The Vietnam Diary: Part 4
With a little help from my friends.
"There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better;
Some have gone and some remain.All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall.
Some are dead and some are living,
In my life I've loved them all" - John Lennon & Paul McCartney
The Story So Far
On our first day in Hoi An, I got my measurements taken for a tailored suit. That evening, we were blessed by a special guest appearance from Charlie McCarthy, who joined us for some Klippies and Coke.
On our second night, we visited the famous lantern river. The following morning, we handed back our bikes, collected my suit, and began the 14-hour bus ride back to Hanoi.
One thing the travel agent had conveniently forgotten to mention about our bus ride to Hanoi was the fact that it was definitely not the one most foreigners used. A couple of hours in, we stopped at one of those overnight trucker stops and followed the other passengers off the bus. They led us to what one might be tempted to call a bathroom — except it really wasn’t. There were cubicles that literally just consisted of a hole in the ground and a bucket of water in the corner. The sink — if you can call it that — was a large communal pool which stank, and into which everyone was dunking their heads.
To our surprise, we were offered seats at a table and brought food. There was the usual rice and whatnot, but also a lot of what Rathers called “mystery meat”. I took a stab at it and, honest to God, I think I ate a chicken foot. Fuck me, man. I could taste the talon and everything. After that, I didn’t blame Rathbone for going with the vegetarian option.
We arrived in Hanoi around 5am and had no idea where to go because of a communication blunder between us and the group of friends we were supposed to be joining. We were waiting for them to wake up so they could tell us which hostel they were staying at. So we wandered around with all our stuff in a zombie-like state. We got to witness Hanoi at dawn on a Monday morning, which was rather incredible — especially in the state I was in. We just sat by a lake and watched the wheels turn.
The united crew consisted of Rathers, Seb, Jade, Jack, Charles, Tom and myself. The seven of us shared one dorm room with six beds. It was cramped and chaotic, but felt like home. It really was so much fun to be with a big group while travelling abroad. We ate food, got coffees, drank beer, shopped, got haircuts, visited museums and laughed.
After spending three days in Hanoi, the plan was to rent bikes again and head up to Ha Giang. This meant it was time to say farewell to Rathers.
In just under 21 days of riding, the two of us had covered 3,373 km, stayed in 20 different towns, and lived a thousand lifetimes.
Rathers, I am really so proud of the journey we completed together. It was not easy by any means, and I know I pushed you well out of your comfort zone on many occasions. But you handled it like a true champion. I cannot wait for the day we can tell our children the story of this adventure. I love you, my friend.
The Last Dance
And thus began the final chapter of my adventure, beginning with a return to the Ha Giang loop. As the Vietnamese would say: “Same same, but different”.
This time, we were doing the loop through a tour group, which meant an all-inclusive trip. No more navigating, no more finding places to stay, no more searching for food. It was heavenly. There’s definitely something to be said for taking this option — the routes are more refined and the daily itinerary is far more packed. However, nothing comes close to the freedom you experience when you are doing it all by yourself.
On our first day of the tour, we got to see how the local ethnic minority produced hemp clothing from the stalk all the way to the final garment. All the machinery was mechanical and human-powered, and as an electrical engineer, it was a marvel to behold. We also walked to the beautiful Lung Khuy Cave, complete with stalagmites and stalactites. We even found a “secret” route to a deep underground pool, which we swam in.
Day two did not go to plan. Seb had an early fall on his motorbike after slipping on some oil on the road and gained some nasty roasties for his effort. Unfortunately, this was only a foreshadowing of what was to come. About an hour later it started bucketing down, and the roads got very slippery.
I was following Seb, and Jade was behind me. It was somewhere between 5 and 10 metres before the corner that I realised I was in trouble. I knew I was going too fast to make the turn and had to brake. But when I applied the brakes, the bike started skidding. In a second or two — after contemplating my two options: skidding off the road into a wall of rocks, or bailing — I chose to bail. I jumped over the handlebars and hit the ground hard.
I immediately got up and tried to walk it off. Seb was busy getting up too, and Jade was stuck under her bike. We had all crashed. Seb somehow escaped unharmed, I banged my wrist and cut open my elbow and Jade had knocked her head. Our resident doctor, Jack, had to keep her neck still while we called an ambulance as we waited in the pouring rain and defended our position from passing trucks. Apparently, there aren’t any ambulances in Vietnam on weekends — at least not in the remote area we were in — so we had to wait 45 minutes for the hostel we were staying at to rent a car and come fetch us. Very fortunately, Jade was all fine in the end, and after she was cleared post X-rays, we all made it safely to our accomodation for the night.
The highlight of day three was riding down into a deep valley to take a boat ride. It was a river we had seen from far above — both when I was first there with Rathers and the day before on the loop. We had a heated debate about why the water was green.
Our final day went by without a hitch. With Jack having fallen the previous day on a perfectly dry and smooth tar road, Tim told us that we had broken the record for the most crashes he’d ever had on a tour - five in total.
This concluded my second run of the Ha Giang Loop. With that, I had made it to the last week of my adventure.
Total distance travelled: 4170 km
Truman showy
I assume you took out insurance on the bikes?!! Eish, hope so. Glad Jade is ok, phew. Is it algae that make the water green?