We headed to Da Nang and rented a 155cc moped from Danang Bikes. Pete navigated the crazy traffic to get us out of the city (in what world does no traffic rules seem like a good idea? – but somehow it does kind of work here) and set off towards the mountains. This was towards Laos and an area known as The Frontier in the American War. We decided to stick to the small roads on the way and passed through villages making and drying all sorts along the roadside; rice pancakes, chillies, monkey nuts, coffee, incense sticks, cinnamon.
Some processes obviously need a helper to speed things along!
The countryside was stunning and as we started to make our way up the Ho Chi Minh Road and deeper into the jungle, it just got more beautiful and breathtaking views awaited us around every twist and turn in the road.
The villages we passed through were very traditional, many still have meeting houses and the families live a life of self-sufficiency.
Unfortunately, as the population grows, and in the name of “development”, we drove past many areas of logging (probably illegal) and most times the steep pieces of land cleared are just being left but sometimes crops are being planted such as maize, banana trees or cinnamon trees.
There are also massive projects such as hydro-electric power from dams which alters the whole ecosystem in the area and affects water supplies and fishstocks to villages that have relied on this for generations.
The sky suddenly turned a strange purple colour and we heard a distant roll of thunder. As it started to rain we got to a tiny village and spotted a locked up house next to a cow shed with an overhanging roof so took shelter. Luckily we did as the thunderstorm came right over and it rained really heavily for over an hour.
Once the rain ceased we decided to head back to a town we had not long come through, Prao, to see if we could get a room in one of the guesthouses we had seen there. One was full but we found one further out of town for 200,000 dong ($9). When walking into town to find some dinner the locals would all shout “hello, hello” and if passing on the other side of the road they would turn their scooter around just to ride past us to say hello. In a cafe the owner did the universal sign language for eating and we thought we’d get some sort of menu. 10 mins later we got the best bowl of pho (noodle soup) each with some pork parts on top (best not to ask). We had four beers between us and our total bill came to just 80,000 dong (less than $4). Wow!
The next day we were so glad we hadn’t pushed on in the rain as the road was full of hairpin bends and a lovely ride in good conditions. The views were amazing and the other traffic just faded away until we had the road to ourselves.
Well maybe the odd herd of cows wanted to share it! Oh and we did see a group of crazy road cyclists who I guess were riding for charity. Gosh it must have been hot!
After lunch in A Luoi the road started to drop back down and rice fields became the norm once more. As we made our way into Hue the traffic built up again and once more we were dodging again and weaving, beeping and holding our breaths.
We tracked The Perfume River and visited a pagoda we had missed our first time in Hue.
We stayed at a guesthouse ran by a guy called Tam who promised us the coldest beer – and he delivered it in a bucket of ice for us to enjoy on his rooftop as the sun set. Bliss! What a great way to end day two.
