Same Same, but different

Our entry to Thailand, the land of smiles, was achieved by a painless border process that took less than 20 minutes all told - we were dropped off at the bus station in Huay Say, from where a one minute túk túk ride took us to the eastern bank of the Mekong. We were stamped out of Laos, though it seemed that we were free to walk back into the country for a coffee before crossing the river into the Land of Smiles if we so wished. Across the water we were stamped in with no hassles and no fantasy stamp fees - and the border guard was kind enough to grant us three months in the country as opposed to the regulation 30 days!

Immediately we passed the border control we could tell we arrived in a different country - the lethargy of touts seemed to be blocked by the mighty waters of the Mekong, and our backpacks drew a crowd of men and women (and a few that left us wondering whether to refer to them as he or she) eager to arrange transport on to Chiang Mai for us.

As if to emphasize the difference and superiority of their state, Thais have made the sensible (?) decision to drive on the "right" side of the road, that is to say they drive like we do in Malta, on the LEFT side ;) I wonder how they deal with this situation when traffic crosses one of the bridges between Thailand and Laos! And while we're on the subject of traffic - what a change! No meandering mountain paths masquerading as roads in Thailand, but wide, well surfaced strips of tarmac rolling through rice fields with a backdrop of verdant mountains. Our first journey by road in Thailand was notable for its lack of near death experiences and blaring horns. It felt rather boring after the adrenaline pumping joyrides of the previous six weeks.

In Chiang Mai we got the shock of a lifetime, as walking the streets seeking accommodation we came across MacDonalds, Starbucks, Boots, 7Eleven and even Tesco, all within spitting distance of each other. Clearly we'd left the bare bones South East Asia behind us, and had wondered into a westernized version of the Orient. Even the coffee shops refused to serve us fresh coffee - Nescafe was their caffeine hit of choice. Seeking fresh coffee eventually turned out to be a recurring theme during our stay in Thailand… But I degrees, so I'll get back to laying down the facts about Chiang Mai.

Known as the northern capital of Thailand, Chiang Mai is pretty similar to Luang Prabang, yet worlds away from its sleepy Laotian counterpart. Yes, there are more Wats than there are 7Elevens, and it is the place to arrange your Hillside Minorities trek in Thailand, but the heart of it is different. Whereas Luang Prabang has the sleepy charm that defines a stay in Laos, Chiang Mai is a great primer for the commercial, fast forward hustle bustle that is Thailand. Chiang Mai is also the adrenaline capital of Thailand, its very own Queenstown if you will. And just like in its Kiwi cousin, activities in Chiang Mai are overpriced and seem a bit contrite. Having tried our hand at trekking in Laos just a day before arriving in Chiang Mai we weren't eager to join in the experience in Thailand. The Flight of the Gibbon, a series of zip-lines stretching through the treetops, seemed like a nice way to spend a day, but it came with a hefty price tag similar to what one would pay in NZ or Australia, so we gave that a miss. This left us with a couple of days to explore the many Wats that a sprinkled throughout the city, and plenty of money to spend in the night markets.

I won't go into the details of the many Buddhist temples we visited, I've done that many times already in this blog, and though the surface details may be different, the bare bones of a Wat are identical, whether you be in Cambodia, Laos or Thailand. The one temple that will get a mention has to be Wat Mahawan, or the Donald Duck Wat as I have now rechristened it. It gets this catchy and imaginative new monicker simply because among the many animal statues that adorn the front garden stands Donald Duck armed with chopsticks, slurping noodles from a bowl. Quite a shock to the senses when you're wandering the gardens trying to find your zen to be suddenly faced with Walt Disney's noisiest feathered creation!

Through our travels in SEA Wats have been a regular fixture in our itinerary, and though I was beginning to suffer from Wat Fatigue in Chiang Mai these Buddhist sanctuaries provided a welcome respite from the chaos on the streets with their shaded gardens and water features.

Watch out for Wat touts!

While visiting Wats in Chiang Mai we came across a new scam, or at least one which I haven't read about online or in guidebooks. As you enter the pagoda a Thai casually follows you in, says a prayer at the main altar and proceeds to sit to one side while you wander round taking photos. As you exit the Wat you are approached by the friendly Thai who welcomes you to Chiang Mai and asks what you plan on doing in the city, and your intentions when you leave. Upon hearing that you are headed to any place after a mandatory stop in Bangkok, you will be told that the place is very very busy at this time of year - as your (bad) luck would have it, you happen to be in Thailand when there are two consecutive long weekends, which means popular destinations will be chock-a-block. The accommodation at your destination will be sold out soon, so you should follow him to the TAT (Tourism Association Thailand) office which is just round the corner. When we said we would make arrangements in Bangkok we were assured that it would be cheaper to do so in Chiang Mai, and besides, by the time we got to Bangkok the accommodation in Koh Samet (our chosen destination) would be fully booked. Having nothing better to do, Justyna and I walked by the office which our friendly Thai had mentioned.

TAT have one office in every major city or tourist destination in Thailand. The office you are pointed to is merely a TAT licensed office. The wily travel agencies in Thailand advertise their TAT license by writing in two-foot high letters TAT across their front window. Under the giant TAT script, in much smaller text, you'll find "license number XXXXXXXX". Well, thanks to Lonely Planet I knew that the office we were pointed to wasn't the official TAT office, and it was packed to the rafters with people waiting for advice, so we walked away. As we were on our way our "friend" asked why we weren't in the office making arrangements, and we used the excuse of the long queues to make our getaway.

The same thing happened to us in two consecutive Wats, and on the third occasion I changed tack and said we would be meeting friends in Bangkok who have been living in Thailand for a long time, and they would be making our arrangements for us. This seemed to dishearten the tout and he let us be.

Well, I'm writing this blog in Koh Samet, and guess what? There's hardly a soul here! We found a room to suit our budget, and the only reason we had to spend 15 minutes looking around was that the first places we came across were charging twice what we were willing to pay. I've made enquiries with the staff here, and this is the shoulder season, plus there are no long weekends in July!

Clearly the friendly Thais who approached us in the Wats were scouts for the travel agencies keen on making some commission by misleading tourists. It doesn't make sense that booking accommodation from the other side of the country will be cheaper than booking it from a town much closer to the destination; and two consecutive long weekends is kind of hard to believe!

If you're approached with such friendly advice in Thailand make sure you double check with an unbiased source about the holiday periods - ask the staff at a café or at your guest house, and if you want to make a booking with TAT make sure you go to the address listed in your guide book, not any office with the words TAT emblazoned across its front window. Secondly, remember that the further you are from the item you're paying for, the more commission is going to be factored into the sum you pay. If it really is a busy period, brave the telephone and make a booking yourself, thereby bypassing the commission laden man in the middle.

Chiang Mai proved to be a nice introduction to Thailand - not as hectic as Bangkok, it allowed us to step our senses up a few notches from the sedate state we had attained in Laos. I cannot vouch for its suitability as a base for adrenaline pumping activities, but as a cultural stop on a tour of northern Thailand it hits the spot, with some interesting architecture and history, with the added benefit of never being too far from some of those home comforts that I'm beginning to crave for after 6 months on the road!

Luang Prabang

Another epic 6 hour bus journey headed north out of Vientiane saw us disembarking in Luang Prabang, ancient capital of the Lao Kingdom. Luang Prabang is another SEA gem of a town that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, and its not difficult to see why. Nestled at the confluence of the Mekong and the Nam Khan rivers, the old quarter of town occupies a hilly peninsula that is crowned with a spectacular Buddhist complex. The Old Quarter is a maze of interconnecting alleys and larger lanes interspersed with plenty of Wats and palaces. Added to this mix of royal and religious buildings are the signs of booming tourism - numerous cafés, travel agencies and guest houses.

We gave ourselves a couple of days to explore the various Wats around town and to visit the museum, though the latter was more of a display of royal regalia than anything else. The most dramatic complex of wats to be found in Luang Prabang has to be the trio that occupies Phu Si, the hill around which the Old Quarter is based. A series of steep staircases lead up to the temples nestled in the hillside and in cracks in the rocks. The climb is shaded by the thick tree cover, and once you reach the top the views over the Mekong and Nam Khan are incredible. Not to mention the innumerable golden Buddha statues that come in all possible stances.

At night the Old Quarter comes alive with the Hmong Market, where members of the eponymous hill tribe sell their handicrafts to the hordes of tourists. Though its nice to think that what you're buying is made locally in a tradition that has been handed down for generations, its not always so. Plenty of the wares on display were the same sort of items we had seen for sale at markets in Cambodia and Vietnam. What's even more of a shocker is that these same handbags and various items of clothing are to be found for sale in supposedly fair trade shops at more than five times the asking price in the market! The only consolation to be had is that when you're buying from the market you'll a) get a better price and b) all the money goes direct to the Hmong (or other minority retailer), rather than a middle man getting their cut.

When shopping at markets in SEA you should always haggle the price down - being a foreigner you'll automatically attract inflated prices. It amazes me though how some sellers try to take tourists for one heck of a swindle - many times I've brought the price down to less than half of the asking price, and I'm sure that the amount I'm paying is still a lot more than what a local would be asked for.

We noticed an interesting superstition when hawkers make their first sale of the evening - the sellers are desperate to make that first sale, and once they do they'll thank the customer for being their "lucky lucky first" and go on to rub the monies handed over on all their merchandise, in the hope that the luck of the first sale spreads to the rest of their stock. So here's a second tip for market shopping - if you're the "first customer" you can haggle your prices down that little bit extra; though you should keep in mind that an insignificant amount like $1 means a lot to people who earn less than $60 a month.

Meet the locals

Luang Prabang attracts plenty of tourism not only thanks to its idyllic location and historic old quarter - plenty of people stop in town to get ready for a hill tribe trek. The trekking scene here is not as over-saturated as it is in Thailand. The trekking trails aren't as busy, and the villagers you meet aren't as jaded from the flow of tourists. The kids still come running when they see a foreigner, the adults still giggle at our bumbling ways in the exhaustive heat.

Typical trekking trips run from one to three days visiting a number of minority villages along they way. The trek leader will be a local with intimate knowledge of the surroundings and groups are limited to a maximum of six persons.

We opted for a moderate two-day adventure culminating with an elephant trek in the jungle. Our friendly guide was a Hmong named Tuson (not sure about the spelling, but its pronounced as I wrote it here), and we were pleased to find out we'd have the guide all to ourselves. One of the advantages of traveling in the low season is that you're more likely to find yourself in small groups, or as in our case, on a private tour!

The trek started easily enough with some pleasant walking through rice fields and bush, with plenty of shade provided by the high trees lining the path. The first two hours of our trek were pretty uneventful but nonetheless entertaining - the scenery was stunning verdant hills and paddy fields, babbling brooks and the occasional rumble of a motorized tractor. We met some farmers along the way and our guide Tuson provided an interesting commentary about the farmer's daily life. A short while after our lunch break we came to our first Hmong Village, where we sat in the shade of some trees to rest our legs for a while and wait for the heat of the afternoon to lessen somewhat. Most of the villagers seemed to be doing much the same as we were - hiding in the shade while the sun scorched the earth. A few kids were playing with spinning tops and a lady was kenneling cobs of corn and occasionally throwing a handful to the piglets and chickens that hung around waiting for scraps.

Having done a considerable amount of trekking while on this trip we figured that eight hours of walking spread over two days would be easy fare for us… how mistaken we were! Its true that we'd spent whole days walking in New Zealand and Australia, but never in 33C with high humidity! We were doing reasonably well while the land was flat and the trees provided shade. Things started to get hairy shortly after we left the Hmong Village. It was time to begin the serious climbing, and there were no trees to provide shelter from the burning sun. About half way up the hill I was reduced to a sweaty, heaving mass concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, willing myself on. What struck me most about our ascent though was not how hard it was - it was that the steep hill was in fact a rice field. While I was complaining about simply having to walk up the hill, a Hmong farmer had to till it, plant his crop, and would eventually go up and down the hill harvesting rice. Its at times like these that you begin to appreciate the effort that goes into that bowl of fried rice you had the night before!

We eventually made our way to the Hmong village where we would be spending the night, and our first stop was at the "bamboo shower" as its called in the brochure. A natural rock spring has been channeled into a thick bamboo pole that acts like a tap, providing the villagers with water for cooking, drinking and bathing. As we arrived plenty of women were about the tap having their daily shower (fully clothed) and filling buckets, jerry cans and plastic bottles with water to be taken back to the village, a five minute walk away. The icy cold water was like manna from heaven to us exhausted walkers, never before have I so appreciated a cold shower in my life!

Up at the village we were shown into our quarters - a dormitory large enough for 20, but it would only be the three of us staying in there - and invited to take a look around. The village kids were running around playing all sorts of games; the most interesting of which seemed to be a variation of the classical game of marbles, but played with a single flip flop. From what I could gather the players nominate a point on the ground that they must then try to hit by flinging the lone thong at it. It seemed to entertain the kids to no end, and we were quite happy to sit there watching their carefully aimed shots. The adults of the village were carrying out cooking related chores - most were hidden away in their homes preparing dinner, or running to the little (and only) shop/hut of the village to get some supplies. Our host had a great pile of pineapples and she seemed to be doing brisk business selling them to neighbors - the next morning the pile was loaded onto a tractor to be taken to market. Just

before dinner was the only time we saw any other foreigners during our trek. We were expecting them to be joining us in our dormitory, but they quickly moved on to another part of the village to stay with another family. Tuson explained that this is done to spread the wealth from tourists over the village - a noble idea, and also adds to the intimacy of the experience by spreading the people.

With no electricity village activity is limited after sundown, and with most being employed in farming the day starts early. We were more than happy to head in for an early night as the day's walking had taken its toll on our tired legs.

We were up the next morning at cock's crow, and after a sumptuous omelette for breakfast we set off for the morning's walk. We decided that we would spend a shorter time walking on our second day, so instead of visiting a third minority village we headed straight for the sealed road where a van would be picking us up. The trekking was much easier this time - downhill, and the day still hadn't heated up when we set off. It took us just over an hour and a half to reach the road, from where we were punctually picked up and shipped off by road to the elephant camp.

At the elephant camp we were introduced to the two female elephants that are the backbone of the business and given some time to get to know the lumbering ladies. After we'd had our fill of elephant petting the mahout strapped a howdah to one of the elephant's backs and we were allowed to embark.

The howdah was a bare as bones wooden affair, and not a cushion in sight! Maybe the experience is a bit different if you're riding in a royal howdah, but perched as we were on our elephant I found it difficult to fathom how royalty have favored these pachyderms as their mode of transport for so many years. When the going is over flat ground its smooth enough, but in rough or inclined terrain you've got to hang on for dear life. Then when you are hanging on for dear life, you've got to remember to keep fingers clear of the edges or risk having them squeezed into trees! Our hour on the elephant seemed to drag on, and we were relieved to be let off for lunch back at the elephant camp.

I was quite looking forward to some interaction with the elephants, but this howdah experience wasn't quite what I imagined it would be… Maybe next time I'm in Laos I'll have a better budget, and instead of going for a hill tribes trek I'll take the Elephant Mahout camp, where you spend two whole days tending the elephants and learning basic commands.

After lunch we were dropped off at Luang Prabang, where we had a few hours to kill with some iced coffee before our overnight bus to the Thai border at Huay Xai.

For photos from our trip to Laos, click here

The Land of a Million Elephants

Getting there...

In our travels through South East Asia the next port of call was to be Laos, the landlocked underdog of the region. Flying into the country was both beyond our budget and came with a certain risk (Laos Airlines has a very patchy safety record). That left us with the joyous prospect of a 24 hour bus trip from Ha Noi south to Vinh, then heading east to the border at Cam Neua and on to Vientiane, the Laotian capital. After two less than memorable experiences on sleeper buses Justyna and I decided to try our luck with the regular sort of bus, the one used by locals. The difference in price is substantial - $13 as opposed to $38 for a sleeper bus - and when we reached the bus terminus we could see why. The luggage hold was full of merchandise, and the passenger's luggage was shifted to the aisle. When the seats were full the driver pulled out some folding chairs to squeeze in a few more passengers, and some were even told to get comfortable on the luggage in the aisle. Still, we had our own two seats, and after some persuasive elbow maneuvers I convinced the Laotian sitting in the corridor next to me that I didn't enjoy the fact that he was using my shoulder as a pillow!

The going was easy enough - the sound system didn't seem to be working so we were spared the blaring karaoke music that had been a regular torture feature of our travels. This meant we got in a fair bit of sleep by the time we got to the Vietnam/Laos border at 5am, two-and-a-half hours before the countries opened for business!

When the sleeper bus full of backpackers pulled up we were quite pleased with our choice of transport - it seems that the bus was overbooked, so some people who had paid the full fare ended up sleeping on a mat in the aisle with the Vietnamese and Laotians who generally hop onto the bus along the way and put a bribe in the driver's pocket. Not to mention the usual hassles with karaoke music at all hours, cramped beds etc. Score one for the shoestring travelers!

Through Vietnamese customs, a dollar poorer for the unofficial stamping fee, we walked downhill to the Laotian immigration, where the going was much easier, and the stamping fee official! With all our papers in order the bus set off into the mountains, and what a ride it was!

The sleepiest capital

Despite being roughly the size of Great Britain, Laos remains to this day with a very small population of some 6 million inhabitants. This is largely due to the inaccessibility of the land - the mountains are everywhere, making getting to and from anywhere an arduous task. The average speed of travel for buses is between 20 and 30km/h because there are no long flat stretches. The roads are a succession of hairpin bends that wind their way up a hill and down the other side, only to start going up again at the next mountain. This of course makes for spectacular scenery in all weather. On our trip from Vietnam the sun was shining and the skies were blue, providing an amazing contrast of green jungles, grey cliff faces and powder blue skies. As we got nearer to our destination the monsoon clouds moved in, and the scenery transformed itself - black shapes looming out of the grey rain, flooded paddy fields disappearing into the distance, and the occasional motorbike speeding past the bus. The scenery rolling by my window and the lack of traffic made me wish I could get onto a touring bike to explore the country on two wheels - if ever there was a place made for two-wheeled, petrol powered exploration, Laos's gotta be it!

Eventually our bus rolled into Vientiane's bus station, but we were wondering if maybe the driver was a bit confused - there was no way that this sleepy bus station was the main transport hub of a South East Asian capital. No pushy taxi drivers harassing us for our business, nary a tùk-tùk in sight, just some pick-up trucks with benches in the back. Eventually one of the drivers realized that there were fares to be had and gingerly asked if we would like to get into town. The ride into Vientiane's bustling centre was much the same - it felt more like a ghost town than a city, what with the wide avenues of recently surfaced streets, traffic lights and landscaped traffic islands.

Further exploration of Vientiane once we had secured some lodgings revealed that the same sleepy attitude spread all over town… In the sea of chaos that is mainland South East Asia, Laos is a secure island of calm where you can retreat to recharge your batteries. Our stay being limited to just over a week we decided to stop in Vientiane for a couple of days to explore the capital before moving on to the northern jewel of Luang Prabang. To make getting around easier we rented a bicycle - following the SEA Games of 2009 prices in Vientiane have skyrocketed, with tùk-tùk drivers asking for more than 5 times the price quoted in our guidebook. The sparse traffic and relative flatness of the land which Vientiane lies on made our exploration easier.

There are several Buddhist Wats to be seen in the city of Sandalwood, though most of them are of recent construction as Vientiane has been sacked several times in its history. The Wats that we stopped by had a somewhat run-down feel to them, looking in desperate need of restoration.

After the temples circuit we retired to the Mekong riverfront for some tasty Lao food served by street restaurants - open kitchens that seem to be permanently set up on the banks of the Mekong looking across the water at Thailand. The Laotian government is currently beautifying the riverfront area so beyond the pavement it was one big construction zone. We didn't dare dart among the heavy machinery for a closer look at the country across the border, but the presence of diggers didn't seem to put the Laotians off their evening stroll by the water.

Housed in the former French Governor's residence is the Revolutionary Museum, the rather disappointing national museum of Laos. The building itself is in dire need of restoration, and the displays inside start out well but sadly peter out when things start to get interesting. The first section of the museum is dedicated to prehistoric finds in Laos - the dinosaur displays leave a little to be desired but the information boards in English do a good job making up for that. The section on ancient civilizations is probably the best in the museum, bar the small display on hill-tribes. This may be due to the fact that there's a lot of foreign aid when it comes to prehistoric archaeological finds. Up a flight of stairs and into the minority peoples section, where the Revolutionary Museum displays interesting artifacts relating to Hmong, Kho and Lao Lao minorities that inhabit the mountainous regions of Laos.

From here the museum's informative fountain runs dry - the rooms dedicated to the struggle for independence from French rule and the Secret War are all labelled in Laotian. For a nation that has the dubious record of being the most bombed per capita in the history of the world, the people of Laos seem to be doing little to bring their plight to the attention of the foreign visitor.

With the afternoon sun baking down on the capital, we headed for the so called morning market (even though it runs till 5pm) looking for a respite from the sun. Housed in a four story building housing stalls selling everything from custom made clothing to pirated DVDs and household appliances.

Vientiane is not a city that you visit for its bustling night life, nor for adrenaline pumping action… you visit Vientiane to amble aimlessly from one Wat to another, taking in saffron robed monks walking under matching umbrellas, to admire enterprising tùk-tùk drivers who fit their vehicles with a hammock, enabling them to nap comfortably anywhere. Laos' geographical position, sandwiched between the regional giants of Thailand and Vietnam, make it a great place to stop for a while to recharge your batteries, to take a deep breath and enjoy the fresh air before you head into the chaos that lies east and west beyond the mountains.

For pictures of Vientiane, head over to my Picasa Web Albums!

At the top end

After a night of intermittent naps on the sleeper bus we were delivered into the hands of hungry guest house touts somewhere in central Ha Noi, from where we were driven (free of charge) to some of the properties the touts represented. Usually we don't take up the offers from the touts - the price will be inflated to compensate for the commission due - but on this occasion we got a reasonably priced, well furnished room right in the heart of Ha Noi's old quarter, with air conditioning to boot! Our first order of business in Vietnam's capital was to test the efficiency of the air con and the comfiness of the beds as we rested for a couple of hours to make up for the previous night's journey.

Once we'd rested and the afternoon rains subsided we hit the streets, searching for a taste of Vietnam's administrative capital. Walking along the side of the road (pavements are reserved for motorbike parking and shop displays) we wandered the myriad specialty streets: you can find anything you want in Hanoi, as long as you find the right street. Once you've found the toy alley, you are presented with a never-ending row of shops selling similar merchandise at variously fluctuating prices. Great if you're looking for just one thing in particular, but I can't image the amount of walking you'd have to do if you set out for a morning's shopping with a wide range of items to buy! The juxtaposition of street specialties is also a bit perplexing: you go from the haberdasheries to hardware, from restaurants and cafes to repair garages, and from beauty therapists to hat shops.

When you do find the right street, getting from one side to the other is a whole new experience. No where in S.E. Asia have we seen such an organized, free flowing, ordered chaos! There are no tricks to crossing the street, it doesn't matter than fifty odd motorbikes and cars are headed your way - just step off the pavement and into the flow. Walk straight ahead at a normal pace, and whatever you do, don't stop! Accidents seem to happen when people (read tourists) hesitate - if you keep walking, the bikers and cars flow around you as easily as fish in coral. I think there's no better way of describing being the pedestrian experience in Ha Noi than "Live Action Frogger".

The Old Quarter expands in a spider's web of diagonally connecting alleys with a great lake at its heart. This is where the action happens in the evening - expat joggers, courting Vietnamese couples, families out for an evening stroll, and plenty of traffic. The lake is home to Ngoc Son, or the Jade Mountain Temple, where one can see the embalmed remains of a giant turtle from the lake. There supposedly still are some giant turtles living in the lake, but the last documented sighting was in 2006.

Ha Noi is a good place to catch a Water Puppet performance in Vietnam - the Municipal Water Puppet Theatre has several shows each day at an affordable $2. The Water Puppetry stage is a large pond with a traditional Vietnamese orchestra to the right of the stage and a Pagoda as backdrop - the puppeteers hide in the pagoda. Puppets are mounted on wooden platforms either individually or in groups of up to 10 puppets. The puppets are controlled with a complex series of strings and sticks to recreate aspects of Vietnamese village life or to perform legends and dances. The show is presented entirely in Vietnamese, but the English program gives the titles of the various acts makes understanding the performance easier.

On our second day in Ha Noi we braved the public transport system to get to the Museum of Ethnology. Public buses in Ha Noi are very cheap ($0.16), air-conditioned, and efficient, but without a helping hand from an English-speaking Vietnamese its hard to get around. For starters, the listings are all in Vietnamese. Once you figure out which bus you must catch you have to keep your eyes on the busses rolling past the stop: the buses don't stop, they slow down to jogging pace. Once your has arrived, you have to run and join the jogging, jostling crowd trying to get on. We eventually got to our destination (a couple of blocks away from the bus stop) and ventured into the museum. It provides a very interesting and surprisingly detailed account of the various hill tribes that populate Vietnam, and we spent a good two hours soaking up the culture. The museum is well worth a visit, and braving the bus to get to it makes the visit feel like a great achievement.

From the museum we caught a tùk-tùk to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum complex hoping to catch a glimpse of the embalmed remains of dear Uncle Ho. When we got there we discovered that the mausoleum is only open till 11am (we neglected to check the times in our guide book!); and to add insult to injury the museum and other exhibits had closed for lunch, and wouldn't open for another hour and a half! With a bruised morale we set off on the 3km slog back to central Ha Noi, passing many more specialty streets along the way, among them what seemed to be "garish evening gowns street"!

The task for the afternoon was to book ourselves onto a Ha Long Bay cruise. The word "task" hardly does the effort justice - ordeal comes closer to describing our actions! The Ha Long Bay boat trip market is over-saturated with bad businesses, impostors, sharks preying on unsuspecting tourists. Everyone is out to make big bucks from Vietnam's most beautiful natural features, often at the cost of the enjoyment of visitors. Our Lonely Planet guide book warned us to seek out reputable tour operators like Sinh Cafe - the problem with that was to identify the REAL Sinh Cafe, as one out of every two travel agencies in Ha Noi sports the Sinh Cafe logo! Apparently Vietnam has no laws governing copyright infringement and abusive naming of businesses. To add to our confusion, our guide book has misprints in the Ha Noi chapter - every business listed has the same address! We decided to shop around and ask various operators for their prices and details about their boat. All the travel desks we visited had the same trio of leaflets, offering three tiers of boat - standard, superior and luxury. The prices quoted ranged from $28 for the cheapest, to somewhere in the region of $250 for the top notch boat. Since we are traveling on a tight budget, our option was limited to either the cheapest, standard boat with standard room (just a fan), or a superior room on a standard boat (meaning the room had air-conditioning). Since we only had to spend one night on the boat we opted to save ourselves $14 between us and book the standard room/standard boat option. We'd read online that people opting for the cheapest cruise often come away disappointed, so we approached our trip knowing that the accommodation would not be great, but after all, you don't visit Ha Long Bay for the boats, you visit for the stunning scenery!

Ha Long Bay

I've seen many great sights during my travels this year, but when it comes to Ha Long Bay I feel that my humble blog will struggle to convey the sheer beauty of this natural landscape. The bay is dotted with some two thousand island-mountains covered in lush green forest and imposing cliffs. The islands range in size from tiny islets to the largest, Cat Ba Island, that has a town and several resorts as well as a national park! The lush green and grey karst islands are complemented by a turquoise green sea, and the sheer scale of the bay means that throwing your gaze in any direction will provide a vista of distant islands fading gradually into the haze.

Some of the islands are home to impressive caves, but the South East Asian style of cave decoration puts a touch of kitsch in the natural wonders. Whereas in Europe a similar natural wonder would be adorned with subdued, almost natural looking lights, here in Vietnam the caves get the reverse treatment. No holes are barred when it comes to colours and creative application. Pinks, purples, greens and blues are everywhere, and a dragon shaped rock even gets a suggestive pair of eyes to help those with a sluggish imagination. I guess this is one of the great joys of traveling - to experience new ways of seeing the world, no matter how far removed from "the norm".

Between islands, whole floating communities have developed. These communities used to be only interested in fishing, but with the advent of mass tourism in the '90s they have expanded their area of interest to make a living off the visiting hordes. The people inhabiting the floating villages generally spend all their life on the water - they are born on the water, attend a floating school, earn their living on the water, and die on the water. All the amenities of a land-fast town can be found on the waters of Ha Long Bay - bank, post office, school, grocery shop, bar, restaurant - you name it, they've got it!

Now that I've attempted to describe the beauty of Ha Long Bay, I'll move on to the reality of life on the standard boat, and issue a warning to all would be travelers!

Our trip cost us a grand total of $27, which isn't much considering this included two days and one night on the boat, four meals, transfers to and from Ha Long, as well as entrance fees for the bay itself, the caves, and an hour of canoeing.

Our group of 20 (on booking we were told there would be no more than 16, maybe 18 passengers on the boat) was left sitting by the side of the road for a good hour or so after we were dropped of in Ha Long Bay, waiting to be herded onto a boat. Once we got onto the boat we spent a good hour moored no more than 50m from the shores of Ha Long City while we were served an underwhelming lunch of muddy river fish and steamed rice, but like I said before, we'd only paid $27 so we knew the food would be just bearable.

A pleasant surprise came when we were shown to our quarters, as we were given a room with air-conditioning (though this would only be turned on after dinner), so if we had indeed paid those $7 extra they would just have been more commission for the travel agency!

As we got to talking to our fellow travelers it quickly emerged that we had paid the least for the tour, and in some cases by many miles. A middle aged Australian couple out to celebrate the lady's birthday had paid for a superior suite and boat, somewhere in the region of $70, only to be put onto the boat with the rest of us. Another couple of Aussie ladies must have paid much more than that - they didn't outright say how much they paid for their trip, but I think they had requested the deluxe boat. Even among the other backpackers we had come out with the sweetest deal - the other "young" passengers had paid somewhere in the mid $30s for their trip.

The frustrations didn't cease with the boat's operation and catering - we spent a good hour moored at the canoeing pontoon absorbing the scenery before we were allowed off, only to be told that there weren't enough paddles, and we would have to wait a further 40 minutes for canoeists from other boats to return. By the time everyone returned to the boat the sun was nearing the horizon, meaning we only had a few minutes for a quick dip in the cool waters, as no one is allowed to swim at night. If the crew had planned things better we could have got the swimming done before canoeing, instead of sitting around for two whole hours observing the same stretch of (admittedly stunning) scenery.

In the evening there was no sign of the promised squid fishing, but the crew did make a half-heated attempt at getting us to join in the karaoke. We were more interested in idle chatting with our fellow travelers, most of whom were headed to the south of Vietnam, having done the S.E. Asian loop in the opposite direction to us. The evening was spent trading helpful hints about prospective travel destinations and drinking beers. It seems that we needn't have worried about missing out on the karaoke - passengers from other boats told us that when they tried to join in they were told that the only videos at their disposal were in Vietnamese!

We eventually retired to our room where we discovered that the air-con was only working half-heartedly, but since we got it for "free" we didn't really mind. What did bother me was that I had to repeatedly go to the galley to ask the crew to turn down the volume of the TV - they were all sound asleep on chairs and tables with the volume turned all the way up, and after a few minutes they would crank the nob right back up. It took me three trips before they finally gave in and left the volume down. I have noticed that the Vietnamese have an amazing ability to fall asleep no matter what sort of cacophony is surrounding them, unfortunately our crew seemed to think that we shared their same ability!

In the morning we woke to a basic breakfast of bread and eggs - some of us were served stale bread that the crew begrudgingly replaced after repeated protests. I was quite looking forward to a morning spent sailing the waters of Ha Long Bay, admiring more of the innumerable islands that dot the bay, but this was not to be. We spent most of the morning moored in the same place where we spent the night. We were given the option of swimming, but no one dived in as one of the crew retreated from the ocean with a great jellyfish sting. When we did eventually set sail the boat kept to open waters, making for an uneventful sailing with the islands tantalizingly shrouded by haze, but not near enough for us to appreciate their beauty.

Here's the wall of shame moment: our (heap of) junk was the Ha Long Party Cruiser - ask for it by name at your Ha Noi travel agent, and say you don't want to go within a hundred yards of that boat!

I can't emphasize strongly enough that we set out expecting rudimentary hospitality which would be amply compensated for by the natural beauty of Ha Long Bay, yet all we caught was a tiny glimpse of the wonders it has to offer, even though we spent such a long time on the water. Had I paid any more money for the trip I would have gone away from the experience with bitter resentment towards the whole Vietnamese travel industry, as I'm sure some of our fellow passengers were feeling by the end of the day. As things stand I came away from the experience relieved that for once my tight budget was an advantage to me!

I can live with the bad food, the noisy TV at night, even the fact that we were again left waiting for an hour for our transfer back to Ha Noi when we disembarked. The thing that I disliked most about the experience was the fact that we spent more time in Ha Long harbour and at our night anchorage than exploring the bay. My advice to anyone considering a trip to Ha Long Bay is to carry out as much research as possible, stick with reputable travel agencies, and book your trip directly in Ha Noi - that way you can go back to the office at the end of the trip if you've had a sour experience. Writing a letter to the Vietnamese Tourism body (and copying your travel agent in on it) is also a good way of making sure renegades are made to toe the line.

A better way to experience Ha Long Bay, and one that I would have considered given more time, would be to go to Cat Ba island for a couple of days and arrange day trips from there. Not all travel agencies in Ha Noi are run by crooks, and not everyone is out to rip off the unwary traveler, but among the sheep there are many wolves out for a quick kill.

Not wanting to end my notes on Vietnam on a sour note, I'll impart some advice that worked wonders for me: when the rats in your room are clawing at the partitions, when you see the crew of 6 share the same amount of food you shared with 16 others, or when you're charged at an extortionate rate of exchange for the already overpriced drinks, take a deep breath or two. Count to ten, and get your heart beating normally again. Then look out the window. Take in the scenery. Remind yourself that you're in Ha Long Bay, one of the greatest natural wonders Vietnam has to offer. Don't let the shoddy service get in the way of your enjoyment of this gem mother nature has created.

Photos will soon be on my Picasa web album!

Tickling the Dragon's Belly

If you look at a map of Vietnam, the country looks like a long dragon, with the Mekong Delta forming a curled tail, central Vietnam is the trunk of the body, and the mass of the north from Sapa to Ha Long Bay forms the head. From Da Lat we headed down to Nha Trang on the South China Sea to trace a path along the dragon's belly, stopping off at the major destinations of Hoi An and Hue. After sleepy Mui Ne with its never-ending strip of resorts it was a surprise to come into Nha Trang, a bustling city by the sea. It felt like what I imagine Surfer's Paradise would have been like in the 70s when the property boom was just picking up, with only a couple of skyscrapers lining the sea and plenty of people walking the streets.

We arrived in Nha Trang on Sunday afternoon, and the beach was chock-a-block with Vietnamese bathers, though they seemed to limit themselves to standing in the knee deep surf, so when I went in for a swim I had the deeper waters all to myself. The quality of the water was a great step up from that of Mui Ne, with nary a severed fish head in sight.
The following day we took a Four Islands boat trip with Mama Linh, which at a very affordable $6 included snorkeling, a floating bar experience, lunch, and a visit to four islands off the coast of Nha Trang. The only other foreigners on the boat besides us were a Dutch backpacker and an Aussie couple, and being outnumbered by Vietnamese tourists made for a nice experience, as we got to see what the locals do for entertainment, and all were very friendly. Its quite charming how foreigners become the centre of attention when they're outnumbered - everyone wants to know where you're from, what you're doing in the country, which place you like best etc. The question I love answering the most obviously regards where I'm from - no one seems to have ever heard of Malta, except for a couple of ardent football fans who'll have caught our mighty heroes playing one of the bigger nations on TV.
The first island we berthed at was the location for our snorkeling adventure, though to get to the coral reef we had to either pay $2 to ride 20 meters in a boat, or risk life and limb swimming through numerous party boats all jostling for a berth on the pontoon. Being on a tight budget we dived in and made our way through the hulking boats to the reef. I have to admit that I've only ever snorkeled over tropical coral at the Great Barrier Reef, so the reef of Mu Island was always going to be the underdog, but our experience wasn't much helped by the occasional plastic bottle or bag floating among the corals and giant clams. If Vietnam really wants to gain a place on the tourist trail then something needs to be done about cleanliness, and if you'll permit me I'll step on my soap box for a paragraph or two.
Its not just the sea that gets a bad treatment by the locals - go to any restaurant, and you'll see Vietnamese eaters chucking used napkins, empty beer cans, bits of chicken bone and cigarette butts under the table, ignoring completely the trashcan that sits at the corner of the table. The same applies to buses - things fly out the windows regularly, and people walking the street don't make much of an effort to hang onto their rubbish till they come to a bin. The only positive that we've noticed is that some people walk around collecting empty PET bottles and aluminum cans, presumably to cash them in at recycling centers. Just this morning we were sitting at a bus station and a young boy just threw his empty cup into a corner. If you don't catch them young, you'll never teach them! Vietnam (and the rest of S.E. Asia) please do something about your litter problem!
OK, backing down off the soap box!
After a very nice tropical lunch we were treated to a performance by Mama Linh's house band, self proclaimed to be the best boy band in the world! Well, they certainly get my vote for originality of instruments: their drum-kit was put together from old jerry cans, a paint bucket, and a copper plate. The boys went through a repertoire of some western songs and popular Vietnamese tunes before regaling us with national songs for the foreigners - though obviously they were quite stumped when I asked for a song from Malta! When the mandatory 45 minutes had expired after lunch we were allowed to jump into the sea for the floating bar - a glass of Da Lat wine with a slice of pineapple. The idea was very nice, but the sea had started to get a bit choppy, so our wine was a bit watered down by seawater!
Our final stop for the day was an island aquarium, and Justyna and I made the mistake of paying for admission - it was a heart wrenching experience, as besides the tropical fish (which are fine swimming in an aquarium) they had many sea turtles and giant fish such as grouper, moray eels and reef sharks in aquariums that were much too small and over crowded. If you are passing through Nha Trang and take a boat trip, take my advice and don't visit the aquarium. If enough people withhold their custom the party boats will get the message and change their itinerary!
From the aquarium island it was a short boat ride back to Nha Trang, where we had a little over an hour to find something to eat before catching a sleeper bus north to Hoi An.

Hoi An
Before we get to the details about Hoi An, I have to make an aside about the S.E. Asian Sleeping Bus. We'd seen these things advertised while in Cambodia, but our bus rides there were never long enough to warrant doing an overnight trip. The same cannot be said for Vietnam, as the leg between Nha Trang and Hoi An is a 600km, 12 hour marathon, and the leg between Hue and Hanoi covers more or less the same distance. The concept of a sleeping bus is pretty easy to grasp - replace the seats with reclining beds. Instead of wasting a whole day on a bus, commuters pass the night on a bus, therefore they waste no time at all, and arrive at their destination refreshed and ready to go. Simple enough, right? Well, in the execution things go terribly wrong. For starters, anyone of average Western height will have trouble fitting in the beds, for me, standing at over 188cm, its impossible. Same applies to anyone who's put on more than a couple of pounds round their waist. So if you're an average European you're going to have trouble fitting your seat comfortably. Then throw into the mix VERY LOUD Vietnamese karaoke music or stand up comedy (depending on the driver's mood), incessant hooting of the horn (at all hours), and Vietnamese people sleeping in the aisles and trying to get comfortable by putting their head on your pillow, or on your arm rest, or near your legs. Doesn't make for a very good night's sleep, but at least you save on $6-$10 accommodation!
And now, we start to talk about Hoi An, possibly the most charming town in Vietnam. This little gem of 19th century yellow houses, narrow lanes, tailors and lantern lit bridges is a Unesco world heritage site for its unique architecture. The town is very compact, and besides tourism, which is its main lifeline, there's a vibrant trade in custom made clothing and shoes. At the last count in the early noughties there were more than 200 tailors, to this day the number has more than doubled. This makes for a lot of competition between tailors, keeping prices reasonably low, especially when you consider that you're getting custom made clothing, prepared in 24 hours, to your exact specifications! Justyna was happy as a kid at Christmas hopping from one boutique to another choosing dresses, and all for under $15. I got myself a tailored shirt, and was thinking about getting custom made sneakers, but the prices they wanted weren't much lower than for an original pair of trainers so I declined.
If Hoi An is beautiful by day, its absolutely stunning by night. The myriad lantern makers flaunt their lighted wares in shop windows, and the city council seems to have taken a cue from them and lined the streets with colourful lanterns. This gives the yellow city a twinkle of colour that brings the night to life.

Just south of Hoi An we visited the ancient ruins of My Son, the best preserved ruins of the ancient Cham empire, one of the many great peoples to have populated Vietnam. Seeing the World Heritage listed ruins of My Son and knowing that they are the best preserved makes me wonder about the state of the rest of the Cham ruins throughout Vietnam - the place is in bad need of restoration, and the Vietnamese government is making slow steps towards bringing the ruins to their former glory with aid from foreign governments. The dilapidated state of the ruins is not only due to the ravages of time - The Viet Cong used My Son as operational headquarters during the American conflict; and the "liberators" thought nothing of bombing the historic location to drive the Viet Cong out. My impression of My Son was in no way helped by the fact that these temples are very similar to the temples of Angkor, and without informative displays I was left with feeling like I had visited a run down version of the Cambodian monument. Maybe My Son will be worth a visit in a few years' time, when the ruins are better restored and a proper visitor's centre or museum is in place, but as it stands, if you've seen the temples of Angkor a visit to My Son seems like a waste of time… maybe we should have left our culture vulture hats off for the day and visited China beach!

Hue
With three weeks in Vietnam and ten places to visit we weren't left with much freedom to dawdle, we had to be on a bus leaving Hanoi for Laos by the 30 June. After just two nights in beautiful Hoi An we had to leave the pretty little town to visit the former capital Hue.
Hue's biggest drawcard is its World Heritage Listed ancient Citadel and forbidden city. Hue was the seat of government from the 1802 to 1945 and the Citadel was the royal abode of the 13 emperors of the Nguyen dynasty. As with other culturally and historically important sites in Vietnam, Hue's citadel suffered massive damage during the American conflict. Its proximity to the DMZ coupled with its fortified nature made it an obvious choice as stronghold for the Viet Minh, drawing the incendiary wrath of the American war machine. Much of the citadel has been restored or is in the process of being restored: during our visit much of the Forbidden Purple City was a construction site. The areas that were open to visitors have been skillfully restored and some informative boards were on display. A video display outlined the ongoing repairs and showed a 3D model of what the citadel will look like once rebuilding and restoration is complete. I look forward to visiting again in a few year's time when the works are complete. Exploring the citadel on foot led us to lacunae of calm and quietude when we managed to get away from the masses of sellers and tourists.

The following day we took a Purple River Cruise - a cheap and cheerful $5 trip down the eponymous river visiting the nicer tombs of the Nguyen Dynasty, a Vietnamese Kung Fu display and the Thien Mu Pagoda.
The tombs are just what you'd expect the final resting place of an Asian emperor to look like - a cross between a pagoda and the best in Asian kitsch. Our visits seemed to be timed well enough to avoid big crowds, so we were free to wander in relative calm taking in the architecture and the artwork.
Thien Mu Pagoda is one of the most famous in Vietnam, and was the home of the venerable Thich Quang Duc, who publicly burned himself in Saigon to protest the repression of religious freedom and harsh measures of the government of South Vietnam. Thich Quang Duc had reached such a state of zen that after driving to Saigon he stepped from his car, sat in the lotus position, and covered in petrol set fire to himself. He did not utter a single word, didn't twitch, didn't react. He just sat there and burned, totally in control of his body. The back gardens of the Pagoda provide a shady respite from the crowds, as visitors seem to congregate towards the front of the complex where the Buddha shrines are located.
The highlight of our cruise was definitely the Vietnamese Kung Fu display. Though this martial art is not as "high" as Thai Chi or Chinese Kung Fu, it served the Vietnamese people well for nigh on a thousand years. Our guide explained that this was a true glimpse of the Vietnamese people - we could see as many pagodas and citadels as we wanted, but it was this fighting that made the Vietnamese who they are today. The country's tropical climate makes it a green and fertile land, an ideal shopping ground for the Chinese and Mongol empires of the north. Since Vietnam's population is so small compared to that of its northern neighbours, a fighting style developed that could be used by everyone, men, women and children, using weapons that could be found in the home - scythes, bamboo poles, and short knives. Were it not for the people's skill at repelling raids and attacks, nowadays Vietnam might be just another region of China.

Having seen the major attractions that Hue has to offer, we made our way to the pick up point for our second Sleeper bus in as many days: next stop, Hanoi!

The Sea, The Desert, The Mountain

Mui Ne, a 6km strip of sandy beach and posh resorts lies an easy 200km out of Ho Chi Minh - under normal circumstances, the trip shouldn't take longer than three hours. Well, this is Vietnam, there's no such thing as normal! It took us SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS to travel: that's an average speed of less than 30km/h! The bus left on time, but no sooner had it made its way around Pham Ngu Lao (the backpacker district of HCMC) than it got stuck in a never-ending traffic jam. Not once in the 200km trip did we leave a city, our first long distance bus trip in Vietnam didn't bode well for the rest of our trip: where was the green and pleasant country side of this Dragon shaped country? We'd have to wait till our next trip to find out!

Anyways, after that marathon of a bus ride we pulled up outside the Saigon Cafe, which has some basic bungalows facing the sea for $7 a night - a bit pricey, but then again Mui Ne is a resort town, and with all the tourist influx prices go nowhere but up! After a very poor dinner of gelatinous fishy soup we made our way to bed with the aim of getting up early to make the most of our one day in Mui Ne.

Mui Ne is famous for its fish sauce, but its quite a smelly delicacy so we steered clear of it, instead opting to go to the Red and White sand dunes, where some photo trickery makes it look like we're standing in the Sahara desert ;) The Red Dunes were easy enough to find on our motorbike, but for the life of me I don't know how people manage to find the entrance to the White Sand Dunes and the Lotus Lake. We must have spent the better part of an hour driving up and down past the several kilometers of white dunes, and not once did we come across any signage pointing out an entrance to the dunes. When our patience got the better of us, we hid the bike in some bushes and set off exploring the dunes on the seaward side of the road, but we were weary of having our bike stolen, so we didn't go down to the blue waters for a much needed dip.

On our way back into Mui Ne we swung by one of the many fishing villages where we say a group of ladies busy cleaning cockles and scallops for sale, as well as many of the wicker fishing boats that the Vietnamese use for fishing close to shore.

Perhaps if we'd shown up earlier in the day the village would have been a hive of activity, but seeing we visited in the hottest part of the day, most people seemed intent on taking a nap in the shade rather than going about their fishy business.

We returned to Saigon Cafe after lunch hoping to cool off our burned thighs (suncream evaporates MUCH faster when you're riding a bike!) in the sea, but sadly the sea wasn't very clean - discarded bottles, bits of broken boats, fishing line, dead fish… not a very inviting stretch of ocean. Lucky for us there was a diversion on the beach: the staff of Saigon Cafe were harvesting coconuts to make fresh drinks, and we got to see a guy expertly shimmy up the tall trees to hack away at the ripe green fruit.

The Central Highlands

The following morning we caught our open tour bus to the Central Highlands city of Da Lat, and I can happily report that Vietnam is indeed a green and pleasant land. This leg of the journey was the complete opposite of our trip from Saigon to Mui Ne: not once did we drive through a village of more than a few hundred people, most of the way was through pristine countryside and hilly terrain with stepped fields and lush forest.

Da Lat is a very popular holiday spot for Vietnamese people, and we had the great fortune of arriving in town on the Friday of a long weekend. It was the first time in our S.E. Asian adventure that we had trouble finding a room for the right price, though our perseverance eventually netted us a nice room at our average of $7 a night :) Once we'd got rid of our bags we set off to explore Da Lat and plan out our two days in the area. There are a few attractions worth visiting in Da Lat proper, most notably the Crazy House. This is an architectural experiment by a local architect who attempts to marry architecture and nature. The result looks like one of Lewis Carol's opium induced adventures :)

From the Crazy House we took a short stroll to Bao Dai Summer residence - the summer palace of King Bao Dai, Vietnam's last monarch. Unlike other Royal residences that I've visited, Bao Dai seems rather plain and unassuming, with none of the pomp and grandeur of Western royal palaces. Were it not for the cheap admission price (about $0.50) it would have felt like a bit of a rip off… if you're in Da Lat, this is certainly not a "must see"! The next item on our agenda was to be a ride on the

Cremailliere, a cog railway that winds through the mountains to a Pagoda, but the rainy season intervened and stranded us for a good 40 minutes under a bus shelter, by which time we were too late to catch the train! We beat a hasty retreat back to our lodgings to dry off and prepare for the next day's adventure…

Easy Riders of Da Lat

There are several groups of bikers operating out of Da Lat calling themselves The Easy Riders - the originals have spawned many copy cats, but it seems from our and other traveler's experiences that the level of service from the "copy cats" is generally as good as the originals. Anyway, original or not, we arranged to spend the day touring the countryside around Da Lat on a couple of 250cc bikes, starting at a nicely timed 8am; though thanks to our Vietnamese neighbor we were up at 5am listening to Karaoke!

The day started with a visit to the "dragon pagoda" - so called because, you guessed it, the running theme is dragons! We were surprised by the number of worshippers around, but our guides said that this was due to the long weekend, once the kids would be back in school the pagoda would return to a state of calm. Once we'd taken a few photos and had a good look around we set off into the countryside, and oh what countryside! Stepped fields of an iridescent green lining steep hillsides, winding roads that twist up mountains, lush forests, and a clear blue sky. We couldn't have had better weather for spending a day out on a bike.

Our destination was a K'Ho minority village, but on the way there we stopped at a strawberry farm (the only place they grow in Vietnam besides Sapa). At the village we were shown around the church / school playground, and a skilled K'Ho girl worked the loom to show us how they weave fabrics. We were given the opportunity to buy some crafts directly from the creators, but in a reversal of the laws of economy the objects were actually much more expensive than if we were to buy them from the market in town!

Once the group of riders who arrived before us had left, we were shown into the village elder's hut. The sprightly 60 year old gave us an overview of K'Ho village life, and explained how he can speak a little English from his time in Nha Trang hospital with the GIs, but that his French is much better because that's what he learned in school! He proceeded to demonstrate some traditional instruments such as gongs (twelve different pitches depending on size), some guitar like contraptions as well as flutes made out of gourds. The final surprise was a taste of rice wine direct from the fermenting pot. No wonder the elder was so talkative! He takes a swig of wine with every visitor!

From the K'Ho village we drove on to a coffee plantation (three different coffee bushes - mocha, arabica and robusta) and a flower farm. It turns out that Vietnam has an ideal flower growing climate - its sunny year round and with a constant temperature - but till a few years ago no-one took advantage of this, as the cost of investing in a greenhouse was beyond the means of your average Vietnamese farmer. Nowadays though the use of greenhouses is spreading and farmers are moving up in the world, as greenhouses give the added security of an almost guaranteed crop.

Once we'd learned a little about the Vietnamese floricultural industry we rode on to a silk weaving factory. Silk worm cocoons are soaked in warm water to loosen the outer threads, then one of the factory workers skillfully scoops the loose ends and feeds them into the automated machine. This spins at great speeds to spool the individual silk fibre into silk thread. This being a factory, the thread is fed into an automated loom that weaves the silk into different patterns. Depending on the finished product, the silk can be dyed before or after the weaving. During our visit the looms were churning out white silk fabric. The thrifty Vietnamese let nothing go to waste, not even the silk worms inside the cocoons. After donating their silk for clothing, the worms are made into a tomato based stew that is very rich in protein!

A short ride from the silk factory led us to Elephant falls - so called because back in the days when Elephants were common in Vietnam locals would bring them here to bathe. The falls were a gushing torrent of muddy water due to the recent rainfall, so our guide advised us against standing under the torrent, which was a bit of a downer as I was looking forward to a fresh water shower! Close to the falls we found the Happy Buddha pagoda, home to a giant Buddha of the fat variety with a great big smile on his face.

After our visit to the pagoda the weather started to close in, so we donned our waterproofs in case the heavens decided to open up. In any case we had been really lucky with the weather so far, and the attractions we still had to visit were indoors.

On the homeward journey we stopped at a rice wine brewery where we sampled some of the South East Asian firewater (at an undiluted 65% proof!). The rice wine is made as any other hard alcohol around the world - boiled rice is fermented in a still and the distillate is collected and watered down for sale. The interesting thing about the rice wine making was the fuel - instead of burning wood, the still is heated using the by product of coffee farming: the dried husks of roasted coffee beans.

From the moon shine still it was a wonderful ride through the mountains back to Da Lat, where our luck with the weather proved its worth - the heavens opened up into a downpour only as we stepped off the bikes to get into our guest house!

Da Lat left me with mixed feelings - the city is quite kitchsy and there isn't much going on, unless your kind of thing is riding round a lake on a giant swan shaped pedal. On the other hand, the experience with the Easy Riders was by far the best excursion during our stay in Vietnam with an interesting mix of stunning scenery and unique culture with a touch of adrenaline. If you're going to Da Lat, do yourself a favor, and spend as much time as possible away from the city making the most of the countryside!