So what would Erik do on his last day here? I went to the gym of course. After the gym I did a bit of local sightseeing. Downtown is really pretty and has some really high end hotels. There were also some holiday decorations for the year of the Pig. I love taking pictures of the variety of pig poses with “2019” and “Chúc mừng năm mới” (Happy New Year). I also love graffiti “art”. There is graffiti all over the city. Balloon words unintelligible to me. But there are a few pieces of art I took note of along the way. Today I caught another.

I also did a little more shopping. I don’t know how I will carry it all back home! So after I dropped it off at the hostel I went out.

By now it was a little after 5. I wasn’t hungry so I went to the park to people watch. The city is really amazing at dusk. Everything is energized. The cars and motorbikes  buzz through the city  lights on and horns blaring. The signs light up on all of the buildings: some steady and some pulse rythmically to the clubs that start to blast their music. People fill the parks sitting around on plastic chairs, playing badminton and shuttlecock, and eating. The bats come out to eat also. Dozens buzzing above and below the treeline but never as low as the shuttlecock. I sat there mesmerized, trying to capture the moment in a picture but resorted to a mediocre video.

Then I decided to walk around and capture the unique items out there. There are Circle K’s everywhere. In the active areas like this, corners have multistory restaurants, coffee houses, and bars. The sidewalk seating for all of the bars and restaurants faces out to see the spectacle of tourists walking around.

After being tugged at by multiple spa/massage girls I decided to call it a night.

See you in the States!

The view from my balcony

Snob Coffee for all of you javea elitists

Multi story bar. Note the seats on the sidewalk

Circle K’s are on every street

Dusk in the city

Bats

Self help books in a vending machine

Boats that Xander can buy when he visits

City Hall

Happy Pig Year

The long long empty square in front of city hall.

Across the river some massive construction is taking place

Sculpture at the Rex Hotel

Garden apartments. Notice the accident.

Construction site notice…Angie will appreciate this

City hall

Ho Chi Minh

The gym

Cat graffiti

Opera house

The gym

The  Aussie girl in the top bunk came home over the top wasted. A friend who she was drinking with helped her up into her bunk. After about 15 minutes I heard the creak of her climbing down and then “thud”. She fell. Then she left the room to go to the bathroom. I guess nothing broken. A couple of American girls, graduates of American University, and I decided it might be best to put her matress on the floor. So we moved it. I left it to the girls from there. The Ipswitch, MA girl stayed with the drunk girl stroking her back and covering her up as Aussie heaved and shuddered. Her parents would have been so proud of her. I was. After awhile all was calm and the AU girls went to bed. About 5 to 10 minutes later the Aussie bounced up out of bed and bolted out the slider onto the balcony. The AU girls and I tried to grab her as she went out but she was out.  Ipswitch went out and stayed with her. She helped her to the bathroom again and after another hour Aussie came back in picked up her matress and put it back up top. She climbed up and was asleep for the night.

But back to Cu Chi. I was all “war, death and destructioned” out but figured I just couldn’t miss Cu Chi. I am glad I went. Book time is about 2 hours each way but I made it in about 100 minutes. HCMC is  huge and the traffic is incessant but scooters move almost constantly despite opposing traffic and red lights. As I was walking this evening it struck me that the flows of traffic in and around traffic circles, the most congested of all, reminded me of The Matrix when they were fighting the sentries in Zion. They all bundled together and just flowed.

Cu Chi is the countryside north of HCMC. It is historically farmland, a place that city dwellers would retreat to for the weekend. Tunnels were created in the 1940s to hide from French during the Indochina War. The tunnels became a place to live for over 1,000 people during the Vietnam War. They consisted of of 250 km of interconnected tunnels with up to 3 levels all below ground.

On the tour we actually squeezed into the tunnels and navigated them for a total of around 30 meters. They had been enlarged a little to allow us big tourists to fit through but they were still tight. The also had some lights in some rooms and at some junctions, but it was pretty dark and scrary in some places. It was a dramatic contrast from the Presidential Palace yesterday. Both places had operational control centers, living quarters etc. The tunnels had bats too! I got a picture of one of the little guys but he kept on squirming so it’s not that great.

Back at the hostel I hid from the heat for a couple of hours. Then I enjoyed another movie. This time it was a Vietnamese movie with English subtitles. Surprisingly I was the only white person there. HCMC is large and much more cosmopolitan than Hanoi. The young Vietnamese I have spoken with and the young Euro travelers seem to like HCMC better. I liked Hanoi.

After the movie. I grabbed a bite at the night market. It was good, but I can’t stop eating. It will be good to be home soon and back to regular eating habits.

Kinda of like Chipotle but with noodles. Pick a noodle, pick a protien, pick something veggies, and pick a sauce. Ba ba ba (or 3 3 3 in English) is the cheap beer here. It goes done easy in the heat.

After food selection they stir fry it

The night food court. Lots of variety.

Ticket to Cu Chi tunnels. 20k admission. If you don’t come with a guide then you pay an additional 70k for a “park ranger” as a guide. Definitely a good idea. I could imagine a tourist by himself lost in 250km of dark tunnels.

Made a wrong turn coming back and saw this in the middle of nowhere. No signs. No idea what it is, but had to stop and snap a picture.

Little lizards in the bathroom.

Cool art in the gift shop

One of the traps

Showing reclamation of UXO for weapons 

Our guide

A tapioca snack. Tasted a lot like yucca o ly a lutlit sweeter. You also dipped in a mixture of salt, sugar and crushed peanuts.

I had to take a photo with this bamboo tree

Squirmy

A bamboo spear pit trap

Hospital surgery underground

A model of the tunnels

A mound for snipers

Some tourists. Do I look like this to the Vietnamese?

The absolutely hardest working people in every city. They work tirelessly collecting garbage and cleaning the streets. If they ever unionized Vietnam would be in trouble.

When I arrived I started looking at the American aircraft, tanks, and artillery. I was immediately approached by a man around my age with no arms, a prosthetic leg and one eye. He had stepped on UXO, unexploded ordinance, in 1977. He offered to sell me some books on the Vietnam War and the aftermath. I didn’t have my pack with me and really didn’t want a book. So I offered just to give him a donation. He said no. He wasn’t looking for a handout and wanted me to buy a book. So I bought a Vietnamese phrasebook for Angie so she will know some words when she comes back with me.

Inside the museum there weren’t any relics, only photos compiled by numerous photo journalists. It was all very disturbing. From the effects of the carpet bombing, engagement of civilians, UXOs and destruction to the use of agent orange and the numerous resulting grotesque birth defects.

I couldn’t take any pictures of it as it was the stuff of movie nightmares but worse as it was real. I did photograph some of the visitors to the exhibit. Note their blank expressions and that there were no children visitors to that part of the museum.

From there I got lunch at Ben Thanh Market and did a little shopping. Ben Thanh is the city’s biggest market. Unfortunately except for the food portion it’s a tourist trap. The retailers are really aggressive too. They physically grab your arm to try to tug you into there stores.

After the market I went to the Presidential Palace. Lots of pictures here. This was the “White House” for the South Vietnamese President. It was interesting to see what rooms were important and where they were placed in the seven stories including a basement bunker.

It was a long walk back because I got a bit turned around. HCMC is a big busy city. By the time I got back it was 4:30, my phone was at 11%, I was sweaty and exhausted. 

After cleaning up I decided to catch a movie. I always enjoy seeing theaters in foreign countries. I saw a US movie with Vietnamese subtitles Alita Battle Angel. The theater was very nice, very clean and very inexpensive. It was probably as nice or nicer than the theater we typically go to in the US and 1/3 the cost for tickets and 1/5 for concessions.

A short walk back and I was out to dinner at a couple of blocks from the hostel. There were people everywhere with music blasting from all the clubs. All of the competing for the loudest close b award. It  is like Mardis Gras all the time, but probably less drinking. Tons of neon and tables all jutting out of the bars and restaurants providing seats for people watching patrons. Between the restaurant are bars and between them are massage/beauty salons. The bars and restaurants employ boys and girls to pull you in. The salons use only pretty girls. It’s funny to watch as I walk down the street and I start to approach, the girls would form an intercept course from the sidewalk. Offering a menu of services first and then as I start to get away reaching for my arm.

Tomorrow I rent a scooter and head for the Cu Chi tunnels.

I don’t believe I mentioned it before, but breakfasts have all been free…included with the hostel prices. I know, hard to believe when the happy hour is free and the accommodations are very comfortable with air conditioning and a free towel. Some hostels even have soap and shampoo dispensers in the shared bathroom. Speaking of bathrooms, I thought there would be conflicting times of use. Not once did this occur. Boy was I surprised.

Lunch was nice and casual. The streets were not filled with the typical hordes of tourists. I didn’t eat heavy as usual in anticipation of Saigon food.

Today I spent time at the tailor and the bike shop. The tailor is a family owned and operated shop, as most must be, on the outskirts of the old city. They probably don’t see as much action as the shops on the epicenter of the city.  The sister, Thủy, runs the storefront. Her sister and brother make the garments. Thủy is very sensitive to the quality of her product and rejected a shirt for Angie back to her brother and sister. This resulted in multiple trips to her store, and every time she would go to the store next door and buy a bottle of water for me. This was my last stop at her store to pick up the garments. Tony the Tailor is one of a few shops that made items from pictures and measurements. I am sure Angie will be happy with them.

After that I swung by the bike shop. Cuong’s partner here in Hoi An, Thanh, bought the bike back as agreed and paid me in US dollars. This is not common as most times you get paid in VND. We proceeded to have a few beers and chatted. These visits to all of these shops kept me super hydrated! I told him I was going to to catch a Grab from the shop to the airport and he said, “F@*k that. I will call a taxi for you. It will be much cheaper.” It’s funny, Thanh drops the f-bomb a lot, and the way he says it is slurred like he’s has a couple of six packs.

Well the taxi arrived and picked me up. It was 1/2 of what Grab would have been. Also, it really wasn’t a taxi but a nice clean private car that drove me 45 minutes to and through Da Nang to the airport.

Being in a car gave me a whole new perspective. I wasn’t on guard anymore: dodging bikes and pedestrians, or manuevering around cars and trucks. I took some pictures of the various ways people transport things on their motorbikes. We passed roaming cows and water buffalo but I didn’t have time to snap photos. They we’re all spread out, eating grass along side the road, strolling in the rice paddys and napping on the  dry patches around the rice  paddys. We passed Marble Mountain and all of the marble sculpture stores. We passed numerous high end resorts, many of which are still being constructed. We passed the Dragon Bridge. I got a distant photo of it.

The airport is medium sized new and clean. Check-in was easy. My flight was delayed an hour so I chatted with a Vietnamese couple that now lives in Topeka Kansas. I know, what other Topeka could there be. We commiserated on the cold snowy weather in our home towns. They were there for Tết with their extended family of more than 20 people. The told me how beautiful it was during Tết and how next time I come back I should come before the holiday and stay longer. We will see what Angie says about that.

They also gave me an insight I did not know about pho. The southern pho is different from the northern and I have to try it. They also said the street food was much better than Hanoi. How is that possible? I guess I will see.

The flight was about an hour and a half. From the airport I caught a bus to my hostel. I should note that I booked these hostels the day before I arrive at them.  I estimate my total lodging cost for the entire trip is around $100. The food was probably not much more.

The bus took about 20 minutes to get to my destination. As it drove to the city center I noticed dramatic differences between the north and south. In HCMC there was a lot of neon, LEDs, billboards and new construction. It looked like a relatively new city with progressive architecture, trendy restauants, and young  hipsters on scooters. And there were are a lot more cars and no scooters hauling stuff in haphazard makeshift manners. 

The bus dropped me about 5 blocks from my hostel. It was a short walk through a seedy area that fringed on the area that seems to have a lot of action.

I checked into my hostel, dropped my pack and immediately went out to eat. The food was good but a little more expensive than the north. Still cheaper than the US.

Tomorrow I explore Saigon.

The hour drive there was a quick and pleasant one. I left Hoi An around 7:30 to try to beat the heat and the crowds. On the way I passed a couple of tour buses. When I arrived, I was one of the first tourists there, but didn’t beat all of the buses there.

After parking and paying the entrance fee, a tram brought me and a group of Koreans, I think, up to the site. I think they were Koreans because it seems most of the (Asian) tourists are Korean.

So a word to the traveler that doesn’t like to walk and isn’t in reasonably good shape. Don’t come to Vietnam. All of the things to see involve walking, climbing steps, and more walking. Mỹ Sơn was no different.

The site was a large loop with unearthed and partially restored buildings. The Korean group started with the exit. This was the most direct way to the main ruins. I started with the entrance. Along the way there were multiple sites with interesting stone carvings depicting various Hindu deities. Best of all, I was alone at these first few sites.

Many times the structures that were being restored we’re destroyed from bombings during the Vietnam War. You may notice in some of my pictures the craters still exist around the buildings.

I know I mentioned this earlier but it really saddens me to see the destruction of cultural history from the wars fought here. In much of the Vietnamese description of themselves they talk about their resiliency. For awhile I thought this was like a needy child wanting recognition. Now I think it is because over 40 years later there are still very visible constant reminders including unexploded bombs in this  jungles. But they still have high spirits and positive dispositions toward American in spite of this and their poorness. They are still very poor. The vast majority of the Vietnamese people I have met here, not including “scooter boy” and his scooter friends, are sincere, honest and hard working. Ok…enough of that.

When I got to the main dig site there were tourists everywhere and the heat was oppressive. Inside the small stone buildings was cooler. In one such building, I followed a tour group inside. There were no windows and very little light. About ten people were inside a ten by ten space gathered around an alter in the center. There wasn’t much to see. So I left, and just in time. As I started to exit through the long and narrow entry corridor, not one but two perhaps three groups of tourists started filing in like lemmings squeezing into the space. It was like an ancient clown car full of Koreans. I got a chuckle out of that but didn’t wait around to see the turmoil that would ensue. It was too hot.

That was the last stop so I headed for the museum at the entrance. There wasn’t much there as all of the significant artifacts like statues and carvings had been taken to the heritage museum in Da Nang.

The drive back was pleasant too. I stopped to snap some photos along the way.

Back in Hoi An it was crazy hot. I fit my shirts grabbed a late lunch of bánh mì (which means bread, and/or sandwich) and hid from the heat. While cowering in the A/C of my hostel I made my arrangements for tomorrow. Tomorrow I go to Saigon.

That evening I ventured to the night market again. Not before downing four free…at the hostel…rum and cokes. The night market was as exciting as ever and I ate and ate.

So today got breakfast and headed to the gym. It was a good gym. Nothing fancy but enough for me. In this heat and humidity I sweat like I was doing hot yoga. It was really therapeutic.

After the gym I fitted a couple of shirts with a tailor. It’s so hard for me to get proper fitting dress shirts. Afterwards I took off for the Dragon Bridge in Da Nang. The bridge has a huge dragon in between both lanes of traffic going over the Han River. It’s not a little bridge. It is really cool. Unfortunately I wasn’t there during the really cool time. At around 9 pm the dragon spits fire and water. I think I was the only tourist at the bridge. Noticing that, some local hanging out on his scooter asked me if I wanted to buy some pot. Not cool scooter boy.

From the bridge I went to the Marble Mountain. This is also a tourist spot but not as many were there. The marble mountain is actually marble. All around this karst obelisk there are stores selling huge religious statues carved from marble. There are so many statues for sale they could possibly come from this “mountain” just outside of Da Nang. It would now be a hill. I think the term mountain means something a little different here. The mountain pass is around 1500 feet above sea level. Marble Mountain is about the same. The rest of the land is low lying plains, practically at sea level. The dead are not buried but rather entombed in masoleums.

Marble Mountain was awesome. It is another group of Buddhist pagodas, with monks praying and walking about, and Buddhist cave sanctuaries. There is even some Hindu worship going on here. I snapped a photo of what I believe is Shiva. As you can see from the numerous pictures I took, I was there for awhile.

When I got back to my hostel it was dinner time. I waited a bit and then headed out.

When I arrived in Hoi An I thought to myself this is really touristy. I don’t think I am going to like it. Perhaps I will leave early. Then last night I thought it was pretty cool all lit up. I can overlook all of the tourists. Well tonight I really fell in love. It wasn’t a long courtship, but you know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Tonight I discovered the night market with all of the street food. All new and different from Hanoi and Hue. All so enticing. I ate way too much tonight but there is so much more to try. Perhaps tomorrow night. 

So the trip was quick. The weather was great and the traffic was light… relatively speaking. I have now adjusted to the motorcycle seat and am more comfortable. The trip was a little over 2 hours not including some stops for pictures. Many touist destinations include ornate famous Buddhist pagoda, but every little town I drove through had multiple beautiful pagodas. They are everywhere. I stopped to take pictures of a few. Giant Buddha statues and dragons, lots of dragons.

Hue is separated from Da Nang, the large city north of Hoi An, by a mountain. There are two ways to get to get from one side to the other: a tunnel and Hoi An pass. A mountain pass with a few switchbacks and hair pin turns. As you might guess I chose the mountain. However I would have had to go through the pass any way as the tunnel is just for 4+ wheeled vehicles. Many roads differentiate motorbike, car and truck traffic. Motorbikes can go pretty much anywhere except the “major” toll roads. Minor toll roads are free for motorbikes and alleys, opposite sides of the road, sidewalks, and alleys are all fair game, except certain streets in Hoi An. But I will talk about that later.

The north side of Hai Van Pass is country. The south side is Da Nang. Hai Van Pass was described as dangerous with many memorials on the sides of the  roads for people that lost their lives. As I drove up I saw the memorials and there were a couple of switchbacks with large shoulders. But there were also long straight aways and easy curves. At the top there were buses parked with throngs of tourists snapping photos. The way down into Da Nang was a sprawling city beautiful with large sandy beaches. Many ritzy resorts are right along the beach. The drive though Da Nang was quick and in very little time I was in Hoi An.

Hoi An is like a tourist beach town, only the beach is 15 min away. The streets are very clean, especially for Vietnam. There are thousands of torist shops. I would estimate 30 percent are custom tailors, 20 percent are custom leather crafters, 30 percent of are food and mini mart’s and the remainder are souvenir and everything else. certain sections of Hoi An are for bicyclists and pedestrians only and the pedestrians and tourists take that to heart. There are everywhere.

As you may have guessed, people come to Hoi An to get custom tailored suits, shirts, dresses, coats, shoes, handbags, etc. The can make you anything, if you find the right tailor. When I arrived I was a little overwhelmed as there were so many, I didn’t know where to begin. So I walked around, ate and snapped photos at the requisite tourist destinations like the Japanese covered bridge.

The heat was stifling and I hadn’t showered since yesterday. So I want back to my hostel to clean up for dinner. I had a great meal and took more photos at night. Besides being known for tailoring, Hoi An has Japanese influenced roots. At night it becomes a lantern town. All LED lights I think though.

As soon as we stopped people started filling off the bus. I was last as I was in the back. One of the drivers motioned me around the bus. They had already unloaded everything and my bike was there ready to go. I was about to strap on my bag when one of my new buds motioned to my bag, made hand gestures of eating and said “mum mum mum”. It was a wild guess but I think he wanted chocolate. I reached inside my bag  and pulled out a handful of Hershey’s that we distributed to all the drivers. Then I was off.

On the drive down I had booked a hostel and wanted to orient myself around it. So I navigated there first. It was very easy to find and the rush hour traffic was nothing like Hanoi. However just to keep it challenging they have giant traffic circles where 6 to 8 roads intersect. There are no rules or controls for these rotary’s so might imagine the chaos.

After dropping my bags at the hostel I went driving around Hue for awhile in search of gas for my bike, a place for breakfast, and a gym. I found all but postponed my gym visit for later.

It was a hot and muggy day. I didn’t realize how hot until I started my first touristy excursion to the Imperial City. Many years ago the capital of Vietnam was Hue. Emperor’s from the Nguyen dynasty ruled from this city in the 1800s. The city had been destroyed by multiple wars since and is only now being slowly restored. The city is huge and amazing. Every building had multiple dragons protecting it.

From there I visited a famous monestary with a historic seven story Buddhist pagoda, Chùa Thiên Mụ, built in1601. This is an active monestary and there was a service going on when I was there. Practicing Buddhists prayed with the monks while tourists gawked and recorded it. I felt a little guilty snapping a couple of pictures myself.

From there decided it was time to clean myself up. I was hot, sweaty, and in yesterday’s jeans and t-shirt. Back at the hostel I showered and unpacked. I also took a moment to sort through my clothes. Back in Hanoi I had them laundered but in my rush out of town, I never unpacked them. 

After I sorted through them and located my gym clothes, I hopped on my bike and was off to the gym. At the gym I did my typical unorthodoxed workout. As usual it was fun and I know the other gym goers were trying not to stare but couldn’t help it.

Back at the hostel I  cleaned up again for dinner. Before heading out I gave the two girls at reception a couple of chocolate bars. One commented how much she liked American chocolate because Vietnamese chocolate was too sweet. She also said she would share with her daughter. I offered her another bar and she said she actually had two daughters. I grabbed two more out of my bag. She was very grateful and snapped a photo of me and her to show her daughters. I snapped one too.

Before dinner I decided to check out the night market. On the way,  in two short blocks, two different motorcyclists stopped to sell me a ride, massage pupu, cocaine, marijuana, etc. I politely declined.

At the market I was yelled to by shop owners trying to sell their wares. I stopped to listen to a couple. They were very aggressive and expensive relative to Hanoi, on both accounts.  In Hanoi everyone seemed content and even happy and I did not sense any desperation. Not so in Hue. The hostel also had warnings about not staying out late, and pick pockets.

The night market was on the other side of the famous Perfume River. It is called that because in the fall fragrant orchard blossoms fall into the river upstream of Hue giving the river a sweet smell. Being Spring, I didn’t notice anything.

As I walked back over the bridge, the city was now lit. I noticed a restaurant lit up on the river with rooftop dining. The menu was expensive by Vietnamese standards, but still cheap by US. My meal was around $12. I figured with my $3.50 a night hostel, I could spend a little extra. By the way, the gym day pass was $2.

The restaurant was very nice. The service was excellent, the weather was perfect and there was great live band with an acoustic guitar playing songs from the Eagles, Clapton and Cream.

On the walk back I bought desert from a street food stand people where all bunched up around. A little girl was furiously scooping fruits in to cups adding some ice and handing them out. People were specifying the fruit in their cups but when the little girl got to me I just told her to decide for me. I don’t know everything that ended up in the cup but I think it included bananas, lychees and red beans. I think there were a couple of other things too. You might be able to tell from the picture I snapped. I am not sure if I can.

This morning it was sprinkling. Hanoi reminds me of itropical sland weather, a shower in the morning and a beautiful day to follow. The new hostel had a menu of items from. Cereal and pancakes to a good ole bowl of pho. I went with the pho.

After breakfast I packed up my stuff. I was leaving Hanoi today one way or another. I had to get 1100 miles south to catch my flight home.

So when I started the trip I new it would be fluid but I had no real idea why it would be fluid. The motorcycle issues we’re one reason. But my education on the ground was another. My ride to Ninhbinh the past couple of days was around 100km. My novice estimates were that I could easy do  that in an an hour and a half  Well it is more like two and a half hours. I had planned a trip to Laos from Phong  Nha, a 300 km ride  I originally assumed 3 and a half hours. Now I think it is between 5 and 6. After Ninhbinh I really need my butt can only take 2 hours on a motorcycle. Also, as I spoke with the youth in the hostel, I realized how touristy Phong Nha would be.  It’s not the secret I thought it would be…like the bird park was. So my plans changed to get as close to Hoi An as possible.

When I got to the motorcycle shop my bike was waiting. I started her up and she purred like a kitten. Her disposition was noticably different. Looked down underneath the tank. There was  new carburetor. Not a remanufactured  or junkyard reclaim. The shop owner, Cuong,  then reimbursed me for the repairs and paid 800000 dong for my bus ticket south. Such a descent and honest guy, he really lost money on this bike.  I told him my new plan to go to Hoi An and he found a bus for me that would take my motorcycle as far as Hue. I would have to ride from there. He said it leaves in an hour and the bus station is half an hour away.

So I jump on my bike, buzzed back to the hostel to strap my bag to my bike, and raced to the address. It’s amazing how different the bike rides with the new carb.  Rolling through the streets of Hanoi felt really comfortable. I didn’t really know where I was going but my GPS strapped to my handlebars was leading the way. Actually in some cases I would ignore the GPS because it won’t take me down alleys, but they are thoroughfares for the two wheeled.

When I got to the spot. There was no one there. No bus…and I was early. I texted. Cuong he gave me a new address. Five minutes later I was at the new address. Lots if buses. I texted Cuong, how do I find the right one? When he got back to me he had another new address. Five minutes later I was there. No bus. I drove to the nearby corner.  No bus. So I pulled up on the sidewalk, layed back on my bike and called Cuong. After I gave him my lat long he said they will find me. About 10 minutes later a guy walks up to me and points to my bike and motions that he is the guy. It takes me a second but I realize that he is the bus guy. But he has no bus. He motions me to follow him. I do and end up half a block down at a storefront that is the 10 feet of frontage business office for the bus. No one here speaks English and my extremely limited Vietnamese is unintelligible to them. Thank goodness for Google translate. I arranged my ticket for me and the bike and I am told to wait there for the bus and then wheel on my motorcycle.

A little later a guy shows up in a van and loads some boxes going to Hue. The new plan is that I am following him.  Once again I am riding on new streets of Hanoi. This is fun for me. We end up at a bus yard that is like a deserted junkyard. No terminal just a huge dirt parking lot with scattered garbage everywhere.

I follow the van as it parks next to a bus. He unloads the van and two other guys start to load up the freight onto the bus. These guys are the drivers. It is a very long way to Hue so they drive in shifts. The drivers theb switch to the bike, the take off the mirrors and drain the gas tank.  I help them load the bike underneath and the load the rest of the freight onto the bus I am now one of the crew! After we are done I pull out some Hershey bars I brought for just this  occasion. They are grateful and eagerly eat them. We all hang out for a little while until I am ushered on to the bus. They put me in the very back with three sleeper seats across almost as big as a double bed. We are on our way.  We drive back to the spot where I bought the tickets. People are now waiting to get on. No tourists. All locals. They get on and off we go.

A few hours later we stop. One of the drivers motions me to get off, as we are here to eat. It’s a rest stop. For the first time in Vietnam I am the only torist. Everybody in the place is Vietnamese. The driver motions me back to a back room where the drivers of all the buses eat. There is no ordering, the waitress knows these guys and just starts to serve a huge spread of local food, and not pho or bun  Some other drivers are drinking rice wine and offer me some and we toast.

We quickly finish the food  Somebody else pays and we are back on the bus. The lights in the bus go out and most cell phones go dark. It’s time to get some sleep. We will be in Hue in just another 500 km. I estimate that to be more than 8 hours.

Then Nam proceeded to work. A few customers pulled in just when when he started on my bike and he jumped on those jobs as they had to get to work. Then he offer his motorcycle for me to use. I accepted and went exploring. A few miles down the road through a town and I to the countryside the road deadended at a gate with a guard and guardhouse. I was about to turn around thinking  I was someplace I should not be but the guard ushered me over and directed me to the guardhouse where a girl told me it was 100000 dong to get in. Ok I thought. Let’s see. So it turned out to be a Thung Nham Bird Park. A drive a noter couple k ended at a parking lot. I parked there and proceeded to explore. As you can see from the pictures this was more than a bird park. There were caves, gardens, orchards and lakes. And I was literally the only person there except some caretakers in the gardens. It was really peaceful on the grounds and eeirey in the caves as they were dead quiet and very rustic.

After the park I went back to the shop. The bike was ready. I took it for a test drive. Not perfect, but it would get me to Hanoi. So off I went. About 5 km into the ride the clutch cable came off. The throttle also seemed to be sticking. So there I was on the side of the road again. No more shop for me I thought. So I fixed the clutch myself and adjusted the carb as best I could. I was back on the road.

A couple of hours later I was back in Hanoi. I dropped the bike at the shop for them to fix it and checked into a new hostel as my old one was full. My new hostel was pretty close by, and they had a free beer happy hour.

So after checkin I took a much needed shower. I got dinner and went to the lake. There is always so much activity there. So as I sat and people watched, a young university Student sat down next to me. She wanted to practice her English. I said of course. We chatted for a bit and she left. About 5 minutes later another student that had been hanging around not too far off worked up the nerve to come over. He needed practice too! It seems that while the primary language in Vietnam is Vietnamese, but English is secondary and universal for all internaionals. All the employees and customers at the hostels, whether Slovenian, Dutch, German or Spanish all speak English.

So my last student couldn’t break himself away and it was now beer o clock. So, I politely excused myself and went back to the hostel. The mean age of the kids at the hostel is probably about 21 with the majority being 19. So after chatting with the gap year kids and exhausting the free beer I took off for my last night in Hanoi. There were a few things I missed so I am glad I got this opportunity.

I tried some more street foods on my way to a really cool rooftop coffee house  Fried batters bananas, fried batter balls like munchkins, and fried dough with seasame seeds and banana chips. All very yummy.  Along the way I saved a toddlers life. It was surreal. I was walking down one of the many crazy streets. Tons of traffic was whizzing back and forth, when I see a toddler in front of me walking into the road .I hear the distressed shouts of a Vietnamese mother from the other side of some tables on the corner. Insinctually I scooped up the toddler inches from the traffic and held her until her mother got there. In broken English her mother thanked me over and over. All in a day’s work ma’am.   The coffer house overlooks the lake. It was really beautiful.

After a call to Angie, I decided to checkout the Night Market on my way back to the hostel. It wasn’t much different than during the day except the shops were all lit up. I should also mention that in Hanoi the streets are lined with thousands of stores right next to each other all with only 10 feet of frontage. If you were to try to visit every store in just the Old Quarter it would take many weeks.

So as I walked back to the hostel down a couple of dark streets, of which there are very few, I thought how safe it seemed. Some street restaurants don’t have lights, but people still sit there in the dark and eat and socialize. In some other places I have visited I notice “lurkers” but I saw none here. Everybody seems too happy and too busy for that.

After a few more minutes I was back to the hostel and back to bed