In Laos

I made to to Lao after 20 hours on the bus. The tourist buses in Viet Nam have little cubes that you sleep in as if you were on the space station -- comfortable but very crammed. The local bus to Laos was more challenging; I had to sleep on top of everyone's luggage while going up and down mountain roads. There was also a person who was car sick and had to keep vomiting out the window in front of me. He would then go back to playing a very loud video game in between episodes.

Laos seems as nice and friendly as people say it is -- I will do some sightseeing today and finds out for myself.

Off to Laos!

I'm taking a 20 hour bus ride from Hue to Vientiane Laos. Weee. I'm sure it can't be as bad as the bus trip from Mumbia to Udaipur, but we will see. Who will win the worst bus trip award India or the Viet Nam / Laos tag team. We'll find out tomorrow.

-g-

North West Viet Nam Motor Cycle Trip

I was fortunate enough to go on a 7 day motor cycle trip through Northern Viet Nam. It was an amazing trip. I got to get off the main road and visit places that no tourists ever visit. We road around on 20 year old Russian dirt bikes with 125cc two stroke engines. I'm not going to attempt to chronologically describe everything that happened, just some of the fun memories.



On the very first day one of our group had to get off the road because of a truck and ended up flying off the bike into a full rice paddy. He was fine but his camera didn't take to being submerged in muddy watter. Because of the accident we got in late. We had to drive the last kilometer in the dark on a slippery muddy path. The best part is when we had to drive through a mass of water buffalo and their child hearder laughing at our awkwardness.



On the second day we got to cross a rusty suspension bridge on our bikes. Who knew that bamboo could be so strong!

Mid way through the trip we reached the Chinese border. Behind me is one of the many "Friendship" bridges that seem to be all over Asia. Gee with so many friendship bridges they must not ever have any problems. :-)

The road went higher and higher until we reached the hill station of Sapa which seems surrounded in a perpetual cloud bank. We had a cold and quiet New Years Eve. The next day we were rewarded to some awesome driving in mud avoiding large trucks driven by teenagers, and then some pristine mountain roads when we got down from the mountain top.

We were able to stop along the way and talk with locals, many of whom were members of the various ethnic minorities who make up this region of Asia and have different cultures and languages than their host countries.

If you have some experience driving motorcycles I would highly recommend this trip.

In Hue Viet Nam

I've been in Hue Viet Nam for the last couple of days doing some sightseeing and resting a bit. After many many months of no health issues I have found that my stomach is not well enough for me to ride around on a motorbike, so I have been hanging around the hotel, mailing postcards, watching TV, taking baths, reading, and relaxing. Sort of a vacation from traveling. My feelings around my mom are mostly bits of sadness but also some happier memories as well. The extreme depression has thankfully backed off.

Hue is an interesting place to visit for a couple of reasons. It is close to the old demilitarized zone and some of the fiercest fighting between Americans and the Viet Cong happened around here. Places like Hamburger Hill, Khe Sanh, and even the Citadel in Hue were places of desperate fighting. I am going to go to the DMZ in a couple of days. The other reason to visit Hue is that it was the center of the Vietnamese Empire between the times of the Chinese and French and it has a wonderful Citadel modeled after the Beijing with several square kilometers of walls, buildings, monuments and open grounds. Unfortunately the citadel has taken a beating between the French in 1947, the Americans in 1968, and mother nature more recently. It is still marvelous to visit and I spent an afternoon wandering around. Part of the main entrance is shown above.


Part of the huge moat that surrounds the citadel:

Some bronze bowls in front of one of the many halls deep within the fortress city.