After the very Mediterranean towns, this was our first proper Asian city in this country. And what a bowl of madness we thought, motorbikes buzzing in every corner, hordes of bikes. Luckily the traffic wasn’t nearly as unorganized as in Pnom Penh and we managed to get through it without incident.
Having found a good guest house we took the chance to see a bit of the city. Being in Asia you simply have to expect some quirkiness. Away from the traffic, one of the biggest reminders that you are in an Asian city is the sound of roosters in the morning. Another striking point is the average size of people. When we walked into the nearby park to see the locals do their aerobic work out (from kids to pensioners), we spotted a large Westerner trying to keep up with the thumping techno beats. Overtowering the crowd, it looked a bit like a massive orc had joined.
Nevertheless, the Vietnamese don't seem to take their own body size to serious. We had watched the Vietnam special of Top Gear, but seeing the tiny plastic chairs they use in many places for real was plainly funny. Funny but practical as we noticed one day when we had street food lunch near the banking district. All Asians are masters of improvisation and the successful “restaurant” we ate in, served all its meals on the narrow pedestrian walkways (like most). In these places the term "overcrowded" does not apply. In only a few minutes new tables and chairs can appear and every square centimeter will be utilized. Asking for privacy is only something that you do in real restaurants, which makes socializing inevitable, granting us a bit more of an insight into local life.
A great thing about the street food in Asia is the quality. It’s delicious, cheap and from our experience quite safe. In addition, you rub shoulders with members of all social ranks: builders, expats, the girl next door and managers to name a few. It was also on the street where we discovered our love for Vietnamese iced coffee. Thick and syrupy, infused with sweetened condensed milk, yumm. Being "textbook tourists" for a day, we also paid the war remnants museum a visit. A grim but very informative visit that showed us some dark aspects of the Vietnam war that we didn’t know about such as the widespread use of Agent Orange a chemical weapon that is responsible for horrific birth defects until today.
Our way North
After four days however, we had enough of the city and started our tour on the traces of Top Gear further north. Our journey led us through the hills into the mountain town of Da Lat. At 1500m altitude a pretty cold place with very European weather. A nice change after the heat in Cambodia and another spot to spend some time.
Escapade in the mudd
In Vietnam we had been very lucky with the roads and being such a populous and well developed country we trusted the maps that a road was a road. This turned out to be a big mistake. During that time the directions feature on Google Maps stopped working and we decided to take a road bypassing the busy highway. In the beginning it all went well. The road was wide and winding through a beautiful forest. After some time, however, the surface started to change but having been in Oz and Cambodian dirt road veterans, we enjoyed this change.
After some time the rain started to kick in, transforming some of the sections into mud pits. The maps suggested that this wasn’t going to last too long and the clean looking bikes coming the other way also suggested that this was only temporary. Some 20km further and numerous unsealed sections later, we drove through a shanty village for road workers where an English speaking local man suggested turning back, as he reckoned that the next sections would be even tougher.
Having gone through so much, the road being only about 30km longer and living up to the Top Gear spirit along the lines of “How bad can it be?” we carried on. The road was wide but the surface in many stretches remained as soft and slippery as butter. Despite that we progressed steady and accident free and people in the next village confirmed to us that the worst lay behind us.
What a bunch of bulldust. From this village on, the road turned into a hilly walking track. Going across cliff faces through rain forest, the scenery was stunning but the difficult terrain combined with a slippery surface that was comparable with a wet soap block drained our strength. It all started to look quite grim: Laura fell countless times and didn’t even have the strength to lift her bike anymore. Then, close to nightfall we were further slowed down by a one metre high, mud covered ascent that took the help of a local and one hour to cross. We told ourselves to stop at the next house we would find and ask if we could stay for the night, but our progress slowed down to walking pace and though we saw a settlement in the distance we arrived at such a badly washed out section which would have been tough even with the right tires and a big dirt bike during daytime.
Being totally exhausted we had no choice but to camp – in the rain. With nothing but a sleeping bag and two rain capes we set up for the night. The next morning things looked better and we managed to finish the torturous part. We finally reached a little village. It was truly rustic but being able to buy fresh water and food was all that we needed. The warm welcome by the local children brought tears of relief to our eyes.
We continued our way to a town called Buon Ma Thout where we took a well deserved break from this ardeous journey. Here, we enjoyed the privilege of being the only two "long noses" for a full three days!
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