Hold your line!
Today was all about the riding. Sure the coffee was great,
as always, the scenery unbelievable, the people gracious and always smiling,
the beer warm, the food ok (today was the first day food was not the best
ever), but today we rode. After four
coffee su’ num’s we put on our rain gear and headed out of Phong Nha (Phong=
wind, Nha= teeth), where we stayed the night before, for our longest day of
riding yet. The moist streets and the
looming clouds convinced us that rain gear was a necessity, not an option. Scott in his full yellow rain suit that
puffed up like the Michelin Man when he opened the zipper to let in the wind,
Keith with his zip in rain pants liners and me with my red Patagonia rain
jacket that I bought second hand for $5 and some pull over rain pants from
REI. We were prepared, at least some of
us. Keith decided to not put on his rain
coat to start, but quickly decided that it was probably needed. So he decided to put it on, in typical Keith
fashion, without stopping the motorcycle!
He engaged his cruise control.
Turned around and pulled his jacket from his rear pack. And then he proceeded to put his arms through
the arms while Scott and I laughed at him through our headsets.
Now that we were all prepared we were ready to ride. We entered into a national park with Keith
trying to duck underneath the large tube barrier, at 20 mph, that was left
unattended. He hit the barrier with his
shoulder that pushed it up so that our passing was much easier. Once we got through the barrier we found the
about 100+ miles of the most outrageously fun twisty road I have ever been on
experienced. I have often watched Top
Gear were they searchfor, and sometimes find, some of the sweetest roads in the
world for super cars. If they were into
motorcycles, this would be the road.
What appeared to be slick concrete roads actually was a really pretty
grippy surface. In no time Scott and
Keith were railing in the corners side by side yelling at each other “Hold your
line!”, with me struggling to keep up.
My riding, being in the back, was made so much easier by Keith calling
out any obstacles that maybe in the road. Since this was a twisty curvy road that went
up and down steep grades there was very little traffic. No big trucks, no animals in the road. Just the occasional scooter. With little traffic we were able to push the
bikes to the limit and really lay them into the corners. We were going so fast that Ngoc took forever
to catch up to us when we stopped to pee or refill on beer. Once he did catch up, “You guys are crazy!”
he would say in his heavy Vietnamese accent.
The roads continued to dry since the only rain we actually saw after
dawning all our gear was early in the morning.
With dryer roads our speeds continued to increase with each corner seeming
to be better than the last. I often
heard loud screams emanating from my earpiece.
Thinking I was going to come around the next corner to see Keith laying
on the ground, only to discover that these were whoops of joy for telling the
greatness of the corner to come.
Our first stop for beer, one of many, took place in typical
Vietnam fashion. We get off our bikes
and strip off all our gear as many locals gawk at the tall white people and
covet our bikes. At this stop the warm
beer was quenched our thirst while the smile of a very short local woman warmed
our hearts. Keith kneeled down next to
her to take a picture and he still towered over her. Her infectious smile was reminiscent of so
many we have seen along the road.
Back on the road we continued to be amazed at the slice of
paved heaven that kept coming. We
stopped again for beer, riding makes us thirsty, and some lunch. We stripped everything off except our t-shirts
and riding shorts that looked like underwear to the locals. A woman, who we later discovered was 23 and
married (Darn), was mesmerizing. The
many beers did not help us overt our continuous gaze in her direction. Just when we thought we had enough beer, at
least until the next stop, a guy comes up to us with what looked like an old
oily anti freeze bottle. Out of it he
came some clear rice alcohol. We all
took a sip and almost exploded from the strength. The guy who brought it sat next to me and
started to light a cigarette. I quickly
stopped him thinking, “I wouldn’t light a match within a 100 yards of that
moonshine.” After the last beer was
finished Keith and I put on our riding gear minus our rain gear. Scott, wanting to keep cool and look sexy,
road for a while in just his underwear.
Maybe Scott had too big a sip of that rice alcohol?
After the first hundred miles or more of perfect roads we
continued on back down the normal Vietnam roads through construction, around
trucks, splitting cows, passing sleeping dogs in the middle of the road and the
crazy guy who I almost hit who seemed to think it would be cool to run in
between two racing bikes. Then of
course, after a few more miles of riding, we had to make another beer stop. On this one we saw many young children coming
home from school. Ngoc told us that this
was a very poor part of the country. He
opened his truck and started handing out back packs. We quickly followed suit with the pencils and
tootsie rolls that we brought with us for just such an occasion. Smiles all around.
The sun started to go down.
I guess we had one too many beer stops.
The road got worse. The smooth
predictable roads and curves were now a thing of the past. Bumpy, sometimes paved roads were now ahead
of us. Construction on steep mountain
roads at night were made even more challenging by the fact that Keith and I had
tinted visors that made things really dark and Scott who’s headlight failed to
work. Ngoc pulled in front of us and led
us the last 60km to Hue (Hue=Harmony).
Once we arrived in Hue we breathed a big sigh of relief and, of course
had another beer followed by dinner and massages.
How have I lived before this? Total miles 257.
Posted by Robert a.k.a Robot
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