Welcome home Gracie....

[Micky]

Welcome home Gracie

Sounds, and looks, like you had a great time



Micky

 

[Gracie]

Welcome Home

Thank you for that, if I could fathom out how to post photo's quickly, I would put some on too!

I have got an itch I can't scratch, called travel bug, already mulling over where I can go next, any ideas?

 

[Mandylicious]

Welcome back, I'm sure you had a wonderful time. Look forward to seeing the pics

 

[garbo2]

Hi sue hope you had a great time look forward to bumping into you.still not passed me test yet garry

 

[laughing gas]

Welcome home Sue, and well done.

 

[Room 101]

Wow... well done Sue, looks like some challenging weather you were dealing with there too... was it rainy season..

Glad you're back ok... as for the next trip.. you seem to have conquered most of Asia.. how's about South America...?

All the best, Sue..

 

[Rod Souter]

Well done that woman

Rod

 

[Gracie]

When I left the UK in December, I anticipated touring a Vietnam, bathed in warm sunshine. It has been the coldest winter the north of Vietnam has had for 50years. Typical!
Although I travelled in Cambodia to begin with and revelled in the 28degree temperatures, the real excitement started when I took possession of a Minsk 2stroke 125cc Belorussian bike, 10years old and looking as beat up as me.

The first week the bike and I became acquainted by touring the north east of the country, from Hanoi, keeping east of the Red River we trundled up along Thac Ba Lake towards Ba Be Lake. Reasonably good roads, tea plantations, water buffaloes and scenery reminiscent of the Lake District at home, but with the limestone hills covered in trees. This was definitely not a tourist area though and the phrasebook became an indispensable piece of equipment. The food was basic, easy to find but apart from the Pho Bo (noodle soup) available for breakfast it was always cold and cooked in not too clean conditions. Vietnamese coffee is strong even by European standards and it wasn’t long before I was wishing I had stocked up with Nescafe and Mars Bars!

One home stay was with members of the Tay ethnic group and the bloke who owned the guest house was the local witch doctor, he had great clout in the area, and seemed genuinely proud to have me stay with his family. So much so that I was paraded on view to the village rather like a prize pig!
A walk down the lake side to a small shack for a bottle of water, a bottle of beer and a packet of biscuits and the price is hiked up tenfold. Water in the city cost 3000dong, the old man charges me 8,000d. 10,000dong is about 32p, so we are not talking big money here, but it must have seemed like his Christmas had come early. This might not be a tourist area but he sees his chance at making a profit and takes it.
Up towards the Chinese border in Cao Bang Province, the town itself is miserable, the market a filthy affair, but when I stop to buy rice cakes I am surrounded by friendly faces, they seem amazed that firstly I am there and secondly that I am a woman and a mature one to boot.
Buying petrol was always an interesting experience, I was usually offered tea as an inducement to stay longer, I suspect I was viewed as something out of a freak show, the moustached beefy woman type thing, because even at 5’2” I dwarfed the local population. Sometimes the petrol was sold in Johnny Walker whisky bottles at the side of the road next to the food stalls. It could have been anything that was going in the tank!

I knew that while I was going to be away on the bike, the New Year was going to be celebrated on February 7, the year of the rat, or the Tet holiday in Vietnam. The whole country shuts down for 2weeks and travel is just about impossible by anything other than your own wheels while the whole country uproots and goes home to be with family.

I had arranged to go with an organised motorcycle tour into the north west, but the New Zealanders had cancelled because of the weather conditions which left me with the services of a guide from Sa Pa all to myself. What a difference this lad made. We hit it off straight away, especially when he found out that I was also a ‘tour guide’ back home. I became his second mum and obtained ‘cult status’ amongst the other guides. They took me to their hearts, invited me to share meals with their families and join in with the ‘local’ celebrations that the other Europeans could only watch from the outside. It was an honour.
Thanh took me along roads I would never have found on my own, tracks high up in the mountains with the most appalling surfaces, thick mud and loose rocks, enormously steep drops on unfenced roads, conditions which had me alternating fear and elation, challenging by any standards. Throughout it the Minsk plodded along without missing a beat. From Hanoi to Mai Chau, Son La to Lai Chau, Sa Pa, Bac Ha Xin Man, roads to make you sing – or weep – depending on your level of proficiency!

It was a shame we had to part company after our 1650kms up in the north, but I was advised that the dirty exhaust of the Minsk wouldn’t be welcome on the long trip down the length of Vietnam and if it broke down it wouldn’t be as easy to fix as the Honda automatics everyone rides further south. I sold her for $450 and bought the most boring bike I have ever ridden, a Honda scooter, for $200. The horn worked but that was the sum total of the electrics, the lights were on permanent daylight saving mode, they didn’t work!
1500kms later I abandoned it at a children’s home in Nha Trang and hoped they loved it more than I did.
To ride the length of Vietnam (almost) has been the most amazing experience
I came away elated – that I had survived! It is a fascinating country, they eat anything, cat, dog, rats, snakes, frogs, if it moves it’s edible. They drink anything, rice wine to home brew the choice is yours, they laugh with you not at you, they are a proud, tough breed of people, they have little and always want to share, and if they have a grandmother they will sell her!
After so many years of war the country is emerging as one of the most sought out holiday destinations in Asia. Down the costal belt hotel after hotel is being built, luxury resorts that could be in any country of the world. If you ever thought you might like to go to Vietnam, do it now, because in another 5years there will be nothing left of the old way of life!
If anybody wants details of the guide from Sa Pa I will happily pass them on. He owns 10 Minsks, will arrange to meet you in Hanoi and take you on the ride of your life!

 

[Gracie]

last few pictures for now

 

[rc mad]

welcome back gracie, just read the blog. Sounds like you had a mostly good time, apart from the honda

i just love that pic, so triumphant