Laura had done a bunch of research before coming away about hiring motorbike guides to show us the Central Highlands. As is becoming usual, we spent a good few hours looking at alternatives and then plumbed for the one chosen before hand. We couldn’t have known at that point just how good (or lucky!) a choice we had made in Lee (38 going on 10) and Nam (an ex-SVNA helicopter pilot).
Here’s the lowdown:
Day 1
- Flower farm
- Coffee plantations
- Rice wine farm – had a shot straight after fermentation, it was still warm! Much salivating followed.
- Silk farm and weaving – We saw the whole process from the cultivation of the silk worms to the weaving of the silk on huge mechanical machines, straight out of 19th century Britain.
- Elephant Waterfall
- Minority village
- Lake Lok
We finished the long day with dinner at the only restaurant in Lake Lok. Me and Nam got stuck into the rice wine as we talked history and politics. It’s not too often you get to sit down and chew the fat with a man who had to surrender to the North Vietnamese.
I’ll always remember Nam mock staring into his personal rice wine bottle with one eye and shaking it saying “just one more left”" … there was one more left several times!
Day 2
Today was waterfall day. We saw four, swam in (well nearish) one, walked to the brink of another (ignoring the keep out signs) and slept next to another.
We had a long morning on the bikes and the heat was intense. Lau had gone to her happy place by about 10:00 and we didn’t stop for another few hours! It was such a relief when we plunged into a river by the side of a remote waterfall. Bliss! It was just the two of us in the middle of nowhere. There were small fish eating the dead skin off our feet as we dangled them in a rock pool!
Just before lunch we we sat under a tree in the red dust and Nam started recounting his escape from the City we were in for lunch. He was drawing maps and battle sequences in the dust with a stick – very authentic, very cool. Nam had escaped from the city in his helecopter when it was taken by the NVNA.
After a lunch a fresh spring rolls (the DIY type, not fried – and at a cost of 60,000 Dong or 2 quid it was spectacular value) we headed out for another afternoon of local produce. We saw bricks being made right from men digging clay out of the ground with picks to them being baked in rickety furnaces.
Apologies, a brief inerlude as a type:
ND “What the hell is that noise”
LT: Look of horror and bemusement
ND: “Is it a monkey?”
LT: Look of horror and bewilderment
Pause
LT: “It’s inside. Look it’s a Gecko” Pointing to Gecko on wall.
ND: “Cool” (Dissapointed, thinking a monkey would have been way cooler. I could have trained it to be a monkey servant)
LT: Leaves safety of mosquitto net. “Reeaaaa, I don’t like em Nay”
Grabs broom handle.
“Go on, out you go. Out!”
I’ve just got back from another excellent dinner with Lee and Nam and as usual, the topic of conversation was varied. At one end of the spectrum I had Nam telling me about the “re-education” camp he was forced to attend after the fall of Siagon and 2 minutes later I had Lee telling me the one about the man with the duck down his trousers in the cinema! This was made all the funnier as freshly showered he had an almighty fluffy cone head!
Lee had tears rolling down his cheeks as he rocked his arm back and forth with a bent wrist imatating the duck. There is a childish streak to Lee in the most endearing sense.
Day 3
Today was the biggie – 260Km in 35C heat.
We took in:
- Rubber tree farm - I’m suprised rubber isn’t as expensive as gold after seeing the process of getting it.
- Cashew farm – I’ll think twice (at least for another year or so!) about stuffing handfuls of them into my gob in one sitting knowing how much work goes into harvesting and preparing them.
- Plywood manufacturing – teenagers using heavy machinery in flip-flops
By late morning we were on the Ho Chi Minh trail, and this is not one of the Tarmaced section, this was the real deal. We passed soldiers making repairs to the road under the watchful eyes of officers. At points we were only metres from Cambodia. This part of the country saw a lot of covert action during the war and it was an eerie place to be. There were absolutely no other tourists about as it was a route Nam had found and kept to himself.
We stopped for lunch beside a lake and had DIY chicken broth cooked at the table. We’re not talking Waitrose chicken fillets either. A Chicken had been clevered into bits that very morning and Nam had just tipped it in the pot. Laura had a bit, but then mainly stuck to the veg!
Just got back from another boozy dinner (instigated by Nam). We tried to order dog, but unfortunetely (fortunetely?) they were fresh out. We settled on goat hot pot instead.
After the slightest of encouragments from me, the tired and homesick Lee furnished us with more elaborate jokes. I’m sure one of them had a sub-plot.
I’ve not seen a Westerner for days. Marv.
We’re off to the Chu Chi tunnels tomorrow. Lights out.
Day 4
We headed stright for the Chu Chi tunnels in the morning before heading down to Siagon in the afternoon, after a long lunch and a snooze in a hamock.
Summary
As Lau put it in a way only she could “this is BOTH ****s deep travelling Nay”. It took me a few minutes to recover, but she’s right, at least in sentiment!
The overall theme of the tour was seeing the various cottage industries and local trading that enabled families and communities to subside.
Nam was greeted at most places as a long lost friend or uncle. This was great as we got a taste of the warmer side of Vietnamese culture away from the tourist beat.
