" Got the bike. Today will be magnificent."
That was written during a brief pause in the excited frenzy of packing up my bag and finally leaving Hanoi.
Returning that evening to the hotel I had checked out from 5 hours earlier, defeated and soaked, was not magnificent at all.
Following my map, more of a vague outline of the country for reference purposes rather than an actual road map, along with the dubious advice of well-meaning but ultimately completely unknowledgeable locals, I drove around for hours in the driving rain only to end up back where I began, with a sick feeling in my stomach regarding the future of a trip down the length of a country whose largest highway eludes me in one of it's largest cities.
I followed cars whose drivers I met at intersections, advice from anyone who would talk to me, and I even tried to convince a cabbie to lead me to the highway, at which point I'd pay the fare and be on my way. That last one found me panicking, banging on the wrong side of a locked-from-the-inside cab door, driver yelling incomprehensibly, and my bike on the verge of being stolen.
Buddha help me.
classic.
ReplyDeletelobes and i were lost in San Jose, CR looking for the "wide road" that would lead us to the atlantic side of Costa.
"como llegamos a limon?" we went about inquiring all across the unlabeled streets of san jose
people seem to give you directions not matter what. if they actually know how to get or not, they will do their best to to send you in the right or wrong direction.
Damn right, Blevs. Every person I talked to knew exactly where this highway was.. until they didn't.
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