Illegal Moves

My time in Luang Prabang has continued to be very agreeable. I rented a bike this morning and cycled 30km out of town to a beautiful stepped waterfall, a big plus of which was that you were allowed to swim in the pools. They even provided changing rooms. This is a key point - swimming being forbidden is a frequent letdown in nature park type places.

I felt pretty badass about cycling all the way out there and back on a single-speed bike with a bright yellow basket on the front. Were I to have my time again, I probably would have taken the option of renting a mountain bike - you know, something with gears to tackle all the hills. However, as mentioned, it did allow me to feel superior to everyone who got there by tuk-tuk or taxi or tour bus, and even the other cyclists who all seemed to have taken the mountain bike option. I was the first cyclist there in the morning and, as far as I could tell from the rack when I left and from the people I saw on the road on the way back, the only one who thought the trip would totally be doable on a city bike.

It did afford me some amusement as I was cycling back and I saw a guy going the other way on a fancy bike with a helmet and lycra and wrap-around shades, and I imagined how he must see me - some guy in shorts and a t-shirt wearing a panama hat and riding a shopper bike. I have to be honest though - I did have to walk it up a couple of hills. I was passed by a couple in a tuk-tuk as I was doing so at one point, but I overtook them again on the way down, desperately clasping my hat to my head to avoid losing it to the wind.

I'll be honest - although I had some good times in Vietnam, by the time I reached Hanoi I was pretty sick of the place. I've been trying to work out what it is that I don't like about it, specifically what the difference is from my experience in Japan. Certainly being continually harassed by people trying to sell me something whenever I walk down the street doesn't help, but I think it also has something to do with the other travellers. In Japan, I stayed in hostels with other travellers and saw foreigners around the place, at tourist sites and on trains and buses, but I never felt like I was in a tourist bubble to the same extent as I do in Vietnam. Maybe it's not the other travellers, maybe it's that I feel more different to the locals here than in Japan, more separate from them.

I do feel that there is a different type of traveller here, though. Japan is quite expensive, so travellers tended to be other professional people, whereas Vietnam is cheap, so travellers tend to be students or, if older, wasters. I meet far fewer people who I would want to spend time with, which makes staying in a hostel a less social experience for me than it was in Japan, even if it is super social for everyone else playing beer pong in the rooftop bar.

However, despite my low mood and general dislike of big Vietnamese cities, I actually kind of like Hanoi. It is nowhere near as busy and aggressive as HCMC, and the run down French colonial architecture is really rather charming. As someone who started in HCMC, meeting people who just started in Hanoi and who will be heading down to Saigon is kind of funny - they complain of how busy it is in Hanoi, and how difficult it is to cross the road with all the motorbikes. My typical reaction is one of amused pity - boy, you ain't seen nuthin yet. They are often incredulous when I describe Hanoi as a fairly relaxed city, and hey, at least they actually have traffic lights on the roads here.

The other thing that has somewhat improved my mood about Vietnam is the tour of Ha Long Bay that I just completed. They say that the best moments in life can't be photographed - or possibly they do, it sounds like the kind of thing they might say. In any case, even if I had had my camera with me when we went kayaking among the karsts and slipped through a cave into a wholly encircled area of ocean, and watched monkeys frolicking on the ridge, silhouetted against the evening sky, even if I had taken a photograph it would not have captured the calm wonder of that moment. It was really rather wonderful.

Good times and bad, I have left Vietnam behind me now, and am bedded down in the Laotian town of Luang Prabang, which I'm sorry to have to inform you I am never leaving, so I won't be seeing any of you again.

Photo Albums

Hanoi
No Ha Long Bay album until I can be bothered to sort through all the pictures I took.

So, I just recently finished my three day motorbike tour of the central highlands, which was...well, it was pretty stunning. Just riding through the scenery was worth the price of admission on its own, and having an English sepaking local guide who can show you around the all the rural farms and factories is an added bonus. We went through some proper jungle as well - you can tell it's real jungle because, when I got off the bike to go for a walk, in the five seconds it took me to get the insect repellant out of my pocket I got bitten by two mosquitos.

There is a certain amount of suspicion and cynicism towards locals in Vietnam that is hard to shake - after all, a lot of them will be trying to scam you, or at least earn themselves some kind of commission whilst not really caring about your satisfaction. Fortunately Binh was a good bloke, and I had to trust him in situations where he stops the bike in the middle of nowhere and suggests that I walk for a while and he'll meet me further down the road. Whilst I do suspect that these occasions were used by him to do one or more of: relieve himself, smoke a cigarette, or make a private phone call, but at those times I was usually so happy to have an opportunity to get off the bike and stretch my legs that I was more than agreeable. Plus, he did always stop in places with good scenery, where going for a walk was definitely an attractive option.

The tour ended in Nha Trang, which is a grotesque beach resort absolutely packed with Russian tourists. I had previously been fully aware that it was a terrible place, so I already had a bus ticket out of there booked that would leave a few hours after I arrived. My destination was Hoi An, where I intended to relax after three days in the saddle. Hoi An turned out to be a fairly good place for that with its beautiful Old Town, an area of old Chinese houses and shops by the river. Of course all of these lovely old buildings are now restaurants, souvenir shops, or tailors, but such is the force of the tourist industry. It still looks pretty by night.

Photo Albums

Dalat to Nha Trang
Hoi An