Back on the Horse: Mankato & Short Round Take on Vietnam

We’ve all heard the expression about “getting back on that horse” after being thrown off. I’m not sure how many of you have ever been thrown from a horse, but I can tell you that dusting yourself off and getting back on is easier said than done. But one thing that a good Midwestern upbringing full of horseback riding, sports, and summer vacations spent getting scraps outside instead of virtual blood-letting in a video game has taught us is that getting knocked down may hurt now, but the sting of not getting back up sticks around much longer.

Our mission, (and yes, we chose to accept it) was to come to Vietnam, buy motorcycles, and ride through the country at our leisure and pace. We spent a few days in Hanoi looking for bikes, finally found some, had them looked over at a mechanic (who ripped us off big time) and a week after arriving in Vietnam, we were ready to embark on our newest adventure. So here we are, the proud owners of very used, slightly abused, year unknown, Honda Win100 motorcycles: please meet Mankato and Short Round.

4:30am, ready to go.

Mankato, front and Short Round, back

After what I shared with you about Hanoi and its traffic, it’s easy to deduce that we weren’t excited about riding the bikes there (there are limits to the drive that the “get back on that horse” mentality will take a person to). So we woke extremely early (3:30am) to be packed, fed, checked-out, and ready to get on the bikes at 4:30am before the traffic got going. We planned out our route out of town the night before (seemed easy enough, only two turns in a non-grided city) so that we could hopefully make it out of the city before traffic picked and so that we could keep from getting unfortunately separated. Only one wrong turn and a few issues getting the bikes started (and into neutral) and we made it out of town just as the sun was coming up. It was a success.

The first two days of riding were not exactly what we expected. The traffic while riding was much less than what we experienced in Hanoi walking around, but it was still stressful and kept us on edge. On high alert. The roads were less than quality. In fact, it felt at some points as though we should be on dirt bikes on a racetrack, not motorcycles on a “paved” road. But the third day. The third day is why we wanted to get bikes in Vietnam in the first place. The scenery was beautiful, the traffic was very light to non-existent at times, and the roads were some of the highest quality we’d come across thus far. It was relaxing and peaceful and totally enjoyable. That third day (two days ago) was the reward that we’d never have experienced if we’d never gotten back on a motorbike again.

only a fraction of the beautiful scenery we saw on day 3

We decided to take advantage of the distance we’d made and the location we’d made it to on that third day, so we stayed here two nights instead of one. The city (Son La) isn’t wonderful by any means, but the hotel is nice enough and complete with internet and HBO. This gives us a chance to rest, to update, and to savor that third day. We’re hoping that there are more days like that third day and that there are few troubles and no serious issues along the way. If there are, then we’ll sell the bikes and call it a success. We got back on that horse. If we stop riding now, it will be on our own accord, not because of the fear that we could have let grow and take over from our accident in Korea.

So to our parents, who are probably on the verge of an aneurism, heart attack, or at the very least an ulcer at the very thought of us back on two-wheeled motor vehicles, know that it was our fine upbringing, thanks to you, that has instilled us with this “get back up and get back on” mentality. You have no one to blame but yourselves. J But seriously, thank you for raising us to be stronger than the fear that keeps so many people from trying again. 

Out of Hanoi and a beautiful sunrise

The boys, the sunrise, and the early risers

the boys at the Vietnamese equivalent of a rest stop

The view from said rest stop

Goodbye China. Good Morning Vietnam!

Health Report: It’s been about 2 weeks since I came down with the sickness (insert Disturbed’s “ooo wah, ah, ah, aaah!” here) that we finally decided was most likely hand, foot, and mouth disease; a common illness in China. More than 1.5 million people reported getting it in China in July when there was a huge outbreak. Luckily for me (and all of those 1.5 million too) it’s much like the flu so any long term effects or repetition is unlikely.

Status Report: It’s been just over a week since we left Yangshuo and began our journey to Vietnam. We had to stay the night in Nanning and take a bus from there to the boarder, and then in to Hanoi. Upon arriving in Vietnam we decided we liked it MUCH better than China. Despite the fact that we got ripped off by our taxi to our hotel (every time he honked the horn the meter shot up, and there was a lot of traffic and honking), had to pay extra at our hotel, and had to move to their sister hotel a few blocks away. But we did get to eat some really good food, finally. Because we had eaten street noodles for lunch and dinner for about three weeks straight and we were in need of something DIFFERENT!

And different is what we got. Not just for food. Hanoi is different than any big city in China and SO different from any place in the US. The first two days of going out walking around for food, we got totally turned around and lost (but finally found our way back), nearly got clipped by a few scooters, and were on such high alert looking at traffic, other pedestrians, the shops, and the street signs that we were actually physically as well as mentally exhausted when we got back to the room (see pictures below and you will understand what I'm talking about)! To say there's a lot to take in here in Hanoi, would be an understatement. So let me try to describe it for you.

Hanoi in five words or less: fairly westernized, organized chaos. Now, to expand on that. I haven’t seen a squatty potty yet (western toilets complete with paper abound!!). The language is somewhat similar to French and uses Roman characters, so we can “read” or at least recognize words. The city is not set up on any sort of a grid, whatsoever. And the traffic. Oh the traffic. There are very few cars, more of them are taxis than not, and there are even fewer buses. Instead, the preferred mode of transport is a bit more stream-lined.

Whether it is a bicycle, motor-bike, scooter, or motorcycle, these two-wheeled vehicles move like flocks of birds or schools of fish through the narrow, crowded streets. They move with great speed, often side by side with a fellow traveler, carrying on a conversation at times, and entering intersections and rounding corners without so much as a glance left or right. But like a school of fish or a flock of birds, they move as a unit. They will envelop a new two-wheeler into the flow when it turns into the lane and, just as seamlessly, the whole lot will slow, then split around an obstacle and reconvene on the other side if anything comes into its path. **As a pedestrian, you can walk out into the street, looking straight ahead or down, and just keep walking. They will all move around you. Just don’t make any sudden moves or stop dead in your tracks and you’ll be fine.** It is both awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time. It’s amazing, really. Organized chaos. 

There are stoplights at occasional street corners, but they seem like more of a suggestion than a rule. And I don’t think I ever saw a single speed limit sign in the city. The only rule seems to be that on scooters and motorcycles, drivers and passengers should wear helmets. Which is nice to see, until you realize that the helmets they have on offer little more protection than a bicycle helmet would for someone on a scooter or motorcycle. At least it's good in theory. I can count on one hand the number of Chinese I saw wearing helmets... 

So Vietnam (or more correctly, Hanoi) has so far offered us a lot of good (and different) food at relatively cheap prices, a really nice hotel with free, fantastic breakfast every morning, with a wonderfully helpful staff, and English channels on the TV, intense traffic and seemingly constant scams and people looking to rip us off, and maybe most importantly, a nice and welcome change from the last two months in China. 

But good or bad, highs or lows, Hanoi (and Vietnam) is now the stage, the location, for our mission...But that’s to come in the next update.

View from our balcony in Yangshuo

From the roof of our hotel

limestone karsts and the Li River

Happily on our way to Nanning

On the bus from Nanning to Hanoi, Vietnam, just after the boarder crossing

Typical intersection in Hanoi

Got a bus, a taxi, and a (few) scooter(s)

Hanoi: it's a lot to take in

Traffic by night (with a cool structure in the background that we never did figure out what it was)

cute but cheeky little bugger