Motorbikes and National Parks

So once I got back, I had two more days to kill in Hanoi. I had to plan it that way, to leave myself room to grab the Ha Long bay trip at the right time. Little did I know that Hanoi Backpackers hostel just shuttles people to and from the island. You'd think this would be lame, but they really do a great job. It's cheap, it's fun, and if you are young it is exactly the right crowd. Doing it with other agencies, you often get put with families, etc. Which is fine, but you won't meet as many people your age, which I find to be the most fun in these trips.

Anyway, Andy and I decided we wanted to do a day trip to Cuc Phuong National Park. There are some cool old caves, old trees, and wildlife preserves there, and according to google it was a quick 2 hours away. So we thought we'd rent a bike, and motor on down there. We got a reccomendatino from the hostel as to who to rent from, and thank god we did. The bikes don't go as fast as the cars do, and even with the shortcuts our guide took us down, it was an easy 3 hours to the park. The bikes when pushed can just barely hit 60 mph. You can get the higher cc bikes, but we didn't have the cash. Thankfully one of the guides at the place realized all this, and offered his services at a fairly cheap price. I guess he wasn't going out that day anyway, and this was just a bonus that we came in and needed someone. At first I didn't think we did. Andy seemed pretty confident on the bike, and I figured I could learn when we got out of the city.

I didn't realize that while the city is one kind of madness, the highway is another. Neither is truly safe for bikes. Simply because there are a lot of bikes in Vietnam, does not mean that it is easier for bikes to get around than any other country. It is tough. The trucks own the road, and will not hesitate to run you off it. In the end we got two bikes, one for Andy and one for me and the guide. He asked a few times if I wanted to drive, but by then I was good and scared and didn't want to slow us down. So I just had him drive me around all day. I did, however, get some great videos of Andy braving the roads. For a first timer, he took to it pretty well. We felt every minute of those 6 hours on the road though. The back seat of a scooter is not really the place for a long journey like that. My legs and butt are still in pain.

Anyway, the park! The park was gorgeous. There must be billions of butterflies in that thing. We saw huge swarms of them. Unforuntately each time I tried to get a picture, my camera just turned them into a blur. I think I need a high quality one to really capture them. I took some video of them at one point I think. We also saw caves that had human graves, carbon dated to around 5500 BC. They were huge caves, that went way back into the mountain side. We couldn't see the trees because they were a 2-3 hour hike, and we would have gotten back after the office was closed. But we did get to go see both the monkey and turtle preserves and rehabilitation centers. The monkeys were the coolest because we got to see whole families playing and swinging. The turtles were cuter though. Despite being endangered, locals will still hunt them both for food.

When we got back to Hanoi, we were covered in soot and sand from the roads. And unfortunately our hostel had no power. Fantastic. One very very cold shower later, I went to ask the staff about the power. At first they blew me off, saying 1 hour. But then I heard one of the head staff screaming at the power guys. Apparently they had said 3 hours at 2pm, and it was now 7pm. So they were clearly working until it was fixed. We headed out to a restaurant that was recommended by Lonely Planet, but it had lost power as well. On the way we saw a bustling local place, and decided to do as the locals did. They immediately served us two beers and peanuts. We also became the night's entertainment as we attempted to read the all Vietnamese menu. Finally a nice group of guys next to us told us in broken english two local dishes that were good, and chicken wings. When we got them, we were underwhelmed by one, but the other was amazing. When we got back we learned that it was bitter melon with dried shrimps. It was delicious. The chicken wings were amazing too. The meat tasted so good and healthy. It was all amazing. We had a feast for a little under $10.

Today I am taking it easy, reading up on Beijing, updating blogs, pictures, etc. And skyping with my girlfriend who I miss so much. For the next few days I will be in country with very different computer laws than America. So I may refrain from blogging until I reach Japan, and may even be out of email contact. If anyone needs to reach me, please contact my parents (or little brother) who have my phone info which will still work fine.