On the Road in Vietnam - The Central Highlands

While in Hoi An I made a plan for another motorbike trip.  It can be addicting!  I initially rented the bike for 4 days but ended up riding for six.  It was a small, 110 cc Honda, and old bike that had seen its fair share of wear - which actually was better for me.  I'd rather not worry about dinging a new bike and getting charged out the you-know-what by the rental company.

A typical motorbike in Vietnam (Honda Wave) -
similar to the one I rented

From Hoi An I first stopped at My Son, a Cham Temple complex dating back over one thousand years.  The Cham, an Austronesian people, inhabited central Vietnam before the ethnic Viet people began migrating south from the Red River Delta area (in northern Vietnam).  They constructed countless temples and are famed for their Angkor-like architecture.  The Cham people still reside in parts of Vietnam and Cambodia, but constitute a very small percentage of the total population.

My Son has one of the largest collections of Cham architecture in Vietnam, but the site is sadly in poor condition.  The temples date back as early as the 4th century (and span some one thousand years), so time has taken its toll.  The bigger culprit, however, was the Vietnam War.  In a single week US carpet bombing destroyed a majority of the site.  Some restoration is under way but mostly to try and prevent any further decay.

A few pics of the My Son complex:

After a few hours at My Son I was on my way south.  My plan was to drive inland to the central highlands the following day, but the first night I stayed at Quang Ngai, near the coast.  The town, with just over 100,000 inhabitants, isn't much to see but was a good stopover with several cheap guesthouses.  In Vietnam you can get a pretty decent room - this one had two beds, a shower, TV, and air-con - for about 10 dollars!

At a village near Quang Ngai during the Vietnam War US soldiers massacred over 300 civilians (estimates range from 347 to over 500).  The incident is known in the US as the Mai Ly massacre and in Vietnam as the Son My massacre.  Viet Cong were thought to have been hiding in the area with the support of local villagers, and in March 1968 US troops moved in to take out the VC.

Orders were given to shoot on site anyone who appeared to be enemy soldiers.  What transpired was a slaughter of men, women, children, and even infants.  No Vietcong were found, yet houses were torched and reports of rape numerous.  The army tried to hush it up but the story came out a year later.  Three US soldiers who tried to stop the massacre and saved at least 10 villagers were initially denounced as traitors by several US Congressmen.  If you can stomach it read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre

A memorial to the victims of the Mai Lai massacre

Back to a lighter story...the following morning I started my drive inland.  The central highlands, like the far north of the country, have a significant ethnic minority population.  Many minorities do not speak Vietnamese at home, but the government has been pushing the teaching of only Vietnamese in schools.  The government-driven assimilation, coupled with a large migration of ethnic Vietnamese from the more densely populated coast, has bred resentment among some minorities.

Most provinces now have a majority Viet population, whereas a generation ago the area was inhabited mostly by minorities.  Violent protests against the central government flared up in the mid 2000's, but have since settled down.  I didn't sense much hostility, and for the most part people were very friendly (maybe friendlier toward a foreign tourist than Vietnamese from the coast?).

Hoi An is just south of Da Nang, and the Central
Highlands are the purple provinces

From Quang Ngai I drove toward the town of Kon Tum.  Instead of taking the main 'highway' (which was still only two lanes) I opted for small country roads.  Driving through small towns gives me a better feel for how the locals live.  I would often stop at a small convenient store for a drink or a restaurant for a light meal in order to meet people along the way.  At this point my Vietnamese had improved; I couldn't say much, but enough small talk to break the ice - things like where are you from, what's your name, how old are you, etc.

I had planned to spend the next night in Kon Tum, but the small country road was progressively getting worse, slowing my progress.  What started as a paved street turned into dirt.  Then it devolved simply into a path with rocks and mud too.  I even had to drive through several streams!  I asked a few people on the way and they informed me that, yes, I was in fact on my way to Kon Tum.

My camera isn't always in focus, but here is an idea
 of what the 'road' was like...and it got even rougher!

As the day grew into early evening I was beginning to worry about my prospect of reaching Kon Tum.  The road (if you can call it that) wasn't getting any better and there were no signs letting me know how much longer it would take.  Just around that time I happened to meet two guys riding on a motorbike.  One was a university student from Ho Chi Minh and spoke English quite well.  He told me that a group of students was volunteering in a nearby village and offered me a place to stay!  He said Kon Tum was still several hours away, so needless to say I was extremely relieved to find a place to stay!

What could have been a stressful night trying to find a place to stay turned into a great experience.  The university group numbered some 12 students, all of whom were staying together in a large communal-style bamboo hut.  Luckily they had clean water stored in a tank outside but no separate bathroom!  It must have been tough living there for the month-long program.  They also were responsible for cooking all of their own food - no supermarkets around that neck of the woods!

The program director with me at the village store

Posing with the group of student volunteers
outside their communal house

The village was definitely remote, but again the people were generally friendly.  That evening after dinner we all headed to the 'town hall' so to speak (a large one-room wooden structure) for a get-to-know the locals meeting.  Everyone was curious about me and why the hell I was with the Vietnamese students.  A lot of the participants were local kids, so we played a few games to break the ice.  Then we had to...any ideas?  Sing karaoke!  And of course they asked me to sing a song - with no music.  I opted for a few lines of the Temptations' song My Girl and luckily didn't have to go on for very long...maybe they were already sick of hearing my voice!

Just when I thought we might wind down the night and make our way back to the house the locals surprised me, and I think the students as well, by turning off the lights and turning up their old speaker for - strange as it may sound - a dance party!  Not exactly what I was expecting.  A lot of the teens, the guys in particular were getting really into it, and there was so much jumping going on I thought the wooden floor might break!  I could tell the students were pretty tired out (as was I), so we stuck around for a few songs then called it a night.

Despite the previous long day the students were up bright and early before 6 am - good god!  By the time my body was semi functioning they were already getting busy making breakfast and preparing for the day ahead.  They had only arrived the day before, so there were lots of things to do.  One of the program organizers had to catch a ride with a local to another town on the way to Kon Tum, so after breakfast we set out together.

The initial stretch of road that morning was possibly even worse than before.  Just before (as I would later learn) the road switched back to paved and more manageable, there was a steep downhill bit with only gravel.  I tried to break, but my tired kept sliding on the rocks and down I went.  At first I couldn't feel much pain, but I soon realized my leg was scraped up pretty bad.  I had been wearing shorts, so my lower leg was exposed to the rocks.  I had a big patch of skin on my right leg and a bit on my right arm that had been torn up.  A rock also cut through my sock and bloodied my ankle, which made it difficult to walk.  On the bright side the bike was okay - I must have cushioned its fall!

My leg a few days after the fall

The local I was following led me to a hospital - which was a good 20+ kilometers away.  It consisted of a guy napping in the waiting room.  The Vietnamese guys were chatting most of the time, and the doctor simply cleaned the wound and gave me a few bandages.  I didn't even pay the guy - we just walked out and rode off!

Once the two Vietnamese guys reached their destination I went along solo through to Kon Tum, and then spent a night in Pleiku.  Pleiku is one of the provincal capitals of the central highlands and felt like a big city compared to the small villages I had been riding through.  The following day I drove all the way to the border with Cambodia; the crossing was remote and I doubt many tourists take that route!  I've heard that the roads in northeast Cambodia can be rough, even impassable during the wet season.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this sign!

I then began my long trip back to Hoi An, stopping in two different towns overnight along the way.  The scenery wasn't as beautiful as up north near China, but pretty nonetheless.  I would have enjoyed it more had I been able to walk properly!

Some of the scenery:

When I went to return the bike I wore jeans to cover up my wound, and the worker didn't ask any questions.  The bike looked fine so I wasn't too worried about trying to cover it up!  After returning my bike I booked my trip for Nha Trang, a beach town further south.