We drove to Aluoi from Phuoc Son, up Highway 14, part of the old Ho Chi Minh Trail. The scenery was even more spectacular than the day before, primary jungle dotted with villages and waterfalls. We were forced to turn off on another road at one point, due to landslides on the part of Highway 14 that makes a short cut through Laos. Apparently, this portion of the road through Laos is being abandoned for the new stretch that stays in Vietnam, just on the side of the Lao border.
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Closer to Aluoi we passed a couple of small wood and blue tarp shelters where a family of road workers from Dalat was living. We stopped to talk to them, and learned through our guide Tuan, that they had been living along the roadside for 3 years, working on Highway 14. They gave us cans of wintermelon juice and sat and talked with us for a while. One of them showed us a tiger tooth, and told us that a hunter in the area had recently shot a tiger, which is illegal in Vietnam, but seems to go on nonetheless. They said they rarely see tigers now, but used to see them often when they first began working on the road.
Further along the road, we passed areas where landslides were being cleared off the road. In one such area we could see that a house and truck had been smashed underneath the rocks and mud. We stopped in a village, where a hill tribe child was wearing a necklace with a very big tiger tooth attached. There was a satellite dish
attached to their communal “rong” house and many members of the village were sitting inside watching television. Much closer to Aluoi, we stopped at another hill tribe village in a beautiful location, up on a hill beside the road. It seemed like the entire village came out to great us. I took a few pictures of the villagers with a digital camera, and they shrieked with excitement when I showed them their images on the screen. When we walked back down the hill to our car, the villagers all followed us to say goodbye.
When we arrived in Aluoi, a small town with not much to do, we pulled up in front of the Nha Nghi Guesthouse. The owners came out and told us that we should stay in another guesthouse down the road, as theirs was not good enough. A man on a motorcycle took Tuan to see the place just a block or so away down a side street, which we ended up staying in. Our room was simple, but clean enough. Soon after we brought our luggage into the room, the power went out, but came back on after 20 minutes or so.
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We ate dinner in what looked like the only restaurant still open around 8PM. Our food was not bad, but there were a great number of roaches and other bugs in the place. I smashed seven roaches by the time we left, and myself, Birgit, and Thanh all left before we were finished eating, disgusted by the bugs. After dinner we managed to find an internet café to send off an email or two, and then sat in a small café at the corner of the main road and the side street that our guesthouse was on for an hour or so.
Being that there was nothing to do in Aluoi, the next morning we left early and headed north toward Route 9 and eventually to
Lao Bao. North of Aluoi we stopped to buy some bread in a roadside stall, but because it was covered in mold, we bought some rice cakes instead. We were happy to have brought a supply of power bars for situations like this.
For information on Hotels, Tours, Flights, and Books on Vietnam, check out the pages below:
Hotels in Vietnam - Recommended hotels in Vietnam.
Tours in Vietnam - Recommended tour companies in Vietnam.
Flights to Vietnam - Includes information about our experiences on different airlines we've taken to and from Vietnam.
Books on Vietnam - Excellent books on Vietnam's history, people, and travel.
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