Hanoi - Day 6.

I woke up and suddenly grew aware of the fact that today was our last day on the road. I sensed a little sentiment until I saw the colour of the sky. It was grey and promised a bad mood. It didn't help that we began our day with no breakfast. My bike had developed a minor case of bronchitis, I felt it whenever I turned the ignition. Phlegm, no question, but there wasn't much I could do. What do I know about motorcycles. So I patted it on its engine and maneuvered it off the sidewalk.   

Driving through traffic and out of the city reminded me of the joys of riding a bike. The smells, I haven't talked about the smells yet. In the mountains all you smell is fresh air, which is great, of course, the purest oxygen you can treat your dusty nostrils with, but there's not too much variety to be found other than the occasional pile of burning wood. In the city there's a whole megastore of scents in the air. A truck full of fish chased by a cheap woman's perfume and a piece of melting plastic. All within fifty meters.

Once we hit the open road I felt a sudden warmth on my lap. For a moment I was afraid I had soiled myself. I checked and fortunately found nothing out of the ordinary. I raced a little bit to catch up with Giwoun when I saw him pointing up. He didn't look back, just indicated towards the sky. I looked up and saw the sun. It had broken through the heavy clouds and beamed its rays right onto our adventurous souls. That's how strong she is. I instantly relaxed in my saddle and honked twice to say hello.

In the distance we saw mountains. They are majestic when looked at from afar, volumptious like a porn star from the ninetees. They are natural giants that man has made possible to climb and defeat. We approached them slowly but were surrounded before we even knew it. The sun disappeared again and the world grew darker by the second, the darkest shade of green I've ever seen. We found ourselves amongst monsters covered in nebulous undergrowth, captured and eaten by the woods. 

The rain increased and the temperature dropped. I was amazed by the turn of events. Originally we had anticipated sunshiny days at the beach, but we saw none of that here. Instead I was biting my teeth as if in furious anger. And I was furious, I was angry, but I didn't know exactly what about. I spent many kilometers pondering about that question, but it remained unanswered. Only when we stopped and I saw Giwoun's face it turned into manic laughter. His eyes were the eyes of a serial killer.

We had amazing cup noodles and sweet bean pockets that didn't taste very well. It was our first meal and felt like life credits in a video game. The plastic poncho that Giwoun found in his glove compartment was ripped into sorry pieces of happiness attached to the rim of a weak cooling fan. My colourful mask was besmirched with snodder from my helpless nose department. My white shoes had turned into wet clumps of shit. We loathed the day and wondered how we got ourselves into this mess. It was beautiful.

Some funny things happened before we reached Hanoi. One time a truck almost hit me in the side. I already saw myself catapulted to the rice fields, but somehow I made the cut. One time I almost caught a bird with my teeth. I didn't try to, but it's true. I saw it from quite far away, thinking naa, he probably knows better. But then he flew across the street where I was waiting at fifty kilometers an hour and hit me in the face. When I looked back he had just caught himself in mid-air. Later, it made me laugh. 

We had to trust our machines, even though they showed flaws that weren't visible on first inpection. Lee had to use the kick starter everytime, Giwoun's tank lost gas much quicker than our's, and my breaks didn't work well when we drove fast. I remember, one time I almost hit a cow. We were riding downhill when our guide suddenly stopped. Giwoun followed suit and I sensed that I was fucked. I hit the breaks, shouting, no noo nooo! and passed Giwoun, passed Lee, then passed the cow by a millimeter.

Thinking about it makes me smile. After I came to a halt I looked back and Giwoun was laughing at me, saying, Alter was machst du denn? I had barely escaped a severe cow accident, and he still managed to crack me up. Riding into the city was easy after that. Once my scooter died due to lack of gas, and another time I lost my chain, but that was nothing but a piece of cake. The Evil Knievel death ride through city traffic wasn't less stressful, but we somehow made it back to base.

The taxi ride to our hotel felt strangely unreal. We were seated in a capsule, moving without doing anything. It was the end of our trip and we had survived an original adventure. The last few hours we spent wandering through the streets of the Old Quarter. This city has so much to offer, it's a shame we didn't have more time. After dinner we found beer and sesame rice paper at a busy street restaurant and I think that's what brought me back to reality. Today I look back at one of the greatest trips of my life.