The Easy Riders are a group of tour guides who to multi-day trips through Vietnam. Dalat is the origin of the organisation although you can find them all over Vietnam nowadays. The client sits behind the guide/driver on a super cool motorbike (by Vietnamese standards) and gets to enjoy the scenery whizzing past.
There are apparently two groups of Easy Riders. The Original Easy Riders and The Easy Rider Group. I asked around what the difference is between the two. Apparently the 'Group' is a splinter from the 'Original'. The splinter 'Group' decided they would prefer to register with the authorities thus they have to pay a 'tax' but also enjoy a form of 'insurance'. To me they are the same sh1t, just a different name.
Tue and I made a circuit to all the sights around and in Dalat. The last and best of all is a hotel being built by an eccentric architect, Hang Nga (educated at Moscow University back in the day). Hang Nga is heavily influenced by Dali so one feels they have been magically transported to Barcelona as you wonder around the hotel and its various alcoves. As Murphy's Law dictates my camera battery died after a few shats at the 'Crazy House Hotel'.
I made my way to the mountain town of Dalat. The French established this town as a place to escape the heat of the lowland areas. Now it is a trendy town with a kinda comercial bohemian atmosphere. As it is the Vietnam school holidays there are a lot of kids running around. They all want to say 'hello' but none are willing to engage in a short conversation. Common, its free English practice.
I met Tue, an Easy Rider, whom I arranged to do a three day tour with. One day in Dalat and then two days north ending in a town called Buon Ma Thuot. I'm still getting used to the fact that Vietnam was a communist state. I say used to be as I see and experience more of a capitalist market than a communist type. I'm told that the country is "communist in policy"... whatever that means?!
We were all up early in the morning to see the floating market in Can Tho. It was quite something to see. The remainder of the morning we saw some other local sights including an orchid and a rice paper making factory.
We were back in Can Tho for lunch where I ordered the Grilled Rat. It's not so bad. There just isn't that much meat on a rat! Other delicacies I could have chosen were snake, frog or bird (not chicken). I'll leave those for another time.
I went on a two day tour of the Mekong Delta. It's not exactly what I wanted but the price for the two days was so cheap I couldn't not do it. There was a lot of driving done in the two days. Thank goodness the bus had air conditioning.
I met Robert, Katie and another girl whom I spent most of my time with. Among the various places we visited was a honey farm, a crocodile farm and another weird religious temple. This religion is no longer around. They had one of the more stranger beliefs in that a man could have as many wives as he wanted but couldn't have any children. What did they all do in their spare time?
I also learned of the importance of a motorbike to Vietnamese people. It's sorta like this: 1. No motorbike no girlfriend. 2. A small/cheap bike will fetch you an ugly girl. 3. A bigger bike will get you a more beautiful girl. 4. Cream of the crop is a Vespa which pretty much allows you to choose any girl you want!
I did another tour today. This time outside of the city to another town called Tay Ninh to see a Cao Dai temple and the tunnels of Cu Chi used during the American War.
I spent most of my time with an elderly French lady who was teaching French and living in HCMC. We sat next to each other on the bus and had some interesting conversations.
The religion of Cao Dai is very interesting. The founder kinda took the good parts of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and any other -ism plus Christianity and made Cao Dai. Interestingly Victor Hugo the French writer is one of their saint figures.
Visiting the Cu Chi tunnels was interesting yet very touristed. It gave one the sense of what it was like during the war but from a very sterile perspective. I did shoot two rounds of an AK-47 at $1.70 a pop.
Feeling a little under the weather, a-hem, I spent most of the day in bed. In the afternoon I went to the Modern Art Museum and walked around town a little more. There are a lot of motorbikes/scooters in Saigon!
The tour was ok. All the people on the tour were either from Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia. I was the only Westerner. One guy even proposed to his girlfriend outside the Notre Dame Cathedral. I felt the tour guide could have done a better job explaining the various sights of the city. I now doubly regretted booking the tour and not joining Beth and the gang to go sight seeing.
In the evening we joined the students for dinner again. This time we went to one of the girls uncle's restaurant. The food there was excellent. Authentic Vietnamese as it comes. Don't ask me to pronounce the names of the dishes we ate.
After driving around the city and seeing the night market we went to a bar/club. It is the first time I'd been to a bar since mid November last year. I hadn't expected to see so many expats in one place. The live music was good.
