Epic Vietnam Journey (Day 11-Dong Ho-Phong Nha)

I meet my new tour guide at 9:30am, and he asks me if a French couple can come along with him and another tour guide.  I tell him I’m fine with it as I don’t mind meeting other people. I probably could have bargained him down some, but what’s a few bucks. I drive my motorbike (with the two tour guides carrying the two French as passengers), since I have to go North after the tour is over.  The tour guide shows me how to ride with my backpack without actually putting it on my back.  He puts the backpack backwards in the space between the seat and the dash, and then loops the straps around the handlebars.  Nice.  That is much better on my shoulders and back, and even better on my sore ass.  I guess I could have figured out how to do that myself if I was motivated enough.  

We visit a North Vietnamese cemetery, almost all of the graves of which are unmarked.  

We then visit an American firebase.  There is an inscription that says that General McNamara of the US Army surrendered to the North Vietnamese Army here in 1972.  Problem is, the Americans had already long relinquished control of the DMZ to the South Vietnamese army way before 1972.  It was a South Vietnamese general that surrendered here.  More propaganda.  But I guess the rule is, whoever wins, gets to rewrite the history.

We then go to the beach and have lunch.  There is no menu.  There were four tubs full of various live sea animals.  I pick my fish from one of the tubs, and feel kind of bad that I have to choose which fish has to die.  I would prefer someone else choose, but figure the little guy is going to die today anyway.  After lunch, we take off and go to a site that includes a whole network of tunnels that were built by villagers to protect themselves from American bombing after their village was destroyed.  It was amazing.  There were three levels of tunnels, which included living quarters for 600 families, bathrooms, hospitals, kitchens, day care center, storage, ventilation, etc. The villagers were underground in the tunnels for six years.  Various children were actually born underground.  I have no idea how they found enough privacy in the tunnel system to conceive a baby, but I guess when you gotta get some action, you gotta get some action.  

Afterwards, I leave the tour behind, and take off North towards Dong Hoi.  Ultimately, I would like to end up in Phong Nha, which is inland from Dong Hoi, but it is late afternoon, and I no longer have working headlights on my motorbike, so not sure if I can do it.  I read in a tour book that there are some caverns in Phong Nha that are must to see.  The tour book was given to me by one of my friends from Poland (coincidentally, I call her Poland) who apparently stole it for me from God knows where.  For some odd reason, it seems more touching that she would go out of her way to steal something for me, rather than just buying it.

On the way to Dong Hoi, despite the fact that I’ve tied the helmet straps to a length that practically cut off my oxygen supply, my helmet was catching the wind, and going towards the back of my neck.  At this point, I was, in fact, choking to the point where I could not swallow.  I grabbed the strap and pulled it away from my throat to get some air, but I guess I accidently unlatched the buckle, so my helmet flew off my head and went caroming down the road behind me.  I didn’t even look back.  Free at last, free at last.  I’m back to being a rebel.

I’m getting more looks now because I am helmet-less, but I don’t care anymore.  Most people look at me, and when I look back they turn away.  For those that maintain eye contact, I try to make some connection with them.  This one girl on the back of a motorbike looks at me as I pass.  I give her a big smile as if to say “fucking crazy, huh?”  And she gives me a big smile back, as if to say “you are one crazy-ass SOB.”   

I reach Dong Hoi, and it is 4:30.  It starts getting dark at 6:00, and I have 60 km to go to Phong Nha, which is up in the hills somewhere.  So, I decide to take a chance and make an effort to get to Phong Nha before nightfall.  I have not much room for error, so I ask for directions a couple times along the way.  On the way up to Phong Nha, I travel on a country road surrounded by amazingly green pastures and mountains.  The road is a bit bumpy though, and the sun is directly in my eyes.  Despite this, I’m in a bit of a hurry, so when I’m not snapping pictures, I’m hauling ass up the road.  

Despite the fact that the route is not as easy as the tour book would lead you to believe, I somehow make it to Phong Nha.  However, a few kilometers before I get there, I here that damn grinding noise from underneath my motorbike again.  I guess the rough road must have loosened something.  So, I come limping into town.  It is a very small town that apparently does not get a lot of Westerners (I assumed that Westerners often came here, but I guess almost all of the tourists are Vietnamese).  I kind of make a big production and draw a lot of attention, because I am driving up and down the one and only street looking for a hotel with Wi-Fi with god-awful noises coming from my motorbike.  I go to each hotel, and after finding out that they don’t have Wi-Fi, I drive to the next one.  Amazingly, there was only one hotel in town with Wi-Fi (all hotels that I’ve been too before had some sort of Wi-Fi), so I go to that one.  I then tell the hotel-owner to jump on the back of my motorbike and show me where the mechanic is.  So, we drive to a mechanic, and he tells us that he can’t fix it now, and to bring back in the morning.

I then go walking for a place to eat, and this lady summons me to have dinner at her restaurant.  I go in, and there is no menu, so she takes me to the kitchen, and has me look and sample some of the foods.  I tell her everything is OK, I go back to the dining area, and eat like a king when the food arrives.

My plan for tomorrow is to bring the bike to the mechanic in the morning, and while he is fixing it, I will do some spelunking in the caverns.  After I am done, hopefully my bike will be fixed (hopefully for at least the 500km that I have to travel to Hanoi), and I will then head for Vinh.  


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