My Vietnam Launch – Chung’s Jungle Tour Day 3 – 2018 Backpacking
Chung (Choong) & I are riding through the real Vietnam and very few people get to see what I am privileged to do with Mr Chung Phan & a huge thank you to the people of Vietnam & Chung, for today we are riding from Gia Nghia to Di Linh!!! This trip is 112klms but will take us almost 3hrs of riding, not including the stops & involves mountain terrain, mud crossings, etc, so hang on!
Waking up from a well-earned night’s sleep, very hot shower & getting used to being a pillion passenger I thought I would get my act together & be early for Chung … but alas, I had that Chung look .. haha .. greeting me at the front steps with my helmet at the ready. Chung chuckled with his subtle “hurry up.” LOL!!! Today is yet another rainy day in glorious high country of Vietnam. My bike clothes almost dried out overnight, but I can manage for a while until I can get some laundry done.
FYI … when I started backpacking in Cambodia (early April 2018) in the high heat & humidity, changes to my food intake and continuing this through to Vietnam I noticed I had lost a lot of my body toxins in the first month of Cambodia and my clothes rarely smelt of body odour. Along with that I had lost a bit of body fat too and down to around 70kgs which no doubt helped Chung & his scooter. I consider myself to be very fit for my age & health wasn’t a present issue to me however I became acutely aware in what I chose to eat & drink after getting diarrhea very early into my travels.
We had a latish breakfast on a roadside café Chung recommended. Not my usual western cereal so you can see in the photo what we normally have in a Chung breakfast. One must always eat what the locals eat but avoid washed vegetables & the like as the water is not as clean. Chung mentioned we are only doing 110klms today but at times a little challenging. He would not divulge any further so now my anxiety starts to work a little with trepidation.
Our first stop for the day is at the local market and I said to Chung “it’s not a good look straight after breakfast,” as a lot was not to my liking. Live eel, frogs, dog, boar, catfish, chickens, geese, duck, etc. Some killing is done on site & temporarily hung up to bleed out & dry. Not for everyone in seeing this so I didn’t upload any photos. While perusing the market, I looked back at Chung talking & laughing with some ladies at their stalls. Yes, he’s at it again. He had me married to 3 of the women already & was still promoting his new Aussie friend. He’s wicked sometimes. Lol!! To get out of it in all manners I had to take it all onboard … in the end the women couldn’t stop laughing & enjoying the banter and we certainly brightened their day. A very warm good-bye was had by all.
Next stop up the road was a memorial park where both Vietnam & USA military equipment was displayed in permanent mountings. There are a lot of these memorial parks in Vietnam and so much military equipment restored & displayed such was the enormous impact of a civil & then international war. Whilst travelling throughout Vietnam I had numerous occasions where I didn’t experience, I was travelling in a communist country, such was the warmth of the Vietnamese people. I felt totally comfortable & much so with Chung in my presence doing this outback jungle tour.
After a while I sensed we were still climbing in elevation & not long into our Day 3 trip the road became very winding with tight corners & steep inclines. A couple of road-side stops provided a fantastic outlook into the wilderness, seeing the mountainous ranges, large lakes, and the coffee & rice plantations on almost every available land available, not to mention the volcanic rich red soil.
Riding through the landscape of nature we came across a café clearly out of the blue & quite surprisingly. Chung obviously knew it was there due to the many years of providing this tour for he quickly turned left & parked. The timing was perfect for another Vietnamese coffee, mid-morning. Well-planned Chung. This café had the usual tables but also provided magnificent hammocks to further lounge in. Chung was in full recovery mode I think for the hammock was quickly seized upon after ordering our coffee, etc. This stop provided a longer than usual break in the travels & Chung had a little power nap on his much-preferred hammock. I had my hammock but how can one sleep doing such an exciting journey through the backwaters of Vietnam. I also found out the lake I had seen earlier was actually the backup water of the Dong Nai River & the Vung Nguy Dam, built in just 2years (2008-10) which this café was adjacent to. I guess the café originated when the dam was being built & stayed opened after. The river separates the Dal Nong & Lam Dong providences.
With a sense of recovery over, Chung pushed for the continuation of our journey. It was not long after I could see why Chung had his rest, for we are now trial bike riding down the dam track in front of the 100m high dam wall on a real trail bike bush track. Hang on tight, this is challenging! Reaching the bottom of this valley I could see the ‘creek’ of water slowly ‘leaking’ from the dam or from last night’s rain. Despite the water we are now encountering a lot of slimy mud to both sides of the water. Chung yells out “hang on!!” … I was already doing this!!!
With both legs raised I still couldn’t avoid the water or the mud .. but I was so pleased with all the mud scrambling & motor bike engine screaming we managed to get to the other side without falling over & scrambling up the steep hillside. What a challenge & was lucky to get a photo of the dam wall close by & was truly amazed at Chung’s bike skills. My anxiety peaked knowing how much water was behind the dam wall & hoping it was structurally sound & being in such a quick construction timeframe. It is definitely not a fun place to be in front of a sea of water. Vietnam do not allow the public to traverse any dam wall (walking, riding, driving). The dam is totally out of bounds to all except the military & the like. They treat dams & the like as national security.
Just after the dam, we called into a small jungle village with a shop of almost everything & some really weird items. One part of the shop was dedicated to natural medicines, like snakes, bark, Ginseng, seeds, fungi, etc. They had a 4L jar of snake wine with a cobra & a green snake (turned blue in wine). This bottle of intense imagery was selling for $700USD!!! Yikes!! Next stop was a minority poor village and the population mainly relocated from Sapa (NW of Hanoi) from my earlier blogs & such an amazing place near the Chinese border. They were easily recognisable with their national costumes of everyday dress. The children were so cute and friendly. I wonder how they are now in today’s global climate of post-covid, etc. I was deeply honoured to be shown a typical house with full communal living & a kitchen of sorts & laundry at the rear. Large sleeping flat beds. When exiting I was greeted by 13 beautiful children so excited to see a strange old man from another country. So many kids in the one place & I was equally thrilled in getting them into a photo.
Just up the road we inspected a tea factory. Here, 8 women were sorting the dried tea leaf & removing the stems from the pile. This sorting is done by hand to enable the pure tea leaf to be bagged in 73kg bags and sent to the main markets including those in Ho Chi Minh. The young men enter the factory off their jungle bikes with today’s cuttings which are put into the shredder, then boiling pot & then steam dried & sieved in a 4-bay sieve & in time ready for the ladies to do their hand sorting.
Moving on, we pulled over to view the new $200Mil USD Chinese Bauxite Aluminium factory. This factory juts out of the landscape & one wonders how this was even contemplated in this region. A few kilometres up the road we came across a very impressive Catholic Church newly constructed but not fitted out as yet. This church was amazing to see in such a regional area but of course the nearby township with the factory workers & the like to warrant such a church of this standing and obviously there is money coming into the area.
Without much ado our hotel was the next & final stop & I was keen to get my clothes dried as quick as possible for tomorrow & to repack them dry, but I soon found this to be too much of a challenge. The hot shower was a true blessing, but the room was in very poor condition. This hotel was not Chung’s first preference, so we had to settle for this hotel & he was keen to provide them feedback upon our departure. With most Vietnam hotels it is mandatory you provide your passport for keeping in their safe in case the Police do a drop in search. There is no way to avoid this, so it takes a lot for me to hand mine over & so relieved to get it back first before we provided our feedback.
“Communication … Communication … Talk to each other”. From a song “Kite” on the concert DVD “Go Home” by U2 @ Slane Castle. YouTube have it also.
I always look forward to seeing the feedback so don’t be afraid to comment. My next blog/s will be more of the amazing Vietnam experiences and quite a few were life changing, & not just for me.
Live life to the most and a quote that I truly love is from Eckhart Tolle ..
“If I am not the hero of my life … who in the hell could be?”
BH Life Travels 