Sunday, February 15, 2009

Motorbike Montage

I don't want to bore you with a couple more days of motorbike trip posts so I made a video with a bunch of highlights. Here were some of my favorite things:

1. Long and I both like to lead on our bikes. However, after a couple of days Long decided he wanted to drive last in our caravan. Why? Well, everywhere we drove, kids and adults would wave to us from the side of the road and yell "hello." When I say "us" I really mean Nicky and I. It's not too often Western faces drive through most of the areas we drove through and well, Long doesn't exactly have a Western face. Long decided he liked to go last because he could get the wave affect of the waves. They'd wave at me in front, then Nicky and then Long who they would realize was with us.

2. Because we were going during Tet, businesses weren't open at night. This meant it was difficult to get food. In Phu Yen there was nothing for us to eat. Long told the security guard who was watching the hotel and he made some calls. Before we knew it one of the hotel employees brought over tons of food for a hot pot. Literally they bought us a wash basin full of vegetables. We had the huge meal with the security guard in the lobby of the hotel. It was probably the best meal of the trip.

3. At a coffee shop Nicky struck up a conversation with a Vietnamese man who spoke Spanish -- he learned it while studying in Cuba.

4. Taking two boats to cross large lakes. One of the lakes wasn't even on our map because our map was so old. No, it wasn't printed before Pangea. The water was a dammed hydroelectric lake made about ten years ago.

5. Tons of car free, well paved roads.

We ended up on the highway for about an hour of our trip and it was the worst hour (minus the three being interrogated) of our journey. The trip was quite an adventure and I'm already craving another one. Huyen just bought me a detailed atlas of Vietnamese roads.

Enjoy the video...