Vietnam ended up being a very long country
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Ho Chi Minh
6 – 11 August 2011
Where to start with for Ho Chi Minh… 68km of Highway 1, progressively increasing traffic and the city taking seemingly forever to reach. A skyscraper city once I reached it. New skyscrapers being built on nearly every block in the CBD which was quite a contrast to the tourist area (about 3-5mins walk down the road) which was jam packed old buildings and markets and stalls everywhere. Very much the poor and the rich areas and the rich getting richer. |
| Reunification Hall where the South Vietnamese Government was over thrown by tanks |
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| Some of the many traps used by the Vietnamese |
Chu Chi Tunnels was my first factory tour. 30 odd tourist on our bus and we were only one of many buses. Everyone trying to squeeze in and see what is being talked about and arms coming from behind you with cameras. Explanantion given then it was “Ok! We move on now!” All very touristy. I took to the back and slowly wandered behind at my own pace.
We did get to crawl through a 100m stretch of original tunnel which made it totally worth it. We only went through the upper most, widest level (1.2m x 0.7m I think) but it small enough! Some sections narrowed down and you ended up on your hands and knees and on one part I had to slide sideways to get down. Great fun and you got a real appreciation of what it must have been like and the lengths the Vietnamese would go to during the war. The amazing thing was that the lower tunnel levels (6m deep then 9m or 10m deep) progressively got smaller, 90cm x 50cm then 50cm x 70cm. It got stuffy and small enough what we went through I could not imagine hiding out 10m underground in a 50cm x 70cm tunnel for 5 hours waiting for bombing to cease..
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| Just a little bit of elbow room |
It has been interesting passing through the different countries and seeing the different ways they have been affected by or the techniques used to fight during the war. Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam all devastated by bombs and landmines, Laos using a vast cave system and Vietnam using a vast tunnel system to provide safeguard from attack, outsmart the US (is that hard…?) and use as a military headquarters.
Factory Tour number two – The Mekong Delta. Think it would have been better if I just rode down there and spent a couple days cycling over all the bridges to get an idea of the expanse of the delta. The tour didn’t really achieve that, it just seemed a random collection of attractions and activities put together with some not really feeling Mekong Deltra-ish: A snake on your shoulder over a cup of fresh honey tea, a horse and cart ride back out to your boat, walking along a dirt path with tourist stalls all down it and stopping to try some tropical fruits that you can get all over Vietnam. Good entertainment level, I just think I was keener to see the massive expanse of the delta but this may be best done from an aeroplane!
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| The Handicap Handicrafts enroute. Seemed wrong walking through here and taking photos, but I ended up buying a painting so I supported them on some level. |
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| Once around my neck I felt pretty vulnerable! Felt bloody strong sliding through my hands and could easily imagine it squeezing me to death if it wanted. |
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| Floating down one the canals |
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| A token horse (small) and cart ride |
A local goodie:
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| Ban Xeo - shrimp, pork and sprout pancake roll, chilli sauce and salad. mmmmm |
Caught up with Mike in Ho Chi Minh for dinner and went along to his local seafood restaurant. Snails (suckers), snails (edible), clams, mussels, and much more depending how hungry you felt...
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| The sucker snails - you had to suck then to get the 'meat' |
Well it has been about 4 months on the go cycling around SE Asia and I have finally made it to my final destination, for this part anyway. It will good-bye to cheap living and eating and soon enough into the expensive world of the UK.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Two days of no reward
Bao Loc – 4 August 2011
Well after all my hard effort of climbing and looking forward to an awesome descent nothing really eventuated. There were some small stretches of descending but the roads were shocking all ripped up with potholes everywhere and a headwind to ruin the joys of descending. The rest of the day all I did was climb up seemingly endless annoying small hills. Hoping tomorrow will bring something more exciting.
Dau Giay – 5 August 2011
Still no decent descent. The best I got was 10km on the only stretch of smooth road. As soon as the hill ended it was straight onto bumpy, ripped up road with potholes all over it. More annoying climbing up shallow graded hills that just play mind games with you as every time you approach the crest it just continues for a bit longer. Somehow I managed to slowly lose altitude because it had become hot again. The last two days have been some of the worst. Just slogging out the k’s and getting no proper reward for the 1600m odd of climbing I did to get up to Da Lat. Felt all a bit deflated.
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| The start of my 10km descent |
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| down through the fog. |
Da Lat
1 – 2 August 2011
Man what an epic climb up to this city. Something around 3 hours of solid climbing reaching a saddle of about 1600m. From there it was a bit of descending then undulating along to the first signs of civilisation. My water supplies by now were about three more mouth fulls then I was out and that was after going through two rounds of my drink bottles. The great benefit of being so high was the cooler climate you could tick along without needing much water as you wouldn’t be dripping with sweat. Just when I needed (and finally) I came across a small town with a couple of stalls – water, fizzy and even some bread rolls!!  |
| snack stop about 600m alt. and through first lot of drink bottles |
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| Climbing, climbing, climbing |
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| Very high and well through second and last lot of drink bottles |
A couple more hours of undulating along the nice new road in the highlands passing through both native and pine forest and enjoying the generally peaceful area I approached Da Lat. Roads quickly became narrow and increasing traffic. The roads curved off in all directions over and around the hills surrounding Da Lat but somehow I managed to pop out at the head of the central lake with the city rising up behind it.
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| First view of Da Lat, greenhouses everywhere - horticultural centre of Vietnam |
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| The Lake with the city in the background |
While walking the streets for food a guy (Stephan) from Easyriders approached me. I had actually read about Easyriders and so listened to what he had to say. A lot of the same story you hear everywhere – promote and try and sell you their tour then they head into the guilt trip of being poor and needing money to pay for their kids to go to school and university. I was pretty keen to do the tour anyway as I had only read good things about it so didn’t need much convincing but it seemed hard to stop Stephan talking once he started. Anyway he was super happy to get me for a tour “Now is the low season and it is hard to get work every day so I am very happy you booked with me. I now have money to help pay for my son’s university.” Think he might have been reasonably legitimate about it too as he ended up saying how happy he was quite a lot, maybe, you never know. He showed me a good cheap place for dinner so we were both very happy now!
The tour itself was good but nothing to brag home about. He had a lot of knowledge to share: war, culture, the natural landscape, horticulture and maybe the government… A couple of the stops however, seemed to be at his mate’s places. Suppose you may get to know people pretty well after doing the job for 17 years!
“Now I will show how bamboo baskets are made.” and we would sit down over some green tea and talk Vietnamese with the odd bit translated for me.
The classic stop was learning about coffee beans. We pulled over to the side of the road alongside a coffee tree plantation
“you can take a picture now” and he walked about 10m down the road and took a piss. He did then give a bit of an explanation of the process. Grow, pick, dry, roast and blend something into it.
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| More horticulture around Da Lat. This city supplies all over Vietnam and some international too. Incredible the amount of glasshouses around here and the food grown here. |
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| Lunch for two - 45,000 VND each!!! awesome |
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| tried to finish it... |
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| Fresh water fishing in a stagnant pond |
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| One of the hundreds of flower gardens |
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| The silk worm factory. Silk worm cocoon |
Silk factory. Old school weaving machine
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| Coffee beans - very artistic photo |
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| Wee fella flowers. Think they may have been a weed, they were everywhere, but very cool with lots of bright different colours |
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| The Crazy House - actually a guesthouse. Crazy architect design |
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| Crazy |
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| Very crazy! broken glass to stab intruders!!?? |
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Heading to Da Lat
Some photos of the days heading along the main highway and up to Da Lat. Several days of just making the k’s south with not much really happening over the days.
Quang Ngai – 27 July 2011
Tailwind and hot.
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| Local power meters |
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| Site of the Old US Military Base - Chu Lai |
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| Sweet jump! |
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| looking down to the coast, you imagine a massive military base here |
Bong Son – 28 July 2011
Tailwind and hot
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| A motorbike carrying a motorbike. I randomly ended up passing this guy later in the day as well. |
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| Drying out rice on the side of Highway 1 |
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| I think these are rice stacks |
Quy Nhon – 29 July 2011
Headwind
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| One of many ancient stone towers around the Binh Dinh province. Very cool to ride past them with them overlooking you from their hills. Wasn't quite sure how you got to it though apart from walking through someone's rice field. |
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| looking out from my hotel balcony |
Tuy Hoa – 30 July 2011
Headwind.
This was a weird section of road. It ran along the coast but the scenery constantly changed from beachside to Arabian Desert to rice fields to lots of palm trees and the traffic dropped away. At stages it oddly felt quite disorientating wondering if was in the right place and on the right road, not the usual AH1 (Highway 1) I was use to.
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| train crossing - manual gates. |
Ninh Hoa – 31 July 2011
A really nice new hotel. Big flat screen TV (didn’t work), nice wooden table and chairs that you couldn’t sit at because the table was too low for you to sit on the chair, no water pressure and no hot water. Classic.
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| Rush hour |
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| Quarry on the side of Highway 1 |
Khanh Vinh – 1 August 2011
Off highway 1 and on to enjoy some quieter road again, tackle a massive mountain, head to some cooler weather (hopefully) and see the highlands.
Story of the week:
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| Accommodation number 1 |
Well it started off ok. A nice quiet road heading up the valley, a good lunch, shown to a random guesthouse and enjoyed a good late afternoon meal. Then things got a bit weird from here on. The guy that showed me the ‘guesthouse’ tracked me down while I was eating and said he had a new hotel for me to stay at. No thanks, I’m happy where I am, already paid and close to the shops etc. 2 ½ hours later of circular conversation
“I would like for you to take your bicycle and luggage to hotel”
“Thank-you for your help, but no I stay here. It is ok.”
“I would like you to come to hotel because tonight I think you get bitten. Do you understand?”
“Yes I understand, but no thanks, I am ok. I stay here.”
“I would like for you to take your bicycle and luggage to hotel because I think tonight you get bitten.”
I was confused at what brought the situation about, what the truth was and if it was just a mistake in the first place to show me the place I was at. No one really understood me and could not comprehend my situation, fighting a losing battle. The two girls at the house seemed fine with me there, the lady I paid seemed fine and I have no idea what the owner actually thought or who the owner was. I ended up riding out there in the dark with the guys following me on their motorbike so I wasn’t turned into road kill and paid double the price for a green sh%t box (200,000VND). I was totally over it and very f’d off at the whole situation and just wanted it to end so paid for a room with more mosquitos in it and no net. Oh it’s loads better here and no chance of me being bitten. Not really that concerned about the mozzies anyway but what a crock! The guys then asked me for money for using their motorbike to see the hotel and using their phones to talk to the ‘translators’ (that they called and made me talk to!) – how arrogant is that!! How much more of a scam am I going to be forced into!!!!!!
I am now completely in the middle of nowhere with no food or any stalls around so my late afternoon meal had to do for dinner as well. I did stop to pick up a few pieces of bbq chicken on way being escorted out of the town but they said 100,000VND!!!! What the heck is wrong with this place?! I would never suggest staying here.
“You money to me for use phone and motorbike.” Holds up one finger “100VND” meaning 100,000. Dude you have completely screwed me over and cleared me of most of my money. Only a 50 left so they got half their bribe and pissed off. What a mess!
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| The green box. Not that bad really just the situation. |
Why would the owner not say something themselves? Or even be present? Why show someone a place that they can’t actually stay at in the first place? And why constantly change the reasons, have these people never heard of being honest?!
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