Epic Vietnam Journey (Day 14-Sam Son-Hanoi)

Well, I get up in the morning, pack my things, and what do I find on my bed?  My long-lost key.  I have no idea how it got there as I lost it before I went up to my room.  Perhaps it hitchhiked up to my room in my backpack or something.  Other than a souvenir, it is worthless to me now, since the bike has already been rekeyed.

I take off, and notice that my gas gauge is on “F,” which means it is only ¼ full.  I know that I filled it up just a few kilometers before I hit Sam Son, so I damn well know that the dude that rekeyed my bike took the liberty of de-gassing my fuel tank.  He probably thought he was being sneaky by taking just enough of the gas so that it still reads full.  He also didn’t know that you have to take a hell of a lot of gas out of the tank to make it go from actually full to reading just full.  Oh well.  Nothing I can do now.

On the way out of town, I pass a few police checkpoints, so I play the “if I can’t see you, you can’t see me” game, by putting my head down and staring at my dash.  Seemed to work.  I was a little concerned about the weather, because we had a ton of rain last night, and thunderstorms were forecast for today.  However, it never rained.  I kind of wish it had rained a little though, as the air was full of dust and noxious fumes from all the busses and trucks.  I think Hanoi and the surrounding areas are the only place on earth where it can rain like crazy the previous night and early morning, and be totally dusty in a few hours.  There was beautiful scenery surrounding me, but I could barely see it through all of the dust in the air.

I hit a lot of rough patches in the road going up to Hanoi.  Some of the stretches of road have potholes that are so big, they would easily transform your bike into shrapnel and send you flying if you hit them.  So, on some stretches, I could only do 20km/hour.  On other stretches, I was almost doing 70km/hour. 

On the way, I come within inches of hitting the back of a car.  Some idiot had slammed on his brakes in front of us, and the car in front of me actually rear-ended the idiot.  I slammed on my brakes, but realizing that there was no way I was going to stop in time, I quickly veered left around the car into the oncoming lane.  I had no idea what was in that lane, because I was so close to the back of the car in front of me, I wasn’t able to see around it.  Luckily, there was nothing there.  But I’m sure if there was something there, I might have been able to squeeze between the two vehicles, probably taking out someone’s side view mirror in the process.  After I pass the offending car, I look back and mumble some expletives.  I don’t remember, but I think they had the letter “F” in them a few times.

I go on my merry way.  I pass a family on a motorcycle.  Daddy wearing helmet.  Mommy wearing helmet and lovingly cradling an infant with no helmet.  Crazy.  But, what are you going to do? Most people can’t afford cars around here, so they have to transport their children somehow.  I doubt if they make helmets that small.

My gas gauge is reading a bit low, and usually I would fill it up a few kilometers after it starts going down from totally full.  However, I decide to push my luck a little bit as I pass through various towns.  Here, I have a lot of room for error.  I could always push my bike to a gas station if need be, and there is plenty of light left in the day.  After the gauge reads ¼ tank, which actually means that there is a cup of gas left, I start looking for a gas station, but cannot find one.  I drove about 20km until I found one, at which point, I was definitely running on fumes, as my gauge was reading below empty.  I am now 10km from Hanoi and have a full tank of gas.  

As expected, as soon as I get into Hanoi, I am completely lost.  Even though I spent six weeks here, I went everywhere by taxi, so I never paid much attention to the streets.  I had to duck into a café with Wi-Fi and get my bearings.  I do not have a detailed map of Hanoi.  After pulling up a map of Hanoi on my computer, I ask the waitress to point me in the direction of the “Big-C,” which is a huge supermarket that everyone knows about, so it makes a good land mark.  It’s also close to my dorm, so once I find the Big-C, I can find the dorm.  She points me in the right direction, and I take off.  Eventually, I do find the Big-C, and then the dorm.  After a couple weeks, it was a nice familiar feeling finding my home away home, and seeing people that I know, which is pretty much the staff, as just about every volunteer that I met while I was here is gone. 

In total, I traveled around 2300 km (almost 1500 miles), a bit more than I anticipated.  By plane, it is less than half that distance, but I didn’t exactly take the most direct routes.  Amazingly, that is about the pace that I had when I road my bicycle up the PCH.  It took 5 days to go 500 miles then.  But, instead of putting in 10-12-hour days on the road, I only had to put in 4-5-hour days on the road this time.  I much prefer the latter.

I will probably hang out in the city center this weekend, perhaps going to some museums that I didn’t have time to see before I left, and maybe even viewing Ho Chi Minh’s dead body, which is on display against his wishes.

So, I am alive and well.  It is true that God only looks after fools and idiots.  I am living proof.

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