I write this in a state of excitement and anticipation as I await the arrival of the fabulous Gill landing in Hanoi for a 2 week holiday on saturday night. What a trooper, its the wettest of the wet season, its a 2 plane journey (or 15 months by bike), temperature's averaging 36 degrees, and she's bringing various bike parts, her boyfriend, chocolate and wine, as another long term cyclist said to me the other day 'it'll be nice to have friends', how very true.
But I'll reign it in and get on to Vietnam. In many ways Vietnam is picture postcard... woman abound in conical hats. I had a go at one myself as a girl pursued me on her motorbike to flag me down and give me one so I wouldn't continue to toast myself (oh how they mock me and my suntanned skin). I was both touched and grateful at the time as cycling up hill it keeps the sun out of your eyes/off your shoulders, it allows a bit of air around so you don't get a hot head AND it acts as an umbrella, really, what could be more useful in a country of blistering sun, exhuasting temperatures and torrential downpours? Well as it happens it was a right bloody hazard. It had to go when on one particular, though fairly typical, downhill the wind blew under (as it does) creating enough lift and movement to allow its aerodynamic properties to take over, whereupon it suddenly flipped forwards, fixed firmly in front of my face thus blinding me whilst hurtling downhill at approx. 30km/h...let that be a warning to you. I found this a surprising turn of events as Vietnamese women wear them everywhere including whilst riding bikes and never seem to have a problem...however they are cycling so slowly that I am stunned they don't fall off.
The country is also covered in wonderfully luminescant rice paddies. The beautiful sunlight reflected through golden green paddy fields is a sight I never tire of. I've watched films with paddy fields in the backdrop and wondered how they manged to make it look so intensely green and perfect, but that's just the way they are, rich, vibrant, glowing carpets of lush juicy green as far as the eye can see, dotted with the occassional conical hatted worker planting, thinning or pushing a bicycle along the raised verges that act as little walkways dividing the curved and patchworked fields. Add to this the sound of frogs croaking, the occassional water buffalo grazing or wallowing in rivers and you can* have idyllic riding conditions.
We have also spent some time mooching around in the tropical forests protected by national park status. A highlight (high being the operative word) was Bach Ma. Keen environmentally minded citizens of the world that we are we offered to test ride the road up to what was the old French hill station, which at the time of our arrival you could only reach by minibus (cycles 'prohibited'), to see if it was suitable for bikes thus doing our bit for sustainable travel.
WELL F*** ME! This was a mountain, 1256m, starting not much off sea level, over 13km. I really thought we were going to die. J had water running off him like he was standing in a shower. This was possibly the hardest cycling we have ever done, right up there with cycling over mount Nemrut in Turkey. It was so damned steep I had to ride partially hunched over my handlebars just to stop myself from pulling wheelies and keeling over the edge. For those who care to know it was an average climb of 10% though at times steeper. It took about 4.5 torturous hours. But hell the view was amazing. As for our experiment we wrote a report advising against anyone but a hardcore cyclist attempting it again...preferably without their panniers on.
I was surprised to discover though that Vietnam is not as lush and forested as my imagination, and the odd war film, had led me to believe. Pressures of a growing population (there is a 2 child policy in force though what that means in reality I'm not sure), a tradition of slash and burn agriculture still practised by the hill tribes, the unsustainable (and often illegal) exploitation of timber products, combined with the persistant effects of the liberal dosing of Agent Orange the Americans gave the country, has left most of the once lush forested hillsides naked and exposed, its soil eroding and silting up rivers and its wildlife hanging on by a thread, or sometimes not at all. Only by cycling through the mountains can you truly experience how vast this devastation has been, forest only now clings to areas of hillsides given the protection of 'National Park' but even there illegal logging and poaching continues. And I won't get started on the trade in endangered species, but it is a HUGE problem and not all that hidden either, where the average income is $1 a day though its no wonder people trap and trade wildlife valued at hundreds of dollars for food, pets or medicine. Vietnam has hardly any wild bears left at all as the vast majority (at least 2,500) are stuck in cages on bear bile farms the bile being used in Traditional Chinese Medicine despite there being many other ingredients which serve the same purpose.
Ok while I'm on one I'm going to quantify my can* of earlier...you can have idyllic riding conditions if only you could shrug off the 'We got horns n we're gonna use em' style of reckless, crazy driving which makes the Indians look cautious. Seriously, they drive on the right here...right up until they want to turn left that is (or actually when its just a bit inconvenient to go onto the right), then they move onto the left side of the road and cruise round into the left lane and gradually make their way back over to the right. Imagine 4 lanes of traffic all coming head on and no clear lane to carry on into, everyone just kind of races towards each other blasting their horns, he/she who blasts loudest/longest is coming through so you best GET OUT THE FECKIN WAY LADY!!! Coupled with the ol' give way to the right rule that everyone else in the world abandoned decades ago makes these roads the most unpleasant I've cycled on. J is still on the side of India being worst but for me Vietnam wins hands down. I actually got knocked off by a scooter the other day, fortunately I was going slowly as I'd already been cut up by a lorry veering from the outside lane across 3 lanes of traffic to turn off, I am fine by the way, I'm good at falling, something like a kung fu master.
But ever onwards another beautiful high point to Vietnam happened almost upon entry. We went to Tay Ninh to visit the main temple of the Cao Dai religion. The Cao Dai-ists have taken a little bit of everything, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, chucked in some confuscian philosophy, mixed it up with a dash of the occult and communing with the dead for guidance, and served it up in temples decorated so fantastically you just want to believe. They're all vegetarian, spend ages singing and drumming whilst wearing great outfits and espousing non violence. What more could you want I ask you?!
My favourite town though has been Hoi An, some people aren't too keen as its really touristy but I quite like that as it means the attention we normally get, which at times is fierce, gets divided amongst lots of people and for a little while we become annonymous. It is also touristy for a reason, its incredibly beautiful. The town, once an old trading port has been declared a UNESCO heritage site. Its a laid back mixture of rustic builings and narrow alleys, with a lovely river front lined with food stalls and small restarauts. At night the streets are alight with the soft glow of oriental lanterns for sale, as well as sumptuous silks glittering from the multitude of tailors shop fronts (there's also an abundance of lovely shoes). Yep its all for the tourists but I loved it.
I also did my advanced diving not far from Hoi An on Cham Island, keen as I was after my Koh Tao experience. As part of this I dived to 36m (where things start to get a bit dark) and did a night dive...I thought this would absolutely freak me right out, as I'm none too keen on the dark on land, but I just loved it, loved it, loved it AND i saw sea horses! They had their little tails curled around whip coral like they were holding on in the breeze, shrimps and eels look pretty darned cool at night too but sea horses...happy, happy, happy.So basically apart from the above we have spent time riding and trekking through hill tribe areas, spotting widlife including outrageous caterpillars, crazy stick insects and rarer than rare langurs (though try as I might I am yet to spot a slow loris). We have cycled most of the Ho Chi Minh highway marvelling at the Rong houses, pot bellied pigs and propoganda along the way. We have sampled rice wine at a wedding, 'it'll put hairs on your chest' springs to mind, eaten festive foods which made James ill for 3 days and trapped us in a town the like of which I believe the phrase 'middle of nowhere' was made for. I have subsisted on a diet of bindweed and noodles for longer than I care to think about. I've learned to love vietnamese coffee (possibly the strongest coffee in the world) and didn't take much persuasion to love the bia hoi which is conveniently cheaper than water.
Our next 2 weeks will be spent touring Halong bay, Hanoi and Sapa as proper tourists with friends (yip!). Afterwards I'll be fitting good ol' Trusty with my newly delivered tyres, a brand new saddle and wearing my new padded pants, you have no idea the amount of time I spend thinking about, or trying not to think about, my bum. All being well and newly kitted up we will head north to China, Korea and Japan.
Ever onwards (with a new improved comfortable ride I hope).
tx
