Namaste motor part deux

Continuing my story on the day I ‘fell’ off my motorbike. Day 2 of my Epic Trip through Vietnam. After having driven for some time on the dike it was time for lunch. Now my vocabulary of Vietnamese was still, and is, quite limited. Even with my Lonely Planet in my hand for some basics, it truly proves to be very hard to have a conversation. By being very attentive you do pick up some here and there, but changing the way you pronounce a word by just a little may give it a totally different meaning. Asking for soup might become asking for a screwdriver. I learned how to ask for chicken rice, I think.. Its com gaaaaaah as far as I know. So when I stopped and asked for my chicken rice I got a strange reply. This woman kept pointing to a place a few doors down, so I thought. Since it was clearly unclear to me what she meant she walked with me. Turns out she meant a hidden cage, filled with chickens. ‘Yes that’s what I want. I want chicken with rice’ She took me back to her place. She left for a moment and soon she came back with a live chicken and signaled me to follow her. Okay… We headed for the kitchen. I thought I was about to slaughter my own chicken. Didn’t really expect that but sure, I always wanted to slaughter and prepare my own chicken. Might as well learn it in Vietnam. But no! She led me to a chair really close to the kitchen and pointed to it. I was supposed to go and sit there and wait. After having done so for about an hour lunch was ready. I think the lady really didn’t know what I wanted so she must have made everything she knew that consisted chicken. I had chicken soup, chicken salad, chicken bbq accompanied with a huge pile of rice. I would never be able to finish this. I ate as much as I could before I continued my way. Since I knew I would hit a crucial intersection soon I asked for very clear directions which, with my lack of Vietnamese and theirs of English, proved a real challenge but usually ends up good  This time the son of the woman even drove in front of me for quite a while. It saved me a lot of hassle for sure. I would have really had no clue where to go at some points. Confident when I found the huge highway back towards Saigon I went full throttle! I was going to follow this big and comfortable road for quite a while and would take a left to start following the Ho Chi Minh road.
I started to enjoy going at full speed more and more. The thoughts of disaster, which were present quite a lot during the beginning started to fade. I still kept a very attentive eye on things. After having driven for some hours I started to wonder where my turn left would be. I should have crossed it by now?! I stopped yet another time to ask for directions. Turns out I passed it, bigtime. Okay turning around then and find a place to sleep for the night. But that was more easily said then done. My kickstarter refused! At first this was to the amusement of the guys I had just asked directions from. Soon after they came over and tried to help me out. They didn’t manage either and I had my bike checked out by 2 mechanics. It looked like they fixed it, but as soon as tried it my transmission died in 3rd and 4th gear. I had to spent the night here and come back tomorrow morning 8 o’clock. I was devestated, very tired. I thought my bike could not be fixed. I already started to wonder how I could get back to Saigon. Would I just leave my bike here, would I try to sell it... I could go on worrying but I just needed some sleep. Now the guy who helped me out really took care of me. He couldn’t say a lot more then yes/no and his favorite; ’Okay’. I loved the guy. He went beyond making an effort to help! He made sure I had a place to stay, got me diner and drove me to the nearest ATM’s. Once again, as so often during my trip, when the going gets though I get help. I truly feel blessed and it changed my perception. This help just ‘came’ to me. Imagine the magnitude if I start to create/ask myself.

The next morning 7.45 I was at the mechanics. I would not miss this guy! But then again I was in Asia.. Several calls, moments of reading, drinking (my Okay guy came to get me drinks ) and assurances the mechanic would come, (I did check out the surroundings but didn’t find another mechanic near enough to push my motor to, and this guy proved helpful and he was connected to my okay guy) he eventually came around 12.. He gave another look to my bike and made a very convincing gesture. He pointed to my transmission and he threw it away. Okay.. new transmission it is! My confidence in the Asian mechanics grew. They were able to fix everything. I didnt worry about it that much anymore. After being hooked up I could finally start my way to the Ho Chi Minh road. This time I did find the right intersection. It was in the middle of severe construction works. While I was passing it earlier I probably was more attentive to the manic chaos surrounding it. That’s unfortunately how it works. If you miss your exit your f*cked. (Coming back to Holland and seeing several pretty much within a kilometer is crazy!!) I had heard a lot about the road, its beauty and its dangers. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. Yes there was incredible beauty, roads that go up and down in a waving motion. Hills and mountains surrounding you everywhere. I stopped quite often just to take a picture or a movie. The road itself was better then I would have expected it judging on the stories (with hindsight I found out I choose to skip some of them) There were loads of construction works ongoing to improve them. So if you ever want to experience the real fell of it you better be fast. ‘Luckily’ there were still enough rough roads. When I mean rough I mean rough. Basically just sand, gravel and that is. Trying to maneuver is really hard then. Once I had a car overtaking a truck from the opposite side. Now if vehicles in Vietnam are overtaking one another they hardly change their direction. Which means that when you drive a motor its more advisable to lower your speed and/or evade. Now in this particular situation I had no space to evade, nor to lower my speed (since I had traffic surrounding me too) In a final attempt to evade to oncoming car I went to the side beyond the visible. I ended up in a ditch and landed on a huge pile of sand. That truly saved my ass, While I was evading I kinda lost control over my bike. Ending full front in the pile of sand and gravel was the best thing that could have happened to me. Another close call was when I wanted to overtake a truck in front of me. It wanted to overtake a car in front to and suddenly backed down. I thought that this would be my shot to go for it. I accelerated to overtake, soon to find out the truck in front of me didn’t back down for nothing. I had a bus passing me from the opposite site and I was seriously centimeters away from it.. I have had some close calls but these were the most impressive ones! I am DAMNED lucky!

After having driven on the Ho Chi Minh road I got sick of it. I wanted something else. I wanted euh… the beach! Yea I wanted the beach, I could use a good swim. Heading for Nha Trang from the middle of the HCMR. Actually went pretty smooth. In the late afternoon I arrived in Nha Trang. After having looked for a hotel to stay I went straight to the beach. It was a nice sunny day and the waves were pretty strong. Normally I get bored of swimming after about 20 minutes but these waves really had an appealing effect. I stayed in for more then an hour, crushing wave after wave with the joy of a child who just found a new toy. In the evening just when I was about to leave the Irish pub I met Sanita and Yani again! I had seen them previously in Cambodia. All being drunk/tired we talked for a few minutes and shared a bus on the southern coast. The odds! It was the start of loads of great times and memories.

The next day we went to a waterfun park. I had read about it but on my own I wouldnt have visited it. It was an insane day. The park wasnt just any waterpark. In fact I think it was my first proper waterpark. It was built on an island(!) We had to go there by either boat or cableway. Of course we choose the last. It meant hovering at about 60 meters on the longest (!) cablecar line in the world for about 15 minutes. Amazing views of the beachline of Nha Trang. The waterpark itself was one wicked world of huge slides, lazy rivers, artificial waves, kamikazes etc etc. On the same terrain there was an incredible aquarium with the wildlife of the nearby ocean. As if that wasnt enough we could also enjoy some rides at a mini themepark. Shortest rollercoaster ever (less then 1 minute?) Selfinstructing rollercoaster, which was pretty cool if you could accelerate all the way. Unfortunately that wasnt the case which was quite frustrating. Truly enjoyed that day, but there was more good to come :) The day after we shared a mud bath. Now I had some vague ideas of what to expect, something with mud! But it was far from what I could have I imagined. Layed in very soft mud for 30 minutes and afterwards drying in the sun. It should make your skin soft, but ours got rimply. It was like fastforwarding into the elderly age. Luckily we could shower of our age. What remained was a baby soft skin. Great day! At some point it was time to say goodbye again. But I had the idea to meet up again later on. We would roughly follow the same trail north. The group, Kelly (Canada) Yani (Australia) David (England) Angela (USA) Sanita (England) Tammy (Malta) Stephie (Malta) Marit (England), randomly grew and shrunk but there was a steady core who I kept on meeting. You know I love you guys!

It has now been 3 weeks since I got back to The Netherlands. Writing this blog has been halted... I just could not push myself into continuing the travel story (for now!) Being back felt both strange and right. As never before I started the appreciate a Dutch landscape. A little river, with small branched trees on both sides, with a seperate house built in true Dutch architecture. I was amazed by the fact there were traffic signs every kilometer or so. I was hesistant to move when a car stopped for me when I wanted to cross the street on a zebra crossing. My first weeks in Holland mostly consisted out of me crashing at friends (most of the time for which im truly grateful) and my parents. Slowly I have to get going again. I’m orientating on the possibilities to continue my study (I got an interview tomorrow!) from there well see how it goes…

From Helmond, The Netherlands ♥♥♥