Here I am at the end of my Vietnam tour waiting for a room so I can wait till tomorrow to head to Laos at the Bo Y border. The room they showed me had no power so they asked me to wait. I am waiting, but only for so long. There are other hotels in town, 2 very close. I arrived here from Kham Duc at lunchtime so I am also hungry.
There is probably less to Kham Duc than meets the eye. Certainly when I arrived there last night I was underwhelmed. Mind you I had spent an extremely frustrating morning trying to find road 14B. When I finally did I only had some 2km and I was onto the Ho Chi Minh Hwy. It had been a very unpleasant experience because the whole saga unfurled while it was pissing down rain by the bucket load. I know I should be phlegmatic, I know I should be patient, that it is only the weather and I have no control over this but it depressed the hell out of me. If I could have pressed a button and zap I would be back in Ha Noi I would have. Once back on Uncle Ho's road things got markedly better, number one the road surface. Potholes dissapeared and the countryside began to open up. The rain remained but took on a less dominant force. I began to relax and enjoy the ride damp tho it was. As I got closer to Kham Duc the road became more of a mountain thing. I was still in the valleys but the surrounding hills had become mountains and they were covered in green. You come thundering into Kham Duc and are immediately aware you are in a bigger town. I motored the main street and identified 3 "guest houses". I picked the biggest of the 3 and booked in. Conditions were par with the tariff 150,000 dong/night. I walked down the street shrouded in my poncho to the biggest resteraunt a small town can have. Upstairs there seemed to be some kind of Kareoke club. Or the live band had a series of very bad singers. Either could have been the case. I ordered some spring rolls and some sauted/caramelised pork with steamed rice. It was ordinary, but it was Food. The food was quite dry so it took me some time to consume it. Job done I retruned to my room to listen to the rain and the television.
In the morning there was a power failure and the town went lightless. It also meant that there was no fuel to be had either. I decided Kham Duc was a lame duck for me and left as quickly as I could. After about one and a half hours of snaking round slippery roads the clouds parted and the sun shone through. The coungryside became a picture again with huge rolling hills and long valleys. You certainly got the feeling that you were in the Central Highlands. Villages got really pretty. Houses changed from concrete blocks to lovely slabsided wooden structures some adobeised with mud. The whole thing raised my spirits greatly. Then I started to see these dramatic meeting houses of the ethnic minority up here. They just appeared without warning on the side of the road or just above on a hill. A very very steep roof A-frame style sat on poles so the floor is about 2 meters above the ground. The roof is thatched, some kind of rice straw I imagine. Fabulous. There were also some oval shaped "houses" again thatched with straw.
Before I expected it I had arrived in Pleican or should I say Ngoc Hai. The first thing that indicates this is an administrative park made up of huge empty government buildings. I knew they were government buildings because of thier colours, the number of flags flying and the complete and total absence of people anywhere. I did a drive around this avenue that obviously played a big part in the official opening and then moving on into town and reality.
I am in my room now finishing off the blog. The power has just died again, bugger! I'm going for a walk to check the town out. Next post should come from Laos, from the town of Attepeu. I'm headed there tomorrow. Cheers Campers.
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