Crusoe in South East Asia

Before going to bed the night before I’d set my alarm on my watch for 5am. However, I woke up well before this as at 2am a burning in my chest gave me a rude awaking. I’d had this pain before a few nights prior to this but this time was the worst. The pain was so intense I couldn’t sleep, couldnt watch TV or even read a book so I just lay there and listened to the Federer match again Rodick. I checked the instructions on the medication I was taking, Malarone, the anti-Malaria pill and then discovered the side effects. It specified that allergic reactions include a tightness in the chest. It felt like I’d swallowed a load of pebbles, washed it down with acid and then run a Marathon….

As I lay there feeling sorry for myself, I realised if it was an allergic reaction to Mallerone, then I’d have to miss out visiting Cambodia due to the high risk of Malaria present. This also didn’t help me to sleep…

A few painful hours later it was time to get up, and eventually I dragged myself out of bed, albeit at 7AM to go and visit My Son (a temple-no I haven’t had kids in Vietnam). My Son, developed between the 4th century and the 13th century is a complex of temples built by the Champa kingdom. After the fall of the Champa, jungle began to reclaim the site. The temples had already fallen into disrepair by the 1960’s, when the Viet Cong used My Son as a base. Unfortunately, that attracted American bombing, which destroyed or damaged many of the surviving temples. Evidence of the conflict can still be seen around the site. According to my Rough Guide to South East Asia, one should not stray from the paths as landmines still exist further into the jungle.

To arrive at My Son, I travelled by my trusty motorbike I’d hired the day before. The journey was a 40KM drive and what was described as a very simple drive proved to be more difficult. I underestimated the amount of fuel my motorbike consumed when travelling at high speed and as such after a very short time, the needle had hit the red. The lack of petrol stations began to alarm me. My flight was scheduled to depart at 12.25. I realised if I got stranded far away from Hoi An, my base, then there would be no chance of arriving at Saigon later that day. Still, didn’t think about this too much.

The journey there was exhilirating, passing rice paddy fields, small towns and villages, coastal regions, railways and mountains, I saw it all. Unfortuately, due to heavy vehicles travelling in the wrong lanes directly towards me, I had to keep one eye permanently on the road. At one point I found myself sandwiched between to gigantic dumper trucks, the kind you see at quarries. Petrifying! In the UK, they wouldn’t try and overtake every vehicle on the road but here, they have no problems with that. I found a minibus with white people in it, and concluded they must also be going to My Son and so attempted to follow behind that. However, a MASSIVE dumper truck behind me was honking the horn at me and attempting to overtake. I was already doing 80KM/h and decided maybe I should give way…judging that he was a million times larger than me and didn’t seem to care much about my preservation.

Arriving at the temple I realised I’d have to do a whistle stop tour of the place. The other tourists to the place witnessed me sprinting through the jungle to the temple complex through crazy humidity and searing heat. The temples were very impressive and a nice change from all the others I’d seen as due to their remote location, the buildings wern’t crawling with tourists. Practically left the temples by the time the others I’d passed earlier had arrived. I really don’t like seeing things this way but unfortuanately had little other choice.

When I finally arrived back at my scooter, a woman approached me from the cafe and offered me a top up of petrol for the motorbike. She was charging exorbatant prices but I didn’t really have much room to negotiate. Still…in UK money paid less than a pound so no real loss.

Even though my lightning speed of visiting the complex I’d still over-run my time allowed and so had to attempt to get back without any mishaps. Driving fast down the motorway, I realised on the journey here I hadn’t come by motorway. Where was I going? I didn’t know. Looking at my watch I realised I needed to get back in 15 minutes in order to make my flight. Shit…..The needle on the motorbike had long ago entered the red and the motorbike began to splutter and cough. Much like me the night before…A local gave me directions “Hoi An? That way!” He pointed over my shoulder back the way I’d come.

By a miracle I managed to make it back to Hoi An, return the motorbike. The lady off the street I’d hired it from agreed to take me to my hotel for an extra 10 000 DONG. Due to my adventures on the motorway, I’d long missed the share taxi I’d arranged for 10am. It was now 11.15. Asked the girl at my hotel to sort out something for me to get to the airport while I finished packing. The time had now creeped up to 11.30 am. My flight was due to depart in less than an hour…

I fight my way onto the back of a motorbike after agreeing on a price. My 60 litre pack balanced over my shoulders and my day bag balanced on my front. I could feel the back of my ass falling over the end of the bike. Even falling off at low speeds is going to hurt, especially if followed by a dumper truck….

My driver is communicating with the other traffic by morse-code via the use of the horn. I join in by yelping frequently from the back when I think I’m going to fall. I feel my muscles weaking in my legs and my arms. I hope I’ll be able to hold on until the airport… It starts to rain. The driver, reaching for cigarretes in his pocket, gets hit by a sudden gust of wind, drops them all over the road. In the middle of the busy road, he jumps off to pick them up, leaving me on the bike in the middle of the road with traffic approaching, FAST. I pray for my safety.

Eventually, we arrive in Da Nang, the city where the airport is located, and its at this point I realise my driver doesn’t know the way. The time is now 12PM and the flight departs in 25 minutes. According to my ticket, the check in desks close 30minutes before departure, NO REFUNDS! Great…

Arriving at the airport,  I hop off and before I can get away the driver is on me, begging for more money. Think to myself, why agree on a price if you won’t keep to it? And for those of you who are thinking I’m being overly tight here, I’ve given him $9USD, nearly a tenth of their average monthly wage. Sprinting to the terminals, I arrive and find the Jetstar check in desks displaying details for the 13.40 flight. I push past people in the que where I’m informed “Your too late”

Am directed over to more Jet star desks. Think to myself, maybe they want me to buy another ticket? But fortuantely the girl at the desk starts making me a ticket by hand. Leg it through security except this time with the precense of my 60L rucksack, as there was no time to check it in. I jam it through the X-Ray machines. I’m surrounded by signs displaying “MINIMUM HANDLUGGAGE REQUIREMENTS”. No time to read them now, but am sure my bag doesn’t qualify. As I reach the gate everybody is starting to board the aircraft. One more wrong turn and I would have missed the flight. My guardian angel is doing well. I think he needs a pay rise.

I look down on Saigon as we descend through the clouds. Its clearly larger than Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Can’t say its particularly attractive from the air, but I’ve learned not to judge a place by first impressions anymore. The guide book reccomended a place called Yellow House Hotel. Managed to haggle a taxi driver down from 250 000 to 130 000 DONG. They love to take advantage of rich westeners. After arriving at my hotel, he tries to run away without giving me my change. I ask him “What do you think I am?” at which point he laughs and gives me my change. Many other travellers don’t like to haggle. For me it is a neccesity. I’m down to my last $50. This needs to last me another week in Cambodia…..

JOIN CRUSOE FOR MORE  TALES OF HIS ‘RELAXING’ ADVENTURES TOMOROW….

My Son Temples

Walk to My Son

Woke up this morning feeling much more relaxed. As regular readers will be aware, I’ve allotted only a very short time in each place (possibly too short-usually about 2days) so it is always nice having a day off from travelling before having to hit the trail again.

I am writing this from Hoi An, a historique town/city in central Vietnam. Last night when I wrote yesterday’s post I was exhausted from travelling so had to keep the post brief.

The spider in my room nearly got exterminated by the hotel staff with bug spray but I thought Michael Palin wouldn’t have wanted it that way. To keep Palin happy the hotel receptionist fetched a guy working at the hotel to move the spider. He cupped his hands and picked it up. I’ve seen people pick up spiders before but never one this big. Its legs were so big you could see them poking out from the inside of his hands. Made me feel a bit of a wimp that I didn’t do this myself but I don’t want die from spiders, I’ve got a wager going its going to be the mossies.

In fact, it was a good thing yesterdays post was short because 3minutes after I wrote it the city of Hoi An was plunged into total darkness. A huge thunderstorm that had been threatening for hours finally took out the power. I found myself trying to find my hotel located on the outskirts of the hotel with the crude map they provided for me. The one beer I’d had earlier was also affecting me due to the tiredness and dehydration etc….At this point I can gladly say I made a very good decision. Normally I hate the motobike taxi drivers who litter the streets of every Vietnamese city but this time it was a God send. I practically had no money on me though so he reduced his initial price of $40 000 Dong to $15 000 Dong. This is the equivilant of just over 50p.  If I’d continued the way I’d being going (into the pitch black) who knows where I’d have ended up, only it was the opposite direction to the way he went to my hotel. Not too much to pay for getting home in 10minutes instead of indefinitely.

When we arrived at the hotel it was pitch black with a massive gate shut accross the front. Looking particularly eery. Thankfully somebody was there to open the gate. Inside, the receptionist was handing out candles so we could find our rooms. I found a particular effective way was to use the flash on my camera and then look at the photograph. Felt like I was in a horror movie (think its Silence of the Lambs where they do this?) yet fortunately for me, there was nobody waiting for me in my room. Except a couple of mossies. After a quick bathe in DEET (anti mosie chemicals) they seemed to leave me alone. The air-con didn’t work because of the lack of power so had to endure a very sweaty night.

Its morning here so I’m going to try and find some breakfast and see what there is to do in Hoi An. Will try and upload more photographs soon. Quite want to try a Vietnamese cooking lesson as would make a useful addition to my metal cooking list of baked beans on toast and jacket potatoes…