Wow guys. Touring about Vietnam on a motorcycle is seriously the best thing anyone can do. Dispite the horride rain which feels like needles piercing into your knees, or the gustesof wind which make you feel like you're about to be blown into the truck your about to have a head on with, its amazing. You see so much stuff that you normally wouldnt see because you're either asleep or reading a book.
Today we saw heaps and the photos will be better than words. We went on an elephant ride and it was nearly the sadest thing we have ever seen. As soon as we got on we both wanted to get off but it lasted for about 40mins. I was almost in tears and Tony pretty much just sat in silence. It started when we drove past and saw the elephants tied up with metal seats on their backs. Once we got on it all went down hill. The driver had a big stick with a metal prong on the side and everytime the elephant mucked up it got a jab. When I saw mucked up, I mean reached over and got a branch on the walk. Then we went through deep water and once again the elephant got a jab. We initally were really looking forward to it and were going to do it in Chang Mai once we got back to Thailand. Now we will not!
Apart from that we also had a great day with our tour guides as we had all warmed up to each other.
Photos are better but a few other things we saw were: curry colouring plantation, wild pigs, a traditional long house, a gorgeous waterfall (where our guide morfed into an awesome photographer).
Then we checked into our room...
Lets just say we almost put Dehli's athletes village to shame :) Ok thats probably an exaggeration, but after traveling for a bit and just wanting to have a shower to wash the red dust off... and the shower head barely lets the water past the wall... I got cranky. The room hadnt been cleaned so bin was full (dont forget we dont flush loo paper here) there were ciggie butts on the floor, the toilet was putrid and one of the instructions from the hotel was that guests were not allowed to bring prostitutes to the hotel.... well you get the picture. The funny thing was we had been told we were sleeping in a bungalow (not the bungalow we had in mind).
The highlight from this place for me was the dogs. They were adorable and LOVED the affection. One actually slept outside our room so was a lovely surprise in the morning. They even showed us the way for a walk down to another waterfall. Tony was in heaven going on an adventure with 3 dogs in tow.
Dispite all this we had a great night with our guides. Many beers were had. We learnt alot about their lives and culture.
Had an early night as we have a big day tomorrow.
I would have been in tears too Bec.
ReplyDelete