Vietnam~ Day 6- Soggy Road in the Middle of Somewhere

Who knew sunny skies were ahead?

They told me to stay. Annoyed I wasn't heeding their advice, the old ladies in the dreary lobby of the hotel slapped my hands away as I tried to tie the plastic bags they had given me around my own double-socked feet along with another set around my icy, soaked shoes. They would do it themselves; my sendoff would at least be on their terms.


Powdered, latex, food handling gloves covered my cheap wool ones, a rain coat wrenched on over every dry shirt I had, the ubiquitous Viet flannel face mask, and some decent rain pants to finish.

 The process now complete, my body transformed into an amorphous mass of fabric and plastic, my Vietnamese mothers stood back, hands on hips, to admire their work. Shaking their heads, they bid me farewell.

The ride was tough, the road again clogged with shipping trucks, but the weather relented and had some warm spots. The old, dirty towns with their neon signs eventually gave way to verdant countryside. Rows of crops with backdrops of mountains for miles.

Hunkering down in a spartan roadside hotel at twilight, I dined and smoked tobacco out of bamboo bongs with the same truckers who had no doubt spent the better part of their day running me off the road.