Vietnam Day 5: Phu Yen to Mu Cang Chai (Moon 2 Homestay)

I will let some photos do most of the talking for today. There were four kind of standout things that I want to share: The motorcycle crash (a woman), the flat, the motorcycle crash (me), and our homestay family dinner.

The first motorcycle crash: Meeting up at (what would become) our usual breakfast time of 7:30am, we walked with Huan to a nearby place for some egg bahn mi, Vietnamese coffee and fruit platter. We were feeling rough after last night's festivities, and just needed a refuel before heading into some more off-road riding. On the walk back, we heard a loud crash behind us and watched as a woman skidded to a stop in the middle of the road, bike on it's side. There were people nearby and Huan went over to help her, as she dazedly looked down at her phone, while she sat on the road. She was rushed to the side of the road, Huan grabbed her bike, and I grabbed the thing she had been carrying - a welder and welding rods. All the while, cars and bikes still trying to move on with their day, honking and moving around us. Satisfied that she was being taken care of by people, we walked back to the hotel room.

Breakfast time

Off-road flat: The days started almost immediately with more rugged terrain for riding, Huan taking us on a single track mud and dirt trail into the mountains. We passed through a creek, and I stepped right in it and soaked my shoes.

Shortly thereafter, we came upon some road construction (something that appears to be happening everywhere) and inched our way through broken up concrete, rocks, excavators and workers. Somewhere in that, Cass picked up a nail (or maybe a staple) and ended up with a flat rear tire. We pulled off to the side of the road (see pics) and Huan opened his toolbox and went to work replacing the tube with a spare. This gave us a chance to wander a bit, watching the farmers work some nearby rice paddies, and a sheperd girl keeping a cow in the forest and out of the fields. Aside from the flat, it was picturesque. Once fixed, we hopped back on our bikes and headed further into the mountains.

Fixing the flat

The Motorcycle Crash: So I did it, I laid down my bike on a mountain road in the rain. The morning started with great weather, but as the day went on and we came into and out of valleys the rain began to soak through our clothes. Huan was leading, and Cass was behind him and I brought up the rear. And somewhere on a turn going down a hill, I just...separated from my bike. That's the best way to describe it. One minute I am riding, and the next I leaned into a turn and the lean just never ended. Then, the bike and I were apart. I was on the ground and the bike lay near me, stopped by a guardrail and still running. I jumped up (as people who go through this thing tend to do if they can) and moved off the road immediately. Grabbing the bike and bringing it upright. It is a strange thing to focus, in those moments, on what other people might think of your accident. I just didn't want to be a bother, you know? Luckily I had slid (about 15-20 feet based on the white paint my bike left on the road) going fairly slow due to the wet conditions and my fanny pack on my hip took most of the brunt of the slide. A kind woman grabbed up the contents that had slipped out and handed them to me. They asked if I was ok through looks and hand gestures and I assured them I was. Shortly thereafter, Cass arrived (after having heard the bike fall) and I told him I was alright as well. And I was. Mostly shaken up, but bodily only some small road rash on my left calf. We met up with Huan and readjusted the askew handguards and mirrors before continuing on...cautiously. I think the worst part was the existential crisis I went through as I rode the rest of the way to our homestay that night. Pondering my mortality and all of that, you know.

detachment

said the mountain road

self and bike

The Homestay: We stayed in the Moon 2 homestay for that evening. A homestay is, in the traditional sense, a night rental in a family's home. Huan said that in the old days you wouldn't get your own room, but instead you might sleep in a common room with others in the household or other travellers. The modern homestay looks more like a family home/hotel hybrid. We got our own room, and all the amenities (shower, tv..etc) but for dinner were expected to come down to the main area of the house and eat with the hosts. We were definitely not feeling social. It had been a cold ride and I was still a little shook. But, we are good guests and met up in the main area of the house. To our surprise, dinner was laid out in a big area on two large mats. Two groupings of food were laid out and we were encouraged to sit around one of them. So we sat. Some men joined us, and around the other setting, some women and older men sat (I later learned that we sat with the owner of the homestay and his two brothers as well as 3 family friends who had also come for dinner). Laid out before us was a feast of carp (grown and fished from the family pond just outside our window), pork, green veggies and springrolls. Here I had the best smoked pork jerky of my life.

Homestay vibes

Then the household wine - this time of a plum variety.

Huan had warned them that we were a bit tired from o night's birthday celebration, but each man in turn wanted to greet me and wish me a happy birthday. 10 shots of plum wine later and we were all warm and well-met. Luckily, no one took offense when we said we must leave and sleep. Everyone was very kind and gracious. Would recommend.

Cass and I lasted about 10 min cozy in our beds before sleep overtook us at 8:30pm.

Vietnam Day Four: Hanoi to Phu Yen

...and so our bike rides begins.

We met our guide, Huan, at Offroad Vietnam at 9 and were introduced to our bikes and the waivers that went with them. Money and liability sorted, we left the back alley shop and crossed the street to saddle up our bags. It was beautiful smoggy day to leave Hanoi.

The traffic is mental. There are rules, I suppose, but they are largely unwritten. Honking is used to communicate position (but also to say hello), and cars, buses and bikers all jockey for a place to move, turn and not run into one another.

It is exciting basically being within an inch or so of other drivers when you are driving through town, but it is also exhausting - both in the sense that you are just breathing in a ton of exhaust, and it is tiring. We were glad to make it mostly out of the city about an hour and a half after departure, and stopped on the banks of the Red River for food and drink.

Coffee break

Something important to note here is the difference in speed compared to riding back home. I don't think I ever got above 70km/hour on the fastest areas of good paved highway. In smaller towns and villages, and especially once we entered into farmland and mountain trails, we were often travelling around 40km/hour.

Which is good, because as the landscape changed from the city to more rural areas, the jungle became thicker, and the roads narrower.

Before I came here I thought that the hardest adjustment in riding would be other vehicles - I often encountered a large semi coming my way in my lane passing another semi and I was the one who was expected to move. But the truth is that the things that have given me the most pause have been wild dogs, chickens, and buffalo. The dogs are everywhere. 9.9 times out of 10 they don't care about you, but many also don't have the sense to get out of the way of the bikes either, They are all little medium-sized and just saunter around the streets, eating garbage, fighting with one another or just napping. The chickens are just chickens, dumb and erratic in their movements, so dicey when passing them on a bike. The buffalo....are just slow, and sometimes will block the road entirely. More often then not there is a shepherd nearby to move them along, but no one seems in any particular rush.

Overlooking harvested cassava fields

In short, it was an exciting and exhilarating day. I started my 40th year by being able to start traveling around a beautiful new and foreign country. A lot of the day was in the city, but there were a few moments near the end of the ride where I really felt like this is it, this is what I came for. Those were the ones where the sun was setting over the mountains and Cass was riding ahead of me on narrow dirt roads, lined by harvested rice fields. That and the fact that school children are so excited to see us pass through, waving and shouting "hello!" and giggling if you wave back (Huan says that not many foreigners come through some of these particular areas).

We made it to Phu Yen around 5, and re-cooped in our hotel until dinner time. We met up with Huan and walked to a local family run restaurant and I ate my fill. The food has all been wonderful here, Surprisingly, I haven't eaten much Pho at all, but Huan is making most of the food choices for this section of the trip. Instead we are trying new things in each place, often just different meats (like chicken, pork and beef) cooked in various ways. Spring rolls, too, seem to be done differently in each place, and that is a nice surprise.

But what really got me at the end of the day is the local rice wine. Many families have their own recipes, and when the time is right, they love to share. And share they did. We were joined by the owner for a time, and his sister as well. Then some other motorcycle guides who knew Huan joined the table and after we had eaten, a cake was brought out to help me ring in my 40th birthday, It really was a special time. The hospitality is like non other.

and so ends the first day of our motorcycle trip.

Vietnam Day 3: Hanoi

I am already starting to fall behind on these posts, so I am going to give you all the highlights to catch back up:

The Old Quarter of Hanoi, where we stayed, is...active. The impression I left the city with is that is is unlike other places I have been in that there is always a fairly active human element on the streets. It feels like phases - the morning, "regular" business of a bustling city, the evening when shops that have been closed all day start to put their shutters up and cook food or sell wares that might be more interesting to evening shoppers, and then the late night when people just seem to sit on the streets talking, eating, cooking. It's hard to describe the motorcycle culture as well except anything but the default. Bikes everywhere all the time.

Our day was one of exploration. Egg coffee in the morning (It will also be Cassady's last - too much caffeine in the Vietnamese coffee), and walk to Sword Lake, Hoàn Kiếm, and then home again. We spent the late morning with two teenagers running a beer place, and became friends with google translate. It was cool to talk back and forth and learn a bit about them, youthful bravado and all. They spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince Cassidy to commit to a tattoo.

Egg coffee

Sword lake

Huan and Tam

After a bit of a break, we set out to buy some crocs, an item that was everywhere earlier in the day, but couldn't find hardly any (I swear the stalls move product around for different rushes of clientele on the streets) and found everything else, including what appeared to be a Christmas themed couple of blocks.

After that failure we regrouped and headed out for beer and food. We found it on Beer street. I am no expert but the name kind of speaks for itself. A few blocks of competing bars that have employees trying to lure you into their spot. We settled on a place with a chill vibe and parked there for the next several hours as the streets became more and more congested. You could hear the music from the Hooka bar, the Karaoke bar, and everything in between. It was a people-watchers paradise. We met a Japanese couple (in that we cheers'ed them a couple of times), a couple from the Philipines and watched a man and woman who were both travelling have a first date at a table right in front of us. It was kind of awesome.

Beer street chillin

Locals also walked by constantly trying to sell all sorts of wares - stuffed animals, Vietnamese military style hats, tobacco, shoe shining, vapes, and little knick-nacks. People who appeared to be disabled would try to sell gum, as would younger children - the two that kept coming around our table were probably 6 and 10. They were sweet, but it was late and honestly it felt bad engaging them when they probably should have been at home.

Cassidy bought these Capyibura from two older women over the course of several hours and 3 exchanges. It was very funny. I actually ended up buying him the last green one (for 50,000 dong, or about $2.50)

The night ended unceremoniously by forcing ourselves home due to a motorcycle trip starting at 9 am the next morning (though I think I bought the best fried rice I have ever had on the way home).

Talk tomorrow -