Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Today was the start of our motorbike adventure, we were both very excited! We met our guide for 8am at our hotel and he took us just around the corner to the bikes. James had decided he wanted to learn how to drive manual bike, He's never driven one before and that the, mountain, slippy, bumpy roads of Vietnam would be the place to start. Of course! :/
I was scared… I really don't fancy an 11 hour flight home on my own ;)
We spent the first 1/2 preparing the bikes and James had a little ride around the bike to get used to the clutch and stuff, he did very well :-) it must be a built in technique from birth from the area he grew up in. A lot of bikes which used to get knicked when he was younger.
After we were suited and booted in our all over blue waterproof gear we were off!
The drive was amazing, and being a passenger i got to see some amazing views! Whilst keeping an eye on James behind me! Luckily the weather was ok and we had no rain all day! We kept our waterproofs on though as going up in the mountains later on got a bit damp.
Mr Top our tour guide was amazing and always kept a check on us, offering us white chocolate cakes with a cheese filling…. Not to be rude we had to have one. NOO he had already tried to offer me one whilst James was learning the bikes and i had politely passed, I had warned James of this incident but this time we wouldn't really pass… It was OK if you forgot about the cheese filling and just ate it in once you couldn't really taste it… There would be a lot more of these to follow through the day… GREAT.
We stopped at a very local place for some food, Mr Top had ordered us beef noodle soup, It was delicious actually! But he kept putting random things in my soup that i didn't really want in there, howell, down in one then!
He told us we should both use the toilet otherwise our next stop would be in the jungle, i didn't really fancy that but now i think it would have probably been better!
It was a proper Vietnamese toilet so basically just a toilet in the ground. I could just about get my head around this after using them many of times before but as i closed the door i discovered to MASSIVE spiders just behind it… like literally the biggest things i have ever seen in my life. I was very brave though and did my business, i was convened one of these spiders had taken refuge in my top though I was very traumatised! I told Mr Top of my horror and he actually offered to remove them from the toilet for me how sweet! But too late, i was a brave warrior.
We were on our way again, no stops for toilet this time! We drove through the Ho Chi Minh trail, which the Vietnamese built during the war to try and get from the north to the south of Vietnam without being detected by the Americans.
It really is so beautiful! It's surrounded by such green jungle and waterfalls, i couldn't believe how nice it was! & James enjoyed driving through the roads aswell. We literally only saw only 2/3 people the whole time and it was about 80km all the way through.
Just before we reached our hotel there was a small village that Mr Top took us into, We took some cakes and gave them out to the women and children (Woman because they men do jack s*** all day apart from get drunk and they let the women go out and do all the work in the jungle! James asked if he could stay… ) The kids were just so sweet and it was really interesting to see how they lived! No toilets, aircon, heating, wifi, ovens, everything we take for granted. And i take my hat off to the woman for putting up with the horrible men :/
Our hotel was in a very small town with not a lot to do so we chilled in our room for an hour or so before going downstairs to meet Mr Top for our tea. It was so tasty! We had young bananas that were cooked, i was unsure but they were the best part of the meal! There were lots of vietnamese things and the whole meal was lovely apart from the one thing i like the most which i thought was beef turned out to be deer… i wasn't prepared for this especially at christmas! Poor Rudolph. Oh dear!
We met a guy from American who was also doing a bike ride but the opposite direction to us and we ended up playing chicken head with him. A traditional vietnamese drinking game…apparently!
it involved getting a chickens head… and shaking it between 2 plates, whoever it lands on must do a shot. However me & James now being very wise to the fact if we drink a lot the day before we have activities booked, we will feel like s***. Like we skipped the shots and just drank beer instead which doesn't give you particularly bad hangovers! Before this though Mr Top had fed us a shot of something homemade in a water bottle which really didn't go down well…. He called it 'Happy Water' he wanted us to have another one. We downright refused to drink that stuff again. I'm convinced it was snake venom or tiger blood.
After chicken head was finished we headed straight to bed & a comfy bed it was too!
J&K Over & Out x
- comments