Soggy

4/12/12:

Obviously we decided to blow the budget and spend 2 more days with our easy rider guides. Day 3 was the longest of the trip, covering about 250 km. We rode from buon ma thuot to a tiny town called Kon Tom. Along the way we stopped in the city of pleiku which was the site of some significant action during the Vietnam war. It was also the site of a very large US base where our guide Mr Young was stationed. Really somber hearing him recount how things were back then and what they went through. The old US base there has of course been taken over by the Vietnamese military. Riding through town we saw so many Vietnamese army soldiers.

We spent that night in Kon tum which is a really small town but it had good food and power!!!!! It also had my least favorite creature: roaches. EWWWWW.

The next day (4/11/12) was a whirlwind!!!! Got up and hurried over to a local baker to grab some breakfast snacks. We both got pineapple pastries, some chocolate'ish bread and some other pastry thing. From there it was off to a very old catholic church (100 years old) to look around and take a few pictures. The people there also run an orphanage primarily for the local Montagnards (minority) people. Apparently in this particular minority area, they are matriarchal. Also, when the mothers die in child birth they bury the newborn baby (alive or dead) with the dead mother. So the church people try to rescue the children. It's also a depository for unwanted or burdensome children as well. There are approximately 200 kids there of various ages. They're fed, educated and cared for by each other and the church people. While walking around, one of the small children ran up to Carolyn and jumped up into her arms. Adorable :)

From there we drove over to the minority village and visited the local chief. He was a wonderful, happy old man who spoke perfect French but not a lick of English. Luckily our guide spoke French so we were just fine. The chief played a couple tunes on a bamboo xylophone for us and then allowed me to display my musical genius! I warned him that I was going to make it rain ... Which it eventually did!!!! Carolyn took a turn on the bamboo things and then we took off.

We took a break at a nice little coffee cafe, had some coffee and ate our pastries. While eating our luscious treats some ladies sat next to us and produced a bag of live scorpions!!! Mr Young went and sat next to them and proceeded to negotiate a price. During this exchange, the lad produces a jar with enormous dead scorpions, some wood chips and a couple nasty little bugs. We asked Mr Young what it was for and he said it was traditional honest Viagra! He said he'll buy it, put some rice whiskey in and let it sit for a while before drinking his Chinese Viagra. Crazy!!!!

Anyway, we left that town and started riding on the 'official' Ho Chi Minh trail. It's a large highway through the central highlands which more or less follows the historical Ho Chi Minh trail. Along the way we stopped at a war memorial where we were able to climb on an old Russian tank. Apparently this tank was used to 'liberate' whatever city we were in in 1975. Further up the road we stopped in Dak To which was another US base during the war. Both runways are still there but nothing else remains. Strange feeling to stand on a runway built over 40 years ago in such a remote area. Mr Young told us about the awful fighting that went on there every day. From a distance we could see the location of an old special forces base. All along we were only 18 km from the Laos border. During the fighting the north Vietnamese would hide in Laos and then come across to attack before heading back across.

Here's where things get soggy. Shortly after leaving Dak To we stopped for lunch. During lunch the sky opened up and all hell broke loose. We couldn't sit around all day so we put on rain gear and started up the mountains. The scenery was absolutely stunning!!! Lush, green, beautiful mountains and jungle. However the rain started coming down so hard we couldn't really see. Riding on the back of a little motorcycle, in torrential rain, through mountain passes is pretty harrowing. After about 3 hours we made it to our hotel in a tiny town called kham duc. The power went out shortly after we got there which of course meant no hot shower. That and Carolyn and I had to walk around with headlamps on.

We had dinner with our peeps for the last time and shared some laughs and drinks. Good times!

Today we made our way down to Hoi An ... About 130 km away. During the ride Mr Young's bike had some issues which gave us a bit of a scare. It turned out to be a faulty spark plug which was an easy fix. Closer to Hoi An we stopped so I could buy a mosquito zapper!!!! $4 is all it costed to wield a mosquito death dealer!!! I actually got to use it already!!! Can't wait to assassinate the filthy beasts at home!

So we made it to Hoi An. Our hotel is nice but a little far from the city. After some hiccups with our AC we showered and then headed into town to get some clothes made!!!!! We've started off small so far: 1 dress, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts, 2 shirts, 1 pair of khaki pants, 1 jacket. Oh and we also got 1 pair of boots, 1 pair of sandals and 1 pair of a sneakers. It wasn't cheap but it's tailor made for us!!!! So we have to go back tomorrow for our first fitting. Hopefully it all goes well!!!!


Pics:
1) frontier land. About 17 km from here is the Laos border.
2) Relaxing with some fresh pineapple.
3) Chinese Viagra.
4) rice paddies in the mountains. So green!!!!
5) a short break.
6) Carolyn getting measured for her boots!!!!
7) Carolyn and mr young on the runway at Dak To.
8) Hoi An at night.
9) us with the village chief ... After we played our 'rain' song :)

Change 1

Well after a good meal and few beers Michael decided we should throw caution to the wind and extend our easy rider tour to Hoi An, skipping our last beach stop. Our poor drivers, were happy to obliged but I think they would have like a little more notice (we gave them about 5 minutes).

It was a long day and we are exhausted. We saw rice paper factories, scrap metal shops where they still have ordinance from the war, Vietnam war sites, memorials and lots of other great things. Tomorrow we start the Ho Chi Minh Trail and will end in a small village. I'll post the picks and details tomorrow, I need some sleep.

Riding into Buon Ma Thuot

4/9/12:

What can we possibly say about this part of the trip? This is how everyone should see Vietnam! Riding through the mountains, around rice fields and coffee plantations on the back of a motorcycle is simply wonderful.

Last night we stayed at the lak lake resort (on lak lake). The room was surprisingly nice. We had a view of the lake, a sweet bed and a bathtub (which doesn't really matter to us but usually signifies luxury). We also had the pleasure of bearing witness to an insect war outside our door. It must be cicada season cause they brought an army to our hotel last night. We heard bumps and knocks on our door all night. We woke up a few times from their 'mating calls'. It was crazy! When we left our room this AM at 8:30 we saw absolute carnage. Dead bugs littered our porch. Half dead cicadas all over, ants feasting on the left overs. It was crazy!!!! Anyway, left after breakfast and headed to a minority village to see some elephants and locals. We'd already ridden elephants in Thailand so we passed on that. But it's worth mentioning that the elephants were huge. They're obviously not the larger African species but gigantic nonetheless. So the minor people there are called the M'nong people. Years ago they used the elephants to clear the forest and move logs. Today clear cutting isn't allowed so the elephants are used for tourism.

We took a walk around the M'nong village where Mr Thai (my driver/ guide) told us about their customs and beliefs. Many things seem crazy to us but I'm sure our culture would be equally as strange to them. So we walked around in the blazing heat and then mounted our rides to the next stop.

From there we made our way across a beautiful valley with lush rice field all over. Picture perfect for sure! Along the way we stopped at a brick foundry and learned how the locals make bricks here. They just take some local clay, feed it into a machine which molds the brick. The bricks are then dried and fired before being shipped off. We even got to help! I threw some clay into the machine and of course was offered a job because my form was flawless :)

Stopped by a waterfall for a few minutes where Carolyn and I were eaten alive by the SE Asian pterodactyl (also known as a mosquito). From here we took a walk along an earthen dam which ended at a small park. Our guides were waiting there with some locals who were having a picnic. When we walked up they asked us to sit with them and hang out. There were about 7 of them having a birthday picnic for one of the girls (who turned 23!!!). They were all university students from Buon Ma Thuot University studying English and telecommunications. We chatted with them for a while and found out that we're the first foreigners they've ever talked to. We ate some chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, mangos and even had some yummy candy. They were all super nice and were genuinely happy to talk to us. It was such a great time chatting and hanging out with them.

We had lunch after at Mr Thai and Mr Young's favorite pho restaurant. We're not big fans of pho but this was actually really good. Even better, we had ice cream after :) made our way through a coffee plantation, a passion fruit farm and a cashew farm. I had a nibble of an un-ripe passion fruit and thought it was delish! The cashews were super cool ... We saw the cashew apple with the cashew tumor growing out of the bottom. Crazy.

Went to a nearby national park with some beautiful waterfalls all over. Carolyn and I walked around and saw some wonderful scenery. Near the tip of the waterfalls we saw a random amusement park thing with horses, animal statues and rides. Nothing was running but we did find the endangered Vietnamese Velocaraptor.

After the waterfalls we rode back to the city of Buon Ma Thuot. Along the way we passed a ton of young children on their way home from school. They all ran over and waved and yelled out 'Hello!!!!!' to us. They were so cute and seemed so happy just to say hi to a whitey!!!!

We got to Buon Ma Thuot during rush hour which was CRAZY!!!! People on motorbikes everywhere, trucks, some cars. Pandemonium.

We're staying at the Eden hotel here in Buon Ma Thuot. It's super nice and we even have wifi on our room!!!!! Seems the past few hotels in Vietnam don't use the same 'at the source' water heater like they do in the other SE Asian countries. Instead they have a small water heater which doesn't hold much water. Consequently we don't get a very long hot shower. Ohwell.

We met our guys for dinner an they took us to a popular local restaurant where we had an absolutely fabulous meal!!!! Fried tofu, rice, vegetables, fried chicken. Delish!!!! We had a few beers and Mr Young shows us a few bar tricks which we'll be using when we come home. Grand times indeed!!!

Mr Thai and Mr Young have been wonderful. Very kind, caring and so knowledgable. Mr Young was in the South Vietnamese Air Force during the Vietnam war. He told us a few stories and even showed us a picture of him in his uniform from 1970!!! They both speak very highly of America and the way things could have been. However they also told us about how things were after the fall of Saigon. Absolutely heart breaking. They were both put in re-education camps by the north and suffered greatly. It's wonderful to see that their spirits were never broken as they're both so funny and light hearted. We got very lucky with these two!

Tomorrow we're supposed to head to Nha Trang but we're tempted to keep on going north to Hoi An with our easy riders. Not sure what to do but we'll figure it all out in the AM.

Pics:
1) me on a fake water buffalo.
2) waterfall dak lak province.
3) kids waving.
4) elephants in Mnong village.
5) Mnong house.
6) Me with Cashew Apple.
7) Endangered Vietnamese Velocaraptor.
8) Carolyn and Mr Young.
9) Carolyn on her motorcycle.

Easy Rider

Today was day one with our Easy Riders Mr. Thai and Mr. Young and it was excellent. These two men might just redeem Vietnam. Mr. Thai is Michael's loquacious driver and Mr. Young is my laconic driver (those are my two favorite GRE words). Mr. Young was in the American war of destruction but as part of the South. He spent 6 months in a "reeducation" camp after Saigon fell. Both men speak great English, are funny and have an undying love for the beauty of their country and are more forward thinkers then I would expect from these parts.

We spent the early morning sight seeing around the gorgeous city of Dalat, flower farms, old train station, French villas, Elephant waterfall where my charming and graceful husband somehow fell ankle deep in thick mud. At every stop they gave us information, let us tour the sight and never forced us to buy anything. We stopped at a local silk factory and got to see the whole process from bug to scarf.

We stopped for an amazing lunch just as the rain started. This is where the fun starts. We asked how meals work when we signed up and they told us that we'd eat Vietnamese style, lots of food shared and then equally split the bill. We were a bit nervous since Asian food is not our favorite but this was so good. There was so much food on the table, rice, soup, salad, chicken, tofu, cabbage, kale we couldn't keep up and it was all so delicious. It came to $3.00 each and that was with Michaels beer and ice coffee. After that we donned our rain outfits (provided by the drivers) and headed out.

First stop was to a rice wine distillery, known to us Americans as a Whiskey farm. They steam rice, place it in covered buckets where yeast forms on top. They then heat the yeast which forms steam, which goes through a condenser into a settling tank and out comes 120 proof rice wine. Fun fact: what's left after the yeast steaming is fed to the pigs so they are drunk and lazy therefore gaining more fat. From there we mostly saw coffee field after coffee field and wove up and down beautiful mountains until we left Dalat province. The next providence would have been amazing but they've cut down most to the forest to plant coffee and other crops. We stopped for the day around 1730 but we must have been behind schedule because our dudes were really racing it. They said tomorrow will be shorter and more relaxed, I thought today was just fine.

Pics:
-rain ready
-drunk pigs
-literally a floating village
-silk factory, she stinging the silk from the worms. They save the larva to eat
-look I found the Easter bunny!!

Take it easy Dalat

4/7/12:

Vietnam is not a big fan of the Blues so far. Woke up at 0440 to some sort of construction going on outside our hotel. Seriously what could possibly be so important at 0440 in the morning????? Got up for the bus at 0600 then made our way downstairs to wait for the bus which was supposed to come at 0630. Of course it didn't come until 0700. Coulda slept a teeny bit longer. While we were waiting I had the pleasure of providing breakfast to a family of Mosquitos. Seems to be a common theme with our early bus rides.

The bus isn't much of a bus in the terms we're used to here in SE Asia. It's more like an airport shuttle like you'd see in the US. Except the seats were made for the average Vietnamese not the average westerner. In other words, if you're of average height in the US, these seats give you just enough room to squeeze your pinky toe in. Carolyn and I are completely squished.

The bus is full. Like people are spilling out full. At one point an old man lit up a cigarette on the bus. I guess he figured we haven't inhaled enough carcinogens in this lovely country yet. Thanks Vietnamese Marlboro Man!!!!

About an hour into our trip the local lady in front of me attempts to lean her seat back. It ain't moving cause my knees are firmly planted in her seat and they're not going anywhere. She turns around and gives me some sad'ish face and says something like 'my back'. I politely explain that I too am suffering from a painful ailment. My particular ailment is called being over 5'5". My knees and legs are numb from the pain. She tries again to move the seat. I motion to my legs and say 'ma'am, your seat isn't going anywhere right now cause my legs have nowhere to go. She is clearly not happy ... Join the club lady.

In other news the drive is through wonderful mountains and greenery. All the movies I saw as a kid and books I read painted Vietnam as a dusty, crappy, gross, undeveloped place. Well I'm sure there's some truth to that in places but it's actually very pretty and maybe the most modern of all the countries we've been to do far.

Dalat is wonderful. Well I can't really speak for the city as a whole. But if you just judge this place by the weather then it's heaven on earth!!!!! No humidity, no bugs (so far) a cool breeze and I didn't immediately look like I fell in a lake as I step outside (i.e. no sweating!).

Anyhow, we made it to our hotel but only after being followed by an 'easy rider' tour guy. FYI, the easy riders are a motorcycle touring group operating mainly in the central highlands. So we already knew we wanted to do the easy rider tour and figured we'd meet with this guy to see what it's all about. After chatting with him for a bit and getting all the price info ($85 / day / person ... Expensive ) we thanked him and went on about our day. Did a little research and digging and ended up going to the 'supposed' original easy riders cafe and chatted up 2 guys about a trip. Right away they seemed like super nice, fun loving, great guys. They poured us some tea and talked about all the things we'll see, the 'real' Vietnam and some history. We agreed on a price ($75 / person / day) which is still pretty expensive but after all we've read it seemed worth it. The price includes the motorcycle, the guides and our accommodations for a 2 night, 3 day trip from Dalat to Nha Trang. We'll be leaving tomorrow AM right after breakfast. Super excited! We've heard nothing but great things about this trip. Our guides are Mr Thai and Mr Young.

Moving on to our hotel. It's nice. Like JLo would stay here nice. Ok maybe not JLo, more like Kathy Griffin. The bed has a headboard! There's a safe fridge and the shower has a 6-head massaging thing ... Celebrity!!!!! Best part? A hair dryer for my Mrs!!!!

We went out for dinner and headed towards the central square. The city cordoned it off from cars so there were tons of people hanging out. Kids were skating, adults were chatting and everyone was dressed like it was late fall in NY. I mean hats, gloves, scarves, winter coats, they were astonished at our outfits. We walked around a bit and then settled on a local place for dinner. Carolyn had tofu and fried rice and I had tofu an vegetable. My meal was rubbish and Carolyn's was cold. Ohwell. Hopefully the food gets better.

So tomorrow we head out on our motorcycle tour. Not sure about connectivity so it may be a few days before we post again.

Pics:
1) our bus ride
2) hair dryer!!!!
3) Easy Rider Cafe (supposedly the original).
4) us on the bus.
5) Dalat city at night.
6) Dalat has real cows milk!
7) our room (dreams hotel ... $25/night).
8) Who has a beautiful wife and 2 thumbs? This guy!!!!

Bronzing

4/6
The locals must think we are crazy, they cover themselves head to toe in order to avoid the sun and we lay out in it. I mean not just pants and long sleeves but socks, gloves, face masks and those straw hats you always think of when you think of Vietnam. Having white skin is considered beautiful.

Today a miracle happened: I got Michael up and out of the room before 10! We had the scooter until 1300 so we said we'd have breakfast in the town center. I usually feel bad waking him but he already had 8 hours and I was wide awake at 0630 so I wasn't waiting any longer. After breakfast we took a drive and got some pictures of the fishing village. We've seen a few episodes of The Amazing Race since we've been here and we saw one where they had to cross a river to get to a castle in these round boats that looked like turtle shells. I have no idea what season it is from but I remember an Asian team of dad and son. They use those boats here to fish its pretty amusing since on the show no one looked graceful in it.

After that we spent the afternoon at the pool going back and forth about where we are going to live. We got no where. At this point we need a palm reader or someone to make the decision for us. We're hopeless. We did book our flight to NY, we'll be there on the 25th. Dad we need a ride from the airport :)

Pics:
I've been wanting a whole coconut since we got here and today I tried it, the milk is ok, I think it would be better cold but the fresh coconut was so good.
For our amazing race fans, here's the boat

Rocky IV

4/5/12:

Flipping through the channels we see that one of the greatest boxing movies of all time is about to come on: Rocky IV. Just as the movie is about to start the screen goes black and then the picture below comes up. Neither of us can read Vietnamese but I'm fairly certain this is not the opening credits for Rocky IV. We stare at this screen for about 5 minutes with no change and no Rocky.

We have no clue what the screen says but we're pretty sure it goes something like 'we cannot show a movie where the country who perpetrated the destruction war beats our BFF Russia!'

This place is crazy.