| hello everyone,3200km after our start from bangkok, i am now writing you this from hanoi,the capital of vietnam.so what's new?so many things have happened since i last wrote...let me see...this willnot be in any kind of order so don't be too disoriented. last time i wrote we were still in china. well since then, i lost a crownoff of one of my teeth (actually it just came off) while i was taking abreak from biking and eating dates on the side of the road one evening. wewere on the way to geigiu, a big town in yunnan. i was really worried thatthis would cause major problems eating, and i didn't know when i would beable to get to a decent dentist. the dentists i have seen in china workout in the open air, in little stalls that are indistinguishable from thenoodle stalls nextdoors. the closest decent dentist i was hoping to findwas in hanoi, more that 600km away. fortunatelly though, i had somefixodent with me, and that night i glued my crown back on. so far so good,it only came out again once, today actually and i glued it back on. onceevery 5 days or so is not too bad dealing with this. my bike is different now. i am saddened a little by this as i was reallyattached to it, i guess like people are to their horses. i was almostsuperstitious bout my bike, talking to it and sending it positive vibeswhile riding, feeling good... so when i had to modify it i just felt itwasn't the same. how did this happen?well, it was our last day in china, and we were planning a 90 km ride tothe vietnamese border. this actually turned out to be 100 km. we wereexpecting the ride to be pretty easy, since on the map it looked like theroad we were taking was following a major river. so we figured it would befairly flat. also, since this was the only road to the border, we thoughtit must be in pretty good condition. but this was china and this kind ofreasoning doesn't apply. the road ended up being dirt the entire wayexcept for ~5km at the end, near the border. it rained too, on and off thewhole day, and riding though ruts, boulders and puddles in which my wheelsank more than half way seemed no fun at all. a kind of apathy set in andwe kept riding. towards the end of the day we came to a river of mediumsize and decided to wash our bikes a little bit. this helped get off thethickest part of the mud, but unfortunatelly the really small parts arestill covered; so now all our cables are kind of messed up because of thatday and others like it. my rear brakes don't work too well, and my rearderailleur shifts like a dog. ed's having similar problems... anyway,after washing out bikes we rode on, and i kept telling myself that theroad must get better. i was most likely lying to myself, but it worked. iknew that we would get to the border that night, i just didn't want tostop because i thought i might not want to or be able to get up and goagain. ed wasn't feeling too hot either. we had five mangoes, bananas, andi had some chinese sausages that i like a lot only when riding, any othertime they make me sick. we were completely covered in mud, our clothes,skin, hair, everything, and the people in the only town we encountered onthe way, where we stopped to eat, pointed at us and must've felt sorry forhow we looked.anyway, we rode on, and about 15 km from the border, ed stopped andstarted inspecting his rear tire. lo and behold, it was all frayed nearthe rim again, which meant that it was ready to go any second....i wasjust praying that it would hold out until we got to hekou, on the border,but this wasn't to be, and a couple of km down the road it popped, tubeand tire. it was 7:30pm, and we had been riding since 7 am. we had to movefast because it gets dark at 8, there are no lights on dirt roads, and wedidn't know how much distance we still had left to cover before reachinghekou. fortunartelly, a pedicab passed by about 5 minutes after the tirepopped. ed and his bike barely fit in, there was no question of me beingable to as well, so i followed the pedicab on my bike. this thing wasgoing about 25km/hr, which sounds like nothing, but on a bike it's notnegligible especially after you've already ridden 90km. anyway, i had alot more energy that i thought and i actually really liked pushing myselfto keep up with the pedicab. i felt really good when we got to hekou.the following day, i gave ed my rim and tire, as he can only use a 700mmon his rear wheel (his front wheel is already a 28" from the previousincident i already wrote to you), and we went to a sidewalk bike repairstall where i had a 28" rim and tire put on my bike. it weighs a ton, andit's old, the rim is rusted and i instantly took a dislike to it, but i'vebeen riding with it for ~300km now and it really hasn't been that bad. iaccepted the fact that my bike is different, and i am having positivevibes about it again. we crossed into vietnam the same day i had my new wheel put on.right away i noticed how different things looked. vietnam reminds me a lotof laos, especially the architecture. there seems to be a lot of frenchinfluence, which i like a lot, since it gives the streets and buildings alot of character. by comparison, i realized how boring chinese cities are.every chinese city we have been through was indistinguishable from anyother one. i guess that in the quest for modernization all character andindividuality were stripped out. it's really too bad, because the naturalscenery in china is really beautiful in places, but the man-built things ihave seen held no attraction. vietnam seems much better in that respect. especially hanoi, where we arenow, i really like a lot. it's a pretty big city, but there are tons oflittle shops, art galleries, cafes and cute restaurants. last night wewent to a restaurant where they had all kinds of snakes preserved in hugejars. big snakes! i was freaking out looking at them, i don't think i'veever seen a big snake so close...they also had cute live turtles, in anaquarium, which you could order as a dish...i felt sad thinking of this... the art shops are really nice. i love the paintings, especially the inkones, made on rice paper. there's a name for them, but i just can'tremember. there are also all kinds of statues, carved boxes, fine silk,jewelery, all kinds of things to go crazy looking at. unfortunatelly, icannot shop to my liking (everything is so cheap too!) because i have tocary what i buy on my bike, which means weight and increased hardship; icould also send stuff home by mail, but it's very iffy whether it willmake it or not. today i have been sick so i couldn't shop. i woke up feeling reallycrappy, muscular pains, headache, fever and nausea. we were staying at thenicest and most expensive hotel we have stayed at so far in asia.yesterday, as we got into hanoi, it was pouring, and the traffic was purechaos, like cairo but worse since we were riding in the middle of it all,so we just decided to stay at the first hotel we came upon, which was thisreally nice one. it's funny, when we walk into these nice places (thishotel would probably cost 400-500$ a night in the us), full of mud, wetfrom the rain and stinky sweaty, the staff, which look imaculate, seemhorrified to see us and usually ask us to take off our raincoats for fearthat we'll get things muddy. the only reason why we don't get kicked out,as we would surely be in the us or canada and definitely in europe, isbecause we are westerners and make more money than they can imagine, sothey avert their eyes and treat us or our money with respect anyway...this hotel also had breakfast included in the price of the room. it wasbuffet breakfast, western style, the best we have had on this trip. edpigged out with much enthusiasm. i, unfortunatelly, felt sick and had onecroissant and some mueslix. i was pissed, i was so looking forward to thislast night. oh well, maybe we'll go back before leaving hanoi. today we moved to a much cheaper hotel, still very clean though, and muchcosier although not as luxurious. we are taking a one week break from riding. this is because we have to getour cambodian visa while here in hanoi, and because we're waiting for apackage with new tires to arrive from the us by mail (things don't lookpromissing...).i am happy for the break, i think my body needs it. two days ago we rode125km through hills, mind you on paved roads (what a godsend!), and at theend of the day my knees were really hurting and my hands were partiallynumb. but we'll be resting a few days in hanoi, and then we're flying tosaigon; from there riding to cambodia, to phnom penh and the ankor watruins, then on to thailand in time to meet my sister and andy in bangkok. although i really like vietnam in terms of nature and style, both ed and iare a bit disappointed with the people. in laos and thailand everyone wasreally nice and friendly, eager to speak to us even though we didn't speakthe language. in china, people were very helpful when we needed it, aswhen our bikes broke down, but in general they wouldn't go out of theirway to speak to us. in vietnam, so far, a few people have been very nice,but some have been quite rude. they treat us like circus animals as weride by, pulling on our clothes, on ed's leg hair, shouting things andmaking fun of us. some people on bikes or motorcicles even swirved out oftheir way to scare us while riding...it's kind of sad, because ourattitude is a lot less open here because of all this, and i am afraid thatwe may seem cold to the nice people which i am sure exist here.anyway, in hanoi they are a lot more used to tourists than in the countryside, and other than the post card and chinese hat vendors constantlyaccosting you on the street, everyone ignores you.ok, this is long enough, my wrist is hurting.if you want to write to me, please do. i will be happy to read news fromyou, or thoughts or whatever. we will be in hanoi for another 3 days and iwill be checking email...so please write. is everyone in good spirits? i am. i still can't believe how lucky i am tobe doing this, to experience everything, even the hardship. i really feelalive although a bit shiverish right now (i think the fever's back). raluca |
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