Pleiku

Transport up the Ho Chi Minh Trail is via primarily by local buses and, after some of our experiences travelling in so-called luxury tour buses, we felt we could only grin and bear so much of that even taking short day hops.  There were sleeper bus coaches available along the route but they're built for little people and Jason who is six foot six, would simply not fit in.  Apart from Myra, none of us fall into the category of 'little'.

We weighed up the costs of buses and extra nights in hotels and came to the conclusion that it would be cheaper to fly most of the way up and leave only the last leg into Laos to cover on the ground.  Hence, we hopped onto a local flight to the city of Pleiku, a totally different scene altogether.  I don't think they see very many tourists in Pleiku; most people actually smile without an ulterior motive.

There wasn't much to see or do but we loved been off the beaten track for a change.  The market was another fabulous sight.  Again, we simply couldn't get over the number of different fruit and vegetables and the quality of these on display.  These folk speak no English at all so, through sign language and persevence, we attempted to learn the uses of some odd-looking stuff.  They waste absolutely nothing.  Even the stems of banana trees, palms and a myriad of other unknown stems, are finely slivered to be either fried or pickled.  Every single solitary part of an animal is used - there is simply zero wastage.

The first day we stopped at the restaurant next to the hotel as the guys wanted beers and, as it was lunchtime, the restaurant just assumed that we wanted to eat.  Suddenly the table was loaded with a bowl of soup each, a dish with some weird mixture of thinly sliced vegetables and sauces, a couple of plates of salad (a rare sight) and then afterwards a plate of chicken and rice.  We discovered that that's all they served and gave the owners a good laugh when we all immediately mixed the little dish of veggies into our soup.  It was apparently to be mixed with soya sauce as a dipping sauce for the chicken.

Another meal was one variety of Pho which previously had always cost us around $2 but in Pleiku, it came to the grand total of 75 cents - not bad for a good filling meal.

Unfortunately, we left our time there on a bit of a sour note as the young chap at the hotel had quoted us one price but his mother refused to honour it.  As they held our passports, we started out being very tactful but when that didn't work, we had to resort to threatening to call the police.  The son knew what he'd quoted and we eventually got our passports paying that which we'd agreed but mother and son rather came to blows over the situation.

Our stay in Vietnam has come to an end; we've thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the north, and now look forward to the next stage, a short hop through Laos.