Our road trip through the Highlands is coming to a close. Miraculously the motorcycle still runs great. About halfway to DeLat the road turned to garbage. There were pot holes big enough to swallow us both and sections of sharp crushed rock that had the bike sliding all over the place. We bumped into some 'Easy Riders' two days ago, after surviving a particularly harrowing stretch of road. These are a very popular form of transport for tourists..the Easy Riders are motorcyclists in Vietnam that rent out there services to drive you on the back of their bikes through the highlands for 50-75 dollars a day. Our bike rental costs us 7 dollars a day. Surprisingly few tourists try this trip on their own. It could be in part, due to the apparent conspiracy to hide all useful maps from outsiders. We took wrong turns almost 50 percent of the time. Thankfully it's easy to discover your error when you end up in someone's back yard. Anyway, we bumped into a group of about ten Easy Riders with their charges holding on behind them. They offered to show us a shortcut the rest of the way to DeLat, so we happily followed. That night we were thrilled to have taken them up on the offer...when they invited us to join them at a karaoke bar. We experienced the true Vietnam karaoke scene. I goes something like this:
You walk up to one of the thousand buildings with the word 'Karaoke' painted on the side of it, climb six flights of stairs and end up in a tiny room with no windows. Inside this room is a wrap-around couch, surround sound, cases of beer, snacks, and two microphones. We crowded into this space with about ten Easy Rider guys and four of their tourist employers. They were all three sheets to the wind. It got loud fast. Nathan and I realized weeks ago that fitting into Vietnam was all about losing inhibitions...so we sang like our lives depended on it. If I do say so myself, my duet with a Vietnamese man singing 'Everything I do, I do it for you' was a real crowd pleaser.
For those of you who might be interested in this kind of trip, in this area of Vietnam, I can recommend a great guy (and charismatic, English speaking) Easy Rider. His name is Bruce Lee, and his family's house is right next door to the Blue Star Hotel in Nha Trang. His email is boy_single902008@yahoo.com ( though he is now happily married..I suggested he change the email but for now this is the best way to reach him ) He is also a talented karaoke singer..which is worth a little extra per day, in my opinion :)
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