Easy Rider....without an "eph"

Disclaimer: The keyboard I'm using is missing the letter " " (the one that comes ater "e" and beore "g")..... have un deciphering!

Well, I can add one more lie experince to my collection - successully inding my way out o Hanoi on a motorbike. As planned, I picked up a scooter early yesterday morning to begin my 10-day road trip though northwest Vietnam. O course, it wouldn't be an adventure without the news that I received over breakast rom a Dutch guy at the hostel: Typhoon Hagapit, Hagaspit, Shagapot or something similar was, at that very moment pummeling Hong Kong and was headed our way. A quick check o the orecast showed that he was right. Damn. But I had already paid or the bike and the mechanic assured me that I would be ine - by the time it got to where I was headed, the storm would be downgraded to a class 2. Sweet. With that reassuring bit o insight, he helped me bungee cord my backpack to the scooter (yeah..it really is just a scooter) and sold me a heavy duty, military issue poncho or good luck. Ater one last scan o the map, I was on my way.

The skies were pretty clear as I let town, and I was just hoping that the storm would hold o long enough or me to clear the suburbs. Well, I lucked out and had great weather all the way to my irst destination, a small village called Mai-Chau. The weather was so great, in act, that I burned the hell out o my arms. The visor on my helmet is tinted - so tinted that I didn't realize the sun was shining as brightly as it was. At any rate, I managed to ind my way to the "country-side" with only two wrong turns. Beore I knew it, I was cruising the highways o Vietnam at a whopping 40km per hour! Laid down about 135 kilometers and climbed about a 1000 eet in elevation in roughly 4 hours - and the only minor complication came at my irst stop or gas. Something was seriously lost in translation as I was attempting to pay the attendant and beore I knew it, a small crowd had gathered to watch clueless oreigner sweat in the sun. The problem seemed to center on 300 dong (about 5 cents) and or the lie o me, I couldn't understand what she wanted me to do. I put money in her hands, she handed it back. I pointed at the numbers on the pump, she pointed at the numbers on the pump. I even watched careully as another man came in, got gas, paid, and recieved change - just to make sure I wasn't missing something. It's a truely humbling experience, especially when you know that while you may not be the smartest guy in the world, you're not the village idiot either, to be stymied by such a routine transaction. Ater about 20 minutes o back and orth, and ALOT o sweating on my part, she just laughed and waved me on. Just like that. I'm quickly inding the Vietnamese to be some o the nicest (or most accomodating to oreign morons) people I've met.

By 3:00 in the aternoon, I had arrived in Mai-Chou, ound a home, cracked a cold beer, and then.....the rains came.