Mmm, just looked and saw that my last post was nearly three weeks ago. Time for an update...
A very rare shot - A guy stopped to take a picture of me riding, so I got him to take one for me too. (I've not got others of me riding - my timer wont go that long)
At the time of my last post I was about to go out to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and welcome in the year of the rat. Well I did, and to say that Hanoi was a bit crowded would be an understatement. The stage that I mentioned being set up the day before was in full swing and you couldn't move in the crowd. For some unknown reason people were attempting to "ride" motorcycles through a crowd that you couldn't even walk through, so that just made it worse. It was ideal territory for pick pockets, and I knew it, so as I weaved through the crowd I had both my hands in my pockets and my arm firmly pressed against the camera that hung on my belt. But there was one pocket I hadn't covered, outside the ones with my hands and they got to that. I lost a little bit of cash and a plastic ATM card (not a credit card), so the only thing they could use was the petty cash. But my cards are spread out to avoid loosing more than one in any one loss, and the cash too is spread out and I only have small amounts available for these type people. So the impact on my trip, basically nil. Aah... The upsetting part was that the phone call to Australia to report the card stolen cost me $22 USD. "Which Bank" has the longest telephone queues... That's a statement, not a question. - Aussies who remember their advertising will understand)
Due to the type of loss it wasn't worth reporting locally so I left Hanoi the next morning as planned, to hit what I hoped would be deserted roads. And they were. The old part of the city, that had been so full of traffic the day I arrived that you couldn't move for motorbikes, was so empty that you could fire a gun down the middle of the street and hit nobody. When I got to the highway it too was largely deserted, there were cars and motorbikes there but very very few, and virtually no buses or trucks.
Deserted streets in old Hanoi on New Years Day -compared to before the new year.
New Year balloons, Somewhere along highway one - south of Hanoi
As the day progressed and I moved further away from Hanoi down Highway 1, a few places started to open for business, but the major traffic was still couples walking down the street, enjoying the rare peace. There were many cafe's and hotels closed for the holiday(s) but a few open, so you could still eat, sleep and ride.
For the next week I'd be staying in small hotels in minor cities or towns and in nearly every case I was the only customer (I think this is common in these places when it's not new year too)
Traffic slowly increased each day, just how much quieter it was than normal I don't know, but it wasn't like I'd been expecting, nor like what I'd seen from the inside of the bus when travelling up to Hanoi to start the south bound Vietnam leg. The quietness of the roads didn't help for some though. On one day, I saw 2 separate accidents with fatalities that had yet to be taken away, at one site someone receiving CPR at the other site a caring wipe of a loved ones forehead and tears. Between these, another one where the riders had survived and were still sitting where they had landed rubbing injured limbs and receiving a caring hug. All involved a motorbike and tin top (car, truck, bus) and it was the bike riders on the road. And all this happened on what I consider to be a not very busy Highway 1.
I'd seen many a motor bike on the roof of a bus but never the loading process until this day.
Of the drivers on the road the bus drivers seem to be the worst - as far as driving at crazy speeds though places that they wont fit (Until somebody moves out of their way). But the bike riders are incredibly unpredictable. They too do absolutely crazy things, so many NEVER look Left OR Right before entering a major highway from a side road, they just turn onto the highway (left or right turn) and expect a blast on a horn if there is traffic - at which they swerve onto the shoulder (where I am). Another annoying pastime of the motor bike riders is coming alongside me (the rare bicycle tourist), riding beside me for a while, then pulling in front of me with about half a metre clearance and slowing right down such that I have to hit the anchors to avoid hitting them from behind.
Another crazy thing about the roads here, that contributes to the road toll is the crazy speed limit system.
The crazy Vietnam highway speed limits. (why buses blast down the road scattering motorbikes)
Highway one is a single lane in each direction. Why they have four different speeds for four classes of vehicle I have no idea. It means that buses doing their speed limit tear down the road blasting their horns much faster than the bikes that are in the same lane. The slower (by law) bikes have to scatter to avoid being hit from behind by the faster moving bus. It's traffic mayhem.
As a tourist, most small businesses will try (and in many cases succeed) to overcharge you - some form of tourist premium. When you find one that doesn't you have to remember that price, so you can then quote it back at all the others. But until then you just pay the premium suspecting you are being ripped off but not knowing by how much. Many businesses would rather miss out on the sale than lower the price for you though. If you don't know the real price, you convert back to your home currency and think that it is cheap, or reasonable, and pay, even though it is twice the normal price here.
The old North/South dividing line - the old bridge across the river is closed and been replaced by a new modern one on the right.
All that said, I'm really enjoying Vietnam. I like the people, the place, the food, sure it would be nice to have prices printed on the labels like in India and Nepal so that you couldn't get ripped off, but then that only works for packaged goods. You can pay 5000 VND for 1 kg of apples here, I have twice, but the rest of the time they are 16000 to 25000 per kg and they refuse to lower, preferring to miss out on the sale. You can get Pho for anywhere between 5000 and 30000. 10000 seems to be the going rate for locals (and me at a few places), but 15000 & 20000 seems to be increasingly popular. (An Aussie dollar being around 13000 VND, so its all still cheap with foreign currency). I'm glad I didn't listen to the guys that told me to stay in Laos and skip Vietnam, it may have been cold and wet for the first month here, but I wouldn't want to be missing any of this. Its even good when the food ordering doesn't go as planned, I really enjoy getting things that I never would have thought to order, or wouldn't know how to order. And given the lists of "body parts" that you can get in your soup in Richmond (Vic, Aust) I was expecting to get all sorts of things here, but if you get a Pho Bo (Beef noodle soup) the pieces of "steak" that they slice into the soup look truly splendid. In DaNang I had the pleasure of the beautiful "Tu Nga" showing me some of the local cuisine, she took me on her new motorbike to several places to taste their speciality, and again when I returned to DaNang a week later for my Visa Extension. Thanks Tu Nga. :-)
Tu Nga adding some personal touches to the new bike
The cost of accommodation here varies mainly due to the size of the city you are in, the larger the city the larger the price - the one exception to that I have seen was Hue which is very touristy and has an over-abundance of competing empty hotels so was cheaper than I'd have expected. But generally 10 USD will get you a very comfortable room anywhere that I've been, and in the cheaper places you'll get an even better room for 6 USD. I've posted a few photos of rooms to show what they are like - after being challenged by a friend - & USA traveller) who wanted to compare my 10 USD room with his 240 USD room in New York. To date my best room would be that in Hue, where for under 10 USD I had a room with big windows on two sides, beautifully light and airy, complete with the normals, including a fridge and TV, but also with an Internet computer with no usage charge.
I didn't waste too much time as I headed south, as I was wanting to get to some better weather. Leaving Hanoi, and for many days after I was very pleased to have my Frosty Boy riding fleece, with the weather each day being cold and rainy/drizzly. The wet weather mixed with the amount of dirt on the roads meant a maintenance nightmare for the bike too. The derailleurs would fill with mud restricting their movement and the gears would no longer change. I would have to wash down the gears and chain once or twice a day and re-lube in order for things to work. (you could feel the grit in the chain through the pedals it was so bad). There was a definite change in the temperature when I came south across a range of hills that meet the sea just north of DaNang, but the brief encounter with sun in DeNang was just that - brief - rain still continued as I headed south from there and continued when I went back a week later by bus to get a Visa Extension.
DaNang, beside the river
An informal fish market on a beach near DaNang
In the past two days, down below Quy Nhon the weather seems to have changed, it has rained each night but the days have been sunny and hot - stop press - today was rainy again.
An old friend that's been with me most of the way from Spain, but that I'd not seen for along time. (Taken during the short sunny break in DaNang.)
Can you pick the difference between the sky here and the pictures above? (Taken during the two days of hot sunny weather near Ninh Hoa)
We'll see if it continues. I suspect now that I will get better and hotter weather, but just how hot will it get when I get past a few more hills to Ho Chi Minh City? (I'll start complaining about the heat soon). I can take it more leisurely now anyway, with my 4 week extension (from the other day) I have an extra 3 weeks in Vietnam - more than enough for a leisurely ride to HCMC. (Why do all the buses I see have signs saying Saigon?) And for a total change in cycle touring tradition, for the last week I've had tail winds. If ever you are thinking of cycle touring Vietnam at this time of the year go North TO south.
Not too often it's like this and blowing your way - but it's still unpleasant and I'd rather it be still.
(The wind has really been too strong, you never have it behind you ALL the time and the times when it is against you or side on is very unpleasant, but going South to North now would be hell.
I've mentioned a few times a visa extension in DaNang, I tried to get one in Quy Nhon, being the last touristy provincial capital I'd be going to before mine ran out. (Internet searches indicated the immigration dept in provincial capitals could do it.) But the Immigration Officials in Quy Nhon couldn't extend a "C1" visa - or so they said through an interpreter. That needs to be Hanoi, HCMC or DaNang (where i had intended to do it but forgot). This left me with either a rushed ride to HCMC seeing nothing along the way or a bus ride from Quy Nhon to DaNang to get a renewal there before continuing at a leisurely pace. I opted for the trip to DaNang. After being unsuccessful with the immigration office during the day I arranged to head to DaNang on the early bus the next morning (giving the immigration people in DaNang more time to sort things if needed. It would be Thursday so I wanted to make sure the application went in OK to give me some chance of getting it back on Friday). The early bus - I was told was a paper delivery van with one or two seats that the driver let out for pocket money. It was to leave Quy Nhon at 4am, but as a consolation he would pick me up at the hotel. When it rocked up at 3:30am the next day (fortunately I was ready, just un-showered), it was in fact a bus, a small transit van 16 seater with at least half a dozen passengers. The back row of seats folded down to make room for the newspapers we were yet to pick up. At the printers we filled the back area to head height with what would have to be at least half a tonne of newspapers. We then screamed up the highway as they do (especially at that hour) ignoring the "optional" red lights etc in our mission to deliver the papers. Last time I caught a bus I was sharing it with 3 petrol filled motorbikes between me and the door, this time I'm sitting on a flimsy folding bus seat with half a tonne of newspapers loose behind me, and in both cases a driver that drives in typical Vietnam style of flat-out regardless of obstacles - and on a wet road. I was just waiting for the papers to come through the seat and to leave me in a wheelchair for my remaining days. (But if it ended up like the bus I'd seen the day before in the rice paddy then maybe I'd drown and not have to worry about it. - how it got out into the middle of the paddy I will never know, you sort of expect it to be near the edge at the bottom of the embankment, but no, there it sat in the middle.) In DaNang I found the immigration office OK, but was directed to another one around the corner. There they told me that I needed a sponsor, employer etc. I said "no it's a tourist visa", but that makes no difference, so it was off to a travel agent to get them to do it. All of the travel agents offer a visa extension service, you pay them and they put themselves as the sponsor (presumably). It makes the 10 USD visa extension into a 35 to 55 USD affair, and they have a nice little earner. The Immigration lady gave me the name of a guy who turned out to charge 35 USD with a next day return, one other I enquired at wanted 55 USD and 4 days, so the decision was pretty simple. The next afternoon - after a sightseeing trip to the world heritage village of Hoi An - I had my passport back with a fresh 4 weeks of visa.
Hoi An reminded me a bit of Wittenburg in Germany (home of Martin Luther and the church reformation). The place was full of historic buildings, but to me it had lost its character, it was too full of tourists. The world heritage streets and buildings were now occupied by Chapel Street style coffee shops, where you could buy any manner of non-Vietnamese food or drink, sip your Laté and do it all WiFi connected. I hired a bike and got away from the place into the outskirts where real Vietnam still exists, dirt roads and people going about their normal day. I ate lunch in a place that was full of Vietnamese (probably many Vietnamese tourists) but not a westerner amongst them (except yours truly). I was immediately waved over to a very long table of people and made to sit down, they accepted that I'd rather have the free iced tea than a bia (beer), I ordered what I had selected on the board out the front and when it was all over they insisted on paying.
No such thing as a free lunch - or is there
No English was spoken by the group, but that didn't matter we got on famously. Correction - there was some English. One of the girls said "I love you" then pointed to the girl next to her. The girl got suitably embarrassed and blowing her a kiss probably helped there. The next day was back to Quy Nhon via the other world heritage site of "My Son". With no direct means of getting there from DaNang I once again hopped on the local bus to Hoi An, but this time instead of hiring a bicycle I hired a man with a motorbike. This is a standard form of public transport, sort of like a 2 wheel taxi. It was raining nearly allday so it feltright being on the motorbike not in a taxi or bus. Now-a-days the motorbike rider men all carry two helmuts as the law now says you need a helmut on a motorbike. He quoted for a return trip, and I that's what I took, but with the intention of leaving him half way back - at the point where we cross Highway One. Highway One would be full of buses going to Quy Nhon that would be only too happy to pick me up. And it was easy, I waited less than 15 seconds for the first bus.
"My Son" has its heritage listing because of the Cham towers and temples that were once located there and now is largely Cham ruins. I was unaware of the Indian-Hindu relationship to Vietnam, but the Champa people lived there from the 4th to 14th century and built towers and temples all over mid and southern Vietnam with great rock carvings of Shiva and the other Hindu Gods.
"My Son" ruins
The bus trip back to Quy Nhon was another example of one form of small business attempting to bleed as much as they thought they could out of a tourist. It's normal to hop into these buses and not pay until much later when the conductor/spruiker requests you to. I decided I'd have more say in the fare if I negotiated straight away, so as soon as we were moving I tapped him on the shoulder and said "how much, (rubbing fingers) Quy Nhon" The response came back 160,000 dong (VND) (equiv 10USD). I knew from a few days ago that the going rate was 60,000 dong, so said "OOOHHH TOO MUCH. 60,000 DONG". The bartering continued with neither of us changing our bids for quite sometime. The rest of the bus obviously understood that the game was in progress (I think it's a sport here, and obviously a good spectator sport too) and was keenly awaiting the result. I played my "I'll take the next bus, this bus is too expensive" card - English he obviously understood, because the worried look crept on to his face, a glance was exchanged with the driver - who glanced around, and he responded with "70,000 dong". This was close enough, it let him have the winning bid, but with me knowing that the game was really mine. The bus was filled with chuckles and comments I didn't understand as the spectators went back to looking out the windows.
(that extra 90,000 dong will be a good few meals for me)
Equipment wise:
- No issue with the bike other than the aforementioned dirt in gears and chain.
- I've had problems with the camera again - my first camera - the one I used from Spain to Turkey then again since I fixed it in Australia at Christmas time for Thailand and beyond. This time the shutter button didn't work - probably a belated result of damage done when falling onto it off the bike several days or a week earlier, a story I've not yet conveyed, but a camera fix it man in Hue has breathed further life into it - at least until the piece of metal that now presses the switch internally damages the switch.
- My little USB thumb drive that played mp3's has gone walkabouts - see also the falling off bike story.
- I've now got a better mosquito net for those stays in hotels, made to use the tent poles, but be a lot cooler than the tent inner that is largely ripstop material with only small vents of mesh.
I custom made my new mosquito net in my hotel room out of a single bed net to suit my tent poles. Here a local curtain maker in Quy Nhon, puts decent stitching where I had rough stitched. She didnt want payment but she got some flowers.
The falling off the bike story :- I cant tell you too much because i don't remember falling off the bike at all. It was two days out of Hanoi. (I just know that I got sore ribs, a hole in one arm of my rain jacket a ding in the helmut - which warrants replacement when I can - and dirt on the panniers. Either one of two things must have happened, either I came off the bike got the hard hit to the helmut/head and my brain has blotted out everything before and after, or as suggested by family, maybe I blacked out first then rode off the road. It happened on highway One in Vietnam so could easily have been fatal, I've no idea if I rode off the road or was forced off, or blacked out first. Either way, I'm OK, it was a couple of weeks ago and I've had no further problems - other than the sore ribs. The only lasting thing will be the loss of the mp3 player from the zipper pocket on the front of my handlebar bag. Because of the number of bodies I've seen on the highway here, I think me lying unconscious (which I assume I must have done) by the side of the road would have been enough for someone to go into the bag - possibly looking for ID, possibly more sinister. Seeing the mp3 player and - assuming I was history - thinking, he wont be needing that anymore.. Then when I came to, Oh... how do I tell him I stole this, I'd better just keep quiet.
I dont remember taking this photo, but the sign the bike leans against matches one in my "dream" Some memories from after the event - as I came to -are dream like memories.--
Until next time..
