Motorbiking to Hoi An, Vietnam 12-24-09

At 9:00 am our bikes were waiting out front and we each took our babies for a test drive around the block. It was Mike’s first time on a motorbike so I showed him how to change gears and the best way to start up, neutral, and all of that. He’s skilled and picked it up right away. Our group was set to go. With a map in my hand, the five of us set off towards the temples; well, six of us if you count the tiger trailing from Lusa’s bike. Yup, that tiger balloon was coming with us! On the way, an older Vietnamese lady pulled up beside me and started a conversation- “HELLO! Where are you from?”, “America”, “Oh good, where do you go?”, “We’re going to the Minh Mang temple”, “Oh, same-same, follow me, I show you, I live close that way”.

“Hey everyone!” I shouted, “She’s going that way too and will show us how to get there!” “Great” said Gareth, “Uhhh, I don’t trust her” mouthed Henry. He had had a few locals try to pull fast ones over him before and didn’t want to follow the lady. He shouted, “We’re going to go to the temples, you don’t have to show us but can ride along if you want”. I was convinced that this lady was genuinely nice and wanted to show us the way. She and I talked while driving to the temple and she told me about her family, children, her farm, what she grows, and where she lives. She invited us all over to her home after the seeing the temple, if we would like.

She took us on a shortcut to the temples on one of the rockiest and bumpiest roads I’ven been on. Even I was skeptical if we were going the right way, who knows what the others behind me were thinking. But then, magically, we arrived! Right in front of us was a sign that read “Minh Mang Entrance”. We paid for our tickets and the lady said she would wait by our bikes and watch them for us. Gareth was skeptical now and said, “No, no, you don’t need to… thank you for showing us how to get here”. She was persistent on showing me her farm... the rice field, corn, pineapples, bananas, and mangoes. Remembering how the others felt, I told her that we might not have time to go to her home because we should be on the road at 12:00pm. She understood but waited there anyway.

The temple was peaceful and serene to visit; although, I think after exploring the gorgeous temples of Angkor Wat (and the ones in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos) I am a bit templed out. We walked back to our bikes and I had to break the news to the kind lady that we had to get on the road and would not have time to go to her house. “Okay” she said sadly, and promised to show us the way to the main road. “You see everyone”, I thought, “She really is just a nice lady going out of her way for us”.

When we crossed over a main bridge to head back into the center of town, we all stopped to wait for Mike to catch up (his bike was acting up already). The lady asked me if I had a dictionary to give to her because she and her kids were learning English. Of course I didn’t have an English dictionary on me. And I knew what was coming next. She said she could use some money to buy a dictionary and help her children learn English. “Can you help me please with some money?” (Sigh) Henry, you were right.

Lusa and Henry were ahead of us and weren’t in on this conversation, so Gareth, Mike, and I each gave her 10,000 dong (totaling about a $1.60). I felt defeated as I put so much trust in this lady. Oh well… maybe we helped her family, $1.60 can buy a few meals here and I hope she has a nice dinner tonight. Our group sped off toward the highway stopping once for gas and once to eat a large lunch. Henry and Mike bought Santa balloons when we stopped, and now officially, we were a target for any person under  the age of 13.

At first we rode through small towns and country sides. We passed water buffalo, cows, kids playing in the street, farmers tending their fields, and school children coming back from school. We paused at one point to take pictures and a little boy ran up to Henry asking for his balloon. He was a sweetheart and untied the balloon string from his bike to give the little boy a gift. The boy was so happy!

Another hour later we stopped on the side of the street at a little stand for soft drinks. We ordered sweet juices and sodas and instantly felt more alert. Lusa’s tiger had popped on her bike’s tire and she was sad to have a deflated balloon. I blew it back up and patched the hole with string to give the owner’s son a gift. He was one year old and scared of tigers apparently. He ran away crying while his whole family laughed. Eventually he warmed up to the idea and grabbed the tiger balloon from me.

We rode through dirt fields, over bridges and rivers, through shaded forests, around mountains, over train tracks, through numerous cities; climbing to a higher elevation each hour. We passed a MAC truck that had just flipped over, another tuck stopped to help and they were transferring the goods from one truck to another. It seemed as though no one was hurt.

Just ahead of the accident we stopped for pictures and had an unbelievable view of an island city, a bay, and the road we had just come from. Five hours had passed at this point and we figured we must be close. We got a second wind from the gorgeous view and Gareth and I took off first on our bikes with Lusa behind us and Mike and Henry bringing up the rear. I made it a habit to constantly check my mirrors and turn my head to make sure our group was together at all times… you never know with these types of situations. I stopped at one point to wait… and a few minutes later Mike and Henry were nowhere in sight. I sped up to Gareth to tell him I was turning around to look for the guys. Lusa and Gareth followed me and as I raced back all I was thinking was… “please don’t be something bad… please don’t be an accident”.

I saw Mike first and he said, Henry fell back there, but I think he’s okay. Henry’s helmet was on (thank god) and was very scratched up. His arms had skid marks and scratches on them and his back was a bit torn up and bleeding as well. Everyone in our group came to his rescue and luckily Mike had a first aid kit on him. He started disinfecting Henry’s wounds and bandaged him up with gauze, surgical tape, and lots of band aids. Good as new… almost.

The next two hours were pretty frustrating… Gareth ran out of gas at the top of the mountain and two Vietnamese guys on motorbikes pushed Gareth’s bike forward so he could cruise down the mountain in neutral. We filled up his tank and realized we had reached the town of Danang. One more hour to go, it was 7:00pm and starting to turn dark.

We hit the crazy center of town of Danang in the middle of rush hour on Christmas Eve in complete darkness. Motorbikes were EVERYWHERE and it was terribly difficult to keep out little group together. I stayed in front of our group and kept alternating my left and right blinkers so they could spot me. And every time someone Vietnamese pulled up beside me I would say, “Hoi An?” Each person I asked helped us continue in the right direction. The few who spoke bits of English would say, “Go Straight”, or “Right after bridge”, “Go around the circle, straight” or “Stay to the left”. The four others in our group were behind me and I was the only one who had an idea where we were going. I just kept hoping that the people I was asking knew what they were talking about. But then we saw it, a tiny sign that said “Hoi An”. We made it!

We stopped to look at the business card of the Hotel in Hoi An our hostel owner in Hue gave us. We found the name of the hotel road and slowly passed by each street sign to see if it was the right road to turn on. I stopped to talk to a group of young Vietnamese guys on the side of the road, showed them the business card, and with one wave of the hand, we were following the gang.

They brought us almost all the way to the hotel and we were so thankful to arrive! All of the motorbike pick-up men were waiting outside with a look on their faces as though they had been waiting for hours, which I guess they had. We were supposed to have the bikes back by 6:00pm and now it was 8:00pm. Wow, 8 hours on a bike. Henry had to pay $20 for the damages done to his bike, which wasn’t so bad considering.

Immediately after setting down our bags in our hotel rooms we set off to find a nice place to have dinner and drinks. Celebratory drinks were compulsory. We bought a bottle of Dalat (Vietnamese) red wine, a bottle of Dalat white wine, and some beers to start. We toasted to surviving this epic journey and all sensed a strong bond tying us together after completing such a voyage. We relaxed for the first time in hours and were happy to finally be in Hoi An!