8 days on the back of a bike

beautiful landscapes, friendly people, sunburnt hands (until I got some gloves and a scarf to hide them under), “monkey bum” and a millions things to see and try to take in! Hence - lots of photos (don't say I didn't warn you)!!


First night was to Lak Lake, and a beautiful village on the edge of the lake. Apparently the man who runs the restaurant also controls which houses the tourists stay in, sharing it out evenly to make sure that every family gets a turn at hosting tourists, and bringing in a little money. There are a couple of little shops selling weavings, scarfs, wooden elephants, but for the most parts, it is a tradition village. The people fish and farm, chopping up banana trees for pig food and leading the cows and buffalo out to the fields.




Back on the bike early in the morning, an off to Dalat. lots more to see on the road. We stopped off at a brick making factory where one of the ladies requested that we take a photo together

as well as driving past lots of farmers and beautiful scenery.
At Elephant falls I also met this girl, after she came and took our photo together I handed her friend my camera and asked her to take another on it..... both girls look so confused at me wanting the photo too! I have decided this is how I will react to any future photo requests!



Visits to beaches (Mui Ne and Long Hai)then off to the Mekong.

On the way we had an..... interesting altercation with the traffic police.
Basically, in Vietnam the speed limits are as follows: bikes in town: 40km, bikes out of town: 60km. 4 wheeled vehicles in town 50 or 60 and out of town 80km.

So, we drove through a town at a respectable 40km, we went past the sign that said end of town. we sped up to 50...... pulled over by police (along with EVERY other motorbike on the road. Apparently, even though there was no signage at all and even though we were out of town, that entire road is 40km/hour. So the options were pay a 750K (37ishAUD) VND fine..... which involves waiting 2 days for the fine to be processed, returning to the same police station to receive the fine, then either spending half the day going from desk to desk trying to pay it, or pay someone else to go pay it for you (they magically take only 30 minutes to pay the fine through some sort of special deal with the police). Or, over the cop about half of the fine amount to make it just go away. The entire system leans towards the second option, except for those people who don't have any cash on them. So Thanh gave him 300K(15AUD) and we continued on our merry way. Apparently the police have to pay their way into the job.... and this is a good way to make some of that money back! Everyone pulled over stated that they saw no sign, even people local to the area were getting caught and they told us that it has always been 60 before now! but there is really no choice but to give them the money and move on, arguing is just going to up the fine, or get your licence confiscated for some time. Or worse who really knows!


I very much enjoyed the delta, lots of canals, lush farms, healthy ground for excellent farmings. And quiet, relaxed towns and villages.
boat trips up the quiet rivers (except at Can Tho.... where the river is in fact a floating market and so people come to offer us coffee, or soup, and hold up any sort of vegetable/fruit imaginable on poles to display what they have for sale).



We also had a particularly "only in Vietnam" moment on a Ferry crossing. The ticket collector/people organiser kept gesturing people onto the boat, gesturing for those of us already on the boat to squish forward more and more. Eventually the motors started noisly. and nothing much else happened. The driver started yelling at the peole organiser.... various passengers started yelling at the driver,, or organiser, or someone. A few people got off (not necessarily the last people to get on) and everyone crowded to the very front of the ferry. Turns out, it was so full that it wasn't able to pull away from the on ramp, the organiser kept moving people and bikes closer and closer to the front. Eventually we got unstuck and were on our way.




Then away from the calm, beautiful (when you ignore the trash everywhere) Delta and into the insanity that is Ho Chi Minh City.
as we entered, Thanh explained that his sister lived quite close to where we were, and would I mind dropping in to see her, otherwise he would basically have to do 2 extra trips through the centre of the city to see her, then through again to leave. I agreed, because it seemed to make much more sense, seemed more interesting that wandering around the backpacker area of saigon alone.
So we went, and I played with some children, then we went to the markets, back for a home cooked meal and finally on to find a hotel for the night. Way more interesting than hanging out in district 1 alone.



Then through the busy busy streets of HCMC. A stop to cool the overheated bike halfway - apparently manual bikes are terrible in HCM because of the constant stop/starting/clutching/lack of air to cool them. After a few minutes we got going again and found a hotel. I slept, wandered around the city in the morning, then off the the airport and home to Danang!