Rather than reassemble my bike, I unpacked it from the cardboard container (packed for the flight from Saigon to Hanoi) and repacked it into my bicycle traveling case. With my bike to ride, I used one of the loaners at the hotel. After coffee with Dan, Faye and David at the local open cafe a stone’s through from the hotel, David Radford (a seaplane Pilot and sailor living in Subic Bay, Phillipines) and I had lunch at a funky buffet a mile down the road. He rides a one gear bike with no brakes. Back pressure on the pedals slows the bike down. Not my first choice for a bike.
Hai showed up in the afternoon and saw that I could use a better bike to get around the Island on. We walked over to his place where he brought out one of his racing machines. On our way back to the hotel as I was pushing the bike, a woman on a motorbike grazed the bike and pushed it into me. The bike’s pedal dug into the top of my right foot. Within thirty seconds my sandal was full of blood. Hai found a store around the corner where he bought some gauze, antiseptic and medical tape. He cleaned my foot up and taped on a gauze bandage. After having two beers outside of my micro hotel sitting in a sidewalk cafe chair, I rallied Peter upstairs and we had dinner our at a local place nearby. Peter is from South Africa and teaches English to grammar school Vietnamese kids. He is gay, funny and fun to hang out with. As the evening progressed my foot has become progressively sorer. I limped back to my hotel across the street from original digs when I first stayed before my journey. Given the injury, I am not optimistic about being able to ride around tomorrow. Two minor accidents caused by two woman motorbikers. Hai lamented how woman on motorbikes are dangerous.
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