The father of modern Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, looked over me as I slept; not personally, his picture hung over my bed for the night. He led the independence of Vietnam just after the second world war and overcame French rule, Chinese influence and of course American support for the South Vietnamese during the "American War" as it's known in Vietnam. Earlier during the trip, Ta took us to a dam that the Americans tried to destroy during the war and it was the first time I've heard it being referred to in that way; but it makes complete sense. I didn't detect any remnants of animosity for Americans today or indeed the French, but that may just be because tourism is now crucial to the Vietnamese economy.
Of course the other a war, was the short lived one with China, which invaded in 1979 in response to Vietnam's involvement in Cambodia, where they helped depose the murderous Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, which China supported. Vietnam, a communist country was closer to the Soviet Union. It's a complex history, but Vietnam has moved on and is just getting on with it. It's still a communist country but not in a repressive police state manner. The state apparatus is seen everywhere, communist party buildings in most of the towns we saw, work gangs repairing roads, etc, but tourists are not greatly affected by it. In China, Tibet in particular, we could not move more than a hundred km without having our papers checked.
It's a grey start to the day and in fact that didn't change. Setting off and it soon became apparent that the chickens this morning had a particular death wish, jumping out in front of Ta and me on several occasions. Bless them, I do like chickens, they're very cute, but so stupid. In a random thought, I wondered if it would be possible to train a chicken to have a bit more common sense. I guess a tall order. In any case, no chickens were harmed today.
Plenty of tame road riding today, if you can call dicing with lorries that appear on your side of the road on blind corners, 'tame'. At the first coffee break, I ask to try Ta's bike. It's a 150cc version of the bike we're riding. It's a little smaller physically and has a reduced diameter 19" front wheel that in principle makes it less stable off-road than the 250cc with its 21" wheel. To give you some comparison, most road oriented bikes have 17" wheels, which give more agile handling. I don't notice the reduced stability, even if we did do some mild off-road sections, the 150cc engine had plenty of pep for me, and I thought it was smoother and had a more pleasing sound. For sure it couldn't keep up with a 250 flat out, but wasn't far behind. I kept the 150 for the remainder of the day.
At around 11:30, as usual kids in blue and white, or green and white, uniforms spill onto the roads, walking, riding bicycles, electric bikes or in some cases mopeds. Ten or eleven year old kids taking their younger siblings to/from school is quite normal here. They wave to us as we pass.
Coffee before lunch and it's a model of neatness. The Vietnamese coffee was OK too, served in the usual mini aluminium filter, we must be getting close to Hanoi. Ray especially savours his caffeine kick, before which he's a bit grumpy to say the least...
An early lunch stop and the food as always was very good. The flavours that come out of a tiny basic kitchen is incredible and never disappointed. Even my normally bland tofu was appetising and could be further enhanced with the excellent local soy sauce. However the toilet to the side deserves a special mention for opposite reasons.
In a dice roll moment on a straight road, Duff had a near miss when a truck for no apparent reason veered across the road in his direction and mine, then suddenly corrected its course and resumed a more appropriate benign path.
Before reaching Hanoi we follow the route of the Red River levee which flows through Hanoi. In places the wide road disappears and becomes a dirt or gravel road. In other places it's an almost pristine tarmac road and for some reason it's completely empty. We also alternate between the road and the flood plain. It's a mad hour or so of wild off-road on-road and a huge cloud of dust follows in our wake, but Ta seems to be having more fun than us. It's brought to a premature halt when my back wheel develops a puncture.
Thanks to Mr Tu, 30 minutes later we're back on the road, but now in a somewhat more sober mood. Ta still bounces around like an over eager Jack Russell and I join him temporarily below a grass embankment, but the 150's tyres are very slippery and I call it a day. By that time we're on the outskirts of Hanoi and opportunities for play are diminished.
And then.... 3, 2, 1, pow! We're back in Hanoi. Boy, it's insane. It's 3pm on a Friday afternoon, you can imagine the chaos. Mopeds, cars, bicycles, mopeds, trucks and mopeds, everywhere. In all directions. Simultaneously! Don't blink or you're toast, don't hesitate, see a gap, make it yours. Take no prisoners, but don't be aggressive. Make progress, but don't go mad. But somehow, we make it through in our ten pieces, and arrive back at the tour office.
High fives, hugs and, no, no kisses. We made it! Bundled into the mini bus and back to the hotel, it's a short break and then out to dinner. The evening is young and karaoke beckons... Alas, Ray says "we'll save it for next time". I'll quote him on that the next time. Whenever that is.
STOP PRESS: Ray, Alan and I sang an impromptu My Way outside the hotel with a portable Karaoke machine that I picked up at the market for 250,000 dong. Yes!!!
Vietnam; the boys and me went through hell.... you weren't there man!
2 comments:
Not karaoke again!!
No proper Karaoke, but it had to do!
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