Feels like a thousand miles away
Sorry for the digital absence but I could not access this blog for inside Vietnam, government block or server problem I do not know but I am well and have put in some good Ks’ since I last wrote.
It was good to be back soloing again as the journey led east the road rising from the Mekong and navigating a path over the mountains into Vietnam and Hanoi. A testing week on a mans endurance, 20k climbs three hours to clear the pass and your rewarded by an endless view of the mountains still to come. Drop 10/15K in as many minutes and start climbing again don’t fret wherever you doss tonight my tent by the road, offered a place by a local villager or make a guest house there’s plenty more of this tomorrow.
The rewards of doing the hard road always seem to pay off and hi-way 8 was the best leg of the journey, it got down with the locals and they were true old schoolers. The people of the villages through the high lands truly held onto their culture and the activity of the everyday was wonderful. The steeps of the hill sides produces corn and the strength of the women marching the trails their backs laden stops me complaining this is their life with no other option. Under their stilted houses a hard working loom producing the most beautiful textiles while the foot operated mortar works on dinner. The villages aren’t so large cling to space as they are on the hillside or a steep valley but their tight nit community and isolation holds their customs and traditions true and things like traditional dress on men in the field normally first to go are still alive and well. There’s a real warm feeling to the villages that I knew I would miss them even before I left.
Through the provincial capital and freewheel it down across the boarder and into Hanoi. I had been gaining altitude for the last two months even if only slowly following the river up stream, back to see level in under a week it’s all pay back. Some of the best runs that I would enjoy so much more if I could just keep air in my tires, I’m onto cheep tubes that aren’t wide enough and Hanoi provided me with nothing better. A great city through it lives and breathes on the street and I spend a lot of time just watching. Pick any street corner and pull up a stool and with one arm resting on the keg drink beer hoi. Its all motorbike traffic and they career into an intersection with commitment, it looks so dangerous a four way crossing with a hundred bikes committed to their line but when you get into it as long as you commit as well and make no sudden moves no one gets hurt. The street venders are cool, got a flat? You wont walk far without a guy on the curb to fix it on the spot, want to know your height and weight they can sort that out too there’s a heap of guys who wheel around scales to fill that niche market, if you have a laminating machine you have a mobile business it’s cool.
Spent some time touring the area but as per my header Hanoi was the goal and although it took a few days to settle in there is a cense of achievement in making your goals not that their s anything special in the destination itself its just a spot on the map that I choose but now as I ride through Sumatra in Indonesia I am a little more confidant about dealing with the journey. The problem is of cause if you make every summit you attempt you ain’t climbing big enough mountains, and with that in mind I’m full of worthy ideas for the next mission. But for now Sumatra was just an ad on and I’m trying to keep my riding easy. It’s lush country if not a little over populated no room for cyclists but that’s ok I’m trying to keep that to a minimum maybe even find a beach for a bit relax and although its never the end I’ll be back in Aus next month. (Yes out of cash)
