We spent a day pretty much doing nothing. We went to the markets and got ourselves some food to take on a picnic at the lake. We picked up a six pack of beer, our books and headed off. It was such a nice lazy, laid back day.
Today we got on the back of the motorbikes and did a day tour. We had an 8:30 pick up and the first place we headed to was a minority village called Lat village. Our guides - Huong and Vu got the chief of the village to have a chat with us. He invited us into the town hall type thing (where all the villagers gather when there is an event or festival.) He was very interesting and accommodating. He told us the history of his people. They are suprisingly Cathelics. He only went to year six but was a nurse during the Vietnam war. He also was a nurse in France for a year so was fluent in French.
In his village Women have to buy their husbands and the better the man the more buffalo he is worth. The chief was worth 5 buffalo. Most men get around 1 or 2. The lat people used to be fairly nomadic and lived in the jungle but no so now there is not so much wild life to hunt.
The chief played some traditional musical instruments for us and sang some songs. He said he didn't know many English songs but he did do a rendition of Waltzing Matilda!!!
He then got us to try his brew of traditional rice wine. Its was only 9:30 but what the hell, we did it. It was bloody strong. Next we had an influx of handicraft sellers. We were surrounded, we weren't getting out of there alive if we didn't buy something. We got a bracelet each and then got out of there. We took a walk around the village and saw all of there farming etc. They had built a wooden church as well. After that we 'hit the road' as our guides said evertime we got back on the bikes.
We just rode around the hills and checked out the scenery for a fair while. Even that was really enjoyable. I wanna get a motorbike now! Yes, should probably work on that licence first. Our guides were very knowledgeable and pointed out sights and told us many facts.
We took several small stops at coffee plantations - I didn't know they had a flower and that it smelled so good, at a flower wholesaler, at a mushroom farm. We had a big stop at a silk factory and saw the process from start to end, which was good.
We went to a major waterfall called Elephant Falls. We took a path that although was well used, still quite difficult to master, to the front and bottom. It was fericious and although we were still some distance away the water misted on us. We took another challenging path through a cave to underneath the falls. That was amazing. Not only could you feel the mist, I came out wet!
We checked out a Pagoda built on the sight too, it was built there because of the good fung shui of having a mountain behind and water infront. Around the back had this massive giant, jolly budda. After the trek from the waterfall we just sat in the gardens in front of the budda while Vietnamese musical instruments played in the pagoda. It was a very tranquil, vietnamese moment.
The guys took us to lunch then and we finally got to pay local prices, less than $2 for a table full of food- a whole fish, beef soup, pork stirfry, mushrooms, morning glory(???- some type of veg), snow peas, beans, spring rolls, chicken and rice. It was really tasty too.
We rode back in the afternoon and got home at around 3:30. We had a quick shower break and headed for a long awaited beer. We found this little bar called Saigon Nights. We got there and it was closed but as we waited and discussed our next move the owner arrived and opened for us. It didn't take long until more westerns (Australians in fact, mainly) arrived and a big night was in store. 10 beers each and $10 later we headed for home. Tired, drunk but happy.
