On Tuesday, October 22nd, I’d booked an all-day motorcycle tour (as a passenger) with Easyrider Hoi An. Arrangements had been made via E-mail, with payment to be made the day of the tour. The company assured me that rain gear would be provided and that nothing less than a typhoon would cancel the tour.
My tour guide, Son Nguyen, was at my hotel promptly at 8:00 a.m. I paid him the agreed-upon fee and we “saddled up,” so to speak. Rather than being driven about on those little motorbikes that are popular all over Southeast Asia, this was a real “big boy” motorcycle. The back seat was higher than the front and he’d padded it extra for me, in order to make it comfortable for what ended up to be an 8 hour plus ride. Not sure what to expect weather-wise, I chose to wear jeans, a T-shirt, a hoodie and some canvas shoes. My cameras and iPad Mini were tucked into my extra roomy purse. Son was a very nice man in his late 40’s who took excellent care of me. He spoke English, though my understanding of English as spoken by most Vietnamese was not that comprehensible. He tried to be as informative as possible, however. The tour began with him pointing out things to me here and there – water buffalo, piglets going to market on the back of a motorbike, memorials from the Vietnam War and so on. We stopped for tea. After trying it several times, I can honestly say that Vietnamese tea is far from my favorite. As we were getting back on the bike, Son gave me a bottle of water to quench my thirst along the way. We stopped another time so that he could show me a place where rice crackers were being made; that was interesting. We also stopped and climbed around up in the hills a bit to check out the pineapples. The pineapples in Vietnam are much smaller than the ones in Hawaii. While he was showing me the pineapples, a female pineapple worker happened by. She was picking pineapples, of course. I wanted to take a picture of her, which she agreed to. Then Son decided to take a picture of her and me together. She asked him how old I was. Come to find out, we were the same age! She has 7 children, though, and obviously lives a hard life. I can’t imagine having 1 child, let alone 7! Our next pit stop was at a little roadside stand selling fresh pineapple. We sat down and a woman cut, peeled and cored a pineapple for me. I like pineapple, but usually only eat a few slices. As I was a few slices into it, she brought me a little container of seasoning. Come to find out, it was salt with chili and herbs. Once that was sprinkled on the pineapple slices, I probably ate two and half times more pineapple than is normal for me! It was SOOO good! Son laughed when he saw how much I was enjoying it. I asked if he was going to eat any, but he politely waited until I was finished. Once I insisted that my stomach was too full to eat any more, he polished off what was left. Back on the motorcycle, we headed up in the mountains. Forgive me for not knowing exactly where we were. It could have been the Marble Mountains and Hai Van Pass. He DID say something about it being part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Meanwhile, I was hanging off the back of the motorcycle trying to take photos and make videos! Son was a little concerned about my lack of sun cream. I assured him that, being brown, the chances of me burning are about 5%. Not long after we descended the mountain, it began to sprinkle. Although Son had one rain poncho with matching pants in his bag, he stopped to get another rain poncho for me. I put the poncho on, making sure that my cameras were safely covered and was ready to take off again. He tried to get me to put the rain pants on, too, but I declined. “You’ll get wet!” he admonished me. “I dry,” I assured him. That’s about the time that the rain began to come down in sheets. Honestly, it didn’t bother me. Not only was it rather exhilarating, but he was a very safe driver. At some point, we stopped momentarily to see some ethnic minority people. They weren’t in any special village or anything. He explained that they could understand Vietnamese, but he couldn’t understand their dialect. He also joked (or maybe it wasn’t a joke) that the women of this ethnic minority group did all of the work, while the men usually lay around, drink and occasionally babysit. Shortly after, he asked if I was ready for lunch. He said that we could eat before going to see My Son or after, but thought the food was better in the area that we were currently in. Whatever worked for him was fine with me. We pulled off to another little roadside stand that specialized in Mi Quang, rice noodles and (in this case) chicken in a broth seasoned with black pepper, shallots, garlic, fish sauce, hard boiled eggs, peanuts and chilis. He explained how to eat it. Basically, several bunches of fresh bean sprouts, mint, basil, banana flower and lettuce are put over the noodles, chicken and broth, lime juice is squeezed over everything, rice crackers are crushed on top, everything is mixed together and you dig in. I’m picky about my meat, so the chicken bits (bones, dark meat, skins) didn’t exactly thrill me, but the rest of it was incredibly flavorful. I picked some of the chicken out, as politely as possible. Without the chicken in it, I probably could have easily eaten two bowls, even with my chopstick handicap! That’s one of those dishes that I will dream about! While eating, two more Easyrider Hoi An drivers pulled up with their two charges – an Aussie girl and a Danish girl. They were stopping for lunch, too, at least until the rain abated a bit. We hopped back on the motorcycle and took off. It was quite a ways yet to My Son and the rain continued to pour on and off. Still, I got to see rice paddies, water buffalo, egrets, water lilies, lotus ponds and the sweetest thing of all – a tiny little boy “herding” ducks along the road, with his grandma. We were driving by so quickly that I didn’t have enough time to get my camera ready and get a shot off.
My Son is a group of abandoned Hindu temples that were sacred to the kings of Champa; they were constructed sometime between the 4th and 14th centuries. Son waited at the entrance where there were tables and refreshments. He pointed out the map to me and told me to take my time. There are 4 or more groupings of ruins. The main one is the most photographed and most impressive. I hiked up some little hills, down paths, across little bridges, etc. and, hopefully, saw everything. It took me about an hour and a half; I was getting really sweaty by then, slogging along in my soaked jeans and canvas shoes,
Next up, he took me to a place where brooms were being made, as well as to see some weaving. We took a ferry across a river in the rain, which was one of my favorite parts of the day. It definitely wasn’t some modern, fancy ferry. Everyone rides their motorbikes on the ferry as well. While we were waiting for the ferry to arrive, there was a young blind man asking for money. Son gave him some money. As he was attempting to give him some more, he dropped it. Since he was still sitting on the motorcycle and I was, by now, standing next to it, I picked up the money and touched the blind man lightly on his hand. He opened his palm and I put the money in his hand. By then, the ferry was arriving. The arriving motorbikes took their turns driving off, with the departing motorbikes/motorcycles taking their turns driving on. As we left on the ferry, the blind man sat on the edge of the swollen river, staring with his sightless eyes, in the pouring rain, at things he could not see. I regret not taking that photo of him, but the image will stay forever.
To end the tour, Son intended to take me to see two waterfalls. It wasn’t meant to be, though. There had been a typhoon in the area the previous week. Many trees had been knocked down and were still blocking the roads to both of the waterfalls. Thus, he decided to take me on another ferry back to Hoi An.
Once we were back in Hoi An, he asked if he could buy a drink for me. I didn’t mind; he was very nice and the entire day with him went comfortably. We sat outside on our little plastic stools somewhere off the beaten path drinking our Biere LaRues straight out of the can. By that time, it must have been 6:15 p.m. I explained that I needed to get back to the hotel, shower, change and meet the Aussies for dinner around 7:30 p.m. We headed back to the hotel, I gave him a tip and that was the end of my all day motorcycle tour. He told me that the next time I’m in Vietnam, I should do the overnight tour, which would give me more of a chance to see the ethnic minority villages.
If you’re interested in doing a similar motorcycle tour when in the Hoi An, Da Nang or Hue areas, please contact him at:
E-mail: namson7066@yahoo.com
or
Telephone: 0974-374-138
or
Telephone: 0510-626-02-07
Me With the Pineapple Picker
Son and our Mi Quang
Waiting for the Ferry in the Rain
My Son
Making Brooms