So to get off the conveyor belt Claire & I joined a three-day motorbike trek travelling from Nha Trang our destination was Dalat via Vietnam's central highlands. Even though we were only passengers, there were still many renditions of 'Born to be Wild' abounding.
This was my first time on a motorbike - not counting a few rides on scooter-taxis in Bangkok. Initially trepidation reigned, but I quickly settled in and by the last day was taking photos as we rode along. That said, there were a few nervous (as I unsubtly but evocatively describe them as 'arse-clenching') moments when the gap in the traffic looked just a little too small for our bike. The trip certainly gave me an understanding of how people drive in Vietnam, which seems to involve weighing up the speed of all vehicles, size of the vehicles and space on the road when determining if you should back off or go ahead. At one point we overtook a truck and two motorcycles into an oncoming motorcycles so my driver had gauged 5 vehicles speed and the available space. Just.
The countryside provided a rolling background of hills (with winding roads) and rice paddies (with straight roads) that we alternatively crawled and raced along. On the first day we repeatedly passed hills still deforested by agent orange 40 years later.
The region had been flooded by a typhoon a week ago (hence the 36 hours of rain in Hue/Hoi An) which had left the rivers swollen and waterfalls we visited barely a 'fall' at all, rather a lunge off the cliff edge.
The trip also provided the opportunity to spend time with our guides, likely one of our few opportunities to spend a concentrated amount of time with a Vietnamese person on the trip. It was good to get a glimpse into how they see the world. It's also been interesting to compare the industrious, prosperous Vietnamese (a capitalist wet-dream in a communist country) against the passive, impoverished Laos.
This was my first time on a motorbike - not counting a few rides on scooter-taxis in Bangkok. Initially trepidation reigned, but I quickly settled in and by the last day was taking photos as we rode along. That said, there were a few nervous (as I unsubtly but evocatively describe them as 'arse-clenching') moments when the gap in the traffic looked just a little too small for our bike. The trip certainly gave me an understanding of how people drive in Vietnam, which seems to involve weighing up the speed of all vehicles, size of the vehicles and space on the road when determining if you should back off or go ahead. At one point we overtook a truck and two motorcycles into an oncoming motorcycles so my driver had gauged 5 vehicles speed and the available space. Just.
The countryside provided a rolling background of hills (with winding roads) and rice paddies (with straight roads) that we alternatively crawled and raced along. On the first day we repeatedly passed hills still deforested by agent orange 40 years later.
The region had been flooded by a typhoon a week ago (hence the 36 hours of rain in Hue/Hoi An) which had left the rivers swollen and waterfalls we visited barely a 'fall' at all, rather a lunge off the cliff edge.
The trip also provided the opportunity to spend time with our guides, likely one of our few opportunities to spend a concentrated amount of time with a Vietnamese person on the trip. It was good to get a glimpse into how they see the world. It's also been interesting to compare the industrious, prosperous Vietnamese (a capitalist wet-dream in a communist country) against the passive, impoverished Laos.
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