Welcome back
I am very sorry for the delay in this post but currently we’re living off grid in a container in Northland New Zealand. This is first time have had a chance to get connected to the internet properly. Over Christmas the period I plan to do at least 1 hour of ‘writing’ a day. I am not sure how well that will go but we will see. let me cast my mind back to October and Vietnam
When booking the bus that would carry us from Mui Ne to Dalat we were assured that it would be a high class affair and very comfortable. So when what looked like a rejected prop from mad max turned up and insisted that this was the only bus to Dalat. We were a little annoyed. Never the less we decided that there is no point in making a fuss about it its only a short drive and it was about £3, how bad could it be?
We placed our bags in the back and were glad to see the string holding the boot closed! On the map it is around 150km or 3hours to Dalat and for £3 roughing it was going to be ok. Now what really surprised me about the start of this journey was how we were going totally the wrong way. I am no expert but normally the fastest route to any destination is the head towards it not away from it! As I said not an expert. The first 45 minuets of our bus trip was spent driving around the next town over from Mui ne. This was accompanied by the most beautiful sound track, the two girls in front of us were watching some trashy Asian soap on the phones with no headphones. Now I am not sure if you have ever seen again soaps but they seem to just be shouting and crying followed by some shouting and crying and occasionally the odd dropping to your knees and sobbing. I am sure that if I understood what was going on then it would have been edge of my seat viewing and I would have been praying for the bus to break down so I could have sat by the road side and laughed and cried and felt all the emotions the actors were trying to convey. But as I didn’t understand It was just another perk of the £3 ticket.
Once we finally got on the actual road that would lead us to Dalat and the soap actors had delivered there last lines for the episode I started to enjoy the journey. Nice paved roads, relative quiet on the bus and the seats were surprisingly comfortable. What I did notice while looking out of the windows was this the main route roads between bigger towns were well maintained and looked after but god forgive any one who had to take one of the side roads to get to a smaller town. They looked horrendous, rather than looking out for pot holes your better off looking for tarmac. The whole road looked like an over zealous pothole got idea above its station and had taken over! And to my horror it turns out that dal at to Mui ne isn’t considered a main route. As the sound of the indicator came on and I spotted our exit my heart sank. after a short time on this ‘road’ I was stuck pondering a question, ‘would I rather carry on at this snails pace and only have my spine compressed every 5 minutes as we hit a bit of tarmac for the next 4hours, or just fly along the road get it over and done with quickly and then booking for spinal surgery and full body brace when we arrive in Dalat? I have herd that medical procedures are cheap in Vietnam, i wonder if my travel insurance would cover it? More over how good is the sting securing our entire lives into the bus. I may be calling the insurance company any way perhaps I can ask about the spinal surgery.’ With an other jolt I was brought back into the real rather bumpy world. some thing had changed though. What was it I wasn’t sure. Then I worked it out. Deep down I was actually enjoying it, no that can’t be right maybe all this shaking and jarring has turned my brain to mush. No I was correct and in complete control of my faculties. I smiled, put my head phones in and just watched the world go by.
Puppy love
What always amazes me is how relatively fast the topography can change in a country like Vietnam. From sandy beach to beautiful Peaks in less than two hours (if you minus the Time spent driving around the next town over!). The road was a series of switch back hairpin turns and steep inclines that made my ears pop. As we climbed the views just got better and better. At one point we saw a team of blokes doing road works! My guess was a piece of unwelcome tarmac had appeared in the Road and had to be removed. About 3 hours into the journey we stopped at a road side barn for lunch. As seasoned travellers we always travel with snacks and supplies. This was very lucky as it saved us from the delight of chicken foot soup. i am sure that chicken foot soup is amazing. It is the picking your teeth with the claws that I struggle with. A welcome distraction or distractions from 'lunch' were the puppies. it was plain to see that these puppies were love and cared for. I always worry about places in Vietnam that have a lot of dogs running around, for two reasons. firstly because often they are accidents and there for not cared for, this isn't out of distain for the dogs but out of necessity. this lack of care is born out of poverty, there simply isn't enough to go round. The second reason finds its roots in the same issue, if you need to feed your starving family then dog meat is definitely on the menu. thats enough about that.The other amazing thing about this roadside stop was that It had the best wifi I had connected to since the uk, a shed with only 2 external walls has better wifi than the hotel we stayed in in Ho Chi Minh City.
We boarded old Faithful and we set off up hill. When I say up hill I really mean UP hill. After about 5 minuets I am sure I could see the curvature of the earth. Then on a blind corner we almost hit another bus. We screeched to a halt and out driver jumped out, the other driver jumped out and then they squared up …… shook hands, exchanged pleasantries then they swapped busses. It turns out that our driver only drives half way then they swap busses and drive home! Not even the Drivers who get paid want to make it as a return trip! The new bus driver subscribed to the ‘surgery is cheap’ ideology the second half of the trip was a blur, punctuated by some of the most beautiful vistas I have seen. Dalat is called little Paris, they have even shaped the local telephone mast like the Eiffel tower! As we got closer to Dalat we found our selfs being driven through pine forested hill sides and past green fields of some unrecognisable crops. It really was like we had driven all the way to the foothills of the Alps. with the aches and pains I had perhaps we had driven all the way there? To compound my confusion we past a sky car ski lift, then some chalets and then Swiss style log cabins. What was going on? if it hadn’t been for the Vietnamese pedestrians I would have been certain that we weren’t in asian any more. Then it all sunk in. The sky car was a tourist attraction that took people over to the Trúc lâm Temple. And the lodges were echoes of past French Influence. Finally we arrive in the centre of town and were let out from our purgatory. I was half expecting to see touts offering cheap chiropractors or osteopathic treatment, but it it turns out that this is a typical journey and many many people make it or simalar journeys every day. I was relived to see that the safety string had done a sterling job and our bags were intact and still aboard the bus. We were offered many taxis but turned them all down. We were happy to walk to our hotel, the idea of stretching out and using the muscles that we had abused on the journey seem to be a good one.
Quality Roads!
I am going to wright about our time in Dalat in a separate post as this is a lot of text to just describe the 5ish hours to get there ( spoiler! We were there for 3 days so if I combined the two it would be a Thesis length piece and no one has time for that!) I know it sounds like I am moaning and complaining about the journey but in truth I loved it and would do it again, Just for the views. Maybe I am looking back with rose tinted specs on, but I don’t think so.
