to head height with what would have to be at least half a tonne of newspapers. We then screamed up the highway as they do (especially at that hour) ignoring the "optional" red lights etc in our mission to deliver the papers.  Last time I caught a bus I was sharing it with 3 petrol filled motorbikes between me and the door, this time I'm sitting on a flimsy folding bus seat with half a tonne of newspapers loose behind me, and in both cases a driver that drives in typical Vietnam style of flat-out regardless of obstacles - and on a wet road. I was just waiting for the papers to come through the seat and to leave me in a wheelchair for my remaining days. (But if it ended up like the bus I'd seen the day before in the rice paddy then maybe I'd drown and not have to worry about it. - how it got out into the middle of the paddy I will never know, you sort of expect it to be near the edge at the bottom of the embankment, but no, there it sat in the middle.)   In DaNang I found the immigration office OK, but was directed to another one around the corner.  There they told me that I needed a sponsor, employer etc.  I said "no it's a tourist visa", but that makes no difference, so it was off to a travel agent to get them to do it.  All of the travel agents offer a visa extension service, you pay them and they put themselves as the sponsor (presumably).  It makes the 10 USD visa extension into a 35 to 55 USD affair, and they have a nice little earner.  The Immigration lady gave me the name of a guy who turned out to charge 35 USD with a next day return, one other I enquired at wanted 55 USD and 4 days, so the decision was pretty simple.  The next afternoon - after a sightseeing trip to the world heritage village of Hoi An - I had my passport back with a fresh 4 weeks of visa.

Hoi An reminded me a bit of Wittenburg in Germany (home of Martin Luther and the church reformation).  The place was full of historic buildings, but to me it had lost its character, it was too full of tourists.  The world heritage streets and buildings were now occupied by Chapel Street style coffee shops, where you could buy any manner of non-Vietnamese food or drink, sip your Laté and do it all WiFi connected.  I hired a bike and got away from the place into the outskirts where real Vietnam still exists, dirt roads and people going about their normal day.  I ate lunch in a place that was full of Vietnamese (probably many Vietnamese tourists) but not a westerner amongst them (except yours truly).  I was immediately waved over to a very long table of people and made to sit down, they accepted that I'd rather have the free iced tea than a bia (beer), I ordered what I had selected on the board out the front and when it was all over they insisted on paying. 

 No such thing as a free lunch - or is there

No English was spoken by the group, but that didn't matter we got on famously. Correction - there was some English. One of the girls said "I love you" then pointed to the girl next to her.  The girl got suitably embarrassed and blowing her a kiss probably helped there. The next day was back to Quy Nhon via the other world heritage site of "My Son". With no direct means of getting there from DaNang I once again hopped on the local bus to Hoi An, but this time instead of hiring a bicycle I hired a man with a motorbike.  This is a standard form of public transport, sort of like a 2 wheel taxi.  It was raining nearly allday so it feltright being on the motorbike not in a taxi or bus. Now-a-days the motorbike rider men all carry two helmuts as the law now says you need a helmut on a motorbike.  He quoted for a return trip, and I that's what I took, but with the intention of leaving him half way back - at the point where we cross Highway One.  Highway One would be full of buses going to Quy Nhon that would be only too happy to pick me up.  And it was easy, I waited less than 15 seconds for the first bus.

"My Son" has its heritage listing because of the Cham towers and temples that were once located there and now is largely Cham ruins.  I was unaware of the Indian-Hindu relationship to Vietnam, but the Champa people lived there from the 4th to 14th century and built towers and temples all over mid and southern Vietnam with great rock carvings of Shiva and the other Hindu Gods. 

 "My Son" ruins

(wikipedia info here). 

The bus trip back to Quy Nhon was another example of one form of small business attempting to bleed as much as they thought they could out of a tourist. It's normal to hop into these buses and not pay until much later when the conductor/spruiker requests you to. I decided I'd have more say in the fare if I negotiated straight away, so as soon as we were moving I tapped him on the shoulder and said "how much, (rubbing fingers) Quy Nhon"  The response came back 160,000 dong (VND)  (equiv 10USD).  I knew from a few days ago that the going rate was 60,000 dong, so said "OOOHHH  TOO MUCH. 60,000 DONG".  The bartering continued with neither of us changing our bids for quite sometime.  The rest of the bus obviously understood that the game was in progress (I think it's a sport here, and obviously a good spectator sport too) and was keenly awaiting the result.  I played my "I'll take the next bus, this bus is too expensive" card - English he obviously understood, because the worried look crept on to his face, a glance was exchanged with the driver - who glanced around, and he responded with "70,000 dong".  This was close enough, it let him have the winning bid, but with me knowing that the game was really mine.  The bus was filled with chuckles and comments I didn't understand as the spectators went back to looking out the windows.

(that extra 90,000 dong will be a good few meals for me)

Equipment wise: 

-  No issue with the bike other than the aforementioned dirt in gears and chain. 

-  I've had problems with the camera again - my first camera - the one I used from Spain to Turkey then again since I fixed it in Australia at Christmas time for Thailand and beyond. This time the shutter button didn't work - probably a belated result of damage done when falling onto it off the bike several days or a week earlier, a story I've not yet conveyed, but a camera fix it man in Hue has breathed further life into it - at least until the piece of metal that now presses the switch internally damages the switch. 

-  My little USB thumb drive that played mp3's has gone walkabouts - see also the falling off bike story.

- I've now got a better mosquito net for those stays in hotels, made to use the tent poles, but be a lot cooler than the tent inner that is largely ripstop material with only small vents of mesh.

  I custom made my new mosquito net in my hotel room out of a single bed net to suit my tent poles.  Here a local curtain maker in Quy Nhon, puts decent stitching where I had rough stitched.  She didnt want payment but she got some flowers.

The falling off the bike story :-   I cant tell you too much because i don't remember falling off the bike at all.   It was two days out of Hanoi.   (I just know that I got sore ribs, a hole in one arm of my rain jacket a ding in the helmut - which warrants replacement when I can - and dirt on the panniers.   Either one of two things must have happened, either I came off the bike got the hard hit to the helmut/head and my brain has blotted out everything before and after, or as suggested by family, maybe I blacked out first then rode off the road.  It happened on highway One in Vietnam so could easily have been fatal, I've no idea if I rode off the road or was forced off, or blacked out first.  Either way, I'm OK, it was a couple of weeks ago and I've had no further problems - other than the sore ribs.  The only lasting thing will be the loss of the mp3 player from the zipper pocket on the front of my handlebar bag.  Because of the number of bodies I've seen on the highway here, I think me lying unconscious (which I assume I must have done) by the side of the road would have been enough for someone to go into the bag - possibly looking for ID, possibly more sinister. Seeing the mp3 player and  - assuming I was history - thinking, he wont be needing that anymore..  Then when I came to, Oh... how do I tell him I stole this, I'd better just keep quiet.

 I dont remember taking this photo, but the sign the bike leans against matches one in my "dream"   Some memories from after the event - as I came to -are dream like memories.
--

Until next time..

Jeff.
www.whereonearthisjeff.com

Hanoi, Vietnam

Wow, we've got some unusual weather here at the moment. You've all probably seen the news reports of the unseasonal cold and associated snow in China.  Well it doesn't stop at the Chinese border and northern Vietnam is very much "unseasonal" too.  I spoke to some guys touring on motorbikes the other day and they said the weather had been beautiful until a week earlier and then the tropical depression hit and the temperature plummeted and the rain started falling.

I don't have much in the way of warm clothing but it seems that all the other travellers are buying clothes (and asking hotels for the non-existent rooms with heaters).  I still have my sleeping bag - figuring I'd need it in once I got to Central Australia.  I'm glad to have it here now.

Since my last post, I've received my Vietnam Visa, then headed north to Vang Vieng up Highways 10 and 13 then back tracked almost to Vientiane to take Highway 13 to the south - as far as "Road 8" - my access across the mountains to Vietnam.  Vang Vieng was a real shock to the system , tourists, tourists, tourists.  The main street there is lined both sides with restaurants, net cafes, and tourist booking agencies.  If you walk down the street looking, you will eventually find one that doesn't have continuous re-runs of "Friends" , "The Simpson's" or other American TV re-run DVD's playing.   Vang Vieng reminded me very much of Queenstown, New Zealand and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe - the possible difference being that the activities at those places all cost about $100 and in Vang Vieng the activities revolve around the river, & drinking and floating - in various forms - down the river.  There is of course Caving, Rock Climbing, Kayaking, Tubing and other things that cost $, but not $100.   Getting to Vang Vieng was a two day ride, camping at Na Kuen both on the up & return journey.  After riding a day and a half north on roads that I would need to re-ride on my way back I decided to do the last 50km on their local form of public transport (covered back utility/pick up vehicle).   It was nice to cut a 103km day down to 50km and get there mid afternoon with time to wash clothes book a tour for the next day and have a bit of a relax.  ( I figure If I'm going to re-ride the same road its OK to cheat one way - especially if the transport drops me further away from home than where I started.)  The tour the next day was caving and kayaking I took my head torch and various items but when I ended up with blisters on both hands from Kayaking I really wished I'd taken my cycling gloves.

  

  

 

- David and Sebastian from the UK - who told me to stay in Laos and not bother with Vietnam - I've ignored their advice

- Hills around Vang Vieng Laos

- Vang Vieng after a half day paddling (not peddling)

- Petrol Bowser, rural Laos

- One of the wooden bridges on Road 8 - from Laos to Vietnam

- Road 8 again, Laos

The Highway 13 heading south i travelled on was nowhere near as pretty as the sections up north, but once turning onto "Road 8" toward the hills and Vietnam the scenery was even more spectacular.  (Of course it comes at the cost of hills you need to ride up).

The mountains were stunning and rugged, I cursed the map I have various times for making me believe that certain sections were flat when they -  very much - were not.   The border between Laos & Vietnam follows the ridge and water shed on the mountain range and the climb up the western side in Laos got very foggy and damp, but once I crossed the border to Vietnam the fog became rain that continued all night and the next day into Vinh.   I crossed the border between 3 & 4 but all day the low-light had made it seem many hours later than it really was.  Once crossed into Vietnam I started looking fro camp sights and auditioned a few that were just soooo...  sodden that they were out of the question.   I eventually found one that wasn't quite so bad, had a small area where somebody had dumped some sand and thus a little bit of drainage.  I set camp and slept clothed so as not to risk getting the sleeping bag wet. The next morning the tent was essentially dry inside - except for the rectangle where the thermarest had been.   A few weeks ago I punctured the floor of the tent with a twig and I haven't got a suitable patch material with me so I haven't patched it. - bad mistake.

Finishing the decent the next morning left me on undulating roads that I followed for the rest of the morning until hitting river flats in the afternoon for the run into Vinh.   There was a brief respite from rain in the second half of the morning, but it started up again after lunch leaving everything very very wet on arrival into Vinh.  My first two tasks in Vinh, an ATM for money (I had changed minimal at the border) and a BIG hotel room for spreading out all the gear to dry.  With the tents, flies, clothing, bags and other gear spread out in the room, my shoes hanging by their laces on the oscillating pedestal fan I headed out for dinner etc with socks and sandals.  The room cost me 10USD had two queen size beds a fridge, Fan, Air Conditioner (not reverse cycle though) and just about everything you could want in a room - and I was the only guest in the hotel.  For some reason - maybe there desire to feel like they have many customers by having to clean more rooms - they put the price up for that room the next day, and I moved to a room with only one Queen size bed the next day.  I tried to convince them that it would be better to have me only dirty one room but with them having no English and me no Vietnamese it didn't work.   (By this time the gear was about as dry as it was going to get - so I was prepared and not pay the extra.)

 Into Vietnam the mist turned to rain

I mention that the hotel owners had no English, which they didn't, but I could still communicate very successfully with the woman, using the tried and trusted techniques of charades and pictionary.  The husband was however a totally different story.  The next day I wanted to find a shop to buy a school exercise book to use for my journal - as my current one had only one page left.  I went down to reception and the husband was "on duty". I did what seemed sensible showing him that I wrote in the book, that I had many many pages of writing, and only the back of the last page was free.  I indicated I wanted to buy one and pointed questioningly both ways along the street for shops. But he just didn't get it.  The next 5 minutes or more was spent trying to find more different ways of getting the message across but everytime being met with blank expressions or some action that was totally wrong.  Every now and then in my travels I find someone who I just cannot communicate with  - someone who seems unable to communicate without the spoken word. Fortunately they are not very common, and on this occassion the wife arrived shortly after on a motorbike.   When the wife arrived I did the same actions I'd tried with him and all seemed to be going well until he said something to her in Vietnamese. Whatever it was that he said put right off the scent and she went behind the reception desk and did something totally wrong, but identical to what he had done earlier.    I grinned, smiled and lightheartedly pushed him out of the way, put my arm around her and took her to the other end of the foyer.  She immediately understood that we were going to start again without his "help". I repeated my actions again, this time she walked behind the desk pulled out a near empty exercise book, flicked through the blank pages for me and I nodded.  We then both walked 3 shops down the street where she said something to the shop attendant and they pulled out two different sizes of empty exercise book.  Aaaah....    We then got a big grin and some comment from the husband.

The trip from Vinh to Hanoi is one I had decided to do in either bus or train - again it would otherwise be many days riding the up and back on the same stretch of highway.  After a morning of riding around frustrated trying to find somewhere to buy a ticket or catch a bus the next day I eventually found the depot and was approached by a very fluent English speaker. (I'm sure he drums up a lot of business that way).  He had a guest house next door and said he ran the bus company that ran through Vinh en route to Hanoi.  I was to go the next morning and the bike would be inside the bus instead of on top like most buses.   The next morning the bus was there with 3 motorbikes in place of the front set of passenger seats and my bike lay flat on top of the three motorbikes.  We travelled with the curtains closed in that area so that the police wouldn't see, lest they have to bribe their way out of trouble.   The foreigners sat on the rear seats (me and the three motorcyclists) and the locals over-filled up the rest of the bus (2 seats, aisle, 1 seat, with a folding seat in the aisle, making a total of 4 but they filled it with 5 in each row.  With three tanks of petrol in the front next to the only door and many many people and seats between us and that door we were all hoping that the crazy way the  buses drive here would not result in a crash.  And I think we'd all worked out how we'd try to push out the back and side windows - assuming that - like home - that becomes an emergency exit.  (it would for us anyway).   The bus dropped us off somewhere, none of us knew where.  Our maps showed several bus stations in Hanoi but none of them with names remotely resembling the one we were at.  I loaded up and headed off up the road in the direction we thought might lead to the city.  Getting a hotel was easier than normal as I got a guy on a motor bike - that pulled up at the lights next to me - to take me to one in the cheap hotel tourist area.  If he gets a commission and I still pay the same, I don't care, otherwise I spend hours riding around strange cities otherwise trying to find the few streets where all the cheap hotels are clumped.  Something I've learnt in my travels to date.

 Twice on the same road - No - I caught a bus Vinh to Hanoi

I arrived in Hanoi with just a few days before the Lunar New Year, so I hurriedly booked for a tour departing the next morning to HaLong Bay, a tour that would give me a full day - New Years Eve - back in Hanoi, before the place shuts down for the New Year.  At that time the only logical thing for me to be doing is riding - heading south. 

  

 

- The weather wasn't great but at least it wasn't raining - HaLong Bay, Vietnam

- Monkey Island, Ha Long Bay

- New Year in Hanoi, burning USD. Well, photocopies that you can buy in bundles

- Once again loving the street food, The Pho is actually as good as "Dzung Tan Dinh" in Victoria St Richmond.

Its now the evening of new years eve, time to go out and get some food and find the party (which I don't think will be that hard, due to the big stage that was being assembled near the lake last night. )

   

Best wishes for a Happy New Year  (Year of the Rat)  

Jeff