We're Off The Grid!

We're off the grid!

So I bought a bike. The thought still seems unreal to me. Last night we went to the night market and it was glorious. So much sea food being cooked in little pits on the side of the road. Vendors galore selling things I dot really need. But the best find of all was the corn. Last year I had this hard corn in Nepal which was the greatest thing in the world. I've never figured out how it gets that was but its amazing. I haven't had it since and I found it. I was in heaven!! The end of our night finished at this amazingly delicious but cheap bakery. If it can be made they have it there. I bought my self a cake the shape of a Vietnamese girl. Then ate it with my fingers in the street hehehe!

The first part of the day was spent putting off leaving. Are we really going to do this? Two girls alone who have never biked just driving through an entire country. Not a small country but a large country?

I wanted to see the crazy house so we decided to practice driving to that. Big mistake. We all got separated and lost. Not to mention the addition to cars and other motor Ike's to the equation made it twenty times more terrifying. 

I was the only one who made it to the house. It was pretty interesting, the thing was constructed with staircases all over the place. I felt like I was in a theme park. Very bizarre and so out of place but worth the visit.

Getting back to the hostel was a disaster. I have no map and just relied on what looked familiar. I mentioned earlier how the roads are layered on hills and just plain confusing. After exploring the whole city from being lost I somehow managed to navigate back to the guesthouse.

Morgan and I packed up our bags by strapping them down on the back and had a quick lunch.

This was it. It was time to say bye to Jenny who I had been with for so long. It was so sad that I decided to name my bike after her but call it Jennay! Think Forrest Gump!

I hopped on ready to take on the world. Feeling super cool on this thing I started it up and confidently waved goodbye and took off.

Or at least I tried. Two feet in I stalled. Well that was embarrassing. Lets try that again.

I started the bike back up, waved goodbye, and set off. This time I was good.

With only my ipad map to guide us we plugged in Nha Trang and set off. A little sketchy at driving I was terrified in the traffic. There are very little road rules and I swear everyone just turns whichever direction they desire. Most turn signals do not work, mine included, so there is just a lot of pointing.

The drive out was beautiful. Checking the gps frequently we were finally on our way. It seemed to be one road for the next tour hours so I packed my ipad away and enjoyed the view. The smile on my face was huge. Here I am in Vietnam riding a motorbike across the country. Does it get any cooler than this? I don't think so!

About an hour and a half in we check the map. Oh no!!! We are not even close to the path we are supposed to be on. Actually according to the map we are on a non existent road. I look to Morgan and ask her how adventurous she's feeling. 

Oh well lets just keep going and see what happens. The road slowly goes into the hills and becomes a windy path. The views are breathtaking. On one side the road drops away into a steep valley with the mountains in the distance. We curve along the roads for a few hours before descending into the valley.

The sun starts to go down while we are on the flats and I see a storm brewing. Hopefully we can make it in time. But no with my luck we obviously won't. It looks like we are driving straight into the pouring down rain! We speed ahead and Morgan is a little in front of me.

Then it happens. Put..putt.putt.put....nothing. I sit for a minute thinking. We never put gas in we must have run out. Ok hopefully Morgan will notice and turn round. She can go get gas and save me. 

The sky opens and rain pours down. Really?! Really!!!!! No not now. I start walking my bike down the road because I might as well cover some distance. After about fifteen minutes I see Morgan coming back for me. We decide to wait for help.

Within minutes a man pulls to the side to help us. Yeah!!! No English but he knew my hike wasn't working. We check the gas and its still halfway full so that's not the problem.

Then anther man stops. They discuss for a minute or two then look at us. The new man points to me and points to my bike. Ok? What do you want me to do? He keeps putting them motions for me to sit on it. What good is that going to do? But I do as I'm told. 

I hop on the bike and watch the man pull his next to mine. Then all of a sudden I'm moving. What? How is this happening. It turns out the second guy actually is able to push my bike using his bikes power and his foot on a part of my bike. These guys re geniuses! About 4km in the rain later we arrive at a house. We pull the bikes in and are offered chair.

For the next thirty minutes we sit with a family looking at picture on my ipad. The family chicken clucks around and jumps on my bike at one point. Ummm so what are we doing here? Not entirely sure. But the rain is calming down.

Pointing back at the bike we get back on and travel being pushed again through the darkness. Where the heck are we going? We turn down a side street. By this point it's pitch black and neither of our bike lights work. Lucky for us our new friend has a bright headlight so we can almost see the road.

Halfway down the road we turn around and to back to the house. Extremely confused I push my bike back into the overhang. 

It turns out this is the mechanics actually home and he just got home for work. We had gone to look for him just now but I guess we passed him so that's why we turned around. Too funny.

Within fifteen minutes they have my bike up and running! Wahooo. It cost me a whopping 5 dollars to get it fixed. Thanking the family over and over again I exchanged bracelets with the one little girl and we got back on our way. Within an hour we reached Nha Trang, found our friends, checked into HQ hostel, and ended our first day of our bike journey!!