Starting at 6:30 Hai rode with me out of town showing me the way. Pointing out the way due east, we exchanged manly hugs and parted ways. Great guy, he was so giving of his time. Despite the language barrier, he knew enough English combined with our mutual interests and experiences for us to hit it off together. At one point I let him know I was opposed to the Vietnam war. He seemed to accept it as if he already knew.
Once on my own, I stayed on the busy highway almost the whole way. The breakdown lane was huge but I was still vigilante. With each town there were frequent motorbikes going the opposing direction. Big tractor trailers load with containers were everywhere, obviously headed for Hai Phong Harbor. With the mix of these trucks and motorbikes, there was the constant blasting as air horns. I took no chances and stayed to the far right, giving myself a heathy safety buffer. As Hanoi receded the traffic thinned. In several areas I found side roads to get me away the traffic. One road led me to a long railroad bridge with narrow lanes for bikes on either side. The guard rail was high enough but the lane was planked in wooded planks which were warped to the point of making a smooth ride next to impossible. Combining this washboard surface with a three foot wide lane forced me to get off the seat while staying on the bike; one foot on the left peddle and the other leg pushing the bike along. Making matters worse, I started off in the oncoming traffic lane. After several motorbikes barely squeezed by, a guy got off his motorbike and helped me lifted the front of the bike high enough so we could turn it around. Getting to the other side left me a bit freaked out. Though the outer railings provided protection from falling off the bridge, the height of the bridge above the water played havoc with my fear of heights.
Along the way I got curious looks with occasional enthusiastic greetings from mostly the teenagers and grammar school kids. After five hours on the road and only a ten minute break to eat a few bananas (the small ones) and two muffins Hai had given me, I pulled off to have lunch at one of the numerous hole the Wall eateries. No one spoken English and the food displayed was totally alien to me, I managed to have the cook and assistant put together a meal of rice, sautéed bean sprouts and chicken and a soup broth with spinach and some strange meat ingredient. A guy poured me what appeared to be tea with ice which I had a sip of before I realized that was a no no. Ice is made of local water which may not be clean enough to safely drink. For all of a $1:50 I ate like a god. Forget the silverware, chop sticks are it. Back on the bike I rode another hour
and a half, finally rolling into Hai Phong. Another bustling city with the same crazy traffic as Hanoi. Finding an upscale coffee house, I checked in for coffee and a chocolate pastry. With a wifi connection, I found a Hotel just a mile down the road for under twenty dollars. Decent place by a park with a nicely walked in lake. The only hitch was my fourth floor room and no elevator. The heat-on-demand shower and rock hard mattress did not win at prizes. Praise Jesus I brought my inflatable mattress. With sixty-six miles on my odometer, a long nap helped revive me enough to Allow me to find some dinner, another culinary challenge.
Tomorrow I turn south and will ride exclusively on secondarily roads. Vietnam is very different from the western developed countries that I am accustomed to but I am catching on.
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