It would be fair to say that i have sincerely the closest friend of my trip in YoLanda! To say that is so difficult bearing in mind all of the great faces and characters that grace these blog entries but the things we have experienced and some things which must remain between us have made our knowledge of each other a pleasure to have! Thanks!

See you in Amsterdam baby...

written by  50watts on May 17, 2006 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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When Marc, Thorsten, Sandy (Pamela), Robin, Sabine, Jana, Nick and Will left Longbeach at the very begining of my stay they became the first faces i said a sad farewell to on the beach! At that point of saying goodbye and watching the boat disappear i realised it would be hard to eventually leave and it was!

...a special stop over island with many memories coming to an end!

written by  50watts on May 16, 2006 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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It is strange how the two places i have enjoyed the most on my trip are the two places i have found most difficult to put into words and hence write about here on the blog. But here goes my very best attempt to explain about life on Perhentian Kecil, Longbeach. The local and western people who made my time there special and the breath-taking beauty of the landscape. First of all though as promised on the last entry, here is a photo of me and Gary (the famous actor) on the balcony.



Well the beach doesn't change but the people on it certainly do, every day we welcome new visitors with their backpacks in tow. Some arrive early in the morning on the first boat at 8am and others are dropped after dark for some reason. All have one thing in common, the quest for accomodation which certainly is not an easy thing to find on the island. Most places on Longbeach are very basic so when people arrive expecting comforts they are left searching and then accepting that they must compromise. There are some nice places; Matahari, Panorama and Moshin Chalets all have decent chalets but they are more expensive than most budget travellers can afford especially at peak times. Often they only have a few rooms that are cheap at any one time and most of the time they are not available. Then there is; Lemongrass, Moonlight and Champaka which have outdoor and wild bathrooms but at least with fans in the rooms. Most of these places also serve food and organise snorkelling trips with their own boats. Finally there is Rock Garden my lovely address and Symphony if you can stand the late music and the risk of losing your swimming gear! So as the people arrive i try to help them choose an end of the beach to stay and let them leave the backpacks safe as they search in the nearly 40degree heat.

This is Jali. He has a small boat and often he charges visitors to the beach RM2 to get from the main speed boat which pulls up 200yards from the beach to the beach itself. Nearly every peson complains about paying this money and many believe the fare should be included in the price they paid at the port. I would like to use my blog (in the Hope that people searching the net might stumble upon it) to offer my insight behind this charge. Jali does not own a set of chalets, nor do his family own a restauraunt and he certainly doesn't spend his money loosely about the beach, he doesn't munch on ice-cream all day and he works every hour! He doesn't mix socially with the tourists at the bars and places because he doesn't have the money to do so but he is a resident of the Perhentian Islands. There are several local people on the beach who have small boats, they use these boats to help out the larger places and other families on the beach. In return they are often given reduced or free food and accomdation but no salary and little in way of cash other than petrol costs. They will never reap the hundred of Ringit spent by every westerner on the beach. So next time the boat pulls along side the fastboat and the taxi boat men come calling, just remember Jali. (Jali Gam! Super Jali!) The odd-job men i call them and this particular man was one of the nicest people during my stay. When we had too many people snorkelling we would often pass people to him and in course we would often see him on the water and around the island.

So people are changing and so are the staff at Aziela too. We said goodbye to Wannie and welcomed Resah after my little trip to Thailand. Here you can see a shared birthday between Wannie and Anna, Anna being the wife of Boron who's family own the restauraunt. Boron is a driver for one of the main dive schools on the island (Coral Divers), a great person and good volleyball player despite being so short. Anna helps in the kitchen and is the main reason i can speak a little bit of Malay, something which has surprised a few people!

...some more quality hammock time with the Dutch ScubaDiva!!!

Some days we get to spend an hour or more and some days just 15 minutes but every time its a great to sit and relax with Yolanda on the balcony away from all the action of the beach. Both of us know many people down there and it is difficult sometimes to get 10 mins peace. This is our sanctuary from an otherwise daily routine of fine food, diving or snorkelling, new faces and new disclosures! We chat endlessly and since day one of our unexpected arrival together we have shared everything, even the hammock! We have introduced each other gradually to the new faces on the island and while Yolanda mixes more with the divers i meet the other people! Its safe to say that between us we get to know most folk here and around us from the begining of the season has developed a wider group of people staying maybe 3 weeks, maybe 1, maybe returning and maybe getting work! So here is a little about some more people we met on the island;

Craig & Dionne. Well met i met these guys in Thailand when i left Koh Lanta, i assured them of a nice place i was going. They decided to join me and we ended the day all sleeping in the same room at the port ready for the early boat the next day. We got to the island and it more than met their expectations of somewhere to unwind after Thailand and relax forgetting everything before having to return home. Craig got straight into building a double sofa on the beach and Dionne settled in nicely with the local wildlife! They even decided to stay on the island by returning after a ten day visit to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Five days after leaving they were back!

Joel.Well i said hello and see you later to joel a few times on his first fewdays on the island but after a bit we did actually make that step and meet up for a drink and something to eat. Glad we did really cos he is a top man and i enjoyed every day spent with him and all the random stuff we talked about and saw. We had planned o take a beach day togethre but then i left without telling him to go to Thailand. When i came back i mistook a guy twice for being Joel and then one day i was lucky enough to find the real Joel still living a few doors away in Rock Garden. To say it was welcome is an understatement and we then made sure we spent nearly a week meeting up daily. He was doing a diving course and like me wasn't drinking alcohol much. We managed to get so drunk on his last night though that we woke up me in hammock and joel lying underneath. I had sand all over my face and Joel had no trousers! We obviously couldn't do the numbered padlock in the dark too! It was a great night and a sad farewell. All i can say is he comes from Uterecht, might mean nothing to you but to us it means a damn lot! Hey Schnoite.... ;)

Linden. Arrived from another beach on the island where he was building huts in return for food and a roof. We took him in and found him a place to stay amongst us. He stayed and became a mythical character amongst us, a man of great extra spiritual powers! Then one day he came snorkelling with us and swam with sharks and we found out he was truly real! Linden if your reading thanks for the monkey juice run you did and i wont tell anyone about you living from a pair of shorts for 4 days or more. For everyone else reading, we only knew he had not returned from a trip to mainland because his bright red pumas were still at the shop and his backpack at my place!

Bas (Boss Man). Probably the largest man i have ever seen! A friend of Yolanda's who came down to Perhentian for a while and helped gather the evidence of me and joel on our last night! Some Scuba Divers said they saw a small whale in the shallow waters but others saw Bas! Another great Dutchman!

Malcolm. Man i nearly forgot Malcolm for a second there but how can i when he was my neighbour! We shared pretty much everything as we could hear everything from one shack to another. This middle aged Canadian dude was often found wondering between the Coral Dive Shop where he worked as an instructor or his balcony. The silver fox of Perhentian!

Christina & Dil. My Thai kidnappers!!! Thanks for awesome time!!! The motorbike job was a good one and i think we can be proud of ourselves. Anyone who has been to Thailand can work that one out. Hand it in at dusk!!!

Ben & Dave. These guys sum up the other people i met on the island. People i saw again either in Thailand or here in Kuala Lumpur. There have been a great many faces and friends who have passed through the island and that i have later seen walking down the street somewhere else. Tonight it was Reggae Bar Chinatown and these guys! Two other guys 'Chris & Dave' even made it to Oz and met a friend of mine there with Perhentian Paradise the conversation link! This is a thanks to all these people for making Perhentian as possible as it was and as entertaining too!

Life in the shop is pretty much easy as. Sometimes i sit behind the counter but most of the time i am just hanging out on the beach and by the shop. There is a steady stream of people who take up on a special 9am snorkelling boat and we often get to see lots more as a result of going so early and before the other boats leaving at 10.30am. We take a cool box and have lunch at the fishing village, most of the time we go to the lighthouse in the afternoon and jump of its 10m top. On a trip with Joel and a little courage i managed to dive off the top which bearing in mind you can see shoals of coloured fish and rocks too, its some feat! It was not repeated though. So the trips go well and keep me occupied every few days. Then in the evenings i still take dinner at Gigi's and most of the time i am joined by guests from the trips or otherwise.

There are many beaches and inlets surrounding the two main islands, some are solely for exclusive resorts, some are deserted with no development, some are reserved for conservation and then thre is Longbeach. Although Longbeach does have a number of establishments on the island it is only a cheap water taxi to get to the other beaches. It is also common for people to rent a kayak for the day to do a complete lap of the small island stopping along the way! A fit person can do it in 3 hours non-stop. The island is very wild with a jungle mountainside landscape and a large variety of wildlife. My personal favourite are the eagles whcih swoop around the flanks of Longbeach every night before dusk. There is one eagle which can not fly which has been on the island for 6 years and is fed by the locals, he just walks around the beach by day attracting the attention of travellers and by night he perches in a spot behind the main bar. Its a good job i knew about him because anyone going for a pee in the bushes at the back might get a shock or think they are really feeling the monkey juice!!! Monkey juice being the alcoholic island choice, a yellow liqour which tastes good with pineapple! But be very careful with the stuff because its reputation for being rather quick in knocking the mind from its senses and putting you in Knockout mode is proven!



...so thats really the island. All thanks to the above two people. Eddie has been on the island for 19 years and his knowledge of the people and places is second to none. He has the shop and he regularly has visitors who return, i will be one of them and i look forward to my return so much! This shop in the middle of the beach. Izan Eddies wife taught me Malay too, although not so repeatable and the kids Roy and Shahira provided many more smiles each and every day! I think one day Roy will definately have a future in computing and shahira will be just like her mum! A special mention now to Fadlee the boat driver and Malay half of the trips we made some of the best. It is people like him and Ma (the old chef from Aziela) that will be some of the characters i look forward to seeing most on my return.

That is Perhentian. A place where the closest thing to a road is a wheelbarrow and where the mainland truly does disappear! It is a paradise and it best visited from april to august so go and say hello...

written by  50watts on May 15, 2006 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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As you will all be aware there have been many photos taken on this trip and i enjoy photography as a keen interest.

Well 2 days ago the camera broke and hence there will be no more photos on the trip. I am gutted.

I would rather walk home naked and with camera working in hand than this. But as i have said all along, you have to expect absolutely everything to break while travelling! It sucks!

Im on a small mission in Thailand at mo but will be back on Perhentian very soon!

written by  50watts on April 23, 2006 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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Next door is Aziela Cafe, another family run this but everyone is good friends. Gigi and family made me feel really welcome and on my first night i sat for BBQ dinner with Yolanda for the first time. It was during this meal that we both appreciated how lucky we were to be here at the right time, in the right place and most certainly with the right people! We both admitted that we could stay longer for sure! And over the coming week we discussed many times the reality of stopping over on little stop over island or Pulau Perhentian Kecil as it is named in Malay.

Meantime we became accustomed to the plentiful animals hanging out and around our new houses. I moved to a front facing jungalow with a superb view and Yolanda moved into mine. So far we regularly see Big Spiders, Snakes, Lizards (from tiny to huge), Bats, Mantis, Scorpions (one was in bed) and a few other unknown creatures. By far the most annoying are the ants though as every night you are guaranteed to stand on one and it will fight back.
Last week while walking up the almost impossible path up to the jungalows another person in front of me stopped and yelled after a few seconds to realise they had stood on many ants. As they screamed i realised that indeed i had now stood on the line of ants and with my torch i saw hundreds by my feet trying to carry some larger insect or animal, it was painful!!! Thankfully the spiders have been no trouble.

I mentioned the lizards but however much i promise it will not matter until i get some pictures. Genuinely though, there are monitor lizards on this island the size of fully grown men and more like crocodiles. They are massive and a bit of a shock when brushing your teeth out the back! The smallest lizards are hilarious because they play dead when you get to close, you can throw them at other people and they just stay dead, then you turn your head and they are up and off faster than you can see. So yeah living in the Rock Garden is an experience just like the island.



Above; my place. Rock Garden is the oldest accomodation on the island and is simply 30 huts or so with no electricity and no hot water. Just a bed in a shack with a balcony and a toilet block that is more natural than mother nature herself! But after a fw days we love it and ther eis now a group of 6 or so people who are staying permenently. Most are diving instructors or girlfriends/ friends of them but then there is also me and Yolanda. Yolanda herself has completed some advanced diving courses and soon will be doing her divemaster so that she can join the staff at one of the few dive schools on the island. Every night for three weeks we catch up either on the beach or back on my balcony in the hammock. We look out over the water through the palm trees and onto the lights of the fishing boats sitting in the distance. The stars are everywhere and we think back to the meal we had and the whole decision to stay. We smile widely!

So what am i doing? well simply Eddy offered me in a no words spoken way to help out at the shop in return for internet time and soft drinks/ chocolate bars and a fwe other essential things. People always come by because it is the main shop on the beach and he has been there for years. So when people come in and ask questions i talk to them. Sometimes they become good friends and often we go on boat trips to swim and snorkel with the sharks and turtles all around the waters nearby. With one group we even spent the whole day on a deserted beach, just some takeaway food and an ice box with cold beers and water. It was a fantastic day with fantastic people! So the shop is rewarding for both parties and it is not hard work as literally i help as is appropriate.
On the other side of things, Gigi offered to take me under his wing, he even offered me to live with his family behind their restaurant. However they all live in a ver y closed space and the conditions although normal to these people are very different to what i could see being my home and private space for a long time. I declined but i did accept something else. In return for bringing people where possible to eat and talking highly (not that it ever needs it) of the place i could eat freely and at will as one of the family. You can't really get a nicer offer than that and ever since i have become very close to the Family including Ila, Sling, Braeme, Boron, Anna, Wannie, Lynnie and Yasmine. Yasmine is the youngest and as seen here the baby of the family, she is such a happy cheerful baby too!!! I am uncle brahim and my Malay name is popular with the locals. I am also learning a lot of Malay with them and we have much fun learning. So i hang out at the two places and gt by each day with my own time to myself too, i meet many people and enjoy a beautiful place.

Well Andy left after a week and i think he was feeling the heat. It is extremely hot here and only the last few days have we had wet weather. This was good though because it made some good surf and therefore i spent 3 days surfing a few hours each day! The temperature reaches forty degrees easily and the fish even use you to hide from the sun. Everyday new people arrive in Rock Garden and complain about not having a fan, i dont blame them but things are really not that developed on the island. Every place runs its electricity limited by generators and agreements with the larger accomodation places. You see how reliant on boat transport and fishing they are. During some recent bad weather ther ewas no fresh fish for the BBQ and thus business was poor. The residents are definately not rich but their dependence is never turned into frustration or anger. They just get on with things happily and are relaxed and thoughtful.



This picture was taken from my hammock one morning, as you can imagine when i woke up after falling asleep the previous night i was quite pleased. As you all probably appreciate from reading the blog i love photography, well im gald to say that hear on the island ther eare plans to most certainly add to the list of images from the trip! Hopefully soon i will make a day of it and post some new pictures!

Staying here on the island for 3 weeks as felt like ages but i hope to seek out some work opportunity in Kuala Lumpur, this is another reason for me staying on the island. Obviously there are benefits in doing so and if needed i can visit KL to see and meet people. I really consider this opportunity as one of the best i have had and can not explain enough the fortune i have in the arrangements on Long Beach. It's just a beach on a tiny island with a population of a few hundred and ther is no pushy tourism or anything, its awesome!

Well thats what i have been doing and so much more. I haven't mentioned about the trips out to collect the fresh fish, the proposed fishing trips, learning to cook Malay style, more about island friends and the random things that happen here. Last night my guest at dinner and my place with frineds was a favourite actor of mine, he starred in Irvine Welsh; The Acid House and Gangs Of New York. It gets crazier and crazier but cooler and cooler! Well i hope to enter another post soon but as it has been a long time i thought the world may like to know what i am doing and where! However the internet is unimaginably expensive on the island and today i can actually write because i am on mainland for the day (it feels so strange!!!)



As ever if you are travelling and nearby drop me a line and i would more than welcome your company on Perhentian. If you are back home then i hope all is well and i promise i won't extend my stay any longer than now planned!

Jumpo Lagee!!!!

written by  50watts on April 20, 2006 from Jertih, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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Anyway back here a few days and its happened again, except now i have one on each foot and no Daz. I am currently on a diet of pain killers and dermovate cream to remove most of the pain. It hurts a lot and walking is not top of my wish list at the moment either as you can imagine. Takes my mind of the back injury from tubing though i suppose!

Well still nobody knows what the animal is so im asking those reading, any ideas?

Thoughts?

Hopefully i will make it to Malaysia very soon in one piece. So speak then!

ps. Bangkok doesn't change even with mass rallies!

written by  50watts on March 27, 2006 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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Remember Sebastian from the south of Viet Nam and our conincidental travel/ birthday plans, well we kept to the plan and met in Vientiane. They (Thomas included) had a bad journey too over the border but at least arrived on the same bus. Anyway we are not in Vientiane like this blog says, we are in fact in Vang Vieng about 3 hours north by the river.

16th March- Brian (23)/Sebastian (25) 's Birthday celebrations...

The best part is that pretty much everybody on the river at that time of day joined up as a large group. While relaxing at one fo the big swings Sebastian and me had the crazy idea of a joint birthday swing, so here is the picture of us enjoying our birthday! At the top of the swing we also met 2 Danish guys, as they said Happy Birthday before the jump we shook hands. One was number 23 and the other 25, conincidence???? :) We swapped numbers at the bottom but we had to wear our change in marker pen on our backs for the rest of the day and today by the looks!

6.15pm.
Having enjoyed the birthday of Thai Thinh's son Lee, i had a last coffee with my friend next to the bus departure point. The toy car present for Lee went down a treat, as did his mum's food again!

6.45pm.
A sad goodbye and then i boarded a small bus to Vientiane with several others joining but with different destinations. I relaxed back for 10 minutes to watch a few reminders of the busy Hanoi lifestyle and prepare for the next place.

7pm.
Everybody moves to a larger bus and i am pleased to see that the business card marked 'bus to vientiane' is sufficient to act as my ticket. Thai Thinh had arranged with a director of the firm my ticket for 16 dollars. I am also informed on asking the man taking the tickets that we would transfer in Hatinh as ther wonly 5 of us going to Vientiane.

2am.
Arrival at a cafe in the middle of nowhere somwhere in Hatinh region though for sure. We all leave the bus and are encouraged to either get some food or strectch our legs and we do need it too! Here i meet the other 4 people heading my way; Mel a 56 year old Aussie, Tatsu a quiet 20 year old Japanese guy, Febe and Ella two English girls on their Gap years. We ask our driver about the change of buses but several times he chooses to ignore us and go to the back of the cafe. Next to us is another bus by the same company heading th opposite way to Hanoi. It becomes clear that 2 girls from their bus were going to Laos too bu they left on another bus 10 mins ago!

2.15am.
We are left in confusion and frustration as not only does our driver continue to ignore us but he also starts to laugh constantly. One woman and one woman only speaks broken English and she says accomapnied by hand gestures from others that we must wait until 7am for another bus. It is also explained that another man has rooms if we wan to stay in hotel. He later turns out to have a trendy mobile phone and also own the cafe. However on many previous requests for a phone to use we are rudely refused. I dont mind being refused but the cafe has its own telephone number pasted on the front sign and we were willing to pay whatever and they knew it! We became a laughing spectacle to many of these people and it wasn't funny! I f went back on the bus we would be going the wrong direction and also who knows what the driver would do next. If we stayed then we had to hope in a group of people so unbelievable it was untrue!

2.30am.
Our bags were unloaded and to the disbelief of those still having to use the bus we were left at the cafe to fend for ourselves. Me just with a business card as my ticket!

4am.
The shutters on the cafe are closed and our existence ignored for everything including an hour sleep on the floor, we stayed in the cafe. The feelings were high, trust deservedly low and the future extremely uncertain.

7am- 7.30am.
No bus and no acknowledgement by anyone at the cafe or nearby. Nobody able to speak any words of english or interpret the drawings or attempts made by us. One young lad waving trucks off the orad for food was able to give us a later time of 2pm though. Great!

8am.
I searched out a nearby phone at a small shop. Our choices were now to listen to the claims of a possible 9am bus with no possible use of our tickets anymore, try and get to nearby Vinh for a bus i had previously heard impossible to catch over the border or contact Thai Thinh wit ha chance he could maybe talk them around. We chose the latter as the abandonement of being where we were and the reality of the other buses was known to be extremely faint. I called and after 30 mins and several calls i was imformed to wait at the cafe and if a bus comes try to get on it, paying if needed! He would talk to the senior manager or director of the travel company.

9am.
A bus arrives and the cafe owner appears from the back, meanwhile three guys get off the bus and a heated discussion continues over the topic; us! Money is counted and i sense that Thai Thinh has managed to help us, the girls rush forward trying to board and other things but i was very clear to them and told them to sit back down. From now on if we wer going to get to Laos then i would probably have to suss some more things out on my own. Waving their tickets they moved back and i gave little contribution to the discussion between the men. Now a few hours ago when really neede i asked this man to pay and use his phone, now he is paying for 5 of us to get on the bus with these guys, work that one out! Finally after negotiation we assured of passsage to Vientiane and we borded an otherwise empty bus (another strange fact!).

1pm.
The border, a deserted place high in the mountains surrounded by clouds and raining heavily. The officals (all two of them!) are at lunch, we wait an hour and a bit. In this time are attention is either watching the bus does not leave or talking to an English/Swedish couple who had managed to find and board the cramped bus from Vinh. They were then in front of our eyes told and physically shown that they would transfer to our bus by one of the main guys from each bus.

2.30pm.
The visas have been stamped wrong as just before we leave we rush back int oto correct the problem, otherwise we would have severe problems explaing a 15 day stay on a 7 day stamp! Issue resolved we board the bus. All except the couple that is, a comotion ensues and as i struggle to stop the drivers it becomes clear that our saviours are as bad as anyone else! To watch in disbelief and unable to help more or risk my own seat (which wa sworked so hard to gain) and to have unable timely support from the other who were sat near the back the bus pulled away leaving the couple at a dangerous border crossing on their own and a long way from the next town. I tried to stop the drivers with claims they would be paid to take them but they really did not care at all. I know how it feels to be left and i promise if i could have done more i would but if such a thing happens to you you will understand i am sure! So now try sit back and relax...

5.20pm.
We end the long twisted road from the mountain border at a t-junction where we know we have to turn right. We turn left but shortly pull over and have a stoppage. Efforts are made to try and discuss lightly a few matters but the impression is given that we are going to turn around and head the right way along the main road to Vientiane. Some people also feel as though we are waiting for something and i recall watching the guy count some cash before stopping.

5.40pm.
A bus going the other way is topped, i see the driver give some money and the old couple who obviously run this local transport debate the effort of fitting 5 westerners complete with large packs onto a bus already to full fit another person through the door. We are urged on and squeezed in but not without them trying to charge us first. At which point and while others started counting money out i bluntly told the man i had seen him pay them something already and that we would pay nothing. There was silence and we baorded for free, sold just like the animals kept in the hold below! Scooters on the roof, rice bags littering the isle way, 3 people to every seat, luggage everywhere and not one cm more of room we set off for Vientiane on at least a 5 hour journey!

10.10pm.
The feeling of arrival in Vientiane was ecstatic but subdued. Standing for 2 hours, sitting on the floor of the isle for a further 2 and lukily lying there for one was made better by the trust we had in actually knowing we would arrive. Reflection on the experiences and people we had encountered though was worrying and but for the phone call and a very trusted friend we would still havea 5 hour wait to chance our luck with the next bus on the following night. This almost certainly would have cost us and staying at the cafe would have been destroying. Febe, much like one of those people ruching to get off the plane but inevitably heading for the same exit as everybody else decided to act quite immature and make stupid comment! Thank you for a little gratitude young lady and im sure your hurry will pay dividends!

10.45pm.
Me, Mel and Tatsu all caught a lift into the centre , found some accomodation and went for a nextremely well deserved beer! There who should walk in but my German friends Sebastian and Thomas who had also left Hanoi on the 12th March and also claimed to have ahad a really bad journey! We enjoyed a few Beer Lao and some food and made plans for the next few days and some rest. We have our birthdays to prepare for!

written by  50watts on March 14, 2006 from Vientiane, Laos
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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We left for the mountains the morining after the trip had been confirmed, so from a farewell to the Aussie guys it was an 8am departure and a quick stop to pay the policeman 50,000 dong for jumping a traffic signal!

The first day was strange, because looking back on it not much happened. However on the day it seemed like so much did, it must have been the small things and the fact that together on this bike we were setting off on an adventure. We climbed slowly into the mountains and the temperature dropped along with the visibility as the mist came in. We were treated to a few spectacular views and the first real meeting with people not so used to Western persons. The food became more rural and the buildings more understandable. Either they were rich, built narrowly into the sky and made of brick or they were poor and made of wood, some being little more than a shack. We started to see the appearance of different industry too, with brick making, rock excavation and farming! The means of transport also became more simple, very few cars, lots of trucks, many more mopeds and a few filled buses.

The highlight of the day was by far our final destination though. Staying in a tribal homestay with some friends of Thai Thinh i was treated to an extra special experience and lesson in Vietnamese culture. Basically if i had made it to this place alone i could have stayed in a large room for tourism and guests. Instead i was treated to a different large room where the family would actually be with friends etc. What this meant is that i would be the guest of Hom the owner along with Thai Thinh. We ate incredible food (Toffu especially) cooked by his wife and drank rice wine with every other piece of main dish food.
This experience is best described as being like a buffet but one where you are not allowed rice until you finish drinking rice wine, you are not allowed to do this until the host stops drinking!!! Think you know whats came next, a bit of a drunken time with these tribal villagers playing cards and getting used to the fact you were not just anywhere!!! I taught the young lad to juggle and so impressed with his progression i gave him the juggling balls in return for a small woven basket.
Then it was retirment to the area under my mosquito net and a good night sleep! In the morning i had the first of many of the best coffees i have ever had and enjoyed a somewhat beautiful view over the paddy fields watching the locals start work.



As we enjoyed cruising along on day two it was clear that the weather was starting to clear and the sun starting to shine. We also met the first of the many children finishing school and walking the roads home. Literally every village was connected by the roads we were travelling and the people would walk or cycle miles. The first of many high fives were given and the faces of the people and there dress became more colourful.
The homestay was good but now we were starting to see some really rural people and places. The animals also started to become more plentiful, as usual, dogs, kittens, water buffalo, chickens, geese, pigs and many others sat by or sat in the road as we passed by. The fields were greener and the scenery ever more amazing!






By the road people would sell everything and here you can see how i got on selling cucumbers. This lady was joined by us and then the two ladies either side came to see us and then more and finally a small crowd. Some had never seen pictures of themselves and certainly possessed none either so we took some pictures and had then printed out in the next large town and sent back by local post, another advantage of being with Thai Thinh! I tried my best with no fear selling the cucumbers to passing trucks and mopeds, the looks i got back were memorable from happy waves to completely stunned faces!

That night we settled in a larger town and in a small hotel Thai Thinh knew. We got the pictures sorted and had a meal before i bought two large bottles of Beer Hoi, forgetting Thai Thinh does not drink alcohol. So i invited the lad off reception to join me on the sofa in the foye/garage type reception area watching some local TV favourite! Then a strange thing happened, i noticed a fat Vietnamese man walk in and remembered something Thai Thinh ha said earlier that day "a fat Vietnamese man is a rich Vietnamese person!" , then i returned to watching TV. All of a sudden Thai Thinh came down from the room (it's 11.30pm, late in Viet Nam) and spoke with the fat man. He turned out to be the hotel owner and he was inviting me out for drinks with him to a place only rich locals must frequent. I must go with him and on his moped only as mark of respect and so it was...

At the place we enjoyed a bottle of Vodka, a few things to eat, the best and strongest coffee in Viet Nam apparently and proven to me (number 9) and finally a great conversation. No speak of business which surprised me just as friends. Should i visit next time i must joiun earlier and drink properly with this man i was told, even though i did a good job in the time i had! He welcomed me to revisit before inviting me to join for the best noodle soup on Viet Nam the followng morning! Unable to refuse this hospitality i accepted and went home again on the back of his moped. We said bye and i played Futco (like keepy-up football but witha strange badmington like device) with the lad from reception and others. The drink was taking hold and i was playing one followed by the other and then another and so on... so funny though! Sin Loi! ;)



Bed time and day three began with noodle soup in a cafe joint filled with either policemen in unifrom or rich locals from the town. Our host showed us his other much larger hotel before ordering the special noodle soup from the menu. A somewhat drunken cafe owner then pleaded for my opinion in Vietnamese and Thai Thinh did his best to explain, t was superb and truly it really was! A good starter for the day on the road. The owner then invited me across the road for coffeee in his office where i was lucky enough to be treated to a few karaoke dvd's worth of some American country band! It was so funny but again the coffee was excellent! It was strange to see that his printer would have been a hit in the UK in 1988 but here it was a symbol of position. Surely this man can afford to buy the latest printer, confusion began... Anyway time to say bye and hit the road!



Day three was about the police again, having been pulled over (nearly) again and having seen many locals by the side of the road with an impecably dressed cream officer. I spoke to Thai Thinh about things and it became clear of the gulf and corruption involved between the classes. Basically the houses are different and the jeeps exist because the policeman represent the rich classes. They stop you and if you argue they raise the price of your impending payment. Nobody argues and their houses get bigger! The money doesn't go towards local improvement it merely lines the pockets of the individuals lucky enough to be born into the right family. They even have their own blue or red colour number plate which lets them do more than ordinary people who may be lucky enough to own a car. If you have a red one you can even jump lights and park in the middle of the road!



Worse than this it is well know n you pay to be a policeman and can be a poor but good candidate and get paid out! It really is sad to witness how these people are literally repressed by a ruling class and its true! You can't have a car practically due to the cost of paying off the people to own it. But of course a policeman can...



Anyway i also got to see that dogs really are part of the staple diet in these parts too, look carefully above and you will see a couple of them and some chickens in this picture. Dog meat is very expensive but it is disturbing for me to think of all those rough street dogs along the way and then lunch. Which this time gave me the pleasure of whole small fish much like eating crisps and tasty too! Don't worry no dog on the menu.

written by  50watts on March 9, 2006 from Sa Pa, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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