Continuing on from The Weird and the Wonderful, here is part 2.  What constantly surprises me is there is always something new to see, stare at or just wonder “why?”.

I thought I would start this on a low note and therefore it can only get better.  There are a few dogs that run around the streets and it is amazing that they don’t get hit.  Here, a dog has decided to brave the traffic and do his business.

So moving from the dog, we go to the classic, what things can I carry on my motorbike today segment:

This picture doesn’t need any explanation.

My friend Trang and I were walking along the street and she pointed this out to me, it is like a little fence.  Don’t worry the parents were around.  The little girl just looked so cute and was oblivious to the world walking past her.

This is common for breakfast, it is like porridge but not sweet.  The lady is making sure she gets everything out of the pot.

This is the Cable Company at work and they feed the black cables along.  It is fascinating to watch.  I don’t know how they can work out what cable is what…

From electricity to water.  Some work being done of the water supply creating a mini flood.  Notice how there is no protection for them from traffic and they are working with minimal clothes.  Still get the job done.

I feel like I am part of the UN, I went to a conference and I wore these for translations from Vietnamese to English.  It is amazing how quickly they can translate.

Lauren and I saw this statue in Ninh Binh and it caught our attention.  I asked Trang about this and it is based on a traditional lady from a couple of centuries ago.  However, it is not a true depiction, as the clothing is lacking, what she is wearing below would only be worn around the house not outside in public.  The lady is fishing in a muddy water of a river using a basket.

 

This is on the way to a restaurant.  I had to stop and take a good look at this.  These are letter boxes and a lot of wiring

Who said you need to stop business when doing maintenance on the ceiling?  There were no barricades, or anyone spotting.  Nothing happened, people carried on as usual.  Imagine what would have happened in Australia!

 

There are many ways to carry bikes on scooters.  These are only a couple of them.

Furniture moving takes on a whole new element here.  I was riding along the street, eyes peeled for the unusual, and I certainly found it.  I went past a piano sitting on the road at the side.  I thought to myself, this has potential so I did a U turn and parked myself across the street to watch the festivities.  This is what caught my eye.

I know you are wondering what happens next… As mentioned before, they have “soft openings” here, where part of a hotel or apartment will open early when building has yet to be completed.  Well, this was the case here.  The apartment that the piano belonged to was on the 2nd floor so they moved the piano in over all the construction material!!!

Piano moving Vietnam Style

On my trip to the Me Kong, I stayed in a couple of hotels and the prices range from about $8 – $15 AUD and they were very good.  This greeted me in the shower of one of the hotels. A tile! I don’t think I looked like this when I used the shower.

I have mentioned in previous posts that the disabled have it pretty hard here, this guy uses his crutch to ride his bike, impressive.

I went to the Western grocery store to get a few items, chocolate:) and at the counter I saw this sign, it made no sense, why have the heading in English and the rest in Vietnamese.

I was walking home one night and I saw this and thought it was a hospital bed on the side of the street, no it was a cyclo driver having a sleep under the brightest light on the street.

One night we went for dinner in China Town, District 10 and we went to blocks of apartments which had food stalls on the street.  This food stall took my fancy, I was memorized by the heads.

Bobbing Chicken Heads

Vietnam has had an effect on me, I have been known to wear these stockings and they have ones so you can where flip flops.  Love it

I don’t think I need to say much here, pretty self explanatory.

I have seen many of these buildings around and I have always thought, how depressing.  Apparently they are for swallow nests. I think they look like a prison with no windows.

Just the normal duties of a bus driver here.

From my Epic Camping Adventure, I had a blow out with my shoes so I took them to my local shoe man and asked him to glue them as the sole had come unstuck.  This is how they came back:)

 

 

This is a story about an Epic Adventure involving 12 people that started late at night one Friday… (16th Sept)

So we met the group at about 9:30pm in HCM and headed off in a convoy of about 9 motorbikes.  It is about a 2 hour drive (100 km) to Tây Ninh aka Black Virgin Mountain and was good as there wasn’t much traffic.  I have been here previously on a day trip by myself;  The Black Virgin Mountain

So we arrived sometime after midnight and stayed at a rest stop so hammocks were the choice of bedding.  I have never slept in a hammock before and I was a little bit scared of tipping out,  but I needn’t worry because between the dogs and the roosters it was hard to get any quality sleep.

Upon waking we had to eat, pack the food and park our motorbikes.  Not all our motorbikes could fit at the one parking spot so we parked half and then we used four motorbikes to go a “short distance”.   We all carried three on the motorbikes and off we set.  Between the cows chasing us, the gravel, mud, pot holes and steep hill, it was a piece of cake and a short drive:).

So we started getting ready for the hike and something odd came out to be placed in shoes for cushioning.  Odd, but made sense.

The identity of this person in the photo will be kept unknown to protect their privacy. And so the journey started, which quickly turned into an epic adventure.  The summit was 1km high from the base and this was to be climbed over 10km, therefore giving a gradient of 10%.  It was basically rock climbing over boulders.

I think one of the most disheartening parts of the hike was when I asked how far we had gone and the reply was about 1/8 (or a half of a quarter as it was quoted to me) of the way, and I had truly thought we must be at least half way up.  One of our team members had done this trail before so he knew the way and there were red arrows on the rocks, however they were sometimes hard to find.  On one occasion some of the group, including me, went a more difficult way and we ended up beside a wasp nest.  Luckily, there was a guide on the trial and he helped to get us out. We then promptly hired him and he helped us up the rest of the way.

The terrain and views were amazing

So once we had finished with the boulders, we came across slippery and steep terrain and I let out a few swear words, and then it became dark and pissed down (rain).  However, like good boy scouts and girls we were prepared and had head torches.

And then came the monkey bridge.  This was a branch that was over a gorge and our guide nimbly walked across this with a rope and created the monkey bridge.  I would have photos however it was dark and thank god I couldn’t see how far down I could go.  So at about 10:30pm we made it to the top and after some hunting around we found a spot to rest our tired and bruised limbs.  As it was still pissing down we pitched our tents and had a meal of ham, meat roll like luncheon, marshmallows and gummy bears.  You can probably guess what I supplied.  So we finally settled down for our sleep at about midnight and in our tent were the three girls when a party outside our tent erupted and went on for about three hours.  Then at 6am breakfast started!

We had a delicious breakfast and enjoyed the views

So in the photo of Trang and I you can understand why I look half asleep, because I was!

Here are some photos of the camp sites that were around us.

So we took the easiest way down the mountain and it still took about 5 hours and a billion steps.  Because we had to take all our own food and water I had almost run out so lucky there was a spring halfway down.

All 12 of us made it down safely and we had a group dinner in the local town and then headed back to Ho Chi Minh and arrived home at about 10:30pm.

It was an amazing adventure, definitely one I will remember for the rest of my life.  Thank you!