We entered Vietnam when people where just about to start celebrating the New Year. People spend this one week of festivity together with their relatives and close friends. It is the time when they meet to eat and drink, dance and sing karaoke and we were just right in the middle of all this!
This meant for us: cycling through almost empty cities with closed shops, listening to voices trying to imitate different singers and unfortunately being confronted with quite a lot of drunk drivers, causing some dangerous situations on the road. On the other hand many friendly people invited us to share a meal with them, have some beers and drink some shots of vodka for the New Year.
After a very intense week during the celebrations of the New Year, finally the every day life was back and also the new rice planting season has started.
While crossing Vietnam we could witness some traditional ways of living. Sometimes we had the feeling, that the time stopped there.
This is how a main road in Vietnam normally looks like, with more motorcycles than space to drive:
In Hanoi we were hosted by An and his family and spent a nice time with them, enjoying Vietnamese cuisine and some beers while sharing travelling stories…
Vietnamese people are very curious and camping almost always includes some guests early in the morning, watching us how we pack our tent and the rest of our staff, how we eat breakfast or apply sunscreen…
And once again it happened that we could cycle with our friends Anna and Wieger as well as with Tim from England whom we have met in Laos before.
People in Vietnam try to cover most parts of their bodies to protect themselves from the heat and the burning sun. Among the headdresses the conical hat is definitely the most popular one. As we like to buy traditional items, we are now carrying two of these Vietnamese conical hats with us, this makes already quite a big collection – they are now travelling on our racks with five other hats from China.
Vietnam reminded us of one of the essence of travelling: the most amazing things are waiting for you on the smallest roads possible, in the least expected place.
People in Vietnam are definitely masters in finding solutions how to carry big things on small vehicles…
We saw a lot of fancy dressed women in Vietnam – especially the older ones – wearing elegant clothes and jewellery and of course the conical hat…
This is how a relaxed fishing day can looks like (next to the railway) :
