Feb 2006

So, I was chilling in Nha Trang at the beach when some nutter on a motorbike comes up to me and asks if I fancy paying him $140 for him to take me on a 4 day tour of the Central Highlands and then dropping me off in Hoi An. My response, obviously, was AWESOME IDEA, LET'S GO!!

So, Monday morning, this dude straps my rather large backpack onto the back of his bike and off we go.

Day 1 - we travel to Lak Lake, stopping off at various points to see interesting sights and take photos. Most people in the Highlands are Minority people, not Vietnamese, they come from all over SE Asia and have their own languages and their own way of life and they are mostly very poor. We stayed in a Minority Village by the Lake in a Long House - a wooden house on stilts which was just one long room. Danh (my guide) cooked venison on a little mini bar b que, which was nice!

Day 2 - no sleep at all as the dogs and the chickens and the people did not shut up ALL night!! We set off early for Bon Me Tuon, driving through Gia Nghia. We stopped a lot to drink really strong coffee or sugar cane (which is relly nice!). We went to see a few waterfalls and then went swimming in this little creek that he knew about, him in his undies, luckily I'd though to put my bikini on. It was cold but refreshing!

Day 3 - a long day on the bike. We did about 200km apparently, heading up through Pleiku and arriving in Kon Tum at about 5pm. We stopped of at various points through the day, once for lunch at a rather dodgy road side cafe where they had a monkey chained up and the toilet was the bush out the back... There wasn't much to Kon Tum, just a street with a few shops and restaurants. We went to a little noodle shop and Danh took great delight in showing and telling me the difference between Vietnamese and Chinese noodles as if I'd never seen them before! Chinese noodles are thinner than Vietnamese noodles...

Day 4 - Up early to take the Ho Chi Min road to Hoi An. At first there wasn't much road, they're obviously still digging some of it so it was a bit rough on the bum. Then when we finally found some tarmac the road went on and on and on, right through the mountains. The scenery was stunning until we hit the rain which reduced visibility to about 100 meters. As the rain came down, Danh seemed to increase his speed (to get out of the rain he explained) Fearing for my life as we drove at great speed around hairpin bends (think Moto GP here) I closed my eyes and held on tight. We did 320km in all today, most of it in the rain, and it took us about 7 hours and my buttocks were like 2 lumps of rock by the end of it.

It was a great 4 days and I got to see more of Vietnam than I ever thought I would. 4 days on a bike when you're not used to it was tough but it's the best way to see places and having a Vietnamese guide means you get to mix with the locals a little more. Danh was very knowledgable and easy company but slightly mad. He also liked to burp and snort snot out of his nose a lot but so do all the Vietnamese I seem to meet...

After the chaos of Saigon I was looking forward to relaxing on the beach at Mui Ne. I found a room right on the beach and then had a quick look around. It didn't take long as there's only one street with not a lot on it other than resorts and a few restaurants. I spent one day on the beach and then decided I didn't really like it that much. The beach was nice but there wasn't much going on apart from Kyte Surfing and Wind Surfing - it's obviously the place to be for water and wind sports.

So the next day I decided to move - the joy of travelleing! The bus trip to Dalat was an adventure. It's meant to take about 6 hours but we did it in 3hr 30m because our original driver paid someone else to take us and this guy obviously new a short cut right through the mountains. Luckily we were only in a minibus (although there were about 30 of us crammed in) and so we were able to take the dirt track through the mountain. It's obviously not a public road open to tourist buses as there was a slight delay as our driver argued with a guy that was barring our way into the back road. Luckily he let us through and we had an amazing ride.

Dalat was warm during the day but bloody cold during the evening. It's a really pretty town with lovely buildings and a nice big lake in the middle. On the second day I took an Easy Rider tour (guy on a motorbike takes you round to see all the sights as most of them are out of the centre of town). It was a long day but really good, I saw lots of pagodas, bought a silk wrap in a Minority Village, saw a waterfall, went on a cable car ride and went up Lang Bian mountain (very high) in a 4x4 which was a little scary. At the top, one of the Vietnamese couple who I was sharing the 4x4 with asked to take my photo. I can only think that they were impressed with my unique traveller style... Photo to come!

My driver then tried to persaude me to go on a 4 day tour into the highlands with him on his bike - as if!!!!