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Journal of Vietnam Bicycle Tour

Vietnam, winter 2000 [II]

Agelasto
2004-05-20 20:46:17

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( Day 7) This leg of the trip, 600 kms down through the Central Highlands, will eventually take
me to Sai Gon. It`s almost 200 kms to the next locale with hotels, services and any tourists to
speak of, but there are hamlets every dozen kms where I can break the journey, if necessary. I
am taking a tent with me, but this turns out to be a few kgs of unnecessary weight since finding
informal lodging is so easy in this country. The Central Highlands is populated by ethnic
minority hill tribes people, like the area in the North I cycled through in May, but this part of the
South seems much more Vietnamized, apparently due to an effort after the American war to
populate the area with ethnic Vietnamese. Also, the hill tribes people must not wear the flash
attire of their northern counterparts, nor do they live in stilt houses. This area, what I see from
the highway, is much less quaint, much less photo op. If there are minorities here, they are quite
invisible to me.

This is beautiful country, super cycling. Coffee and rubber are the major crops. Buckets collect
sap dripping from the latter?s trees; beans of the former dry on the shoulder of QL 14. They
sometimes crunch under my tires. It will be a quick ride today, a bit of tail wind, cloud cover,
overall downhill.

As I pass through the village of Phu Nhon, I come across the day`s local festivity. It is the
wedding, as it happens, of the oldest son, the first wedding in this family this generation and the
first hope for a male offspring. Downshifting to the lowest gear, I cycle by very slowly, make a
U-turn and cycle by again. It`s 10 am, the day`s event is just beginning. The festivities started
yesterday as neighbors came around to decorate the house and to build a wedding tent in the
front yard. They also then began preparing food for today`s luncheon, which is already set out
and ...