Speeding Through Vietnam

Ok, yesterday afternoon I arrived in Hoi An having completed my motorcycle adventure in the countryside. It was a hell of a ride over roads that switched between smooth, dusty, muddy, bumpy, rainy, sunny, dark, and occasionally nonexistent. I'm really happy that I made it without injury or serious problems. I'll try to give as best a summary as I can, but a lot of it was just driving through the countryside and it's not so interesting in description.

Our guide was a local guy named Andy who has got a wife and kids and has been doing this job for several years now. I imagine that the money is pretty good by Vietnamese standards. He knew a lot about the cities and towns that we visited and seemed interested in keeping us safe from overcharging locals. I'm sure that he got kickbacks from the meals but they never seemed to exceed $2 dollars a person or $5 if we had a feast with lots of drinks. Anyways, he had good enthusiasm and was a worthy guide.

Besides the guide Andy, there were my two new traveling buddies. I'd already met Chris on the bus to Nga Trang. He's a young (23 years) English heavy equipment driver who's traveling around until he runs out of money and escapes to a mining job that he lined up in Australia. He's an extremely proficient lady hunter and works out a lot. I'd say that he's not really the type of person that I usually associate with but his endless enthusiasm and laughs are very endearing. He's also an experienced rider and got along well with our other member, Stefan.

Our Stefan is a born Alaskan... he works an oil field, his family hunts big game regularly, and oddly dislikes Sarah Palin with a passion. Well, I guess that's not so odd from my perspective. Any time anyone learns that he's Alaskan they bring her up immediately (it embarrasses him) just as they bring up Arnold for me. Nobody seems to know any other governors though... I like to bring up Jesse 'the body' Ventura. Anyways, Stefan is also an experienced rider and really liked to drag race Chris at any opportunity. He's on a shorter trip than the rest of us but was keen for an adventure when Chris posed the idea to him. I like Stefan a lot.

With our team in place we set off to the lakeside town of Lak Lek in the hilly interior of the country. It had rained the day before we started and it was overcast when we set off in the morning so I was a bit worried but we only hit a little bit of light rain as we crossed a mountain overpass through an area of new forest that had been leveled by American bombs during the war. This part of the country was pretty wet and there were huge valleys filled with ride paddies that we passed though as we pressed on late into the day. The light was nearly gone before we reached town.

In this part of the country, minority culture shines through and the locals say that the women of these villages are the leaders and land owners. Before dinner, Chris, Stefen and I wandered around and had a beer at a pub near the quiet lake. There we no men around, just a large table filled with women eating and drinking beer. I thought it looked very strange considering how the rest of Asia operates. At dinner, we met a quirky but friendly film major from LA and she showed us the $8000 digital camera that she travels around with during her 1 month project. I took a couple pictures with it in that dim room, and I swear the pictures looked far better than real life. I was blown away.

Andy talked us into adding an extra/5th day on to the trip so that we wouldn't have to drive quite so far every day. Most people do the trip in 5 or 6 days and not the 4 was had asked for.

In the morning, we dealt with a flat tire that my bike suffered some time earlier, the guys did a jog and pull-up contest, and I officiated at a drag race between the bikes. A lot of tourists cross the lake on a swimming elephant but that cost extra so I declined. We stopped at a lot of places on the drive... we saw a coffee roaster, mushroom farm, bee keeper, and stone quarry. Later on we visited a huge waterfall and the lot of us went swimming in a safe part off to the side. A couple was getting some cheesy wedding photos made there and we swam through a lot of their backgrounds but I think we deserve to share the space and I didn't mind if they blocked some of my views.

In the evening we pulled into a huge town right at rush hour and it was pretty stressful. It felt like driving in Saigon at 50%, which is still pretty intimidating. The trucks constantly dart into the oncoming lane to overtake the more cautious drivers and you have to pay a lot of attention to avoid a quick death. The pictures don't do it much justice. That night we had dinner at a popular hot pot place and then went out for drinks. The bar that we went to was clearly for the wealthier members of the city and had more security personnel than was necessary. When i would dance on the floor, the guards would outnumber the dancers and would push me to a single spot. The hostesses working there pushed us to drink 2 full bottles of Johnnie Walker between the 4 of us. After that I would wander from table to table and every one would give me free beer and we toasted every minute or so. It got completely out of control and I have no idea how we got back to the hotel.

The next morning we all had vicious hangovers and Stefen said that it was his worst ever. In the night he had thrown up in a few different places around the hotel room so we left in a hurry before the maids saw us. We went to a pharmacy and Stefen got some amphetamines over the counter and we set off a seriously long drive (our longest of the journey)... I think we did 280km that day. We stopped at a black pepper farm, noodle factory, rubber plantation, and a market where Stefen tried to sleep on his bike and fell off and broke the mirror. That night he started to feel a bit better and we went to a restaurant that grills the meat on the table in front of us. We ate some weird stuff including deer, porcupine, weasel, crocodile, and plenty of pork. The deer was good but the rest wasn't so nice.

In the morning we set off to visit a catholic orphanage in the area. We got a load or fruit that we wanted to share with the kids but when we got there they ate it all so quickly that we didn't get any. I think that they had about 250 kids between the ages of 0 and 17 with some 16 people watching over them... mostly kids that reached 18 and decided to stay. I played some songs for the kids and we had a nice time. We also visited an old man nearby who lives in a traditional hut and played music for motorcycle tourists. Next up we saw a funerary parade go by while on our way to a war memorial. The funeral had about 6 large trucks and a couple dozen people on bikes honking, covered in flowers, and throwing out fake dollar bills. It was an odd sight, but not as odd as Chris doing pull ups on a antiaircraft vehicle at the memorial.

That day we did a great drive through some high mountains. I think that our high point was at 2000 meters whatever that is. Oh, we found a wire and wood footbridge across a river and saw a local drive it on motorcycle. Well, I did it next and then Chris and Stefen did it too. The rails were VERY low and we could have easily gone over the edge. Only afterward did we notice that the water looked 6 inches deep. Scary. The drive through the mountains after that was fast and furious and eventually very dark. That mountain road was a highlight of the trip. We stayed the night in a mountain town and I got a massage for my sore shoulders but it was the worst massage I've ever gotten. I hustled out of there when i realized it was really just a thinly disguised brothel.

The next day was our last of the trip and I was looking forward to getting back to civilization and away from our eventually grating guide. We found a great waterfall on the side of the road for some skinny dipping much to the amusement of every truck passing by. Also, we stopped for great pineapple and tea at a roadside stand and decided to stay in a hostel in Mui Ne that night and to get suits made. After getting to town at 3 and having a MUCH needed shower we got measured for suits and went out drinking. One restaurant had a painting of a minority man from the mountains that I think looked too much like George W. Finally we found a restaurant serving the much rumored $0.2 beers that the backpackers always talk about. It was a good night, and we also ran into our friend Pierre in town.

The next day (Monday) I submitted my passport for a visa extension as I had just a few days left and sat around chatting most of the day and getting the suit finished up. It looks nice... a skinny black one that was in the Hangover movie. That night we went out for drinks again along with a new friend, Annika from Germany, and the guys all left in different directions on bussed the next morning while I was stuck in town waiting for the passport.

I didn't do too much the next day... I guess I missed my friends. Still, at least Annika was around and that night she took me out to meet a friend of hers, Jurre from Holland, and we shook it up with karaoke that night. I like these 2 new friends and I decided to keep going north with them since they're on a slow route like me. Annika taught English in Cambodia for the last 3 months and now is doing some traveling before she heads home. I'm not sure for how long exactly. Jurre is traveling for 3 months or so and both of them are pretty young... like 20. He's on his way to Hue just to the north of Hoi An so we got bus tickets for the next day to chase after him.

In the morning I got my passport back, had a long breakfast with Annika, and the two of us rented a motorcycle and I drove us out of town to see a site called the Marble Mountain. These oddly shaped stones jutting out of the otherwise flat countryside have a series of Buddhist temples perched on them and we climbed many stone stairs to see them all. There were several caves inside too and the whole place had a lot of atmosphere. It was also intensely hot and on the way home we stopped by the beach to get in a swim before we caught our bus to Hue in the afternoon.

Wow, those were some fast summaries of a lot of days... I guess that I'm a bit sick today and aren't in the mood to elaborate more. I've already spent a couple nights in Hue but I'll write about all that next time. I'm satisfied.