It’s been a while since our last blog; we’ve been on the move a lot,
internet hasn’t always been available and we’ve been having too much fun to sit
down and write this damn thing!
Anyways, when we last left off we were about to begin our Easy Rider
tour with our guide Hau. Three days of motor biking covering over 600 KM of
beautiful Vietnamese countryside and mountains, it was amazing! Anne-Julie road
on the back of Hau’s bike, while John followed behind on his own bike. It turns
out that despite John not being a great car driver, he’s pretty damn good on
two-wheels.
Hau would constantly stop on the side of the road to chat with
locals working in the fields so he could explain what the day-to-day life of
most Vietnamese people was like. We saw so many things it’s hard to name them
all. Some of our highlights include picking peanuts on the side of the road
with some really nice farmers,
watching weasels make Weasel Coffee and then having Anne-Julie try
it (the Weasels eat the coffee beans, their digestive system is supposed to do
something good to the beans, the weasel waste is then collected, the beans are
pulled out and cleaned and voila… Weasel Coffee @ $300/Kg)
Seeing silkworms at a silkworm farm (aka some guys house), then going
to a silk factory and watching them turn the cocoons into silk thread and then
the thread into scarves
Driving up to the sand dunes near Mui Né and being in awe at the
giant desert that appears out of nowhere, and then John’s failed attempt at
sliding down the sand dune
And then, the simple majesty of scenery that we got to take in as we
made our way into the mountain town of Dalat on our second day. It was
incredible to go from some really warm weather in the lowlands to conifer
forests and giant lakes as we climbed in altitude.
Our tour ended in Mui Né, a nice beach town five hours north of Ho
Chi Minh City (HCMC aka Saigon). The beach was really nice; it was filled with
kite surfers, which was pretty cool to watch. We ran into our German friends
yet again in this place, which made for yet another fun night!
From Mui Né we made our way to HCMC. We both really enjoyed our
brief time in HCMC. We were only there for three days, but they were pretty
packed and lots of fun. We spent our first day taking in some of the sites,
including the local market and War Museum. The War Museum was a really intense
place to visit. We didn’t take any photos, it just didn’t feel right. The
pictures are very graphic, and while the museum is quite one sided, it never
the less gets the message across that the whole Vietnam War was just awful. Why
it happened everyone has their opinion, but no one will argue that the things
that happened there, and are so clearly depicted in this museum, should have
never happened anywhere.
We spent our evening have drinks with our German friends yet again,
but this time we were lucky enough to also be joined by an Irish couple and a
Spanish couple we had also met on our tour of Halong Bay. Turns out that tour
was great for us as we met the nicest people and we kept meeting each other all
the way throughout our time in Vietnam.
Drinking in Saigon is really fun, easy and cheap (the trinity of
drinking). You basically head to the corner store (dépaneur) and there are tons
of small plastic chairs lined up outside with small tables. And people just sit
in front of the store and drink $0.60 beers, all night long. This is where we
met our friends every night we were in HCMC. What is so fun is that there are
tons of stores doing this on both sides of the street, so there are hundreds of
people just hanging out and meeting each other. What an amazing time we had!
While in HCMC we also took in a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels. These
tunnels were made so the North Vietnamese could get supplies in and out of the
south and so they could fight/flee the American attacks. There were hundreds of
KMs of tunnels underground during the war. Today, tourists can visit this area
and see tunnels and old booby traps that were made during the war.
There is one original tunnel that tourists can go into, and a second
larger tunnel that has been made a little bigger and has lights for tourists to
go through. John tried both, while AJ abstained from both.
The first tunnel John went into was the original sized tunnel. It
was only about 15M long, but it was tiny and dark, pitch black. John started by
walking in a squatted position, but the tunnel got smaller and then there was a
traffic jam about 5M into the tunnel as a girl a couple of people in front of
him in the tunnel stopped moving as she got too scared.
At this point it is
completely black, you can’t see your own hand in front of your face, and it’s
starting to get hot and a little claustrophobic. He had to wait for five
minutes until someone could pass a light from the back of the tunnel to the
front. There is really only one way out of the tunnel, they have closed off all
the other tunnels branching off from this original tunnel; however, when you
are in there, with no light, you can only lead with your hands. So when you
feel where an old tunnel used to turn off, you still think you can go left or
right, only when you go a little further do you realize its blocked off. This
fear of going the wrong way while 15M under ground was enough to have the girl
stop dead in her tracks and wait for a light. Once things got moving again, it
had been a good five minutes we were stuck underground and it was getting
really hot. We started crawling again, John on his hands and knees as he was
too big to squat. Then came the last 3 M where he had to crawl through on his
stomach so he could make it out. When he did make it out he was completely
covered in dirt and sweat. It was quite an experience to be down there, it
really made you feel for the people who were living and hiding down there
during a war, it must have been really difficult.
We also saw some amazing booby traps that the Vietnamese made to
kill American soldiers. They were really ingenious, and for the most part, all
made of bamboo. We were also explained that the Vietnamese would were their
sandals one way when attacking the Americans, and would then turn their sandals
around the other way when leaving so that all their footprints would be
pointing as if they never left. Crazy stuff!
From HCMC we took a two-day tour of the Mekong Delta and visited the
floating markets. Floating markets are usually for wholesalers to sell to
people who will then sell the fruit and vegetables in town. It was quite a
sight to see as boats filled to the brim were floating around selling to other
boats.
We also so a crocodile farm, John paid $0.50 so he could feed the
crocs some old liver.
From here we knew we only had a couple of days left in Vietnam, so
we decided to make the best of it and we headed to Phu Quoc Island in the very
south of Vietnam right beside Cambodia. We spend three days here on this
gorgeous island. We saw what we believed to be the most amazing beach ever
while touring the island on motorbike.
We checked out the local pearl farm, it was still pretty cool to see how they made the pearls.
We also had a chance to visit the fish sauce factory, which really
was not worth it, but we were lucky enough to get lost along the way and we
ended up asking a local family who was celebrating a funeral anniversary which
way to go. Instead of telling us, they insisted we sit with them and have some
beers and food. After a couple of beers, photos and some weird dancing, we were
off to the fish sauce factory with some proper directions. Good times in Phu
Quoc!
Next destination… Cambodia!
Lots more photos here:
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