Fresh Greens 4

A Village Festival

I just love how unpredictable life is when you travel this way. You really have no idea what's around the corner.

Today's big surprise came pretty much as soon as I headed off in the late morning. I came across a festival, and a local explained to me that it's a 3 day celebration of the ethnic minorities in the area.

It was fascinating.

It started off pretty normal, with various stalls etc.

Absolutely huge Chinese-style porcelain floor vases

Clothes influenced by traditional designs

Gong shop

Rice whisky, made with forest tubers

Then I came across a whole bunch of older women playing a traditional game, where you put a wooden puck on the top of your bare foot, and throw it with your foot at targets at the other end, and try to knock them down. It was so interesting to watch, and the women were really into it.

The younger men were hosting a visiting volleyball team.

The local team (in red) won the game, much to the delight of almost everyone there. The crowd didn't hold back during the game.

Yet another balloon seller

Kids on bamboo stilts. Def beats gaming.

Swish restaurants and hangout zones for dignitaries.

The kids have to run the bamboo gauntlet.

Local medicine and tucker

Homemade bow and arrow sets, and knives, all made from forest raw materials (besides the knife blades of course, which are still smithed locally though).

As an example of how safe and comfortable it is around here, I left my fully loaded bike unlocked and out of my sight, up against a wall outside the festival grounds, for the whole time I was inside there. I didn't worry about it for a second.

The guest houses around here don't even have locks for their guest rooms. Yesterday I went out all day with all my stuff in my room. Of course, no one around here would even dream of going in there. No one locks their houses.

It's so nice to be in an environment like this.

And so today I came to the temporary end of my journey through the hills. I descended down to the plains, to the Red River Delta, where I'll be for the next little while.

Where I came from

Christian cemetery

Tam Cốc

By early arvo, after having to negotiate some traffic-infested bigger roads for awhile, I finally made it to Tam Cốc, an area famous for its limestone karst, and river and lake systems.

I rested for a bit, amd finally organised some laundry. Some of my stuff is embarrassingly cycle-filthy, fully caked in sweat and mud. Then I rode into the small touristed town, and straight out the other side.

As soon as I could I took some back tracks. The scenery was breathtaking.

The area around here is known as "Halong Bay on Land," because the karst formations are similar to that famous place in the Gulf of Tonkin, but here the karst juts out from inland waterways and rice fields, rather than from the bay.

I cycled out to Bích Động, a beautiful pagoda not too far from town.

Entranceway

The whole temple is built into, and on top of, a beautiful limestone cliff. A temple has existed in some form or other at the site from ancient times, but most of the current buildings were constructed in the early 1700s.

It consists of three main temples, each higher than the other on the cliff edge.

View from the second temple. The view from the highest tier is obstructed by trees. Bloody trees, they should chop 'em all down.

Part of the temple is inside the cave itself.

For loose Westerners, some of whom pay scant attention to cultural sensitivities in places like this

It was getting dark, so I found a place to eat, and met Lisa and Pete, a lovely Aussie couple who currently live in Woolgoolga, of all places, near Coffs Harbour. We chatted for ages, about travel, about kids, about life.

We had a beer together, I ate, and then our gorgeous host Hiện treated us all to about 5 shots each of rice whisky at the end of the night. She was so nice. The first was a banana rice mix, the others were made from forest tubers, and tasted a bit like liquid Chinese medicine.

I actually like that flavour, but Lisa and Pete weren't big on it.

Beer keg, Viet style. 10,000D for a large glass (60c Oz).

Eventually I rolled home. My guest house is only a couple of clicks from town.

Of course I went munchie shopping on the way.

Delicious coconut rice snacks. I love these.

Burnt peanut toffee, almost impossible to eat. Dentists should lobby to ban it.

This is a particularly yummy rice jelly coconut sweet

Duck roadtisserie

Down To Earth

So here I am, nearly at sea level again, for the first time since I left Bangkok a month ago. For pretty much that whole time I've been in the high hills of northeastern Laos and northwestern Vietnam, busting my legs up and down steep hills.

It's been a re-baptism of fire, and I'm now born-again. Even though they don't really look that different, my legs feel as if they're about three times wider, they feel much heavier as I walk around, as I guess they've had no option but to bulk up again, under duress.

I feel great, and also feel happy to ride a few flat roads for awhile. There's plenty more hills to come for me.

I plan to stick around here exploring for a few days, and then to head northeast, to eventually merge into the crazy smelly traffic mix on the road to the big smoke, the capital, Hanoi.

You know how much I love the forest and the small villages. But I grew up in the city. And the big smoke does it for me too, at least for awhile. More thrills and spills await, (hopefully without the spills) ❤️

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