The Picture Blog: Thanks for Reading!!

As the Vietnam Blog reaches the end of its storied tenure, I feel it would be remiss of me not to give something back to my loyal readers who, week in week out, sit staring at their computers, just waiting, hoping, praying for the next Post to roll out.

Well, here it is, my final Vietnam post just to say Thanks For Reading! In return for your steadfast support, I give you a post that involves little to no reading at all! My favorite pix from the month+ that I spent on the road in Vietnam and Laos.

Enjoy.

The Open Road. That's what it's all about ya'll.
Outside Dong Hoi, Vietnam

Mekong Sunsets. Unbeatable.
Don Det, Si Phan Don, Laos

Buffalo are excellent swimmers
The road from Sapa to Ha Giang, Northern Vietnam

Read on too see more attempts at photography

Saigon Food Blog: White People Like This

After more than a month of driving, busing, training, and merry-making my way through Vietnam and Laos, I had finally arrived in the southern capital of Ho Chi Minh City, previously known as Saigon. My former travel partner Dan, of NorthernVietnam and Laos fame, had been living and teaching in Saigon for some time, and was only in Hanoi for the summer program, much like myself. So when I got in to town and met up with Dan he asked me what I wanted to do with my 3 days in Saigon, and my answer was simple: Eat.
(...and the award for Paragraph With the Most Blog Links Ever goes toooo: That one!! Congratulations, you earned it.)

Food in Southern Vietnam is not quite the same as in the North, where for much of its history, food was regulated by the communist government, and there was not much of it to go around, much less to get creative with. But Southern cuisine is widely regarded as the more diverse and flavorful of the two, with a bit more pizazz and a bit more heat to it. I was ready to dive in and get as much of that Southern flavor as I could before leaving the country for good.

The One. The Only.

Saigon is crazy crowded, and where there are a lot of hungry people there are a lot of restaurants to feed them. But my top priority was a local lunch spot I had been hearing about before I even knew I'd be moving to Vietnam: a street side vendor run by a woman know to foreigners simply as The Lunch Lady. This woman has probably featured in just about every Vietnamese/Southeast Asia food blog you can find, and with good reason. Every day at lunch time she serves a different dish, rotating weekly through local favorites and regional adaptations. Her food is rich, the servings hearty, and her reputation widespread throughout the expat/backpacker scene.

Read on to hear how awesome the Lunch Lady is

Day 31 & 32 & 33 & 34: Inclement Weather and The End of The Line

Having well and truly enjoyed my time in Nha Trang, my journey was nearing its close, and there were only 2 more towns to check off my list before reaching Saigon: the mountain retreat town called Dalat, and the once-small fishing village turned action-sports mecca known as Mui Ne. I'd read about a newish road that goes straight from Nha Trang through the beautiful mountainous countryside straight into Dalat, so I packed up and headed out, looking forward to a scenic, hairpin-filled romp through the hills.

The last bit of scenery I actually got to enjoy...

The drive turned out to be anything but a romp. My ability to avoid inclement weather throughout my trip was a stroke of luck I was thankful for, but the trip to Dalat quickly ended that lucky streak. It was rainy and freezing cold, and any hope that I had of enjoying scenic vistas or entertaining roads was quickly shot; all the vistas were covered with mega-lame clouds, and the turns and curves that would have been a blast to drive in good weather were suddenly slick and treacherous.

As I approached one such turn, I applied my breaks in anticipation, and nothing happened... whether I was skidding or the breaks were too cold and wet to accomplish what they were intended for I still don't know, but within seconds I was in the turn and off the road, with only the guardrail and about 3 feet of rocky ground separating me and my bike from a sheer drop off a cliff.... thanks to my expert driving abilities, I was able to save myself from disaster, but a wreck that far from civilization would not have turned out well for our brave hero!

Read on to see how long I stayed in Dalat, plus: my inevitable run-in with The Law.

Day 28 & 29 & 30: Nha Trang: More Russians Than You'd Expect...

After a beach-side recovery from my megadrive from central to south, I was ready to get back on the saddle, though only briefly, to cover the 66 Km down to Nha Trang, Vietnam's beach town extraordinaire. A friend of mine from Hanoi, Becky, had moved down to the southern tourist trap just a few weeks prior, and had assured me I had a place to stay when I passed through, an offer that I'm always willing to accept. The drive - which saw my bike pass the 10,000 KM mark (!!) - was straightforward and pleasant, and in no time, Becky was showing me around her new home.

I'm the little blue smurf above the "N"

Nha Trang, like some other great Southeast Asian cities (*coughChiangMaicough*), is a popular tourist destination for both domestic and international visitors. The town is situated right on the coast, and bordered on nearly every non-beach side by scenic mountainous terrain. Its no wonder tourists flock here, but wondering is permitted when noticing one interesting quirk of the town: there's a whole lot of Russian around. Restaurants, clothing stores, travel agencies, even market stalls are littered with that indecipherable, backwards-looking script that Russians always seem to insist are words.

“Why..” you ask? Well so did I: seems the common political ideologies shared by communist Vietnam and the former Soviet Union did more than just provide this lovable 3^rd world country with cheap vehicles, weapons, and unsightly government buildings; it also struck up a tourism link between the two countries (that is, once Russians started having enough money to travel outside their frostbitten country). In fact, there are very few international flights into the small Nha Trang airport, but there is one that goes directly to and from Moscow... go figure.

Read on to hear how a retiree spends their time in Vietnam

Day 25 & 26 & 27: Megadrive/Gettin Jungley With It

Due to the previous day's failure to launch from the charming grip of Hoi An, it was necessary to make Day 25 the longest driving day of the trip, during which I had to cover 320 Km (about 200 miles). Though this may not seem like the marathon journey I'm prone to make it out to be, it was nearly 100 Km longer than any other drive I'd undertaken thus far, and quite an undertaking on roads of variable quality and a bike that tops out at about 80 Kph (50 mph).

I woke early, grabbed some market food, and headed out of Hoi An, this time with my passport most certainly IN my possession. The first hour and a half of Deja Vu Drive went as smoothly as it had the previous day (sigh...), and the following hour and a half provided similar predictability, and slightly different scenery. I neared my beach-side lunching destination right on time, but first had to stop at a museum in Son My village, the location of a brutal, controversial, and eventually well-publicized atrocity of war, referred to simply as the My Lai Massacre.

this plastic reenactment could actually appear comical... except for the fact that it actually happened.

Some brief background: the small coastal village called Son My, just south of the Demilitarized Zone, was suspected (or known) to be housing Vietcong supporters/members, and a small group of US soldiers were given vague directions to go take care of the issue, as soldiers are so frequently ordered to do. Something in the directions or the men's brains was off that day, however, and it resulted in the mass slaying of over 100 innocent villagers in My Lai hamlet; men, women, children, and elderly, without discernment. The place was torched to the ground, with the few remaining survivors left to pick up the pieces of their decimated families and homes, not to mention dealing with the subsequent bombings of the area, supposed to be attempts by the US Military to cover their transgressions.

Persevere

Like the rest of Vietnam, life today in rural Son My ticks along normally. The museum, a moderate flow of tourists, and an annual remembrance of the victims are the only traces of what happened, which is all probably for the best. It is now simply another story of innocent people meeting a tragic end, all at the hands of warring governments who decide it necessary to their Empire to put their citizens directly in harm's way. War is a sad, ugly, childish thing.

Read on for some less depressing stuff! Really, I promise...

Day 22 & 23 & 24 : Hoi An: Are we in Disney World?

The the day after my unexpected Hue Party, I awoke fresh and ready to leave town before any more locals could coax me into a day of drinking. Having taken in the compulsory sights of Hue, it was time to move to Hoi An, another historic town/tourist trap, but by most accounts a far more quaint and pleasant one than Hue. The drive, which rolls over Hai Van Pass and through the big city of Danang, is known to be very lovely. And lovely it was:

Bigger vehicles can take a tunnel through the mountain that'll knock 30 mins. off travel time. Worth it?...

Love a good hairpin pic

Hoi An is marketed as an important “Ancient City,” and indeed it was for many years, acting as a major port of call for traders from all over Asia and even as far away as Europe. As such, the city boasts a good deal of foreign influence – especially in its food and architecture – originating from long before the war, tourism, and modern development. More recently, it has become known for its pleasant Disneyesque ambiance and dirt cheap tailoring shops (of which there are too many to count), and is one of the most frequently visited tourist hot spots in Vietnam. I rolled in to town, easily found the accommodation that had been recommended to me (a bar/guesthouse hybrid dubbed The Sleepy Gecko), and headed for the beach. Despite the fact that Hoi An is not known for its beaches, it has a few nearby that are pretty fantastic.

The following day, I joined forces with a couple of French siblings staying in the dorm with me, and we made a trip to nearby Marble Mountain outside of the big city of Danang. Marble Mountain is exactly what it sounds like, only better. A few small mountains outside the city were found to be full of high quality marble stone, so naturally they threw a billion marble shops around it and started mining the hell out of it. The interesting part is, after they'd presumably taken as much stone from the mountain as they could, they turned it in to a tourist attraction so they could keep making money off of it (savvy, no?). While I wasn't expecting much, Marble Mountain turned out to be something of a sightseer's playground. There were loads of caves (not naturally occurring, but still cool) full of monuments and such, and lots of areas to climb around on and explore. We worked up quite a sweat hiking up to the top, and while the pictures don't do it justice, the views were amazing.

Read on for Marble Mountain Pix, and hear about yet another mishap – seems to be a running theme...

Day 20 & 21: Hue: The Mid-Trip Crisis

After enjoying Dong Hoi much more than I expected, it was time to continue on my way south. My next stop was the former imperial capital of Hue, which has turned in to a bit of a tourist trap thanks to its historical importance and location.

The drive took me through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the narrow region that once territorially separated North and South Vietnam, and saw a massive amount of fighting and destruction during the war. Though there are plenty of sights to see in the DMZ, my research told me that most are not all that interesting, and even less so without a guide. One sight however – The Vinh Moc Tunnels - is considered by nearly everyone as a DMZ must-see (DMZMC?..). So in the morning I strapped my bag to my bike and set off, with plans to make it to the Tunnels around lunch, and Hue by late afternoon.

"...there's a powder room on your left, and if you'll follow me through the foyer, out front is one of our newest Bomb Craters, just installed last week..."

The Vinh Moc Tunnels were dug by the industrious people of the area just north of the Ben Hai River, which lies on the “17^th Parallel”, dividing North and South Vietnam. Their villages came under extremely heavy bombing (approximated at 7 tons of bombs/resident) from the American forces, who were hoping to cut off a suspected supply line to the Northern forces/Vietcong in the south. The villagers couldn't stand the idea of leaving their homeland, and with really nowhere else to go, decided to simply head underground. Over a span of 3 years, they dug an impossibly elaborate tunnel system, and lived there for several years after its completion.

Down we go

Big enough to give birth in, but not big enough for me to stand upright...

It can be easy to distance ourselves from what the Vietnamese have been through over the last 100 years at the hands of foreign governments, obviously including my own. However, the perseverance and love for their homeland that these people have shown is truly astonishing – I have no idea what I would do, if put in the same situation (though it would probably involve running away to Mexico... but, of course, not Canada...)

read on to hear about a surprise party of sorts