Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year! (Dien Ben Phu to Vinh)

So, after much deliberations we ended up continuing our planned route through Northwest Vietnam, instead of crossing over early into Laos as we were considering in our previous post. No real reason to speak of - it's hard picking between places to bike here... everything's often quite beautiful, friendly, cheap and interesting, and we've never been to any of them so picking routes is a little like tossing a coin.

Anyway, we decided on the Vietnam route and chilled out in Dien Ben Phu for a rest day before setting off, checking out the local war museum describing the Vietnamese victory over the French back in 1954.

The Vietnamese (red lights) close in on the French (green lights).
e

Mike at a bomb crater at A1 hill in downtown Dien Ben Phu.


Setting back out on the bikes on Christmas Eve morning, we got an early Christmas gift from Vietnam. Up until now, the weather in Vietnam had been foggy and chilly, often as low as 5C and rarely above a damp 15C or so. After our first small pass out of Dien Ben Phu, all of a sudden we left the fog and descended into a lush jungle-y valley that we didn't leave for days. The next two days of Christmas Eve and Christmas biking were our best yet in Vietnam with gorgeous scenery dotted by limestone karsts, 15C - 30C temperatures with constant sunshine, banana trees and poinsetta bushes all around, villages teeming with the friendliest people we had met yet... we were showered with "hellos," huge smiles and hi-fives by traditionally-dressed old grandmas, tiny kids riding their water buffaloes through roadside rice paddies, and everyone else in between.







We also managed to land our best stay yet of all the trip on Christmas Eve... in the tiny town of Tuan Giao, we stayed a the Hong Ky Hotel, operated by a very friendly family out of their home. As a result, we spent Christmas Eve and morning dining on delicious food and mango shakes in their garden and just generally relaxing in the most hospitable and tropical-feeling place we've been so far. We even bumped into the local Santa Claus that night as he came by to deliver a gift to the hotel owner's granddaughter!




Our Christmas tree this year was a little unconventional...


The scenery and over-the-top friendliness of the people tapered off a little as we got back into more populated areas (probably a good thing as our voices were getting a little hoarse and our waving hands quite sore), but there were still plenty of interesting sights to keep our minds entertained...

In the small town of Moc Chau we stumbled across an amazing bakery with the best pastries, donuts and bread we've had for many many months. We also treated ourself to some fresh yogurt (Moc Chau is famous for it's dairy products) which was fantastic...

But, for me at least, one of the most gratifying moments came the next day in Mai Chau. Since we're both on the same level language-wise here, Mike's been taking over the ordering of food and reserving of hotels here in Vietnam, giving me a break from the last six months of it when it made most sense for me to do it. Throughout those six months, it's been a heavy burden always being responsible for the single most important aspect of the trip - the food. I must admit, there have been times when a daunting menu full of too many unfamiliar characters, a misunderstood explanation, or simply a moment of unilateral culinary adventurousness has led us to some interesting meals that haven't always put a smile on my dear (hungry & tired) husband's face... see the incident of the Chicken Head or ask about the case of the still unidentified animal's intestines for more details....

Anyway, Mike finally understood my pain (or I understood his?) one supper in Mai Chau as the restaurant owner brought out a big fat pig's nose, stewed in mushrooms and beans, for our main dish.



He must have seen the looks on our faces or the very tentative way we poked our chopsticks at it to verify that it truly was a huge pig's snout (the whiskers sealed the deal for us). We were tempted not to touch it at all, but the very friendly restauranteur came by and patiently cut it into pieces, pointed at the meat inside and looked on quite intently as he left us to it. Turns out the meat inside a pig's snout tastes almost exactly like the dark meat on a turkey, and we must have done with it what we're supposed to, because as we left the friendly fellow looked very relieved and shook our hands very gladly, almost as if he had been expecting us to storm out and leave his night's work wasted and untouched. (The stew was quite delicious, actually...)



The last few days of biking were quite uneventful... one day of biking was absolutely gorgeous, while the others were just alright. As we left the hills, we left the interesting hill tribes and got into quite flat agricultural territory with an increasing number of pesky children. Mike got a pebble in the back from one kid's slingshot and two young kids with knives decided to chase us on their bikes up a hill. (It was in an area where everyone from 5 to 85 seemed to be either carrying a knife, or using it to wave at us, slice down bamboo shoots or butcher chickens on the side of the road... the kids themselves seemed quite harmless but we didn't wait to find out... instead we just sped up and left them lagging far behind.)




And some collages of the bikes of Vietnam, brought to you by Mike...



Today we're spending New Year's day resting here in Vinh, and will take off tomorrow for Laos... it should take us one day to get to the border, and after that you'll likely hear from us next in about 5 days or so from Vientiane. Until then, Happy New Year!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jen & Mike, Happy New Year! We love to read your blogs. Come home safe...
Julie, Darren, Alicia, Chelsey & Brandon

Adrian said...

Happy New Years Mike & Jenn! Still really enjoying your blog. Let me know if you have any plans to bike as far as the Angkor area of Cambodia. I have a guide that owes me a favour. :) - Adrian