"Near Misses" in Vietnam and Laos

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"Near Misses" in Vietnam and Laos Stuart Palmer Yeeha! The time has come once again to break away. from the stress and routine of work for a couple of months and head off for a little exploration and adventure. Jo, Andrew and I packed our bicycles and panniers in mid October and flew west to test the tastes, sounds and sights of Vietnam and Laos for 7 weeks. We flew to Hanoi and explored Vietnam 's north for 3 weeks before cycling across the border to check out the north ofl Laos for4 4 weeks. A great little adventure with plenty ofj food and dazzling tastes along the way. ention Vietnam and people have vague Bicycle is a great way to get around Hanoi and its V recollections of a war a couple of decades thousands of scooters and bikes. That is once you ago. Here's a little background: Vietnam get used to the rather simple road rules keep extends 3400km south from China along the coast moving, don'teven slow down, and don't collide with of the South China Sea. This long skinny country anything else. Intersections comprised a meshing of has a land area similar to that of New Zealand but a the flows with bikes weaving in front or behind the population 20 times greater. Vietnam was under crossing traffic. French colonial rule for nearly 100 years. It wasn't After a day in Hanoi we started pedalling north. until 1954, after 8 years of war, that the French Wespent nine days cycling 800km over steep terrain, admitted defeat to the communist Viet Minh and 70% seal and 30% rough gravel roads. We cycled Vietnam won its independence. But it was past paddy fields, pinnacle shaped limestone hills independence for a country divided into two: the and jungle. The highlight would have to be seeing communist north and the anti-communist south. In the tribal people along the way dressed in their 1959 the north invaded the south and SO the start of colourful traditional costumes. Accommodation was what we think of as the "Vietnam War" although in variable including sharing beds with drug-smoking Vietnam it was known as the "American War". At locals (not recommended), spending half the night the time thel USA was fretting over recent communist with crowds of locals staring through the tent fly take-overs around the world, including China. The screen, (another not-to-be-repeated experience), USA was paranoid of Indochina following suit and pleasant hidden away campsites (except from the SO what followed was the United States' controversial bloodsucking leeches), and comfortable hotels. The and destructive involvement in Vietnam. The south long steepish uphills were hard work and hot. The fell to the communist north in 1975, but only after 3 downhills with loaded bikes bouncing and flying over million Americans had served in the United States' ruts and boulders at 30-40 km/h were hair-raising armed forces in Vietnam. Sixty thousand Americans ("a buzz" according to Jo and Andrew). werel killed. Direct United States' costs amounted to Ar rest followed those intense nine days of cycling. $US 1651 billion, including thel loss of 5000helicopters First of all, two days relaxing in the pleasantly cool madness! The unified "Socialist Republic of hill station of Sapa and then all day in the train to Vietnam" developed during the 80s with close ties get back to Hanoi. From Hanoi it was a bus and and barter trade with the USSR. With the boat side trip for three days to visit Halong Bay. The disintegration oft the USSR in 1991, Vietnam turned limestone ofl Halong Bay forms thousands of cliffed to its neighbours, including Japan and Singapore, islands a great sight but heavily touristed. for hard currency trade. Economic reforms allowing It was good to be back on our bikes, heading south property ownership and free market followed but tight along the coastal plainweaving our way on minor roads control by the Communist Party remains. around paddy fields and through friendly villages. We After three decades of war and a further two shared the roads with lean, well-dressed Vietnamese, decades of economic turmoil Iwas expecting to find partially hidden under conical cane hats and carrying a nation with strong military presence and a reserved heavyloads hanging from the ends ofyokes. Ourl bikes untrusting population. But no, we were greeted with werel lightly loaded compared to the huge loads carried "xin chao!" (hello) and a big smile from the very in cane baskets strapped to the numerous local bikes. friendly and hospitable people. It is amazing what a bike can carry. We wheeled our bikes out of Hanoi airport to be To speed our progress south we jumped on greeted by a cycle path. What a civilised country! national highway 1 for a day and covered 145 km Tramping and Mountaineering 2000

Climbing towards Sa Pa, Vietnam Andrew McLellan with ease. Two generous lanes plus cycle lanes of meat dishes spiced to send your taste buds wild. And smooth asphalt, straight and flat. This configuration rice not fluffy but more the consistency of oflanes may work in the west but it seemed all wrong plasticine. But how do you eat this mixture with your for the Asian mix of traffic. Foot traffic, bicycles, fingers? For that first meal it was a matter of watching scooters, and the slow plod of the OX and cart and copying what the locals do. occupied both sides of the road. The intermittent Laos has a similar history sequence to Vietnam stream of trucks and buses with horns blaring took with French colonialism, independence, and political thei remaining central route following the centreline. and economic turmoil, but with far less aggression When vehicles approached from both directions a and fighting than was experienced in Vietnam. Ireally hasty re-arrangement of the traffic flow was required. can'timagine thel laid-backl Lao people at war. France Having travelled 300 km south of Hanoi it was ruled Laos for a little over half a century and following time to head inland and over mountainous jungle the defeat of the French in 1954, a power struggle terrain into Laos. We instantly fell in love with the remained between the French and United States' quiet slow pace of life in Laos: what a contrast to backed royalist government and the Viet Minh the hustle and bustle of Vietnam. They say "the (Vietnamese communist) backed communist Pathet Vietnamese plant the rice and the Lao listen to it Lao. The Pathet Lao finally took power in al bloodless grow", , and what could better describe the contrast coup in 1975. Similar to Vietnam the Pathet Lao between the two peoples. Not only is the population developed a socialist state with close alliances with density SO much less in Laos - 5 million in Laos the USSR and the Eastern Bloc. Since the 1991 compared to 80 million in a similar land area in collapse of the USSR, Laos has turned to Thailand Vietnam - but the personality of the people is also for most of its trade and has put in place free market verydifferent. The Vietnamese are lean, well-dressed economic reforms. Laos has been likened to a poor and can be seen toiling away all day. In contrast rural province of Thailand. The Laos economy Lao are generally overweight, scruffy and can be seen remains fragile with foreign aid making up 15% of laughing and chatting or sleeping in the shade while GDP. The 1960s/70s war in Vietnam had a they chew on another handful of sticky rice. Blissfully destructive impact on Laos. The communist North quiet Laos, ideal for cycle touring where the roads Vietnamese supplied their war efforts in the south are yours. via a land route known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Through the border formalities and down to the This route was a strip of land in Laos along the first sleepytown; priorities money and food. What Vietnamese border. The Americans' bombing efforts a taste sensation! A whole series of vegetable and along the eastern side ofl Laos were mind-boggling: Tramping andl Mountaineering 2000 shaking at 10 km/h is as much as anyone would want to do in a day. Then there were the severely potholed sealed roads; Laos is yet to learn the skill of building roads to last and the need for road maintenance. We could keep pace with the rare truck/public transport on these potholed roads. The trucks would bounce and lurch their way through the potholes while we meandered over the full width of the road, picking a smooth route. Travelling in those trucks must be hell. Our northern route took us through mist and jungle covered mountains and down river valleys, which varied from jungle-clad gorges to fertile, terraced paddy fields. At each village we were met with enthusiastic greetings of "sabai di!" (hello). These villages comprised wood, bamboo, and thatch huts on stilts, hiding the occasional TV set linked to a satellite dish and DVD player. Ducks, chooks, pigs and the occasional water buffalo wandered around the dusty villages, along with naked children. The bustling town markets would have to be one of the highlights for me. I loved wandering through these markets at first light in search of a new snack or fruit to excite the taste buds. There were rows of hawkers squatting behind their neat little piles of produce: Muong boy, North Vietnam Stuart Palmer small piles of chillies, fruit, vegetables, dried rats, live bats, freshly shot colourful birds, dried mushrooms.. the equivalent of one US plane-load oft bombs every the list goes on! eight minutes around the clock for nine years (2 Back in Louang Phabang we rested once more million tonnes of bombs)! Laos has the dubious before heading off on the final stage of our cycle tour: honour of being the most heavily bombed country the 400 km of sealed road and mountainous terrain per capita in the history of warfare! back to the Laos capital of Vientiane. We had With some assistance from a bus we made our travelled this road earlier by bus what I way to Laos' largest and capital city, Vientiane remembered of that long crowded bus journey was well perhaps better described as a pleasant quiet being uncomfortable, limited views of a SO-SO town on the banks of the Mekong. Another bus trip landscape, and long steep uphill grinds. From the took us north to Louang Phabang. bike it was another world. The historical town of Louang Phabang has a The hills rolled by with rewarding views of a jungletranquil setting on a peninsular of land between the clad landscape and dramatic limestone kaste Mekong and Khan rivers. The town's main street is formations. The villages were always alive with warm now lined with restaurants, souvenir shops, and greetings. The road, Laos' main highway, was quiet guesthouses, but the quaint charm of the (about two vehicles per hour). Great cycling! En route Indochinese-French: shophouses) has been preserved. we stopped for a couple of days in thet touristed area of A great place to relax for a few days. Vang Viang. Here we enjoyed the most dramatic We spent the next couple of weeks travelling by limestone kaste formations of our travels: sheer faces bike and boat to explore Laos' isolated far north. oflimestone rise out off flat paddy fields; numerous caves The boat travel was great fun! We have lots of tales penetrate these limestone hills. We explored about a to tell of our leaky canoe with its roaring motor at kilometre along one of these caves great fun! The the stern pushing its way up the rapids, and of our tunnel-like cave had the occasional stalagmite and cheerful captain frantically bailing to keep the vessel stalactite, and a shallow stream flowed along its floor. afloat. Andrew's trip report will entertain you with After 800m the stream became deep and we perfected details of that fun river travel. Out on the bikes we the technique of breaststroke while holding our maglites found some of those rough Lao roads we had been in our mouths. promised, but nothing to dampen our enthusiasm While wandering across paddy fields in search of for Laos. We rattled our way over roads built from another cave, a group of locals threshing rice called 150mm sized angular boulders; 50 km of that bone- us over and indicated that we should lend a hand. Tramping and Mountaineering 2000

Threshing Rice, Vang Viang, Laos Stuart Palmer We soon mastered wrapping the rope and two sticks before moving on to Bangkok and Singapore, SO it around the butt of a bundle of straw and thrashing was a mad, tightly-timed dash to Vientiane airport the bundle against the ground to release the heavy for me next morning: 4.30am found me feeling my load of rice grains all to the laughs and smiles of way on my bike by fading maglite to the next town the locals. It wasn't long though before the soft where I caught a local truck/bus to Vientiane. I "faulang" (foreigners') hands started to blister. arrived in Vientiane in time to grab my last meal of My last night in Laos found us 80 km short of tasty Lao food and catch my 10.00am flight home. Vientiane. Jo and Andrew had another two days Such a rush was no way to leave sleepy Laos. And for the trip's statistics: We were in Laos and Vietnam for 47 days during which we travelled 2700km on the 28 cycling days. Say 80% seal, 20%1 rough gravel. During the first couple of weeks we had a few punctures Stuart 4, Jo 1, Andrew 1 - but we were puncture-free for the remainder of the trip. The mechanical failure score was one each: Andrew broken seat bolts replaced at a workshop 300m down the road. Stuart broken pannier hanger replaced bya piece of nylon cord. Jo rear derailleur pivot pin replaced by as spare scrap of gear cable and duck tape. None of these repairs delayed progress for more than 30 minutes. Food consumed heaps, including 60+ kilograms of cooked rice and 50kg of bananas (at 30cents/kg). Joi kept a record of "near misses' ". The score was: Stuart four; Jo four; Andrew - four Jo's 's best "near miss' " ended with a local cyclist biting the dust beside her, but in Jo's defence, the local cyclists riding behaviours are erratic, at best. Without warning they would weave right across the road in front of you. Andrew' 's front wheel made contact with a chook, sending thej poor bird squawking off. Pigs, dogs, ducks, cows, and naked children were all common obstacles on the road as we passed through villages. Allo oft these obstacles either stood still or moved away. from the approaching danger of our bicycles, but not the stupid chooks. They would frantically squawk and run straight toward you. Ithink Iwill have to take the "near miss' prize. That mad dash to the airport on the last morning wasn't an attempt to pack the maximum into my holiday. The previous night the three of us had just finished another great Lao meal and were discussing how we had one easy day's ride to Vientiane beforel would catch my flight home. I would be home Saturday afternoon, allowing me to catch up with familyon Sunday. Home Saturdayafteroon andl NZ is 5hours ahead? Tomorrow isl Friday? Whoops, this doesn' 'tj fit! A check of airline tickets and the current dayof the week, revealed my flight was 10.00am the next morning and not the day after! A near miss and a lucky recovery! The Lao casual wayl had caught up with me. Tramping and Mountaineering 2000