Easy Rider
With a previous post knocking the tourist traps of Vietnam I was convinced there was another way. I had bumped into someone in Siagon who had mentioned that there were a bunch of people in a place called Dalat who took people round the Central Highlands on the back of their motorbike.
Having hired a couple of mopeds when I wanted to get around some less touristed areas this seemed like a great way to travel. Plus after my time in Cambodia with LICADHO I was itching to get some more shots for the portfolio but this time of more mainstream subject matter.
So there I was in Dalat after a very long 8 hour bus trip and was bombarded by people trying to sell me tours including the Easy Rider tours. Now this is not the right time to approach me and try and sell me something, I am tired, sweaty and hungry and have just been packed into a seat better suited to a small child rather than a 6'8" lout from the UK.
Eventually my mood lightened as did the shackles on my wallet and I decided to head off on a 5 day tour to my next destination. I spoke to 2-3 Easy Rider guides and finally settled on a guy called Mr Lee. He was a quiet guy and less pushy than the other bunch which certainly meant he went up in my books. We settled at $40 a day which included petrol and entrance into any attraction we went to. He would also pay for his own food which meant we would go to the cheap places!
This is certainly not cheap and similar bus tours could end up at less than half this price. I took the plunge though as I felt I would have far more control over my experience and we could go off shooting without having to be bundled into a bus every 5 minutes.
I was right. We strapped on my rucksack to the back of the bike and headed off. Lee soon realised that this was going to be a long way as he was carrying a big lad with a big bag... it was slow up some of those hills!
The first day we shot off to a coffee plantation, a silk farm and a rice wine brewery then that night we stayed on a lake at a minority village and I was up at 5:30 taking the sunrise picture you see on this post. Over the next 5 days we snaked our way through mountain ranges in the central highlands, able to stop at dozens of villages and take as many shots as I wanted.
It was a great few days and at some point I will adjust this post with the exact trip but for anyone reading this, take a cushion.... 5 days on a bike and 900km is no easy task!
Having hired a couple of mopeds when I wanted to get around some less touristed areas this seemed like a great way to travel. Plus after my time in Cambodia with LICADHO I was itching to get some more shots for the portfolio but this time of more mainstream subject matter.
So there I was in Dalat after a very long 8 hour bus trip and was bombarded by people trying to sell me tours including the Easy Rider tours. Now this is not the right time to approach me and try and sell me something, I am tired, sweaty and hungry and have just been packed into a seat better suited to a small child rather than a 6'8" lout from the UK.
Eventually my mood lightened as did the shackles on my wallet and I decided to head off on a 5 day tour to my next destination. I spoke to 2-3 Easy Rider guides and finally settled on a guy called Mr Lee. He was a quiet guy and less pushy than the other bunch which certainly meant he went up in my books. We settled at $40 a day which included petrol and entrance into any attraction we went to. He would also pay for his own food which meant we would go to the cheap places!
This is certainly not cheap and similar bus tours could end up at less than half this price. I took the plunge though as I felt I would have far more control over my experience and we could go off shooting without having to be bundled into a bus every 5 minutes.
I was right. We strapped on my rucksack to the back of the bike and headed off. Lee soon realised that this was going to be a long way as he was carrying a big lad with a big bag... it was slow up some of those hills!
The first day we shot off to a coffee plantation, a silk farm and a rice wine brewery then that night we stayed on a lake at a minority village and I was up at 5:30 taking the sunrise picture you see on this post. Over the next 5 days we snaked our way through mountain ranges in the central highlands, able to stop at dozens of villages and take as many shots as I wanted.
It was a great few days and at some point I will adjust this post with the exact trip but for anyone reading this, take a cushion.... 5 days on a bike and 900km is no easy task!
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