scooter – Tanya's Travels

Vietnam Continued

Vietnam is definitely the land of “Things on Bikes”. Here is a man driving with over a dozen jackfruit attached to baskets on his scooter. These smelly but tasty fruits are incredibly dense and heavy.

Bananas are another common crop, hence their presence on scooters. The vast majority of people do not own cars, but scooters and/or bicycles. If you wander off of the main roads and into the alleys or deep into the countryside, you’ll find that many of the lanes are so narrow that a car couldn’t possibly fit on them.

Not only produce, but livestock, is carried around on scooters. Here is a man with a selection of chickens fastened to the back of his bike. I’ve also seen ducks, and even pigs, riding as passengers.

People even use their scooters as beds to nap during the hot hours of the day. I have no idea how they are able to maintain such balance.

This was taken from a pagoda in Dalat. Due to its mean facial expression, I think it is supposed to be a guard.

We also stopped by the Valley of Love in Dalat, a perfect place to take cheesy photos. For anyone who is interested, they host a fine selection of plastic big cats.

We traveled to Lak Lake one night to do a homestay in a longhouse. Upon arrival to the cafe that arranges these homestays, we discovered they had an elephant to the side. I think the elephants in this town are only used for tourists to ride into the lake.

In this small town, the animals definitely seem part of the community. Pigs, dogs and chickens graze around between the properties. While nice to look at during the day, they do make it hard to sleep at night, by constantly barking or crowing in the dark.

Many miles later, we made it down to the busy city of Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City. Being the biggest city of Vietnam, it consequently seemed to hold the highest concentration of traffic. It is normal to find people driving the opposite way down one-way streets, on sidewalks, right into busy traffic, or anywhere a bike may possibly fit. Though it seems chaotic, traffic does go on like it does anywhere else. One just cannot drive the way they do in their home country while riding around in Saigon.

After a few days in this busy, crowded city, we decided to take a nature break and go check out a mangrove forest. This part of the country is the Mekong Delta, so all of the land is separated by small rivers, which requires taking a ferry from one point to another.

Once we got there, we wished we had a boat to go around, rather than a scooter.

Off the long, flat, paved road, we found one of the muddy paths leading into the depths of the mangrove forest. If you head down one of these, make sure you wear some sturdy hiking or rubber boots, as a few inches of mud will stick to your shoes.

We walked down this path until it got too muddy and slippery, and admired the sturdy, intricate roots that these trees stand from.

The wet mud on the ground is full of little holes that tiny crabs crawl into and out of. If you look closely (in the picture or in nature), you can spot a mudskipper. I don’t know if these creatures need to hide from many predators, but they certainly do embody a good camouflage tone for such an environment.

Vietnam So Far

First starting out in Vietnam, we were trying to figure out what to do. We were in the central coast of the country, and as Vietnam is a long, coastal country, we could either make a move north or south. That gave us some time to check out the tourist sites around us.

This is from Marble Mountain. It was full of caves, Buddhas and candles.

We went to Hoi An for a couple days, which was probably the most touristy place so far. We drove out to My Son from there, to check out some Cham ruins.

The ride there and back was full of rice fields.

We rented a scooter went up to Hue from there, and on the cloudy ride, this was on the way there.

In Hue, we bought a scooter from another foreigner, so we had to return the first one to Hoi An. So, I got to learn how to drive semi-automatic for the first time, in a foreign country, in the rain!

Though a good skill to have in these parts, these types of bikes do not exist in the United States, so it is only a temporarily useful skill.

After returning the bike, we made a decision to head southward, as the weather was warmer.We ended up spending days riding for hours and hours at a time, observing the agricultural and natural scenery, stopping at night in small towns. Vietnam has so many visitors that even in the smallest, off-the-map villages, we ran into other westerners. During one of the rides, we noticed this foot bridge. We only took a picture of it from one side, as it looked a bit sketchy to cross.

Most of the area we passed was largely rural, hence the omnipresence of cows. In some towns, at any point, a cow, pig or dog can run out into the middle of the street while you are driving. This might be very dangerous in a car, but on bike, you have more opportunity to maneuver, plus you aren’t driving too fast anyway.

Through the hills, some of the driving can get quite windy, so you’ll be forewarned. Some signs even let you know that the area has a high cow population.

Many of the landscapes reminded me of parts of California or the Southwestern United States I’d been to. I realized how little I knew about Vietnam before I had actually come.

From the movies, I thought it was all jungle, but in reality, the natural surrounding is quite diverse.

Rubber tree plantations are quite fine places to stop for a picnic, with all of the symmetrical cleared space, plus the umbrella-effect from the top of the trees.

Apart from landscape, this is a very populated country, so lots of different types of houses and buildings line the road.

Taiwan Trip

So, the first place after the year in South Korea was Taiwan. After a two-hour flight, followed by a night in downtown Taipei, we decided to rent a scooter to go tour the island. Being a seemingly small place with fine weather, there is no reason not to venture out and try to see what there is. Some travelers decide to do this by bicycle, others by bus or train, and whichever way they choose to go, there is certainly a wide range of places to explore without seeing everything.

The first trip outside of Taipei was to Wulai, a quaint mountain village known for its hot springs. It was pleasant to leave the hot, heavy city traffic clusters and leisurely drive up into the hills and explore the tropical plants that covered them.

It was then out from Wulai, through some winding hills, and then to the East Coast of Taiwan. We drove up and down the mountains, past shrines and green tea plantations, until we got sight of the Pacific Ocean.

A little closer in, it became apparent that this coastal town was full of rice fields.

We drove on to Hualien, passing through some simple little towns. We’d have to stop at the traffic lights, as road laws are more enforced here than in Korea. It gave us a chance to pause and take in the scenery.

From Hualein it was to the Taroko Gorge, a beautiful site full of greenery and rock formations, but also full of tour buses.

We did not spend too long there, just got back onto the East Coast.

Though we hit the Tropic of Cancer, it was quite cloudy and windy at the time, so it did not feel different.

At night, we arrived in the city of Taitung, where we stayed at Cats Homestay. These were the two owners of this establishment, on their break-time.

It was then down to Kenting, towards the southern tip of Taiwan.

Down to the rocky coast in the southern end of the island, it got quite windy, but nonetheless scenic. Kenting was full of pineapple bushes and typical beach-town tourist features, such as reggae-themed bar carts and sandal shops.

The actual southernmost tip of Kenting was jam-packed with tour buses, so we decided to go here instead.

As that was the most south we could go, it was then up the West Coast. The first destination was Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second-biggest city.

Hundreds of tourists from mainland China were in Kaohsiung. Some Taiwan locals choose to go up to the tour groups and show them posters about the Chinese government and some things that they censor. It looked like an interesting way of communicating, but I cannot read Chinese, so I don’t particularly understand what they are trying to get across.

Kaohsiung is supposed to be one of the most bike-friendly cities of Asia.

Of course I made friends with one of the locals.

Up north through the west coast, we had one of those experiences of having people tell us something, and then it coming to a reality. This piece of information was that the west coast of Taiwan was more populated than the east, was full of more cities and was more industrial. The air was definitely different, and there were certainly more towns and assorted development. When we started driving inland, the landscape became more flat, and was full of rice fields, fish farms and duck farms.

One place we stopped on the west coast was Lugang, a small town full of temples and old alley ways.

Even some of the modern establishments had hints of an antique feel. Taipei is wonderful at being a modern city with all of the amenities and efficient factors one could ask for, but this town was better to see history.

Some of the sites exhibited fine symmetry that kept up through all the ages.

After a bit of sightseeing, it was back to the hills. This country area had an abundance of strawberry farms, and we drove into the dusk and dark, searching for a hillside hot spring town campground. Though we could not find this campground, we had the opportunity of driving up a hill way above town until the pavement ended. Some nice people at one of the resorts allowed us to set up a tent on a grass field for free. The sulfuric water was heavenly to the skin after being cramped up on a bike all day, but was not pleasant to the nose.

From there it was back to Taipei, which was at first full of rural roads, and then back through the typical scene of suburban to satellite city to urban planning. It was an experience of a map coming to life in reality, a graphic depiction unfolding into truth upon your senses.