Day 2 to Hoi An. Today to Buon Ma Thout.

13/5 - Village life starts early. About 4.00 am Toto were being played in the yard next door, a little bit surreal. I nodded off, then woke, then nodded off, then woke, then gave up and got up, the village life noise was too much for me, but Khien was snoring like a good 'un. He came out in the end and showed me the official toilet and washroom. The lads next door were dipping into a waist high jar, I was just about to join them when Khien came out. There was a shower in our place, but it would have been whimpish to use it.
There are plenty of pot belly pigs all over the show and chickens. An Aussie lass is trying to get to stroke the pigs, but they are having none of it. We went down to the lake and some of the fisherman are coming back in. The catch is mostly small stuff. One lad had a fish about 1lb, so he was smiling, that's a big one. There's lots of lads out on the lake, so I guess the fish don't get much opportunity to get big. The nets are put in the water then the fishermen clash their oars on the water to chase the fish into the nets. Any that are not eaten fresh are smoked, not in papers like weed. A few of the old dears are walking around smoking pipes and have babies slung on their backs. There seems to be more women smoking them than blokes. I think this is either H'Mong or Lat minority people, they have a tradition of using these slings, some of the kids being carried look like they should be walking, which surprised me. The longhouses give the village a great look. Whole families sleep in them with curtain partitions. There is a the ladies section at the back where they get banished to when the lads want a bit of privacy. It sounds like the women are 2nd class citizens, but they control the money. All the money coming in is given to the wife, if the lads want a drink or a smoke they go cap in hand and if they do anything out of order, no money, no sex and no cooking, so perhaps it is more 50/50 than it first appears.
These people work hard and have a knack of going at at nice easy pace. They have long days but pace themselves nicely.
There were only 3 tourists in the village from what I could see, but daytime visitors must be due as a load of elephants with seats on are trundling through the village. The Aussie lass has already set off on one.
Breakfast now, omlette and french stick, typically Vietnamese, it's popular and we get some kickass coffee again. Time to hit the road Jack. I'm glad Khien relented from going to a hotel. I'm starting to enjoy getting up early. Di toiy, let's go, Khien has taught me this, so I taught him di toiy big boy, but I get di toiy lady. We skirted the lake, there's lots of rice farming going on. We pulled over at some kids fishing. They lower a net, about 6ft x6ft, into the river by a hand held frame, leave it a few minutes then bring it out most of the fish are stickleback size, but they are bagged up, perhaps for fish sauce, very popular in Vietnam. Khien got nattering to the eldest lass hauling the net. They work from 6am to 6pm doing this. She seemed to take a shine to Khien and invited him to have a go, so it as a quick di toiy big boy. Perhaps he's not the ladies man he makes out, but he is a smashing lad.
We stopped next at a brickworks, this looks like a family concern, the lad is loading the bricks from the kiln onto a conveyor, Mam is stacking them on the trolley and Dad and another bloke are unloading them. The kilns are tall brick towers with tunnels underneath where great tree trunks are loaded and set on fire after the clay bricks have been cut in the nearby clay mixing leanto and loaded into the kiln with coal dust spread between them. It looks very time consuming, but well organised. The bricks go for 500 Dong each, 32 bricks for $1.
Along the road families make granite bricks from the nearby hills. It is all done with hammer and chisel and I can see the marks on the stones just like in th temple at Angkor in Cambodia, built hundreds of years ago.
After some beautiful countryside we rolled into TP BMT, Buon Ma Thout. Khien dumped me at a roundabout with a monument on it, in the middle of town and went off to get some picnic food. I walked around the roundabout and smiled at the photograph lady, then sat on a wall. I took out my mobile and the photo lady came over to check it out, followed closely by a young couple, none of us could speak each ohters language, but I had a laugh with the photo lady. I have learned Vietnamese for son, daughter, grandson, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, so the family photo always comes out and I show off both my Vietnamese and family. This inevitably leads onto wife, but I haven't learned how to say "buggered off" in Vietnamese. Perhaps I should try to learn divorced. We were having such a good time, we never noticed Khien sat at the curb beeping his horn. I said goodbye, but she followed me to checkout the wife bit with Khien. She is single too, so I gave her a hug and a knowing smile and she laughed. Khien tried to set me up with a date that night, typical Khien, but she declined, with a laugh. A lot of people frown on divorce in Vietnam, but I've come across loads of divorced ladies. I haven't chatted the men up, so don't know about them.
Di toiy, with a big smile and wave in both directions. Next stop a set of waterfalls. Khien sent me off to take some photos and stroll and when I came backhe'd set up the picnic on the road on newspaper. Rice paper, herbs, pork, sauce and noodles, more herbs and a beer. I'm having a great time with this lad. He packed all the non-organic bits in a bag, very none Vietnamese like. We clowned around a bit and got back in the saddle. A young couple turned up, this is a very romantic spot, but they didn't stay long, I think it was Khiens singing, he's only slightly better than me.. The picnic made them smile, I wouldn't be surprised if they had gone off to get one. The next waterfall in the same park, is even better. It was a bit of a hike to get there, over a couple of bridges and up and down some rock steps, but well worth it. We did a bit more clowning on the way. Khein is looking out for m, this walk was good though, it made him realise I can do most things, just in my own way, he still watched me like a hawk. this is a beautiful place. I had real sweat on when we got back, so we had a sit and a cold drink to cool off. I think Khien was quite proud of me. We met another Easy Rider with a Scottish lass and picked up my passport and Khien's ID. We'd got half way around the lake this morning, when he got a call to tell us we are dopes, but the Easy Rider brotherhood came goo, we didn't have to go back for them.
We set off back towards BMT city for the night, so I could have had a date. We hit a bit of rain, but were dry by the time we reached the hotel. A bit of laundry, a nap and repack and then out for some food. It is raining again. We went on the bike. Khien has a good friend in BMT, Quon and he came along later with his girlfriend, Loin. He's all goggle eyed with her, he is 30 and she is 20 and she has to be home by 8.30pm, her parents have told her, much to the delight of the grumpy old man. Quon came back and we had a few more beers. We'd had rabbit and beef for eats and they were as usual delicious. The beer was a trial beer and very nice too. Khien has the gift of the gab, he chats up all the waitresses and had Loin grinning like a Cheshire cat. He picked up another nickname today. "Check it out Khien". He moves in close if we pass any fit lasses on motos and checks them out in his wing mirrors. I pulled him up on it and he said "Check it out" so it stuck. He is a little bit tipsy tonight, so I pulled him up on that too and it was the last time we used the bike at night. He went back to run Quon home too, even though he said he'd get a moto. It was good to see the respect Khien showed him. Quon took him under his wing when he first arrived in Da Lat from his home town to study. I hit the sack when he went back.