EasyRiders Day 2 - I'm Going To Set you Free...

Woke early at Lak Lake Thursday morning and hit the road after breakfast. After seeing a place that was the summer home of the last king of Vietnam, we saw a member of one of the minority villages fishing in fairly unorthodox manner. They place a stagnant net in the late, and then take a boat on the lake hitting the water with a stick to scare the fish into swimming into the net. Don't think they've heard of that down in Cape yet.

Next stop was a second minority village where Bean gave us the grand tour. Vietnam, and indeed the rest of SE Asia, has many ethnic minorities that are not like the people of the country - but are a different race, and live a completely different way of life. They have their own native customs and language, and even speak little Vietnamese. Indeed there are some of these minorities that are seeking independence from Vietnam for which there was some trouble in recent times. In this village, the people made their own houses out of wood, and lived in an elevated structure at least 6 feet from the ground. This is so that animals can shelter under the house. In the village, there are many houses, with no real boundaries etc. The EasyRiders have a government permit to visit these villages and bring in tourists, and they have us sweets to give to the children which came flocking to us when they saw tourists arrive. In this particular village, there was some men cutting down trees to farm the wood to build a house. Being 5 able men, the 4 of us and Tadhg helped them carry one of the trees to the trailer nearby. They thought it was hilarious to see tourists do this, but we were loving it.

We got a tour of one of the houses and shown some musically instruments etc. I also noticed a Sacred Heart in the house, just like home - and was told that this tribe were Catholic since the era of French occupation.
As guest in the house, and as a thank you for lifting the log, the man of the house sat us down in he's main living room and poured shots of rice wine, the local drink which looks like vodka but tastes like whiskey. This was as authentic as it gets. Bean spoke to him in Vietnamese, the little this man had, and translated it to English for us. He also took out some fish that he had just cooked. These were small goldfish sized fish that looked like they were taken straight out of the river and put on the fire. Bean informed us that it would be rude to refuse, so we'd no choice but the break off the head, and eat the rest of the fish. I must admit, it was quiet nice, but still it was good that there was another shot of rice wine to wash it down. We were there nearly 20mins in total, which was a long time to be sitting on the ground in a bamboo house. The man of the house was 46 years old, and already a grandfather of 3 children as this tribe tend to marry young. The cat was around the place too looking very enviously at the plate of fish on the floor - but he wasn't left near it.

Fairly buzzed from the rice wine (and it was 10am in the morning!) we were back the bikes again - and today I had my ipod for the journey to keep me going. We stopped at a brick factory where we saw locals making bricks from clay, and the process was explained to us. We also saw locals at work in the Paddy Fields where we learned about the rice cycle and we saw a Catholic church that was burnt out in the war as it was a site of fairly intense fighting. We stopped then at a farm where mushrooms were grown, and one of the EasyRiders explained the growth of this industry, and industry in general since capitalism became a force in their economy. Now, at this farm, there was a pet python snake that we were allowed to hold and pet etc. I don't know was it my new found freedom, or maybe the rice wine - but I went for it, and had a very heavy python around my neck as I tried to control its head etc. I never thought I'd find myself doing this - but anyway - the video evidence is there !

After the snake and the mushrooms, we visited a coffee plantation, were we met with the coffee farmers that were having a break from the hot sun and welcomed us into the coffee field. We saw the beans and were able to pick some and see what they looked like etc.

After passing a wedding ceremony that appeared very festive, we rode up beside a lake, and at this opportune time, one of my favourite songs came on my ipod, "I'm Going To Set You Free" by John Spillane, and the words were so appropriate, I was in complete heaven. We stopped along the lake for a short walk and some fresh air. Back on the bikes, and we headed to lunch.....yes, all the above happened before lunch.

The main highlight of the afternoon was when we stopped off to do a mini-trek in the jungle for over an hour. This gave us a chance to get to know the younger drivers as it was mainly the older drivers that gave us the tour of the other sights so far. We stopped by a waterfall that was pretty cool, it was fairly wide, and the mist formed a rainbow with the sun which came out surprisingly well in pictures.

We crossed some funky bridges, that shook quiet easily - and also saw some cool wildlife - including a dragonfly type insect, and a caterpillar that looked like a masked superhero. Also, there was a plant that contracts when struck....all pretty cool jungle stuff that I'd not seen before.

We were fairly tired heading back on the bikes towards our destination for the night, Buon Ma Thuot, a city in the hills. Our hotel here was a lot nicer then previous, and still cheap at US$6 per person. It had a leisure center also and we all went for a swim and steam room after a tough day of exploring. Lucy and her driver Anh were heading back to Dalat the next day, as they would only be doing a 3 day trip, so after a fine dinner of buffalo, rabbit and Tiger beer that night, Anh took us to a karaoke type place where he sang a song for us! A great character with amazing war stories of he's conquests and the likes, he would be a loss for the rest of the trip. We were also saying goodbye to Lucey who brought color to the group as she would be heading back to Thailand. Now we were down to 6, the 4 of us, Tadhg and Marie.

After the karaoke, the younger EasyRiders took us to a karaoke bar, and they out to a disco in the city. Wasn't the greatest place so didn't stay too long, but it was good to have a few beers with the younger lads. Needed to clear some pics from my camera that night - so it was a little late, hit the hay very tired after a very eventful day - and a day of EasyRiders that I'll find hard to beat.