Easyridin'

Riding the roadways of Vietnam on the back of a motorcycle is the way to travel this part of the world. Today is the end of my fifth full day following the Ho Chi Minh Trail south from Hoi An to Mui Ne Beach and it has been a fascinating journey. Apart from a very sore bum, riding on the back of a moto is exhilarating and nerve-racking all in one. The "Easyriders" is the name given to a rather hodgepodge group of men who take tourists around Vietnam by motorbike. Usually it is just the traveler and the driver, sometimes in groups of two. These guys know the land and sights of every part of Vietnam and are able to take travelers very far away from the "tourist path", showing them the "real" Vietnam filled with poverty, mountain villages, motorbikes piled high with livestock, curvy mountain roads, Communist billboards, dirt-pathed villages, indigenous tribes, fresh, spicy food, and, above all, the smiling, friendly people of the Central Highlands. I met Tien, my driver, along the riverfront in Hoi An and it didn't take much convincing to make me say yes to a 6 day tour of the Central Highlands ending at the beach.

We left Hoi An early on Tuesday morning heading for the ancient Champa ruins of May Son. This is an incredibly well-preserved ancient city deep in the jungle of the Central Highlands. Fortunately, when I visited I saw few other tourists and virtually had the place to myself. This, however, turned out to be a bit creepy as I trekked along jungle paths with no civilization in sight and the largest red-winged creature I have ever seen jumped out right in front of me and then promptly disappeared back into the foliage. I assume it was a bird, but who knows. The only other disturbance was the plethora of butterflies flying across the path. They ranged from the size of my pinkie finger to larger than my hand in colors of turquoise, tangerine, crimson, buttercup, lemon yellow, celery green, browns, and blacks. How I wanted to catch the moment on camera, but one can never seem to get a good pose from a butterfly! After spending two hours in the jungle I emerged to continue the drive stopping at indigenous villages along the way. There are 52 indigenous tribes in Vietnam ranging from the north to the south, though the population of all combined is still quite small. We visited villages that rarely see foreign travelers. Villages filled with gentle people who simply stared at me, touching my curly hair and light brown skin, commenting on everything about me and with children laughing and smiling, posing for the camera, screaming when shown the outcome on the screen.

The next day we drove on the Ho Chi Minh Trail through the truly mystical mountains of the Central Highlands. We barely saw another soul for over 2 hours as we weaved our way higher and higher with each bend in the road revealing even greater beauty than the one before. There were streams and waterfalls a plenty against the backdrop of the lusciously green mountains wrapped in fog and mists so the peaks appeared to be floating in mid air. Absolutely breathtaking! We spent the night in a city with no other foreigners and dined on wonderful crab soup and shrimp pancakes sitting on tiny plastic stools on the street. Throughout these days on the motorcycle I have been continually astonished by the fact that if one took away all the motorbikes and electrical wires, the villages would appear much as they did hundreds of years ago. The highways are still covered in rice, corn, peppers, tobacco, or whatever the local produce is waiting to dry in the sun. The local livestock (pigs, chickens, ducks, cows, water buffaloes, dogs. etc) pay no attention to the passing traffic, content to sleep in the middle of the road, grunting at the whizzing motorbikes. Interestingly enough, I have yet to see one horse in Vietnam, possibly due to the fact that the preferred beast of burden is the water buffalo. One sees water buffaloes plowing the rice fields, children driving overgrown tractors, and women working the fields with babies on their backs. These were some truly humbling scenes for a Westerner like myself who rarely glimpses this style of life.

Since I started my motorcycle journey I have eaten nothing but local food. It has been wonderful tasting all the local delicacies, with each village or city specializing in something different. I have become particularly adept at shoving, gulping, slurping food into my mouth via the use of chopsticks in the Vietnamese way. A way in which, though not pretty to watch, is extremely functional. I have eaten chicken with yellow rice, crab soup, noodles with fresh veggies and chunks of chilies, chicken noodle soup (let me tell 'ya that Cambells ain't got nothin' on the Vietnamese version), steamed rice with white cabbage and pickled garlic, sweet corn cakes, freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, and since I know that all of you are now drooling I will stop the list.

We continued like this everyday until we reached Da Lat, a city in the mountains, where I am now writing. Today, however, the heavens opened up and it has been raining cats and dogs since morning. Riding a motorbike in the rain is no picnic, especially on curvy mountain roads. One would think it logical to slow down while riding in the rain, but naturally the Vietnamese go ever faster in order to race out of the rain. The buses and trucks whizz past honking their horns and splashing you with muddy water while you are crouched low in the seat covered in leaky rain gear unable to see through your foggy helmet visor. But, we made it safe and sound and it really is all part of the experience. Sadly, tomorrow is my last day on the bike as we are only a day's ride away from the beach where I will be relaxing my bum on the sand for a couple of days, providing that it doesn't rain that is!