Was fairly tired Friday morning after my late night transferring of photos, but we hit the road again after saying goodbye to Anh and Lucey. It was a fairly tough day on the road with a lot of mileage to cover. Our first stop was a war memorial, where Peter gave us an overview of the deaths, and how war victims are remembered. At this stage, we kinda felt we knew the lads a bit better, mainly from having lunch and dinner and a few beers with them, and hence we were more comfortable asking questions. While the day involved a lot of mileage, we still stopped fairly often, sometimes for walks with good views.
Before lunch, we stopped at a local market, and were told how the trading works and the busy times of the day. There was a wedding going on that day nearby, and we got the invite to attend, but were advised against it, as if we appeared, we'd be expected to drink rice wine with them for the day and there would be no more EasyRiders. When chatting with locals via our EasyRider translator - Derek was informed that he had an admirer amongst the local girls. Bean informed us that the giggling local girls thought we were 'handsome boys' - but Derek was the best. Well to keep with the craic, Derek got down on one knee, and I've never seen a girl with such a beaming smile. Indeed, the girl was gorgeous, and I'm sure Derek will be back in Vietnam very soon.....
After lunch, we spent a lot of time on the road, but regardless we still stopped to see peppers growing, and cashew nuts, all products of Vietnam. At one stage, we passed through a huge rubber tree plantation. As we approached Plekhu that evening, we stopped off at the top of the hill overlooking the city. It was a good view, and we saw what was a hill, but was flattened by the American army so they could use it as a vantage point. The field with the view was so peaceful, and just layed down on the grass and had a 10 min snooze with the others took pictures of the view. Back on the bikes, we rocked into Pleku and went to our hotel. Dinner that night wasn't anything great. The lads hit the town that evening, even though all were tired - but I choose to have a quiet beer with Bean and Frenchie. Bean dished the news on the minorities trying to get their independence, as he read he's book about famous scientists he bought that day. A great character who is always willing to have a chat over a beer, it was good to get the informal gossip. Back in the hotel early, caught up with the goings on in the world via BBC news, and was delighted to have an early night to be fresh for Day 4.
After a not so early rise Saturday morning and a great breakfast with the best local coffee, we headed to a Buddhist monastery in Pleku. It was quiet impressive, where we saw how the monks are making 500 budda statues, in an effort to make the Guinness book of records - watch out for the future. Here we were also given the background on Vietnamese language It always seem weird to me that they used the Roman alphabet for their language, and there was no sign of any other type of writing, which we had not seen in any other Asian country. It turns out, that pigeon English, putting the Roman alphabet to the Vietnamese sounds was common, to supplement their local character set which is very similar to Chinese script. When Vietnam got its independence, Ho Chi Min decided that the Roman text was now the official text, and that it would be used going forward. Hence, this is the norm across Vietnam, and very few can now read the traditional text, except the college learned. Some text at Buddhist monastery and the likes still had the old text.
Other stops that afternoon included a lake that was a water source for the local area and a holiday home for the last king of Vietnam. We then stopped at a tea plantation, and were able to walk amongst the bushes with tea leaves growing. We next stopped at what appeared to be a local scrapyard, but here the 'scrap' was actually shells from the war that were collected across the countryside. After the war, many of the locals would scout the land for bullets and bombs as they would be valuable for re-sale. This of course was dangerous and many died in the process. We were shown the remains of the various weapons collected. It was interesting to hear Peter talk about this, a first hand account. I was even able to hold a bullet in my hand - a bullet that was fired in the Vietnam war.
As the evening closed in, we were close to the area we would be staying for the night. Kon Tom. We stopped off at a bridge that was very narrow, and seemed to have a constant stream of local farmers carrying hay in a cart being pulled by buffalo. We were in an area where the Ban Na people lived, one of the largest minorities in Vietnam. When walking on the bridge, we saw 2 men pass us on the back of a bike with very wide smiles shouting "Hello hello". The guy on the back had a pink helmet, and the driver seemed very wavy on the bridge. Concluding that they must have been on the rice wine for the day, we watched to see how they would negotiate passing a truck coming across the bridge in the opposite direction. They headed straight for it, a novel approach, but stopped last minute, as I think that is when the driver saw it. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen, and poor Derek was in tears laughing, Its a good thing that nobody drives fast over here.
We stopped in an Ban Na village next, and Bean gave us an overview of this tribe from the village town hall. As a nomadic people, we heard about how they find a site to set up a village, from ensuring there are no other tribes in the area, to checking what food source is scarce in the area. Women were out the front of the village shaking down rice to ensure it was clean, and some were making baskets in the back. Again, there was no sign of the men doing any work around here. 
As we rolled into town, our last stop of the day was at a Catholic church and orphanage. The church was similar to anything that could be seen at home - but mass times on a Sunday morning are much earlier, 5am and 7am. Can't see that working in Ireland. After checking out the church, we were taken to visit to adjoining orphanage. Based on the Lonely Planet, these orphanages welcome tourists to visit so it wasn't just an Easyriders thing. It seemed very well run and clean, and the kids appeared to be generally happy. Once we entered the room, they swarmed us, and begged us to lift them up and pointed out photos on the wall etc.
They were aged between 2 and 5, and one of the kids stole my sunglasses and insisted I take a picture of him wearing them ! They knew more about digital cameras then I did when I was that age....as after each picture, they wanted to see it on the screen, and pick themselves out of the pictures. After about 15mins with the kids, we left, and got a tour of the rest of the orphanage. We met one of the nuns that runs it, and sat and had a cup of tea with her, and of course Bean as the translator. There was pictures of the pope on the walls etc, just as you would see and expect at home. We also saw the classrooms that seem to be well equipped, according to my teacher travelling companions anyway.
We got to our hotel and checked in, and that evening, it was Bean that took us to dinner for a BBQ. It wasn't an outside traditional BBQ like we expected, but more like that there was a grill/fire in the middle of the table, on which we cooked our own meat For a BBQ, Bean suggested we should drink rice wine, and not beer, so we followed he's advise. Even with dinner, they drink this in shot form, throwing a small amount back from a shot glass. As dinner went on, the bottles kept flowing, and by the end of dinner, there was a sing song in the restaurant, and Bean was as guilty a party as any. I think poor Tadhg was a little worried that we was driving him the next day, but if you can't beat him, join him, as so Tadhg did! We headed back to the hotel as there wasn't much else going on that night, and got some much needed sleep. Needless to say, we didn't exactly set our alarms for 5am mass.....
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