1Nov 2006 ~ As we arrived in the madness of HoChiMinh city and it's crazy trafic, we were surely glad to have a experienced driver bringning us around. The second experiences was of course the touk touk drivers, doing everything they could to accomodate us and finding us a place to stay. I have to confess with my little independant nature I was at first reluctant, but...thats the way it gets done in Vietnam!
This fellow on the picture is one, of the 2 touktouk that me and Julien paid so he could sit down and get us to move his ass around town!!!Well that was surely something different out of the commun tourist show in town!We've got the whole streets laughing and smiling, like all of the sudden we were one of them. It really filled us up with respect for vietnamese people, understanding more of the silent gap tourist bring in a country.
As we got told before we got there, Vietnam as exellent food...and that is true. The food was brightning our long week in Seigon waiting for our lost luggages! We got to splurge on delicious Vegan food~and FRUITS.Good because we surely needed to feel up our tank of nutrients and energie!
Finally, the adventure began, we were naively thinking that any road on our tourist map, in vietnam, can be taken!!! By trying to avoid the big traffic and the succiding towns we encontered our first obstacle. The "gouvernemental authorities" , either in the National Park or 50km from the so call "border area", if they decide that no foreigners aren't aloud there, good Luck making them change there mind. As we tested there limit, we found some very patient and nice police man, but also a very corrupted dictatureship and old none sense. We were very amused at some of there tactic of persuasion when after telling us there was no roads, no bridge and terrorist ...they would finally pull out the very frightning ... Tiger attack(of witch as been practicly instinct from braconage). We winned a few fight but we had to turn around most of the time with a very tight police escort on our ass.Just like in the movies...no joke!
After these incident and the spokes from my bike breaking one after an other, we finally surounder and when over the coast with an amazing ride down 12km of a trastic drop of the land and the magestic montain and rice field, just like we pictured Vietnam to be.Green and weavy.
Thanks to all the AMAZING people we've met, we always got help and got looked after when we needed it. Vietnam people are amazing, they touched our heart by opening so widely there home and there life. It was overwhelming sometimes in many ways, but so disarming from such genuine kindness and care. They have a way to carry a painfull past and povrety, by making the most of every day and not complaing a second about there condition. They make out of intense labour what we would consider impossible to achieve by hand. And they do it to the perfection.
Unfortunatly there dynamic and trusting nature are bringing them right into the stomach of the Beast. Vietnam has just sign a commercial agreement with the US and the main powerfull empires giving them full on power in there countries. That kills me, I wish they would have the chance we got to be informe of the danger of trusting these evil hands.
In the villages of Vietnam and even in the Towns you get the feeling of what the 50's looked like.These people have been left on there own, but they found the most valuable lesson, is to work together, with all there forces. Not let any weakness stop them from accomplishing what needs to be done, regardless of the pain. On our roads at shcool time you see hundreds of childrens of all ages in the streets coming or going to school.They walk so many km, from a very small age, on the highway. You see 3 of them on one bicycle, changing tour, climbing up the roads...just amazing streight.
We did a last stop over to Hue where we enjoyed the pituresque old City of the Empreur and finally rebuild my back wheel with strong spokes.We said goodbye to the ocean, witch we don't think will see until the Meditareanien.
Honnestly at this point we were looking forward to get to Laos in a Country where there is 7 millions people compare to 80 millions in Vietnam, and where nature promise to be wild and dense.Vietnam was very far from being what we expected, it is grounded everywhere, and very restricted, but it gave us all we needed, and we appreciate it more now.