We took the shitty tourist bus again to Dalat. Luckily it was the last time we had to take one. I broke my arse on the way as the bus was super uncomfortable. We again passed through some very pretty scenery. The thing I love about travelling in Vietnam is that the scenery is constantly changing all the time. We went up a very nice mountain pass and after the bus drove round the houses (I only realised when we took a bike ourrselves) we arrived in Dalat. Twice before we got there I thought we had arrived and thought the town was nice but not what I was expecting. Luckily when we arrived properly it was exactly what I was expecting and was a cool little mountain town. You could feel like you were in Andorra. It looked like it would be a good place to spend Christmas. On the bus Cannelle was hit on by a Dutch guy as I was sitting at the back and it made me laugh listening to his lame attempts. They dropped us at a hotel where the bus always drops people so that they can monopolise guests. The woman said a price and then raised it afterwards so we decided to look elsewhere. We eventually got a very cheap place and grabbed some vegetarian food. There we met a Dutch couple who reinforced that everyone thinks people in Laos are amazing and people in Vietnam are shit. We can't be the only people to think the reverse surely. Our cheap hotel kept trying to sell us a tour and the Easy Riders will jump you everywhere you go here. Other than that its a nice town.
The next day we grabbed breakfast at a cool bakery and set off for the palace. On the way we came across the Crazy House. Damn LP. They have it marked in the other direction on their map. It was pure chance that we found it. So if you head here, go in the direction of Bao Dai Palace and keep an eye out on your right for the crazy house. It does have a Gaudi esque feel, though it is also much more plastic in its layout. Guess who we met in the house again. Yep the Spanish guy. Five times on one trip. We finally got a photo together this time. The house is really cool. Its fun to wander around and try to visit as many nooks and crannies as you can. After we headed to Bao Dai Palace. Its not expensive, but it really is shit. What a waste of a walk. The cheap entry fees are an advantage here though as you never feel too bad if the thing you go to see turns out to be super shit. We visited the church and were still searching for a restaurant for christmas. Most of them were too expensive or insisted in serving turkey (traditional I know, but I don't like it much). We went to the bus station and got an excellent noodle soup just before we got there. The buses to Ho Chi Minh City were very expensive, so we would have to take a night bus. We wanted to visit Cat Tien National Park from Dalat and all the things along the road before coming back and heading to Ho Chi Minh City. I wanted to find the train station, but the taxi driver was being a dick and not telling us unless we took his taxi. They really aren't as nice in the South. We went down to the lake and took a walk around until we came to the flower garden. Its a nice place and well worth a visit. New Orleans were finally eliminated. It had been coming. Shit season for us. We found a restaurant for Christmas and met my friend Laura, who I hadn't seen since we were in Panama together. She was there with her boyfriend. We had a really nice meal at a restaurant by the lake. They put the music on a little high though. Cannelle was able to ask her about travelling with Tom and how it was to raft down the Amazon. Here is where you can see the real contrast between a normal experienced traveller and Zoltan. While Zoltan would have tried to make out that it was superhuman and only he not some mere mortals could make it, Laura was super modest and passed it off as nothing. Cannelle said it was difficult to get her to admit that it was even remotely challenging. Breath of fresh air and that's how travellers usually are. It was really good to catch up after so long and it was a really nice meal.
The next day we met up to climb the nearby mountain. Laura was a little sick and the three girls decided they would go by bus. Marti (Laura's boyfriend) and I went looking for bikes. Being the city of love for Vietnamese people, we could only find tandem bikes. Not quite what we were looking for. So we figured we would take the bus as well. UIt was very cheap. 12,000 one way I think. Everyone takes jeeps to the top, but we decided to walk. You hike up through the pines and it is quite pretty. Not amazing and not worth going out of your way, but if you have a spare day why not. You get some nice views of the lake from the top. We met a Dutch carpenter and four of us decided to hike to the top of the other mountain for some exercise and also for the view. Cannelle and Jessica went back to Dalat. We had a good chat and a good laugh and chilled out at the top for about half an hour before the clouds rolled in and we headed back. We went looking for motorbikes for 3 days to go and visit Cat Tien. Problems. Lots of problems. When we wanted the bikes for more than a day, the prices either doubled or we were told that we could not have the bikes. I think you would have better luck from Ho Chi Minh City, but I think here they want to protect the Easy Riders. They told us that it was a security issue that they couldn't give us bikes. I said they had our passports. They said that we might have two and could steal the bike. I pointed out that if that was true (unlikely) we could easily do that if we had them for only one day. Checkmate. Still they did not budge. If we took a 'guide' with us for $70 a day we could have the bikes. Fuckers. Oh well. We would just take the bikes for one day and blitz the road as far as we could. That'll teach them. It meant that we were unlikely to go to Cat Tien though. We had told Peter that we would not make Sihanoukville for New Year. That all changed now as it was much more likely we would make it. Jessica had met a couple of French guys in our hotel and they wanted to join us for dinner and the next day. First impressions were not good. I thought they seemed like dicks. One asked if there was any reason why we were speaking English. Cannelle and Jessica pointed out that they wanted to keep their English up and that we would not speak French together (unless they could not understand something, when we used it). While we were eating one of the French guys was late in receiving his beer so he asked the waitress 'are you brewing my beer?'. I couldn't believe he said that. It was so rude. I think he meant it as a joke, but in English it did not come across well. Cannelle said that it doesn't work in French either. The other French guy was telling us how he had made a lot of money through fruit picking in Canada. I thought that maybe we could try it in Australia then, but he said you didn't earn much for the first few months while you became an expert in it. Oh well. We did not have that many months to fuck about, so it would have to wait. The meal was nice in the Art Cafe and we agreed to meet at the bus station the next day with our bikes.
We got up early and took the four bikes. We were going to try to do as much of highway 20 as we could. We went to the bus station and waited for Laura, but she didn't make it. We gave it half an hour and then decided to set off without her. We started off by heading to the pagoda and lake about 5km out of town on highway 20. Its a very peaceful place just on the right and we spent about 20 minutes walking around. One of the French guys was suffering from flu and the wind from the bike was too much for him so he had to abandon the day. The other guy left his camera on his bike and when we came back two guys were sitting on our bikes. He couldn't see his camera and then one of the guys handed it to him. I am not sure if they were protecting the camera or stealing it. It split opinion. You can really see the cynics and the optimists in this situation. Oh well. At least he had it now. In the car park Jessica fell off her bike in slow motion as well. She just started to fall, couldn't hold the weight and ended up on the floor. We set off on the road again and the first stop was Pongour Falls. I had google imaged it the day before and I figured someone had tagged it wrong as that could not be the waterfall. If it was, why wasn't it in any guidebooks. We arrived and through the trees you could just see a trickle. Ah I was right. You can walk across the top of the waterfall, jumping from rock to rock and you can see where the water drops off, but we couldn't find the way down at first. Eventually we did and wow, just wow. It is that waterfall. This is one of the best waterfalls we had seen on our trip and it is mentioned nowhere. You really have to check this place out. Its only about 42km from Dalat. I think the nearby dam may have robbed it of some of its power, but it is still a really impressive waterfall to see. Its in a canyon and cascades down over rock terraces as if its a rice terrace of water. I can't do it justice. Just go. The setting is super picturesque with a lagoon off to the right that is ripe for swimming. The path down has a cool tree that has crushed the barrier and cut off the path. You get the feeling that this was a top tourist attraction that has now been neglected. All the better, as you can have the place to yourself. The French guy fell into the water on one of the little terraces and then lost his motorbike keys. Fuck sake. Luckily for him he had left it on the bike again and the car park guards had found it and kept it for him. After we set off again on route for Dambri Falls. The day was already a great one. We stopped in the town near the waterfall that's 120km from Dalat and had an amazing lunch. Really, really good. If you are riding highway 1 look for the turning to the left to go to a lake (you will see the signs) and the place we ate is just round the corner on the left hand side. Really nice. Great people as well. We asked for directions to Dambri and got directed bit by bit to the road to the waterfall. I think the locals sent us the quickest way, but it was not the easiest as we didn't know the area. I am sure there must be a sign off highway 1 so hold out for that. Its another 18km off highway 1, but the road is really beautiful, cruising round lanes and past coffee and tea plantations. Both of the roads off the highway are really nice and the road itself is also really cool. We eventually arrived at the waterfall and bumped into Laura. They had been trying to catch us after having problems with their bike and had actually arrived before us. We went round the lake and down to the waterfall. Its really pretty, though its not as cool as Pongour. Its worth the drive, though it makes it a long trip. While we were down at the waterfall a local guy came and just started talking to us. His friend said he was crazy and he just kept talking even though we didn't speak Vietnamese. I laughed at the French guys facial expressions and choked on my coke. Which made all the locals laugh as I was dying. We spent some time at the waterfall and then went on the little toboggan ride they have here. Its very cool as you control your speed. You brake when you feel like it. This adds to the excitement but also the danger. How far can you push it? There are places that tell you to brake but are they advisory or compulsory. I broke most times, but started to let it ride. There were some guys standing on the sharpest bend so maybe that was to catch people. I let it slide a bit, but it got a bit scary so I broke again. Fun ride though. Push it as far as you dare. There is a shitty little waterfall on the other side and we had gone for the ride 2 ways. The French guy got on and they didn't fasten his seatbelt. I heard him shouting no as the guy pushed him off. I fought to get mine on. Shit that was dangerous. Or so we thought. It turns out that the ride back is not a real ride and that you are just towed round the track to where you started from. Oh well. If you are not too lazy then just take the one way and walk back. After we had to head back. 140km in one guy. Cool lol. We would end up riding nearly 300km in one day which is a new record. We hammered their bikes because they did not rent them for more than one day. Jessica's bike was burning petrol as it had the same engine cut off problems that our bike had had in Hue. In the town a woman pulled out in front of us. Bitch. I slowed down and kept looking for the turning when she just stopped. Bitch. I couldn't hold the weight from braking and the bike fell on my knee. It was ok, but I was bruised again and again we had another incident with a motorbike. I was not having any luck with bikes and I think my knees were always taking a beating. Other than that it was an uneventful ride back, but everyone was uncomfortable in the dark. We had the most amazing sunset with pink and purple skies. Stunning. I was getting distracted by the beautiful scenery in my rear view mirror so we stopped for some photos. As the sun came down, the insects came as well. I think I have never been so blinded or eaten as many insects as I did on that ride. Lovely. We got the bikes back around 8pm or so and had dinner with Laura before heading to the bus station. This time from Dalat we took a local night bus and unlike the monkey circus that is with the tourist buses, we had assigned seats, everything was civilised and we even swapped seats with some locals so we could get the longer seats at the back.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City really early and went for a coffee in a local cafe while we waited for places to open. We found a really cheap hotel. The people were really pushy though and wanted Jessica to take a room as well. We had no hot water but it was cheap. Cannelle hated it and had a little bit of a tantrum, but sorted it out. Jessica got a dorm next door. We ended up staying there for the three days. We had thought about visiting Cao Dai and the Melong Delta from Ho Chi Minh City, but we decided that we might just stay in the city and enjoy it for a few days instead. We went to the Cambodia Embassy first to get our visa. It is a small building and the embassy staff were lounging round a pool outside. Hmm. I don't get the impression Cambodia will be a stressy country. Again they didn't give a shit that we didn't have a photo. It seems totally irrelevant. They said come back the same day and we paid $22. We went to the Jade Temple which was ok and saw the huge pool full of far too many turtles. Then we went to the history museum, which is in a really nice building and because it is so cheap its nice to visit as well, but nothing special. We were getting the impression that Ho Chi Minh City was not really about the sites. We bumped into Ronny and Stanny outside and as they saw us first they would have to pay for dinner, but we had forgotten about that. In the afternoon I pissed the others off so I went off on a Burger King hunt. I had seen signs near the very impressive Notre Dame copy of a cathedral and I wanted to find it. I eventually did and then went to meet the girls at the poolside Embassy to pick up the passports. The downtown is super rich and this looked like a city where we could live. Super modern. We managed to avoid the shitty backpacker area for the time we were here as well. We watched some music performances in the square, involving some traditional dance, girls spinning flames while on bikes and various other cabaret style performances. There were even some people doing dance gym sessions and a photo exhibition which was very Parisian in style. Looked like a city with a good cultural scene, which we need to live in. We went to find a Mekong Tour, but all the recommended agencies were super expensive. Also the tours looked very meh. They reminded us of Inle Lake and it didn't look like you see anything really special down there. Lots of factory tours. We decided not to go. We found one company who told us not to go for the floating market in one day as we would arrive too late to see the market, which is very true as it had been very early at Inle Lake. I trusted this guy so Jessica booked a one day tour for Sunday. We also decided to book our bus tickets to Cambodia. Jessica booked all the way to Sihanoukville, but I got us tickets just to Phnomh Penh as I didn't trust the connection would work. You'll see how good my decision was there later. Spurs won 4-0 against Aston Villa and we were on our way up the table. We were too tired to do anything in the evening.
In the morning we grabbed breakfast overlooking the road. I did some writing, while Cannelle went for a haircut that included a long massage. It ran a little long and we didn't really have enough time to go to the water park that we had wanted to go to, so we decided to go to the art gallery. Its really cool. Better than the one in Hanoi, which we had also liked. We went for dinner with Stanny and Ronny and it was really nice. We found an English place and I had cereal and cheese on toast. Missing all the things from home. They paid for us, which was really nice and then we went to see the Hobbit. Good film, but not as good as Lord of the Rings. Kimberly was in Cambodia as well and we may be a lot for new year, though she never actually replied to me, so we didn't meet up.
It was raining in the morning and it was our last day in Vietnam. We decided to take the bus to district 7 and see the rich district in the south. We walked around the crescent which is really nice. Lots of weddings down there with the photographer getting them to do stupid poses. So glad we didn't have a photographer for our wedding. Its really nice down there, but super lifeless. In the future, if it gets some character, it may be a good place to live. We went to pizza hut for lunch and bought the Malaysia book, which was a gamble, but it was cheap and we could start planning. We decided that if we needed too much time in Indonesia then we would drop either the Philippines or Papua New Guinea and do them next trip. That would depend on Tom. If he is coming we will drop Philippines if we need to. If not then it will be Papua New Guinea, but we will see how we go and we will start the next trip with the missed one. We went and watched the Vietnamese film Cold Summer. It was an odd film. The style is different to the west but it was worth watching, especially seeing the clearly cultural stereotype of Cambodians that had the audience laughing. Ah prejudice. Alive and well. We were really enjoying the city though. I could live here. More than Bangkok maybe. Jessica had been to the Mekong Delta. She said it was ok, but nothing special. We figured. No loss there then. Spurs won 2-1 against Sunderland to continue our run and we decided to head out clubbing in Apocalypse Now for the last night. They always hassle you with 'would you like a beer?' which is annoying and still most people stand around, but at least some people dance in Vietnam. More than in the others. There were some fat Aussie guys who kept trying to hit on Jessica and it seems like everyone was just hitting on her. Does not seem like many people go clubbing in Vietnam just to dance. Oh well. The DJ was not as good as for Bangkok, but we still had a fun time. Nice way to sign off. The next day we would take the bus to Phnomh Penh and we were off to Cambodia. We were really sad to leave Vietnam behind. A great country and the only one we would definitely go back to. Yesterday while crossing the border I realised why I prefer travellers in Latin America to Asia. Not just that they are younger, less experienced and less interesting here. Its also a matter of vibe. It seems like with the exception of people who want to see everywhere, most travellers travel in the region that most identifies with their personality. Well Asian travellers tend to be quieter, more hippy, like personal space and be less expressive and slower, more peaceful. Like Asia. Not my style. Latin American travellers tend to be very energetic, full of life, love dancing, love socialising and like tactile people. Much more my kind of people. Funny that. I still love Latin America much more than I do Asia, but Vietnam is the closest in terms of being a place I like. Much more energy, more in your face and more interesting. Then again they are the antithesis of what the introverted Asian travellers like.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment