38 — Horth Shore Mews — Sunday, December 3, 2000

TRAVEL

Vietnam: ca nirasis

From pag: 31

“I spent a lot of time visit-
ing friends. I still camped for
part, but [stayed in youth
hostels for part.”

It was twice as long as her
northern trip ... and it wasn’t
nearly enough.

“1 still wanted to do a
longer trip.”

Clermont took a leave of
absence from School District
45 at the end of February in
1999, packed her bike and her
bags and flew to New
Zealand.

She rode about 2,600 kilo-
metres in five weeks, through
what she termed “a. cycler’s
paradise”: : the — distances
weren’t long, and she encoun-
tered lots of other riders.

. “It's a lot like B.C. there.
Sometimes I felt like I never
left home — the lakes, wilder-
ness, glaciers and even rain-
forests.”

From there, she went to
Australia, and her biggest
bicycling challenge “probably
ever.”

She rode from Melbourne,

‘on the southern tip of the
continent, to Alice Springs,
smack: in the middle of the
‘country, and the desert.

“had to be well prepared.

I was carrying seven litres of
~. water and food for four days.”

She got up in the dark and _

started early to ft and avoid
~ the hottest part of the day. On

“FREE Ti

her first day she rode 155 kilo-
metres.

“Tjust couldn't | think
about being tired, hot and
hurting. I had wo put it out of
my mind and go.”

The desert in Australia is
sprinkled with roadhouses —
a stop for truckers where they
can get gas, groceries and a
drink. She remembers arriving
at one after darkness had fall-

“en.

“The door was open, and I
could see it was all men. I'd
heard stories about men in the
outback, but ] needed to stop
for a rest.” Then she noticed
the bartender was a woman,
so she went in.

From Australia she wanted
to ride in Vietnam and Laos,
but unlike all her previous
travels these were Third World
countries. Cycling for adven-
ture and pleasure was unheard

_ of, she didn’t know the coun-

y, or worse, the language,
and she couldn’t find accurate
maps.

But as with her northern
trip, when she wanted some-
thing, it seemed to become
available.

“I met an Australian engi-
neer who had just come back
from Laos and Vietnam.” He
helped her plan her route.

She flew to Asia and in
Thailand bused to the Thai-
Laos border and got on her

_bike there.

“It. was kind of scary. In

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the northern part of Laos, the.
road had been closed to
tourists. There had been crim-
inals robbing and killing peo-
ple.”

But in the rest of the rural
country, the people were
friendly. The villages see letle
traffic and as she rode into
them, people would rush into
the road to see her.

Vietnam was different.

“There are 70 million peo-'

ple crowded into that country.
There's so much misery.”

As she rode along the Ho
Chi Minh path to Saigon she
saw contrasts in everything —
from the breathtaking scenery
of ocean, mountains or rice
paddies to the road ahead of
her, filled with traffic and
noise

“There are no rules and a
lot of taffic.You have to stay
out of the way or get killed.”

Some of the people were
friendly, others were physically
aggressive, coming close to
her, touching her, her’ bike

and her things.

After a month in Vietnam
she was ready to come home,
five and a half months after
she left, and just in time for
the school year to start.

She shares her adventures
with her students, showing
them her slides and teaching
them geography and social
studies at the same time. Last
year, her students collected
used textbooks to send back
to a private French school she
visited in Asia.

And she continues to ride.

Last summer, she went
south and pedalled through
the Olympic Peninsula in
Washington, through
Oregon, California, all the
way to Mexico.

But these days, busy in the -

classroom, and with the cold-
est and wettest months of the
B.C. winter upon us,
Clermont’s bike trips are lim-
ited.

Oh well.
next summer.

There’s always

photo Josée Clermont

CLERMONT saw poverty, misery and beauty, while
riding through Laos and Vietnam. pone