Good night Saigon

Well this week has been without a doubt the highlight of our trip so far. After arriving in Dalat, a strange place in terms of its Alpine similarities, we were lucky enough to meet two really cool Ozzies Tim and Ben. Having spent a couple of nights supping the local brew Saigon, and playing cards till the early hours, we were then to set off with our guides, The Easy Riders. We were able to each get a 125cc motor bike accompanied with a driver/guide Mr Quan and Mr Tan, Guess which one Caz went with???
We set off early morning with our rucksacks strapped to the back of our bikes and hit the road. These guys took us on a tailor made trip, and promised us they would show us the real Viet Nam, and thats exactly what we got!! After being surprised that Vietnam is the worlds 2nd biggest producer of coffee, they took us to the mass plantations where they showed us the beans in their harvest period. From there we went on to numerous waterfalls whilst driving on beautiful peaceful roads through the Central highlands. Throughout our trip we were taken to numerous ethnic minority villages includin the M'ho and M'nom . They were all very primitive and interesting in their own unique way. The M'homs live in long houses, so called because everytime they have a kid they elongate their homes. It is normal in Viet Nam that when a man gets married, his wife has to move in with his parents. This is like a strange form of welfare system so that the Grand parents can look after the Grand children whilst the parents can work.
It certainly seems to work, and still in its economic infancy it's probably the only system that could work!
All along our trip, our guides were very conscious of the effects of tourism, therefore they never liked to visit the same families over and over again. Quan bought some candy for the local kids and introduced us to many families. This was for me anyway the best part of the trip. Communicating only through guesture we first entered a home whom only in the last two years had electricity for the first time. Sitting on an old cupboard was an even older Toshiba TV. The father told us how for two weeks the kids were petrified of this machine, but when we enterd they were all glued to it watching some God awfull Vietnamese martial arts movie.
Through out our time riding through the highlands we were overwhelmed by the friendliness of everybody. We couldn't cycle past one kid without them shouting hello and waving to us. For many of them they had never seen a westerner before, and even the elderlys were very curious.
We ended our first day being taken to Dak Lak, an area devastated by Napalm and carpet bombing, it was quite surreal to see the landscape still scarred forty years on.
Our guides themselves were first hand victims of the war. Both being South Vietnamese they told us countless stories of how families were bieng torn apart. One brother being drafted by the South vietnamese army having to fight his own brother who had been forced to fight for the NVA. Stories of friends who cut off eachothers trigger fingers so that they couldn't fight and how after 1975 they were both so hungry for 16 years that they could hardly sleep. It was hard to hear it all, but our guides weren't reluctant to give us an insight to their recent history.
From there on we were shown silk farms, mushroom farms, even had a 20 kilo Python put round our necks, then being shown the cutest little bunny rabbits that fed that fella.
On our last couple of days, more was elllaborated about the Ho Chi Mhin trail and it importance to the NVA. This area was truely ablitorated, and we got to see first hand the effects of agent orange after meeting a farmer who had fought with the SVA. His Son was about eight years old and lives in a tiny hut traditional to his ethnic monority, along with 4 other family members. His father was keen to inform us that when he was fighting he had drunk Dioxin contaminated water and explained how this had caused his Sons severe handicaps, both physically and mentally.He was keen for us to take a photo of him, something i didn't dare asking. But for him it was important for others to see the results of this American defoliant. The Americans flatly refuse to pay any compensation to its victims, and is an ongoing struggle for these poor people. On our last day whilst we having our breakfast in a side road cafe we watched a large dog being first stuffed into a tight metal cage , then into a tight plastic bag. The owners of this pet had decided to send him to market. His meat was popular to this area of Viet Nam, but it was hard to watch.
By the end of our trip we arrived in Mui Ne, a tourist resort. It was a big come down after our experience on the road.