NamBusters 1 Photos (part 1)

G'day all.  Thought I would upload a few random snaps from the first trip to give you an idea of what it's like riding in Vietnam. I've skipped past the Hanoi traffic chaos and gone straight out into the sticks.

Many of my photos were taking this way, with my left hand while riding.  That probably explains a lot!

L-R: Del, Pinky, Phil TK, Me

Obligatory helmet shot 

This is one of the Homestays, a bamboo stilt house

Inside a stilt house, we slept on the floor on a mat inside the mosquito nets

A local girl working the crops.  The Vietnamese are by and large very hard working people.

Having one of our regular breaks to stretch out and admire the scenery

Phil gains an extra 2mph on the Minsk by doing that.

Look closely, these people work all day up on the hillside.

A local had moved this nest out of the way so it wasn't damaged while they worked the hillside.

Those huts look a bit precarious balanced up there don't they?

Same huts from the roadside.

Paddy fields.  The whole country is full of them, the effort involved in manually levelling all that ground is hard to imagine. When you're atop a mountain much of the countryside and mountain slopes below you have been landscaped the same way.

Just a lovely typical rural Vietnam scene.

Coming from the UK, where Health and Safety mafia are prevalent, this makes a refreshing change.

More wonderful paddy fields

A memorial status en route to Dien Bien.

My Minsk, I decided to hang back a bit from the group towards the end of this day and just chug along taking photos whenever I felt like it.

Spot the grafters on the mountain slope.

A second later she smiled and waved, did I get a photo?  No.

A typical rural bridge, usually made just of rope and bamboo or whatever wood they can find.

With a view like that, it would be rude not to stop for a few minutes.

Everyone happy and friendly despite us looking a bit like aliens.