Zelma’s Trip

I spent much of yesterday (Wednesday) doing very little.  I spent what felt like an eon uploading pictures only for them to then not go where I wanted.  There are some on the Flickr link of the website now though if you want to have a look.  I then went and got some lunch before heading to the beach where I went for a swim and chatted (well I say chatted, it’s often quite difficult but you make do) to locals. 

Having showered and changed I headed out to a local restuaruant.  When I say local I guess I really mean locals’ where the local Vietnamese eat rather than local as in proximity to the hotel.  I ordered Seafood soup and it was delicious, apart from the baby octopus which always freak me out so I fed them to the dog under the table!  In Vietnam soup with noodles seems to be one of the staple and speciality dishes.  Pho is the word for rice noodles (I think) but seems to be interchangeable for noodle soup.  I actually managed to eat the soup with chopsticks (I know, shock horror).  I kept looking up expecting locals and passers-by to stop and applaud and congratulate me on my efforts.  Needless to say none of them did, infact no-one took a blind bit of notice even when I dropped a chopstick load of noodles on my lap!

After I had eaten I came back to the hotel – it’s hard work eating you know – and watched a bit of telly whilst relaxing as I clealy had had a vey busy day.  I then headed out to a bar called “Crazy Kim’s” where I met a group of people who invited me to join them.  Here’s another hint, be very wary of going out drinking with a group of people comprising of bar workers and bar owners – lethal!  It was a great night though, we ended up at the Sailing club and, largely due to the people I was with, I only paid for two drinks the entire evening!

This morning I wasn’t best impressed to have to pack up having got in at gone 4AM and with a slightly fuzzy head.  I went and had breakfast – a cheese omelette and a fruit salad.  I strongly recommend the fruit salads here, actually the fruit in any capacity.  A fruit salad normally consists of water melon, mango, dragon fruit and pineapple and it’s always fresh and delicious.  Oh, I also had fresh grapefruit juice, the juices are equally gorgeous.

Having eaten breakfast I decided to visit a waterfall.  I asked one of the Honda Om drivers how far it was and how long it would take and he informed me that it was 30 kilometres which would take an hour.  I bartered him down to 100,000 dong (just over three quid) for the journey there and back and for him to wait for me while I visited the waterfall.  As soon as I got on the back of the bike I wondered which braincell had decided that an hour’s ride on the back of a crappy motorbike in the blistering heat with the makings of a hangover was a good idea.  I also had a helmet that I couldn’t adjust which kept threatening to blow off when he went over about 15 kilometres an hour.  Not that you know how fast any of them are giong as none of their speedos work, but that’s beside the point. 

The latter part of the journey was beautiful with lush green vegetation covering mountains and women collecting rice in the paddy fields below.  We arrived at the place where the waterfall was and I found that, like many other places, the Vietnamese had decided it would be a good plan to charge an entrance fee.  It was peanuts to be honest so I wasn’t too bothered, although I did wonder what exactly it was for.  I later realised it was for red paint!

As I started to walk up the mountain I cursed the aforementioned braincell.  For some reason I hadn’t really taken account of the fact that waterfall’s are generally up hills.  Suddenly my rubbish A level Geography result is all becoming clear.  Anyway, I digress…. I carried on plodding up this mountain and after about 5 minutes a couple walked the other way and the woman shouted, “Good Luck!” I gave her a bemused look and they both walked off lauging.  I must say this didn’t fill me with hope.  I passed several small waterfalls, erm actually they were more like rapids, and wondered hopefully each time if this was in fact the finale.  Needless to say none of the paltry efforts were.  As I got further up the montain I asked a man who looked like a security guard whether I was going the right way.  He told me to follow the main path and, “follow the red arrows”.  I carried on and there was not a red arrow in sight.  I cursed the ill-informed guard but then reached lots of boulders and a group of Vietnamese women.  One of them said, “follow the red arrows” (this was the only phrase the mountain folk appeared to speak in English) and then set off infront of me at a pace not dissimilar to something out of “Crouching TIger, Hidden Dragon”.  I followed her, albeit at some distance, and eventually we got to the waterfall.  Oh, another hint here, don’t grab trees to steady yourself when climbing over boulders to reach a waterfall.  I must have grabbed like 10 trees (yes I REALLY should have learnt sooner) and each time they turned out to be jelly trees which moved so much that it probably would have been better not to have grabbed them at all.  We finally got to the waterfall over all the boulders and it was worth the trek.  The only thing that spoilt my sitting, relaxing and listening to the sound of the tumbling water was the Vietnamese guide woman who insisted on sitting next to me, staring and grinning.  I decided to try and speak to her and chose the, what I thought to be, non-complex issue of water levels.  I asked her how high the water was when it was the wet season and she just looked at me, smiled, pointed at the water and said, “water”.  So I gave up on the plan of conversation and headed back down towards the entrance.

The motorbike ride back was a more enjoyable experience than the one on the way there, partly because I had a clear head and partly because I had figured out how to adjust the strap on the helmet so didn’t have to continually put my hand on it to stop it disappearing down the road in the wind.

I’m now sat in the hotel waiting for my lift to the train station and am not entirely sure either when this is due or when the train departs.  I’m getting a sleeper train to Hue which is my next stop prior to getting Hanoi.