We finished off our time in Vietnam with Dalat and Mui Ne. Dalat has pine trees and cool evenings, vineyards and fields of strawberries and artichokes, all much like California. Beach town Mui Ne is the windsurfing capital of the world, surrounded by dramatic sand dunes.We visited both on borrowed time as we'd just gotten our one month visas extended. This was our fifth week in Vietnam. The country was so familiar at that point, I finally felt comfortable with my various Vietnamese phrases. I'd even begun to understand the responses to “Bow neo dien?” (the phonetic spelling for “How much is it?”). However, here were two parts of the country totally unlike anywhere we'd been before.
Dalat marked an important first for us as independent travellers. It was the first time either of us had driven a motorbike. We hired our wheels for US$6 a day plus $3 in petrol. Peter drove and I sat on the back, attempting to navigate. We had only the most basic map and the roadsigns didn't correspond to places we wanted to go. “Biological Institute: 3km” “Sewage Treatment Plant: 5km” Still we managed to find some real gems.
There were more staff than visitors in the sprawling park with a stone “Great Wall of China” and a petting zoo for animal freaks. The six-legged cow was reasonably friendly and Peter was taken with the little bird that said, “Sin chao!” (“Hello”). But it was the three-legged dog that completely won our hearts. It was all we could do not to try and take her home. Next we drove to a waterfall which is surely far more impressive in the rainy season. But we were pleased to have found it and enjoyed a quiet moment by the slow river.
The following day we hired the motorbike again. On an empty mountain road I had my first go driving the bike myself with Peter on the back. I was supremely focused as I got a feel for it. We rode past a huge lake and semi-wild horses. We received smiles and waves from the Vietnamese people we passed. Living the dream I tell you. Living the dream!
On a motorbike, we found half the fun is the adventure of getting to the destination. Tourist minibuses are convenient, but mean seeing the same places as every other visitor to the country. Chartering a tuk tuk or taxi gives you more control, but haggling over the price is tiresome. A trip to the waterfall in the dry season would not have been worth a $10 tuk tuk drive. We never would have gone to the kitsch Vietnamese park with the animals if we hadn't stumbled on it ourselves.
Next we went to Mui Ne, a windy beach town which has experienced something of a tourist boom in the past several years. It has rapidly transformed from a sleepy fishing village and fish sauce producer, to a premiere kite surfing destination with a growing number of four star resorts. Our modern bungalow at “Small Gardens” could hardly be considered luxury, but it was right by the beach and for $27 a night it included free breakfast. The delicate crepes with fresh mango were excellent.
Not ones for lazing about roasting on the beach, we kept busy with morning litter pickup, swimming in the ocean, drawing animals in the sand and playing frisbee. Unfortunately, with the tourist boom and increased town population came a lot of garbage. Indeed the amount of trash on the beach was a bit hard for me to fathom. Some had washed up from the sea, but there were plenty of food wrappers and plastic bottles which were newly dropped each day. Most of the big resorts carefully raked and cleaned “their” patch of the sand immediately in front of the hotel, but simply left the trash closer to the shore.
Every morning before it got too hot, we set off along the beach, each with an empty black garbage bag. We picked up large pieces of styrofoam, sandy bags and a multitude of straws. It took us an hour to fill our black bags so full of trash that it became hard to lift them. We then dropped them off at the nearest resort to be disposed of with their own trash.
Naturally most people ignored us, but some of the Vietnamese beach vendors tried to discourage us from our daily litter picking. They didn't see the point as the beach only gets messy again. Also perhaps judging from the way refuse is handled in Vietnam (and much of the developing world) it simply isn't an eyesore to them as it is to us.However, we persisted and our efforts started to make a noticeable difference. Day after day we removed two large bags of rubbish from the beach. True, each day more trash was dropped and every night more washed up. But we were able to remove it faster than it accumulated, so little by little, the beach became discernibly cleaner. Very occasionally people stopped to talk to us. A middle aged Australian woman expressed her appreciation. Another day a Muslim Vietnamese man thanked us. Throughout the day, we greatly enjoyed strolling down the beach in areas which were previously marred by trash. Travelling long term with no job, sometimes leaves us feeling a bit aimless and undirected. Our litter pickup gave me real sense of purpose, a feeling I would like to replicate elsewhere on our journey.
Mui Ne is famed for its kite surfing so we decided to test the wind for ourselves. We bought a phoenix kite, an important creature in Vietnamese mythology. Peter and I had a stunt kite in London, but unfortunately the double strings made it tricky to fly and the wind was never quite right. This time, we sat down on the sand and tentatively released the phoenix. Immediately it took to the air. Letting the string out, we watched as it flew high into the sky. It's a beautiful kite, bright orange with nylon feathers on the long tail. Keeping a firm grip on the spool, we relaxed on the sand and watched our phoenix soar.
- Phnom Penh, Cambodia
