A Vietnam Adventure – “From child hood dream to the ramblings of an old solo biker"

“They say things always happen in 3s” BUT I don’t believe in superstitions, Do you?

Today started off well, I’d had a good nights sleep, the sun was shining, the temperature was perfect and the route for today looked amazing!

In my excitement to get going I decided not to look for somewhere to eat breakfast or grab a coffee but instead, eat the leftover apple from last nights dinner and a handful of pretzels! Not that I’m the superstitious type but I think this decision was where today started to go wrong! It wasn’t the missing out of breakfast so much, it was missing out on the coffee! Coffee has been part of my morning routine for as long as I can remember and rarely do I miss one, in fact I can’t remember the last time I did…..until today!

Packing the bike seemed much quicker this morning. Clearly, having done it several times yesterday, it was now becoming far easier.

1. Pack the big red back across the way.
2. Lean the black bag up against it (again, across the way) and strap them both down.
3. Place the rucksack on top of both of these and strap it down (with a bungee chord I’d picked up yesterday).
4. Hook the small tank bag to the front of the bike.
5. Put the phone in the phone holder.
6. Mount the Insta360 camera on the handlebars.
7. Check nothing moves and then job done!

Heading out of Boa Loc, I stopped to fill up with petrol (this was something that needed to become part of my daily routine – not only is it good practice to start the day on a full tank but it gets the task out of the way so that I can just focus on riding the bike). As I pulled into the petrol station, I was surprised to see that fuel attendant was a lady. I’m not being sexist in any way but in over 35 years of driving and across many countries, I’ve never seen a female pump attendant. It was actually very nice. She was smiling, beautifully polite and wanted to engage in conversation (via Google Translate of course). Maybe it was just a coincidence but it was also lovely to see that the petrol station was immaculately clean. Not. drop of oil, grease or rubbish anywhere! Furthermore, there was lovely music playing in the background. “Let’s have more female fuel attendants!” that’s what I say.

As I left the petrol station, I remember thinking to myself, “What a lovely start to the day…yep, today is going to be another awesome day!”

As I’d hoped, the start of there route was amazing. Unlike yesterday, as soon as I left the town it was straight into some lovely riding. The southern region of Vietnam is beautiful. Mainly farming country with rolling hills, very little traffic, not a drop of rubbish to be seen anywhere and very good road surfaces – a bikers dream!. The only challenge I faced was trying to work out what I speed I was allowed to go at. When I picked up the bike from Tigit, they told me that, “…the police like to issue speeding fines but rarely do you know the correct speed to travel at as there are very few signs around.” And so, they advised, “if in doubt stick to 50kmph.”

This sounded very slow, especially as back home I would normally ride upwards of 120kmph. However, on a bike this size with a much smaller engine and all the luggage I was carrying, 50mkph didn’t actually feel too slow. It also allowed me to relax, take in more of the scenery and enjoy the whole experience a lot more.

Every bend I rode around seemed to bring yet another amazing view and the need to stop and take photos. At this rate, the constant stopping to take photos was going to increase the 5-hour journey time to 10-hours. Either that or I needed to find a quicker way to take photos. And this is where the day started to go wrong, quite literally downhill!), whip out my camera, snap the photograph and then reverse the procedure before riding off. Surely this would save a lot of time.

Rounding the next corner I was met with yet another stunning view and of course the need to capture a photo. It was also a perfect time to put my new photo-taking routine into action!

1. Pull over to the edge of the road (because Vietnamese drivers can be a bit crazy and don’t worry about getting very close to you as they pass).
2. Slip the bike into neutral – but leave the engine running.
3. Right foot on the rear brake pedal.
4. Left foot kicks the stand down (for extra support).
5. And then the left foot goes on the ground.

No it doesn’t! My left foot slips on the loose stones, bike stand can’t hold the weight of the bike and both the bike and I go tumbling down the hillside, eventually coming to rest against a tree. Looking back up the hill we’d tumbled about 15 feet from the edge of the road.. Thankfully the tree was there to catch us otherwise the 15′ tumble could have been a lot more.

I recall from previous biking accidents that the first thing you instinctively do is ‘pat yourself down‘ as if to check that you’re okay. And this time it was no different. Although I was unable to stand, I was able to run my hands across my body as if to make sure everything was okay. It wasn’t that I needed to or that I felt injured in any way, it was more of an automatic response to the fall. As thought, no injuries (other than my ass and the outside of my things hurting – a closer inspection that night revealed some bruising, but nothing serious). My biggest and most immediate concern was how to get myself and the bike back up to the road. There was no way I could do it myself and I was worried to move just in case it caused the bike to tumble even further down the hill. And, even if I can get it back to the road, is it going to start and if it does, is it even rideable?

And then, as if by magic 6 super-heroes arrived, staring down at me from the road and shouting to check that I was okay. It turns out they were driving down the road in the opposite direction and saw me falling over the edge of the hill.

With the help of a tow rope, they managed to pull me and the bike up the hillside. A quick selfie, a very BIG thank you and they were gone. They left me feeling like this was quite a normal thing to happen in Vietnam….passerby’s stopping to help those that need it. I’m not convinced that it would happen so readily in other places I’ve lived or visited although I do remember seeing it in Nepal when I was there during monsoon season. Their kindness and determination to help me out of a difficult predicament was a beautiful and humbling thing for me to experience.

So there I am trying to work out what had happened.

And then it hits me!

1. I’d stopped on a piece of ground that was sloping to the left – towards the edge of the hillside.
2. The weight of the bags and the way that I’d placed them on the bike (across the bike), meant that when the bike was placed onto the stand, the weight of the bags leaning to that side, was too much for the stand to hold.
3. And the outcome was inevitable!

Schoolboy Error #6 – When loading the bike, try to keep all the weight down the centre and not leaning out to the sides. Especially important on smaller, less heavy bikes.

Okay, so now that the bike is back on the road, what next?

“Does the bike start?”

Thankfully, yes it does. That’s one things about these little Honda’s, their engines are bullet proof.

Next…

“Is there any damage to the bike?”

A quick survey of the bike revealed that the only damage (other than some scratches) was that clutch handle had broken. Luckily there was still enough of it left to operate with one finger, but it was going to need a new one as soon as possible as there was no way I could ride long distances with one finger on the clutch.

This was a good time to review my approach to packing the bags on the bike. Aligning them down the centre of the bike so as not to lean to much out to either side, seemed like a much more sensible option. It would mean that they’d extend back a bit more but given what had just happened, it was worth trying.

Bags secured I got back on the bike, turned on the ignition, clutch in (with one finger), bike into 1st gear and off we go…..perfect. Straight away I noticed that new way of securing the the bags, also had a positive impact on the way the bike handled…it was far less wobbly! (The pictures below show the old way and the new way.)

As the tattoo on my arms says, ‘‘Everything happens for a reason“…..had I not had the tumble, I might never have thought about loading the bike differently and would have ridden the next 10 days with a wobbly bike. “Every cloud has a silver lining.”

However, very quickly I noticed a new problem…I couldn’t move the gear pedal into 2nd gear. A quick check of the gears revealed that there was problem with the gear cable and as a result, the bike was stuck in 1st gear. Now I definitely needed to find a garage and as quickly as possible. Riding in 1st gear for too long is not only very slow but can cause even bigger problems to the bike.

Three-hours of riding in 1st gear and 20km later I came across a roadside garage but as much as the mechanic tried, he couldn’t help. However, he assured me that there was a Honda garage just another 10km down the road and so after almost another 2 hours I pulled into a Honda dealership – tired, exhausted, hot and sweaty!

The staff at the garage were super helpful…45 minutes later the gears were sorted and although they didn’t have the exact same clutch lever, they manufactured one for me and even painted it black so that it would match the bike. All of this for 11AED…unbelievable! Despite having had a pretty rough 5 hours, I left the garage with a rekindled positivity about the what was left of today’s journey and with only 100km to go I started smiling again.

All was going well, the kms were ticking by, the scenery was still stunningly beautiful and the 45 minute rest at the garage had given me a chance to eat, drink and stretch. But today was just going to be one of those days! All of a sudden the 2nd problem of the day hit me…..the bike ran out of petrol.

“How can that be?” I asked myself. “I filled her up this morning and I should be able to get 300kms out of a full tank and I’ve only done about 80km so far.”

And then it dawned on me…when she was sitting upside down against the tree, petrol must have been pouring out of the tank into the grass. When I was checking the bike for damages, I didn’t think to check inside the petrol tank (these old bikes don’t have petrol gauges so the only way you can check the fuel is to look inside the tank).

So there I was siting on the side of the road, in the middle of no where, wondering what to do. The rekindled positivity that I had when leaving the garage was very quickly turning into disheartened frustration and an anxious uncertainty about what to do next.

Then, all of a sudden the 2nd super-hero of the day pulled up next to me and asked if I was okay. After expelaining my problem (Google translate again coming in handy), he jumped out of his van, grabbed a fuel can from the back and proceeded to pour it into the bike. Within minutes I was back on the road again (but not before catching a quick selfie with him). Despite my attempts to pay him for there fuel, he refused to take anything and quickly got back into his van and disappeared, leaving me once again feeling very humbled at the kindness and generosity I’d just witnessed.

Now, after being on the road for about 9 hours (and about 1 hour left), I was starting to feel exhausted. I could really do with that coffee now!

I remember thinking, “surely that’s if for today, nothing else can go wrong….but then again, things normally happen in 3s!”

But of course, the day wasn’t finished with me yet!

I’m not the superstitious type but days like today do make me question myself. With only 20 minutes to go before I reached the hotel, I noticed lots of passing cars flashing, blowing their horns and even shouting out the window at me. The blowing of horns and even the flashing of lights is quite normal out here (I’ve noticed it lots over the past 2 days) but the shouting out of the window was new. I put it down to them being friendly and noticing that I’m a tourist, wanted to wave and say hello.

It wasn’t until a van pulled up in front of me, quite literally blocking my route that I realised something was wrong. Slamming on my brakes to avoid hitting the van, I came to a very sudden stop and noticed that the driver of the van was now out of the van and making his way towards me. Speaking perfect English, he told me that I was on a highway and that bikes weren’t allowed. Seemingly, in my exhaustion I’d missed the sign and had accidentally taken the highway for the last 5kms. Yep, things really do happen in 3s!

So now I had to ride 5km back down the highway going against the oncoming traffic. But, the van driver refused to let me do this on my own and insisted on driving in front of my, flashing his lights to the oncoming vehicles. Yes, my 3rd super-hero of the day! Unfortunately though, in true super-hero fashion, when we got back to the start of the highway, he turned around, waved and headed back down in the direction we’d come from, before I could thank him properly (or get a selfie).

Luckily, the last few minutes of today’s journey were problem free and before long I arrived at this evenings hotel – a total journey time of 10.5 hours to go just over 200km (over double what I’d expected).

The rest of the night was pretty straight forward….shower, dinner and sleep.

One of the things I like about any kind of solo-travelling is that you get plenty of time to reflect and think about things. Whilst I was eating dinner I was contemplating the ‘everything happens in 3s’ thing and after the events of the day, have to admit to wondering whether there was actually any truth in it. I also wondered whether seeing my first ever female pump attendant or missing out on my morning coffee had actually brought me bad luck (or as some of my Arabic friends would say, ‘cast the eye on me‘). Of course, my common sense soon kicked in and my lack of belief in anything supernatural led me to the conclusion that it was just one of those days.

Today reminded me that when you are doing any multi-day trip (even normal family holidays), you have to expect that not every day is going to be a good one. You have to expect some days to be difficult and some that might even make you question why you decided to do what you’re doing. However, on trips like this, these are often the very days that make you want to do come back for more. These are the days that make you challenge yourself, the days when you have to dig deep, find that resilience, discover those coping strategies and try to maintain that positive mindset. These are the days when we often discover new things about ourself and come out of them feeling a greater sense of achievement. They’re often the days we remember most!

So, with all that in mind….today was another excellent day and certainly one I won’t forget. That said, I hope tomorrow is a day without incidents (although I’m sure there will be more on this trip).