Posted: February 23rd, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 5 Comments »
A smile of relief after getting out of the tunnel
Post # 20 from SE Asia
February 23rd, 2010
The Cu Chi Tunnel Complex, and my high school friend, Steven Stofko
I am running out of time, and there is so much more I want to do here. Just like in life. So I change my plans. Today I did manage to extend my trip for 16 more days. But that is all I can do. And do I miss my dog.
I managed to scalp a train ticket in Hue during Tet for about 40% over face value. I paid $35 for a ticket to ride about 700 miles. I was lucky to get any ticket at all during Tet.
I folded up my bicycle onto an overbooked train and rode for 26 hours at 30 mph to Saigon. It was a 15 car diesel-powered train, with about 100 people per car. But I did have a reserved seat. People stood, sat, laid down, and even slept for long periods of time in the aisle and in the space between the railroad cars. I made it a point to not eat or drink on this train, because I did not want to try to go to the washroom. A number of university students returning to school changed their seats and sat around me. They wanted to practice their English and talk with me about the outside world. They were really decent, helpful kids. They were constantly offering to run errands for me, such as getting me food and water, and whatever else.
We pulled into Saigon around 1 pm. Ohh infamous Saigon. City where anything goes. Immediately a bunch of touts surround me, trying to sell me their taxi services and everything else in the world. But then they watch me assemble my bicycle and load on the gear. It is a quick process. Disappointment on their faces. I hit the streets of Saigon rolling. BTW, the government may have changed the name to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) but everyone calls it either Saigon or ‘the city’. I quickly get lost, then ask for directions. Then I get a very clean, spacious, secure room at the first place I check, with a private hot shower, for $10 a night. I wash my clothes by hand, hang them in the sun, on my balcony, and shower. Time to hit the town running.
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Posted: February 19th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 3 Comments »
Post #19
from Hue, Vietnam
20 February. 2010
I was north of the Vinh Moc at sunrise, ready to pedal there. This is where a whole Vietamese village choose to live underground for 9 years. It is north of the former demilitarized zone, at latitude 17 degrees. A cycling friend of mind, George Christensen had visited it and said that it was worth it.
But as I started to pedal into the rain, I heard a grinding sound coming from my front axle. It was wobbling off center and hitting the brake pads. I had to disconnect the front brakes to continue. The brake pads were good. I checked it out and no amount of tightening it could stop the wobble. The front quick-release hub was collapsing. 8 days of rain along with all the sand had not done it any good. It would go soon. So here I was out on a country road in the heavy rain early in the day. I could push my bike back to the town behind me. There I could wait for Tet to end and then see if we could jerryrig some kind of fix. That would be maybe 3 days. I thought my other option was to try to wave a truck or bus down and go ahead to the next big city on the road, Hue.
Posted: February 18th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 5 Comments »
#18 the long ride south
From Hue, Vietnam
February 19th, 2010
First, look at this dessert photo. Almost all of these are fresh fruit conncoctions. You have the lady fill up a large glass with them and ice. You do not stir it up. That is so you can taste the individual flavors. I had no idea what many of the things I was eating were, except that they were simply delicious.
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Posted: February 17th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 2 Comments »
#17 from SE Asia
from Hue, Viet Nam
February 17th, 2010 — So what’s wrong with Vietnam?
One would think that any country that calls their currency the ‘dong’, and gives you 19,600 of them per dollar couldn’t be all bad…
But, all right, I have been here for a while, talking about the beautiful places and acts of kindness. But it cannot be so one-sided. So what is wrong about Viet Nam?
1. The government is rated by the UN as highly corrupt. I saw stats that rates VN as 117th of 152 governments. Today, when my bicycle broke down, I had to take it to a repair shop on a bus. Riding in front, I watched uniformed guards stopping buses for apparently no reason other than Tet gifts of cash. I have heard numerous horror stories witnessed by European professors teaching in VN of government agents shaking down shops and even whole commercial streets for ‘gifts’ to the police and army. It extends to the entire public school system. University professors here and ex-pats tell me that it is getting worse. After the reunification of VN, there was a period of purity. But the next generation of apparachniks now rule. And apparachniks are without ideals. Their only ideology is to themselves and to those they serve. Ahhh, Shakespeare’s wisdom to have said 475 years ago “And the children of the children of the revolutionaries then in turn become the oppessors”. It just doesn’t take 3 generations anymore.
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Posted: February 15th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 3 Comments »
#16 from SE Asia. The ride down the Northern Vietnamese coast
location moving down the coast of northern Viet Nam.
15 February, 2010
I have been riding south now for 4 days straight. I have not seen another bicycle tourer. I guess they don’t want to ride into the cool rain AND the strong headwinds. Some days are better than others for me. I can feel myself getting in better condition. My hands are calloused and I do not need my riding gloves anymore. My rearend is not sore after 9 hours pedaling. I am picking up my speed a bit. That may be an illusion since the ‘Chinese Wind’ here blows so strongly from the north. Since I bucked headwinds riding north in Thailand, I will take any natural assistance I can get. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 11th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 3 Comments »
Post # 15
from Hanoi
February 11th, 2010
On my first night in Hanoi, I went to the water puppet theatre. There is really nothing else like this in the world. You just simply HAVE to see it. Explanations will not do. This is a 1000 year old Vietnamese folk art where puppet masters behind a bamboo screen AND in the water control these puppets on the other side of the screen. Musicians play traditional instruments while women sing the narration. It is amazing what they can make the puppets do. Fire-breathing dragons, human puppets swimming with moving arms, a man hooking a shark that eventually pulls him into the water, frogs jumping, fish avoiding nets, marches, dances ceremonies. Some of it was really funny. The engineer in me kept wondering ‘just how are they doing this?’ I found myself cheering with the rest of the audience and standing up at the end and giving an ovation to the puppet masters.
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Posted: February 11th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 4 Comments »
Post #14
February 10th, 2010
from Hanoi
Another good way to wake yourself up in the morning without coffee is to jump off the top of a 3 story boat before sunrise into the ocean, or more specifically, Ha Long National Park…
Ha Long Gai is a cluster of 1996 limestone islands rising near vertically out of the sea next to the coast of NE Vietnam. It is a world heritage site. The isles have their own unique biology. When we visited it by boat, it was cool, misty and foggy, as it is winter here. This added to the beauty. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 5th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 3 Comments »
From Dien Bien Phu, Viet Nam
February 5th, 2010
post #13
I am an avid amateur military historian. In May, 1954, the Viet Minh decisively defeated the French forces that were trying to keep Viet Nam as a colony. The defeat was so complete that the French had to drop all negotiating positions at the Geneva Conference that was going on concurrent to the battle. The battlefield fact was that the Viet Minh had won. The French army was destroyed and captured. The war was over. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 5th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 3 Comments »
#12 from SE Asia
from Dien Bien Phu, Viet Nam
2/05/2010
When I rode my bike into the hotel in Dien Bien Phu, I was dirty. No doubt about it. Sweaty from 2 days of pedaling and no baths. Plus, when the trucks passed me on the road, the dust they kicked up stuck to me. I was clearly the dirtiest person checking into the hotel today.
As soon as I check in, I take a shower. Then I do my laundry. Or if I am staying a few days, I have the hotel to my laundry for me.
So I come back down to the hotel desk all clean and fresh with my last set of clean clothes on. Then the concierge and a few of the maids come up to me. They point out the contrast between my face and arms to the rest of my body. I am, right now, as tanned as I can get on my face, arms, and legs. But the rest of me is my normal pasty white winter self. The concierge pulls up my sleeve and looks at my white skin.
Good, she mimicks. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 4th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 2 Comments »
Post #11
Dien Bien Phu, Viet Nam
February 5th, 2010
(note: I am at times severely constrained here by bandwidth and the Viet Namese national firewall. Often I cannot see images, and Facebook and numerous other sites are blocked by the Viet Namese government)
I left Muang Khua, Laos at 5:30 in the morning ready to have my bike carried to the Viet Nam border by bus. But when I got to the river to be ferried across to the bus pickup, I discovered that the bus had already left, 30 minutes BEFORE its scheduled departure. If I did not find an alternative, it looked like I would be riding. I had heard that this road was not finished, but I figured ‘What road is?’
While waiting at the river, I met a very interesting British couple. They had been working in Shanghai for the last 5 years and now were finally taking the big tour. They reinforced what I had heard about terrible road conditions thru the mountains of NE Laos. Then, as if by magic, an SUV comes up to us and the driver asks if we would like to pay for a ride to the border of Viet Nam. $6 a head. Well of course. It was still dark. We loaded up and were off. Read the rest of this entry »
