With that said, this edition outlines what for me and for many tourists coming to this area is one of the most memorable things to do; taking a motorcycle tour from Dalat north. Dalat a Austrianeque mountain city, that sustains warms days and cool to cold nights is the perfect place to relax for while. As I walked through the busy streets, stragely enough the one thing I wanted to do was go for a ski. Difficult since snow never falls there. But the cities mountain chalet feel to it, with many romantic escape is a hit with foreign tourists as well as young veitnamese romantics. Anyone for a ride on tandem bicycle. For me personally I was just happy to be out of the hot weather!
After we (I am travelling with my mum) checked into the hotel we were greeted on our way out by the men in blue, Hung and Mo (also known as easyriders). They were offering a 1 day tour of the Dalat region for $20. To us it was borderline expensive price but given the recommendations and the fact that I likle ywill only be tehre once, we (my 60 years young mother and I) booked the tour and arranged to meet them in the morning. That evening we walked through the city had extraordinary difficulty deciding where to eat and ended up paying a lot for an ordinary meal.
The next morning after a brisk morning run around the lake, we got on the back of two motorbikes and drove off into the mountains.
For those that don't know the easy riders concept. they are a group of local motor enthousiasts that take you around, showing you tourist attractions as well as introducing you to many people and small businesses. You can go with them for one day or travel all the way to hanoi with them. It is entirely up to you. Acting as translators aswell as guides and drivers, they deliver a very one on one experience of Vietnam. I won't go through all the things we did as it would take too long, but to get a sense of it. Dalat is a high altitude agricultural area so the tour takes you through rolling hills, down wingind roads, with views layered with various vegetable and plant (flowers) farms (only rice isn't grown in the area as it is too cold!!) Stopping in various places the guides taught us about coffee making, mushroom farming, events of the Vietnam war and the remaining damage of US bombing. You get an interesting allround experience, topped off with a fantatic lunch, and drinking tea with a bamboo basket making family.At the end of lunch we sat down the our dirver and toalked about our plans and they showed us what they could do for us. After much deliberation we acquiesed and hired them for another two days to take us to Buon Ma Thout, centre of Vietnamese coffee making. So the next morning we got up early packed our bags, (no morning run this time) strapped the bags and one guitar to the motorbikes and off we went for a two day, 250km approx drive to Buon Ma Thout. Mum didn't even fall of once! The road known as the Ho Chi Min Highway wound it way beautifully through the mountains of western vietnam. Up, down and around it provides endless vista and sites that just wasn't enough to keep me awake. (I took a quick nap on the back of the bike in the late afternoon, is that safe?)
We stopped at a multiple minority villages, a silkworm factory, home made ceramics, pepper plantation, tea plantation, more scenic vistas, waterfalls, and last but not least drinking excellent coffee, on plastic chairs, alongside a dirt road. They are extremely well organised offering regular breaks that are necessary in order to minimise sore bottoms. I could place endless fotos unfortunatbly the internet connections in Laos are to slow to do it. As one example the foto beside here is of a brick making machine made out of old car and truck parts, with gearstick still attached.
The trip really highlighted the differences between Asia and Australia wereas previouslt I had looked more to the similarities. Discussions of the lives of the Vietnamese with Hung and Mo highlighted the significant differences in the provision of health and education. While most people have enough food and money to live they do not have enough money to afford health treatment and all spare money goes to trying to give their children a decent education, of which univiersitye education is beyond the reach of many. Access to adequate health care is non existant for many people as cost are covered individually. In the words of our tour guide, if you get sick, "you go to cemetary." The safety net that Australians and most other developed nations take for granted are not provided here. Thus we sometimes look at poorer communities and think they live such rich lives (which often they do, hence they don't want to leave), but much of ti hangs on the fact that nothing goes wrong, which is unlikely over the course of a lifetime.
A second interesting observation is the government's attitude to minority people. At least in rhetoric and in some ways in practice Vietnam and others countries seem to want to maintain and support the diverse ethnic minorities found in South East Asia. There are some affirmative action projects which allow ethnic groups to develop land (i.e chop down forest) to grow products and earn money, whereas as Vietnamese people are not allowed to. Such efforts seem at odds with the sentiment you get in Australia where constant talk of human rights abuses gives the impression that governments here have no interest in protecting minorities. Hung also said that the Vietnamese are quite gracious in allowing minorities these concession as there averga living standards are lower, and do not begrudge them these benefits. These efforts to protect minority culture and communities was a surprise for me but is reflected elsewhere in South Sast Asia.
Thirdly, for the more practicle among us is the extensive use of solar energy. Not in the way we normally think off with large solar panels arrays and solar hot water on every roof. But in the most simple way. Most of the produce made in this area is naturally dried by placing it in the sun. As you drive around you will be the sides of the road lines the pepper of rice paper, mushrooms, even incence sticks and other produce all being dried naturally using the sun before packaging. This use of solar energy probably save a substantial amount that would otherwise come from the electricity grid. This use fo the sun is also somewhat symbolic of the simple innovations that you find all across south east asia. People here find a way of solving day to day prblems, even if it means balancing 7 queens size mattresses on the back of a motocycle!
Overall this was my motorcycle diary. It was an experience that is difficult to put in words as it is the whole experience that moves you to think differently about things. The individualls you meet, like those that fought in the Viet Cong and now greet you with big smile and happy to exchange some basic conversation. Though unlike Che, I did not have an epiphany or motivation do soemthing grand but shown another side of south east asia so that the picture starts becoming more complex and nuanced. It is an experience that you can only get by hopping on the back of that motorbike and travelling through the country side. Choking on the dust from unsealed roads. Seeing huge powerline cross the landscape and being told that the people living underneath them are not connected to the grid. Of riding an elephant through a lake, which remains quiet as the motorboat has not found its way there yet. THe impressions are endless that I could go on forever. If there is one thing you do in Vietnam, pay the money and go on an easy ride!
Once in Boun Ma Thout we arranged a somewhat odnoxious bus trip to Danang. The unfortunate thing is that for all its beauty, Vietnam has a bad side. It tends to have a exploitative view of tourists. So when you book a bus you pay more and get less for it. But I have already spoken of this so I won't go on about it. Needless to say the trip to Danang wasn't the most inspiring.
Arriving in Danang was a bit hectic as we were half expected to get out at a pertol station, which was somewhere, with the bus surround by moto driver wanting our money. Thankfully they bargained between themselves with the firstoffering $5 per person, which I flatly refused only then to be offered $4 for two people. Happilly accepting the price we jumped out of the bus and back on teh motorcycle, we were gradually becoming professionals for the trip into Danang. First they brought us to teh wrong spot but after additional directions wer go there safely. Danang is little more than the 4th largest city in Vietnam. It has a river on which they have an annual fireworks festival, which we purposely (maybe not?)missed by one day. And a very nice Museum on Cham architecture and statues. It also has one nice restaurant were the local business booze up and the waitresses comete to sell you different brands of beer. ALl goo fun.
But we were in Danang as it served as a convenient base to go explore My Son and Hoi An without moving aroud to much. So waking up in the morning we hired (yep, you guessed it!0 two motorbikes for the day to take us to My Son and then to Hoi An. All in all a long 120km round trip it was quie the day. The morning drive to My Son, a UNESCO heritage listed site, is also picturesque in the way the mountains where. Made even more eerie by the mist that descended over northern Vietnam and didn't leave until I left almost a week later. My Son is also unfotunatly frequented by many tourists, so you are quietly accompanied by 100 or so other toursit as you scout around the archeological grounds. The good thing about this is that if you walk strategically you can listen in for a free guided tour of the site! I can't remember the details of what My Son is though I am sure you can google it (if a someone could please add information in a comment to save me the effort that would be great!! wink, wink, nudge, nudge!) but it is essentially and old temple ruin set in a valley just inland from Hoi An. We spent a good hour walking around the site, getting lost and suddenly appearing back at the entrance at which point we couldn't be bothered walking back. So we left to spend the rest of the day in Hoi An.
Hoi An was a port city that has survived largly intact as it fell out of favour to Danang. Similar to Malacca in the sense that there is a mix of cultural influence due to its trading links it is vastly different because of the much greater chinese influence. These days it it is an open air tourist mall with a few museums and sites thrown in for good measure (though you have to pay the entry ticket from a ticket booth that you will never find by yourself). We only stayed there for one afternoon, well more like three hours much to the distress of our moto driver who after originally telling us we could stay out till 7pm, said that we could only have one hour. Mum stood firm and told the guy that it would be three hours no less. I wasn't in the mood to bother so I was glad to have mum around to fight on my behalf!. I wasn't overly impressed with the place, however it feels more like the kind of place wer you need to spend a few days and let the atmosphere soak into you. As we only spent a few hours shopping before relaxing for a beer on the river, we never really got into the mood that the city requires.
After finishing our beers we returned to the meetng point were our moto driver dutifully as always were waiting to take us home. On the way home we passed the marble mountains and a lot of gravestone makers. After thinking that a lot of people must die in this area to support such industry, I realised ten minutes later that the marble mountains were in fact full of marble. And marble makes for nice heasstones. Silly me!
For the rest the road make was uneventful and we prepared ourselves for the train trip to Hue the next day. And this is were I must dissapoint. I am now very far behind and with the internet being slow and sometime unavailable this is only likely to get worse. In order to make up some time I am going to skip the rest of my time in Vietnam which was mainly occupied by seeing the major attractions, Hue, Halong Bay, Hanoi and the Perfume Pagoda (which is a bit like the Batu caves I have spoken about earlier but for buddhists. Also, no more pictures will be uploaded in the near future. Sorry but it has to be this way. But you have plenty to look forward toSo my next blog will start with the trip to Lao(s) and the amazing country that it is.
Sorry to dissapoint but time is of the essence.
Thanks for reading
Oh well, since you asked :)
ReplyDeleteHere's the wikipedia article on My Son