Days 5 & 6 - Heading for the Mountains....The Ho Chi Minh Trail

Sunday morning, the heads weren't the best, especially Tadhg, but we hit the road regardless and our first stop was a tapioca processing place. This is the white powder type substance you'll see in the pictures, in case you think its something else ! We then went on to a rubber tree plantation, and we were told how the rubber is harvested from the sap of these trees. Interestingly, the rubber crop is now the most profitable for the highlands region, generation more income than coffee, cashew nuts, tea, etc.

After a brief stop at a small war memorial in the countryside, we stopped at a larger monument in a small town. As well as the war monument, there were also 2 army tanks from the war at this site. The tanks were from the North Vietnamese side of the war of course, but were actually given by Russia and China respectively. Not a big shock that the Russian tank was bigger, we were allowed to climb them for pictures, but advised not to go inside. We got used of Peter telling us stories about the war at this stage, and the stories became even more interesting.
After a brief stop in a dis-used war era landing strip, we headed up to the hills where in the distance we could see where the 3 countries meet, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. This is known as the frontier area, and I think that people are suppose to have their passports to be in this area. Once we took a picture at the sign, we turned around and headed for lunch and a much needed coffee.
After lunch, we were officially on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This is basically a trail through the mountains in south Vietnam that was used to smuggle arms and supplies from north Vietnam to the rebel guerrillas in the south, that were fighting with the northern communists. There was one road along the coast, but this was easily bombed and would be impossible to carry anything on it, so the trail in the mountains was made for this reason.

It was a simple dirt track, that used the jungle cover to hide from enemy planes. In the last few years, a proper road has been built along this trail through the mountains and passes through some of the best scenery in Vietnam. At certain stages along the way, we could see where the original trail is slightly different. This is because the original trail could not have any bridges etc, and had to follow the curve of the mountains.
Along the way, we also stopped at another minority village, where there was pigs, hens etc around the place, and of course kids looking for sweets. We then stopped at a small bridge built by the local minorities. This is a very simple structure that was made from wire and wood, making it a little nervous when crossing!.
Finally, we arrived at our destination as it was getting dark, a small village in the hills. A quick stroll along both streets, we noticed that all shops and houses had the TV on and were glued to it, with the volume up full blast. There was some drama/soap that obviously gripped the entire town, if not country. At dinner that night, Peter mentioned that we could take an extra day on the tour, and instead of heading to Hoi An the next day, we could continue and see more of the Ho Chi Minh trail, and also take in the My Son temple outside Hoi An on the final day. After a brief consultation, we decided to go for it as we were enjoying it so far. After dinner, we finished off the night watching Blackburn V Chelsea live, 2-0 to Chelsea not a big shock. A good trend to see in Asia is that Saturday and Sunday nights could easily be spent watching back to back Premiership games live. Games start around 7pm and finish around 1.30am local time - very sociable hours!.

After a quick breakfast, we started day 6 on Monday morning with more mountain roads on the Ho Chi Minh trail. The mountains were very green, with trees everywhere, making the hills look like giant broccoli from the distance. The clouds surrounded the mountain in patches, not a complete cover, and were more white than grey which was pretty cool.
Our first stop that morning was a waterfall on the side of the road. Here, we had to go off the road slightly to the original trail and see how the waterfall passes under the trail - make some great pictures.
We then stopped at what appeared to be a truck dumped at the side of the road, but Bean give us some background to inform us that it was a multipurpose war vehicle. It was like a truck for off road purposes that was used to carry people, food or even weapons. When travelling on the road, there would be 2 people in the cabin, a driver and a 2nd man armed with a rifle for protection en route.
Out final stop before lunch was at a minority village and a school in the mountains. Here, it was lunchtime, and the lads got to meet the teachers in this school.
During the recess, there was a loud speaking broadcasting what I thought was the lunchtime news to the village. Bean informed me however that this was government propaganda, telling the people all the good work the government is doing for them etc etc.



Apparently this was common in the highland areas. After saying a quick hello to the village pet monkey, we hit the road again, and headed for lunch, another fine feed of buffalo.
After lunch, it was quiet wet, but the guides had raincoats and overalls for each of us, so there was no fear. We headed right up to the hills through windy roads, and here the scenery was at its best. We stopped at what appeared to be a random shed in the middle of nowhere, but it turned out to be a house of another minority family. Once invited in, we were again offered food, a local delicacy that they caught that morning. I think the picture says enough here - but not to be rude, we had a little nibble of the meat on offer.
We were very glad there was rice wine on offer to help get rid of the taste and smell, and especially the though of what we had just eat.....but needless to say, in the future, I'll certainly be able to smell a rat....
The scenery that evening was again beautiful with the road disappearing in places to reveal a dirt track, still no bother to the EasyRiders who I think could take the bikes through anything. We stopped briefly in another village that evening where there was a mother hen in the yard being very protective of her chicks, there was about 10 of them. It was amazing how she know one was missing, and attacked James and Tadgh when they tried to pick one of the chicks up. It wasn't Tadghs first issue with picking up chicks on this trip.
We rocked into the town where we were to be staying that night, and checked into a fairly decent hotel. On taking a stroll through this mountain village, we found that the younger easyrider lads were playing a game of soccer with some local kids. Now the pitch was very wet and dotted with the odd stone or rock in places, but it didn't deter us in joining in, barefoot,for half an hour before sunset. The locals Vs the out of towners (ourselves and our drivers), it was a tough game, especially on the wings which were very wet, making ball control impossible....for us. To local boys used this to their advantage and kept the play to where we couldn't tackle them. This was familiar....the Vietnamese using local conditions to outsmart the foreigners on their soil, and hence they secured victory, 3-2. I wasn't too happy with my performance in defence, but my driver, Kim, played a stormer in goal. The game was played to propaganda blaring in the background all over the village....we were truly in a rural area of a SE Asian communist country. . We wrapped up day 6 to a BBQ dinner, our last with the EasyRiders. All 12 of us had a great feed in our hotel, and a few beers to wash it down. That night, we were asked to write in 'the book'. Each easyrider asks its customers to give a review in their book, and they then use this as a sales pitch for future and potential customers. Of course, gave them a high recommendation, both in my driver Kim's book, and in Peter's on behalf of the group. We retired Monday night at a decent hour as we would need to get on the road at 7am on Tuesday morning to make it to the MySon temple, and on to Hoi An to conclude the trip....