06-02-2010 TAN AN - HO CHI MINH CITY, Goodbye Honda, goodbye Mekong Delta

Morning at the huge Dong Tham Snake Farm at My Tho. Many snakes (mostly Cobras and Pythons), this place is also used for studing snakepoison medicines and recovering after bites. Expected to play with some huge snakes and ride some orcupines but no, this was not possible today. The cages with the thick heavy (around 60kg) snakes were also filled with some other living company; big white ducks.

Since 2009 there is now the biggest bridge of Mekong over the river Tieu. This time no stunts Toan told me, and he didn't let me walk anymore :-)

Heading to Ben Tre we swent to this Government owned touristic island of the Coconut Monk/Religion. The island is called Con Phung Island and is reached by a small boat. Nowadays they show you how they earn money with products from coconuts. The place is pretty boring, but the famous coconut candy's are delicious when they are still fresh from the oven (hot and soft). Oh and there is something else that is funny... there is a mudpool with crocodiles, Toan and me found some fishing-rods and peaces of raw meat...Yes, time for crocodile fishing! Let these creatures jump! And they did, wicked! On the way back Toan told me it's normally not allowed to do this by ourselves (without paying).

The Vien Minh Pagoda in Ben Tre was a more interesting one and is one of the most beatiful ones in the region of the Mekong.

On our way back on the national highway to HCMC we enjoyed all the different things they carry on motorbikes. Arriving in HCMC at 17:00 was chaos again, on the motorbike it was even more fun. Strangly enough I had to show Toan the way in Saigon, because he was lost AGAIN! Where is this guys sense of direction!?

Our last night ended in District 1, with lot's of beers, food, fried spring rolls, talking with everybody, laughing at old men and Vietnamse prostitutes and finding the cheapest hotel for me. The 12 days (in total) on the motorbike were fantastic. Such a different experience of exploring a country and no regrets at all! Much better then the terrible horrorbusses and lotery sellers :-)

05-02-2010 CAO LANH - TAN AN, stinking hot day and do I look like an freaking alien?

Yes, started the day with a real good feeling, everything is gonna be allright, don't worry...

With this motto Toan also started. He was overtaking this truck, but didn't see thatv there was a smaller truck just in front of it. There was no space between the two trucks and from the opposite direction there was a huge bus coming toward us. No more time to break and only one option...full ga and hope we make it. It happened so fast, I hit the front truck and his mirror and one the other side the bus was just inches aways from the left side of the motorbike. Swueezing our legs together and wishing to get to the tiny little space we had between the truck and the bus. Lucky us...

Toan and me hit the road again, visit some special pagoda along the river, we drove through the countryside and it seems like they have never seen foreigners before here. Everybody is looking today like I am an alien. Veryone is following us where we walk and some people want to touch me...what the fuck. We drove further on through the Dong Thap area, looking at the different architecture of the houses in this area.

Mr Skinny (Taons nickname) had this wonderfull idea to visit the Tram Chim National Park by motorbike mid day in the stinking hot sun. Well everybody can understand that all the birds are hioding for the hot sun mid day and that hiring a boat is gonna be so expensive with just 2 stupid guys... So we decided to skip the park, looked nice but not worth a try at this moment of the day. SOme places in this area were definately too hot to be in. The Go Thap Archeological Site was not worth a visit, some same same pagoda's and the ancient stuff was covered by tent and not allowed to visit.

Yes, today was a day to fall asleep at the back of the Honda...you might think? Well, for the second time today there was this escape from the accident. We were driving on this bad dirtroad heading for a wooden bridge. There were some kids on the bridge and they didn't move aside after using the horn. So we had to avoid them and we started drifting with our motorbike. Trying to control it and keep up straigh with our legs, but it was difficult with this speed. We hit the right side of the bridge, rebounded and hit the left side of the bridge. Luckely we didn't fell of the bridge and made it to the end without falling...

04-02-2010 CAN THO - CAO LANH, floating markets, slowboats, warzones and trouble!

05:30 Twan's alarmclock, shit. Jump in a small slowboat on the river (better take a small one, because they can take you to more places then the biggir toerist boats, around 10 USD for 4 hours). We had an awesome sunrise on the river between all those boats of the floating market. Most of them sell all sorts of fruit and vegetables. THe chaos on the river looked like riding bumpercars, but then boats. And oh no, even on the river they are selling lotery tickets!

We had a small boat so we could visit a noodle factory. Here you see how they make ricepapercake out of rice and noodles out of ricepapercake. Further on the quiet streem covered by watercoconut trees we stopped at onbe of the fruitfarms. Here we enjoyed lovely fruitbreakfast and I tried a lot of new things. I had a good time with these 70 year old farmers, funny guys.

We got back to the city by making a circle around the city with our boat. Just looking at all the metalplate houses on wooden poles in the river.

More markets today, this time the market of Vinh Long. What a variety of food! Frogs, rats, all sorts of fish, many sorts of rice, ricepapers, ducks, pigs, snakes, turtles, chickens and much much more. Most of them still alive and some are slaughtered on site.

Left Vinh Long and drove after over the seconds biggest bridge in the Mekong Delta. Well drove... Toan asked me to walk to shoot some pics. I was thinking about a cool snapshot hanging under this high bridge...so I started climbing over the fence. Some locals stopped on the road and runned to me, thinking I wanted to kill myself with suicide whahaaa. They were so scared, so no cool snapshot...

More things today, visiting the Xeo Quit Site, warzone like Cu Chi Tunnels, but in the jungle. You get a sort small slowboattrip through the jungle in the small clay creeks. After that you walk around the area, watch some bomb areas, there is a minefield (still full with landmines) and there are some tunnes left to crawl in. But most shelters are flooded unfortunately.

Today is stinking hot! So getting a tan on the back of the Honda without wearing a shirt. What a good day! But...

Dental problems again and they are getting worse. In spite of all the things I do, brushing teeth many times a day, flossing, using anti-sceptic Listerine, using Rodogyl against infections. So eating is not easy, only noodles and bananas are an option right now. And a lot of bad news in my email; unexpected high costs, insurrances that don't want to pay, TunaFish ticketcompany that all of a sudden had some different terms of conditions for changing ticket dates for my worldticket, many serious bankingproblems (most of the mistakes made by the bank), and more... Seriously thinking about the options of going on with this trip. And even tough all this bad shit happens, I'm still smiling. Not giving up, many phonecalls, faxes and emails. Keep thinking positive!

03-02-2010 PHU QUOC - RACH GIA - CAN THO, The beginning of the Mekong Delta-trip

There you are, sitting and waiting for the bus. They tried to put as much people (and animals) inside. And then all the bags and other stuff. Way too overloaded we made it to Dung Vong. Jumped on the speedboat Superdong 1. 2,5 hours in front of this big musicscreen of again Vietnamese folk music. And behind me annoying little kids that were screaming and kicking agains my chair. But no worries, I had my favorite cookies.

Arriving in Rach Gia is like being honey for the bees, and the bees are the motorbikedrivers...damn, these guys here really don't know when to stop. But my friend Twan was there and I jumped on the motorbike to escape Rach Gia. On the road again, no more busses, no more music, just peace. Mekong Delta roads are very busy, the vilages consist out of metal plate houses, many bridges, all sorts of boats and more. When we turned of the main road I stopped the motorbike. Why do I always see new animals? Well this was a strange scene; pink colored ducks, hundreds of them! The people here painted the ducks pink to recognize that these are their ducks. Further on the small roads more normal birds.

Stopped at several villages for food, arrived at Can Tho (the main city of the Mekong Delta) just after 16:00. Explored the city for as this was possible. Twan told me it was a good idea to jump on the nightly rivercruise for dinner. Ok I said, and shit, more Folkmnusic, this time live! Must say it was a little different and the food was good. But they had strange dishes (shown with pictures) like Snakehead, Porkbrains in soup, some stuff from sharks and more. Yagh!

02-02-2010 PHU QUOC, Rossi on the island

So happy with my CarePlus mosquito net (you really need it here on Phu Qouc) and my earplugs. Cheap hotel means suffering :-)

Jumped on my fast motorbike again and go! Around this huge island in one day. Well, I'm happy with my Bin Laden scarf, dirtroads almost everywhere. The motorbike was yellow before I started and red when I turned back. The beaches are quiet. After a while it's so easy to race on the dirtroads, sorry for everyone behind me... eat dust! At some point something scared the shit out of me, I was at a place where I was not allowed to be. This agressive dog runned to me while riding on my motorbike, he jumped and his teeth hit the back of my motorbike, well you eat dust stupid animal! Driving from Cua Can and Ganh Dau to Bai Thom, is a ride through the National Park of Phu Quoc. When you turn of your motor you cabn here the sounds of the virgin jungle. On the northeast part of the island you can see Cambodia very close. Spend sopme time on shallow waters, the water was like 35 degrees.

Visited the 2 harbortowns Ham Ninh and Dong Vong on the eastcoast and drove further south the Sao Beach and Khem Beach for a break and swim. THe waterfalls were not an option because it's not the right season. So back to Duong Dong for dinner and swim.