March 20, 2016
Chapter 8
Day 15
Problems on the road.
Lilyana’s bike had some issues with the gears. We started early our day and rode 30km to go to the city Thanh Hoa where we were told the address of a good bicycle shop. They fixed the gears and we were in a hurry to go further with our plan. Just as we went out of the city I had a flat tire. Ok, please don’t laugh, but yes, none of us actually knows well (I underline well!) how to take off the rare wheel. We asked google, read some advice and we managed to remove it. We changed the inner tube and as we started pumping it we realised that the pump we brought with us didn’t work. It’s an old pump from Holland, so I trusted it is in good state. But it was damaged and pumping was not possible at all. After a while of vain efforts a van with two guys stopped and offered us help. They took my wheel and tires, went to the village, put some air in and came back. And then for the big problem: we couldn’t fix the wheel back at the bicycle. We tried, the boys tried, more people stopped to help, they tried... and none of us succeeded. We watched youtube videos on the side of the road, followed step by step guides, and though we were doing exactly as shown, there was still a problem. At the end, I left Lilyana waiting there, on the road, while the guys took me back to the bicycle shop in town. There was something stuck and it took a while for the bike mechanics to take it out and put the wheel back.
All these problems took us more than 3 hours from our day. Desperately I was looking at the clock and thinking how little we had cycled. We had the rest of the afternoon and tried to catch up with the program.
It was a difficult noisy bad route, with heavy trucks riding both sides with great speed, houses all along the way. And like that we rode for 50km until the sun started setting down. At the end of the afternoon, we switched to a different road, less busy and noisy. And soon after we reached a beautiful big lake and area with just a few houses. We found a good place to sleep by the side of the lake and our day with problems finished well after all. As I got off the bike I felt like a cowboy getting off his horse after a long day riding in the Wild West. Thick cover of dust lied on my clothes, my face, inside my ears and eyes.
When your eyes burn from the rivers of sweat running down your head...
When butterflies come sit on you, drinking greedely your salt...
Then you know: you are toooo hot!
We are in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Whithin one day we moved from the coastal town Hoi An to a mountain area in the west of Vietnam. That 15th day of our trip, we shall not forget...
The sea and the colourful Hoi An bid us goodbye with a refreshing breeze, which accompanied our ride for the first one hour of the day. Getting out of Hoi An was most pleasant, tranquility and beauty surrounded the region. The peace ended violently when we had to meet the unfamous Highway 1. One of my main goals for the whole trip was to avoid cycling that route. Heavy trucks and buses drive with great speed, overtaking each other and pushing away everyone smaller. It is a “highway to hell”, a different kind of a Vietnamese jungle, where the only respected law is the strongest survives. It was stressful one-two hours, we made it and moved on to a different road.
The sun was getting higher up in the sky. I was riding my bicycle thinking that the heat and the high humidity in the air reminded me of a hot summer day in Brazil. A few years ago, I lived in the Atlantic rainforest for 6 months, volunteering in a nature reserve nearby Rio de Janeiro. One of the best experiences in my life! Happy memories were buzzing in my head and first drops of sweat started dripping from my face.
It is quite impressive how fast one moves on a bicycle! Whithin a few hours, the landscape and the climate chaged completely. We were getting into the mountains, climbing steeper and steeper hills. It was noon and it was scorching heat. Lilyana started feeling not so well. We stopped for a break. Then we continued. Merely a few minutes after, we stopped again. And so it went most of the day, we had to pause every 5-10 minutes and seek shade. Looking for shade, at noon, on a mountain road in one of the least populated area in Vietnam, was not easy. The only refuge we could find was in the forest. And if you have ever been in the tropical forest, you know it is not a place where you can sit and relax. Before you know, all kind of unwanted and unpleasant creatures come to keep you company. Lilyana said she didn’t care, she was too hot. It is a funny lesson you learn within minutes, sometimes seconds. You do care! From millions of ants and mosquitoes to some of the most dangerous snakes in the world, the Vietnamese jungle could surprise you in many ways.
Like such, we struggled with the hot weather most of the afternoon and we were running very late. Our hotel for the night was still some 30 km away but those were the steepest 30km for the day. The sun was setting down and we had to hurry. Lilyana was exhausted and couldn’t take on more ascents. What other choice we had? In the middle of nowhere, we didn’t even have any more water, mountain road, forest, only a few scattered houses. No help was coming. We had to mobilise ourselves and go on. As the night was falling, the dogs from the occasional houses we were passing by became more territorial and agressive and came on jumping on us. We are both afraid of dogs. I picked up a wooden stick and went on. Finally, my friend found some strenghts and started cycling, too. As I was going down one steep slope with speed, my front lamp flew away. It was a very nice and expensive light, but it didn’t matter at that moment. Only 10 km more. In the pitch dark, I continued cycling ahead pushing the pace. Another slope down, great speed, a huge whole on the road, and I fell straight into it. I don’t know how I managed to keep myself on the bike but I did. Unfortunately, my tire was flat, entirely split.
You know those moments when you are at the end of your forces, just about to crash. And then without mercy, life suddenly serves you something even worse and puts all previous difficulties into perspective. I stood there for a moment in the dark listening to the nightjars calling. I picked up my wooden stick fallen on the ground and started pushing the bike. Two hours later, we arrived at the village. It was late in the evening and everything was closed. We couldn’t get any food. We did have a room for the night, we were safe and we were ok.