Tuesday 17 February 2015
G'Day to all bloggees from blogger Rick!
This is a very brief update while I have a rare chance to have reasonable internet access and a few hours to spare! I've decided I'll complete this blog in full (with lots of photos and video) when back in Australia after the trip! A warning this update will most probably contain spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and half truths and for this I offer no apologies!
Sorry about the blog not being updated for......????? ages....but after leaving the northern central Vietnam area of Phog Nha we soon realised the pre-planned easy 300ks a day travelling and the rest of the day sight seeing was not going to be possible as it was taking all day to travel at most 200 we decided if we were to travel from southern Vietnam to the northern Chinese boarder then into Northern Laos then south to Cambodia and around Cambodia as originally planned the journey would have to become a road trip!! (sorry for such a long sentence but I have to get as much down as quick as possible to update this blog)
We travel all day along the lesser traveled routes to avoid the tourist traps and see the real country and meet local people. After a very long day, cold and wet we reached the the northern viet boarder town of Sa Pa (popular tourist destination to visit hill tribes) in the dark and decided it was time to spend a day warming up washing clothes and resting bums! After 2 nights (the first time we spent 2 nights in the same town since leaving HCMC) we headed east to the Laos Border town of Dien Bien Phu hoping to cross into Laos the next day. Due to a complication with bike rego we were told we could cross boarder but bikes could not!!! Bugger! Five days latter travelling the mountains along the Viet/Laos boarder and several attempts crossing legally (may have been possible to cross without visas stamps etc but we aren't that stupid!!) we finally made it into Laos! At least a week behind schedule and 100s of ks south of where we hoped to be we continued south in remote mountainous tracks and villages for another week arriving here Lak Sao (a central/eastern Laos/Viet hussling bussling boarder crossing towm) last night. We intend on heading to the Mekong river town of Thakhek today and getting ourselves and our bikes on a boat and spending a few days motoring down the river (giving our bikes and bums a rest) to the city of Pakxe. From Pakxe head east into the mountains then to the Laos/Cambodian boarder area know as the 4000 islands on the Mekong River!
After out "hiccup" at crossing the Viet/Laos boarder we are a tad unsure of how successful us and our bikes will fair but on this road trip we treat every day as a new adventure and have adopted the phrase "ce la vie" to begin each day!
Bye for now and hope your day is as interesting or boring as you make it.......like ours!
Cheerio from Rick and Monty!
PS If you havent already add Andrew McQueen as a friend on facebook and follow his trip photos and comment!!
This is a very brief update while I have a rare chance to have reasonable internet access and a few hours to spare! I've decided I'll complete this blog in full (with lots of photos and video) when back in Australia after the trip! A warning this update will most probably contain spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and half truths and for this I offer no apologies!
Sorry about the blog not being updated for......????? ages....but after leaving the northern central Vietnam area of Phog Nha we soon realised the pre-planned easy 300ks a day travelling and the rest of the day sight seeing was not going to be possible as it was taking all day to travel at most 200 we decided if we were to travel from southern Vietnam to the northern Chinese boarder then into Northern Laos then south to Cambodia and around Cambodia as originally planned the journey would have to become a road trip!! (sorry for such a long sentence but I have to get as much down as quick as possible to update this blog)
We travel all day along the lesser traveled routes to avoid the tourist traps and see the real country and meet local people. After a very long day, cold and wet we reached the the northern viet boarder town of Sa Pa (popular tourist destination to visit hill tribes) in the dark and decided it was time to spend a day warming up washing clothes and resting bums! After 2 nights (the first time we spent 2 nights in the same town since leaving HCMC) we headed east to the Laos Border town of Dien Bien Phu hoping to cross into Laos the next day. Due to a complication with bike rego we were told we could cross boarder but bikes could not!!! Bugger! Five days latter travelling the mountains along the Viet/Laos boarder and several attempts crossing legally (may have been possible to cross without visas stamps etc but we aren't that stupid!!) we finally made it into Laos! At least a week behind schedule and 100s of ks south of where we hoped to be we continued south in remote mountainous tracks and villages for another week arriving here Lak Sao (a central/eastern Laos/Viet hussling bussling boarder crossing towm) last night. We intend on heading to the Mekong river town of Thakhek today and getting ourselves and our bikes on a boat and spending a few days motoring down the river (giving our bikes and bums a rest) to the city of Pakxe. From Pakxe head east into the mountains then to the Laos/Cambodian boarder area know as the 4000 islands on the Mekong River!
After out "hiccup" at crossing the Viet/Laos boarder we are a tad unsure of how successful us and our bikes will fair but on this road trip we treat every day as a new adventure and have adopted the phrase "ce la vie" to begin each day!
Bye for now and hope your day is as interesting or boring as you make it.......like ours!
Cheerio from Rick and Monty!
PS If you havent already add Andrew McQueen as a friend on facebook and follow his trip photos and comment!!
Monday 2 February 2015
well what an eventful few days we just had!!!! Haven't had reliable web access until tonight so will try and fill you in on recent events!
Day 10..................30/01/15
After an early morning rise and breakfast with our newly adopted family we head for the local fuel stop. Nothing flash just a 60lt drum that pumps into a 5lt measure. I took 8 lts so the lady had to pump up another 5 lts from the 60 lt drum. The lady then began to fill Monty's tank as the son ask for 170,000 vnD. How much??? How much a litre? 20,000! But that's only 160,000? OK! Monty pipes up but we have only been paying 15,000 a litre! A short haggle and the lady accidentally (?) overfills Monty's tank and as he is sitting on his bike the fuel runs down to his groin area, soaks into his pants! OOHHLAALAA!! I knew where Monty was coming from as a teenager many years ago
i did something similar!! We rode out of P'rao on a mission to reach Phong Nha in a day, Monty a little red faced and red..........!! After 100k we reached A Luoi had a coffee and headed for Khe Sanh. I still hear the song haunting me as I add to this blog and I was never a big Chisel fan but maybe many years of Jim Smiths phone ringing has a permanent scar on my brain? Lunch in Khe Sanh market bought great entertainment to the locals as I dont think too many "round eyes" = westerners frequent the markets tucked down a back lane way. Next milestone from Khe Sanh is Tang Ky - about 95 ks! We were making good time as the was not a lot of traffic but we soon decided that Phong Nha was a little too far so we'll stop the night in Tang Ky. 15ks from Tang Ky Monty pulls up an says he has no gears!!?? Soon we were surrounded by villages of all ages offering advice, having a laugh and generally being entertained! After much discussion, excitement and frustration we decide to use Monty's pack straps as a tow rope and I tow him to Tang Ky. 15ks of up and down mountains, wiknding around blind corners at about 10-15 km/hr we arrive at a cluster of village houses, shacks, huts, dwellings....but no sign of a motorbike repair shop or hotel!! After visiting numerous shacks, broken english ans Vietnamese and charades we finally found somewhere to sleep and someone that would look at the bike! I dont have the time or the right words to explain that evening but it is one niether of us will forget!!!
Day 11............31/01/15
We woke early to the sound of roosters crowing, dogs barking and music that played all night! We met a Vietnamese scientist studying rare and endangered animals in the jungle hills surrounding Tang Ky especially using many of the 14 minority hill tribe people as reference points (ethno-zoology is the term scientist use to describe this type of research). The forest surrounding Tang Ky holds many endemic species some of which have not been recorded for 40 years plus and are possibly extinct!
I thoroughly enjoyed the hour I spent talking to...cant remember his name but I left my business card with him in-case he needs an assistant in the future! After a home cooked breakfast negations had been reached and the bike needs to go to nearest big city Dong Hoi. Bike is loaded into a van and Monty will accompany the drive and I will follow on my bike! Word had soon got around the village and we had 2 passengers taking the opportunity for a free ride to the city. Next comes some goods and chattels to be delivered along the way and also a lot of other wheeling and dealing that was far too complicated for us to understand. Again there isn't enough time or words to describe the events of the next few hours but we eventually ended up in a small town south of Dong Hoi called My Duc where a mechanic agreed to have the bike fixed by tomorrow morning. Found a hotel.......another long story....funny how things get misinterpreted and it costs you twice the agreed rate...add it to the cost of the experience! Bikes good to go and we're on the road once again. Short trip up to Phong Nha and found hotel, booked in.. scenery is amazing!
To be continued................!!
Day 10..................30/01/15
After an early morning rise and breakfast with our newly adopted family we head for the local fuel stop. Nothing flash just a 60lt drum that pumps into a 5lt measure. I took 8 lts so the lady had to pump up another 5 lts from the 60 lt drum. The lady then began to fill Monty's tank as the son ask for 170,000 vnD. How much??? How much a litre? 20,000! But that's only 160,000? OK! Monty pipes up but we have only been paying 15,000 a litre! A short haggle and the lady accidentally (?) overfills Monty's tank and as he is sitting on his bike the fuel runs down to his groin area, soaks into his pants! OOHHLAALAA!! I knew where Monty was coming from as a teenager many years ago
i did something similar!! We rode out of P'rao on a mission to reach Phong Nha in a day, Monty a little red faced and red..........!! After 100k we reached A Luoi had a coffee and headed for Khe Sanh. I still hear the song haunting me as I add to this blog and I was never a big Chisel fan but maybe many years of Jim Smiths phone ringing has a permanent scar on my brain? Lunch in Khe Sanh market bought great entertainment to the locals as I dont think too many "round eyes" = westerners frequent the markets tucked down a back lane way. Next milestone from Khe Sanh is Tang Ky - about 95 ks! We were making good time as the was not a lot of traffic but we soon decided that Phong Nha was a little too far so we'll stop the night in Tang Ky. 15ks from Tang Ky Monty pulls up an says he has no gears!!?? Soon we were surrounded by villages of all ages offering advice, having a laugh and generally being entertained! After much discussion, excitement and frustration we decide to use Monty's pack straps as a tow rope and I tow him to Tang Ky. 15ks of up and down mountains, wiknding around blind corners at about 10-15 km/hr we arrive at a cluster of village houses, shacks, huts, dwellings....but no sign of a motorbike repair shop or hotel!! After visiting numerous shacks, broken english ans Vietnamese and charades we finally found somewhere to sleep and someone that would look at the bike! I dont have the time or the right words to explain that evening but it is one niether of us will forget!!!
Day 11............31/01/15
We woke early to the sound of roosters crowing, dogs barking and music that played all night! We met a Vietnamese scientist studying rare and endangered animals in the jungle hills surrounding Tang Ky especially using many of the 14 minority hill tribe people as reference points (ethno-zoology is the term scientist use to describe this type of research). The forest surrounding Tang Ky holds many endemic species some of which have not been recorded for 40 years plus and are possibly extinct!
I thoroughly enjoyed the hour I spent talking to...cant remember his name but I left my business card with him in-case he needs an assistant in the future! After a home cooked breakfast negations had been reached and the bike needs to go to nearest big city Dong Hoi. Bike is loaded into a van and Monty will accompany the drive and I will follow on my bike! Word had soon got around the village and we had 2 passengers taking the opportunity for a free ride to the city. Next comes some goods and chattels to be delivered along the way and also a lot of other wheeling and dealing that was far too complicated for us to understand. Again there isn't enough time or words to describe the events of the next few hours but we eventually ended up in a small town south of Dong Hoi called My Duc where a mechanic agreed to have the bike fixed by tomorrow morning. Found a hotel.......another long story....funny how things get misinterpreted and it costs you twice the agreed rate...add it to the cost of the experience! Bikes good to go and we're on the road once again. Short trip up to Phong Nha and found hotel, booked in.. scenery is amazing!
To be continued................!!
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