Elseline has lived in Vietnam for one year longer than I have. Her first year was spent living in the countryside, not in a major city where most expats reside. For the first five months, she lived in a small beach town called Lien Huong. A popular tourist spot for some Vietnamese locals, it hardly sees any foreigners. After her time there, she moved to the larger city of Bao Loc. She spent another seven months before finally moving to Saigon, missing the interactions and social life with fellow English speakers.
Because we were unable to leave the country, we decided to visit the places she has once lived and see the familiar characters that used to be present in her life. To do this, we would need to travel 920km (570 miles) by our two motorbikes round trip. We began our journey in Cat Tien National Park, where we staying in a bungalow by the river for Christmas Eve and Christmas Night.
The National Park is large, but lacks the infrastructure I’m used to from the States. As we had a longer morning of talking to family on Christmas morning, we didn’t get to the park until the late morning. This made it too late for us to hike the one proper hiking trail to Crocodile Lake. Instead, we found a marked trail in the woods that may or may not have been marked only for guides with the ranger. We carefully followed the blue markers to find our way through the dense jungle. Every few minutes, I would pick a leech off my ankle and flick it back into the woods.
During the night, we had a family video call with Elseline’s family. Although most participants were in Holland, they conducted it in English so I could follow along. We brought some fake snow that could be made with water so we could feel like we had the right weather for the holidays.
On the 26th, we rode for our shortest length to the city of Bao Loc. We were meant to take the longer path through the mountains, but that was nixed halfway into the journey by a menacing dirt road. It turns out that there are two paths that go around the mountains. One is a proper paved road, marked in yellow, while the other is just a white road on Google Maps. Our original route was not possible as a river had formed in the road we were supposed to take in Cat Tien. We ended up at a large dam with some Vietnamese men yelling that the road is impassible. Well, we think that’s what they were yelling. The internet didn’t reach that part of Vietnam and, of course, they didn’t speak a word of English. We turned around and took the highway to the city.
After stopping by a lunch place Elseline frequented often, we arrived to my favorite part of the trip. We took an afternoon hike up a mountain close to the city. Right as we setup camp, it began to pour rain. For dinner, we all had a job to help cook under the fire. Mine was manually spinning a chicken like a rotisserie. After we ate, we enjoyed some drinks and conversation by the fire. Our night finished around 11pm, but that was when the tour guides decided to get out the guitar and sing karaoke until 1am outside our tent. I fell asleep around 2:30am.
A few hours later, I was awoken to a spectacular sight. The morning clouds flooded the valley underneath. We sat above the clouds and took some breathtaking shots of the panoramic view of the clouds. After some instant noodle breakfast, we trekked into the woods to plant some trees in the forest and learn about the different vegetation. Soon after, we made the trek back down the mountain.
In the evening, after a much needed nap, we visited the Linh Quy Phap An Pagoda. It sits on top of a mountain and promises similar views of those on the mountain for people willing to arrive at around 5:30am. Being almost an hour drive away, we decided to go in the evening before the sunset.
On our last full day in Bao Loc, we set back out into nature to visit the Dambri Waterfall. Built up like an amusement park, these days the sight does not see many tourists. The park features two different falls, where I mistakenly thought the first waterfall we stumbled upon was the main event. The Dambri was rather impressive; we spent the day walking around and watching the two falls.
The following morning, we began one of our longest days of driving. Similar to our previous, failed adventure, we took the route less traveled. The fastest route would have largely consisted of highways, but not ones that we’re used to in our home countries. They are generally two lanes, where both are reserved for larger vehicles. Then, motorbikes are relegated to the breakdown lane. The street is lined with shop after shop, making the breakdown lane widely used by cars and trucks pulling in and out of businesses as well. It is not the most fun driving.
Instead, we drove through Kalon Song Mao Nature Reserve for a part of our day’s journey. The pothole-filled road winding through the mountains definitely saw less traffic. It was the most relaxing and thrilling day of driving. The final part of the journey was on the highway traveling perfectly east. A beautiful sunset could be seen in our rear view mirrors. We arrived in Lien Huong right as it began to get dark.
Elseline became close to the family of the receptionist and teacher working at the English center. Our first stop was to see her friend, before going to visit with her aunt and their family. As we pulled up, the aunt had a few customers lined up in front of a street food cart. She was selling different types of milk, seemingly very popular in the town. Others were sitting on plastic chairs drinking their recent purchase. Since we didn’t want milk for dinner, we went instead to have some pork and seafood pancakes dipped in peanut sauce. It’s a similar looking street food cart down the road with the familiar, tiny plastic chairs. We returned to visit with the family after.
We spent both nights visiting with the family. They have two boys, one being 11 and quite shy, and the other being 15 and very curious. The older one speaks quite strong English relative to the rest of the community. He asked many questions, and reciprocated by answering some of our questions. On the second night, we joined the children in a home cooked, hot pot meal. Eating with the adults would have proved futile as they spoke no English.
After our two nights in Lien Huong, we had our other longest drive of the trip to Ho Tram, a popular beach destination closer to Saigon. Here, we celebrated New Years Eve before returning back to Saigon. In all, the trip was a good cultural experience, as well as providing good insight into Elseline’s experiences in the country prior to moving to the big city.