The guy to the front left was my cyclo driver, the darker tonedguy plays soccer in Saigon I think, he's from Nigeria. The other
two including the one with his arm around me have been drinking
for hours and are quite drunk. This is the place to get cheap beer,
you sit along the wall and next to the curb; only the finest!!!!!
Alright, I've got a lot to try to remember and tell you. I spent my second day in Saigon on a cyclo. "What is a cyclo?" you are probably asking yourself. Let me tell you. I sit in the front of this bike in a comfortable seat while this old man is standing behind me, peddling this 3 wheeled bicycle. During the Vietnam/American war the southern Vietnamese fought with the Americans and when the war was over many of these soldiers who at one time may have been teachers, lawyers, doctors or had other accomplished careers, weren't allowed their licenses back or allowed to ever own property, so many of them are in the big city and drive cyclos.
My first stop was to a market that sold lots of old war stuff, cantenes, pictures, dog tags, jackets and such. It was like going to a museum at the same time. It was a strange feeling being an american and going into this place for obvious reasons. I then saw many other parts of the city and learned what locals pay for certain things like meals, water and basic things that in the touristy part of the city prices are upped. I got the feeling very quickly that Vietnamese love money. The world likes money granted, but the vietnamese love money like Trick Daddy loves sugar. I spend the rest of the day walking around all the different areas of the city and checking out the locals spots. As I sat in the evening on the curb with locals who spoke no english and drank the cheapest beer in town with them I really felt like an accomplished traveler. I then had dinner on another curb with a bunch of construction workers and then taught me the names of the local foods that filled me and cost me less than 1/2 a dollar.
The next morning, Adam (the bug guy) and I headed north to Da Lat which is up in the mountains and is the place that many Vietnamese go for their honeymoons. It really was a beautiful area with a lake in the center that has a 7km path around it. There is a central market that has many of fresh vegetables and any thing else you'd want. (this area specializes in vegetables so I had a vegetable dinner, it was great!!) The following day after walking around the lake and town it rained all day so we rested up and took it easy only going out for meals.
This was the group that did the 140 km trip from Da Lat to Mui Ne, Mountains to Beach.
The following day Adam, myself, and another 3 people we met did a mountain bike trip from the mountains to Mui Ne beach. We were transfered the first 30 km out of town to a not so busy road in the mountains. From there we road downhill for a good 25-30 km which was awesome as well as dangerous if you down hit the breaks before the 162 degree turn around the edges of the mountain. As we road down we could see far off at the moutains and valleys below. We then hit flat ground and road for another 45-50 km before getting transported the final 30 to our destination at the beach.
In Mui Ne I woke up to see the sunrise and we all walked
the beach to see the sunset, this was our group for sunset.
In Mui Ne we took it pretty easy. The first day I got a massage on the beach (first one in Vietnam), layed in the sun, swam in the ocean (a new body of water for me to swim in), found a good restaurant, met some cool kiwis, and read some of my book before calling it a day. I rented a guy on a motorcyle to drive me around the next day to the famous sand dunes of the area (red and white), and to see all the fishing boats in the fishing village (imagine that), and the red canyon (very small, but very red)
This is the white sand dunes outside of Mui Ne,
beautiful huh? and my driver got it on the first try!!
I got back to Mui Ne to see Adam (who at this point I had traveled for 5 days with and we got along great) off as we went seperate ways. I headed back to Da Lat on a five hour trip on the back of a motorcycle with an easy rider. (my ass was sore!!!)
From Da Lat I went on a two and a half day trip with the easy rider which I will tell you in the next blog.
"If it's free, I'll have three!!" Adam told me this quote.
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