Day 1 done! Mountains and shots and groping and mold.

Well we made it through the first day!

The group met in Hanoi a few days ago, and we (I, at least) spent those days running around trying to finish everything I hadn’t finished in Saigon. At 8:00 this morning, our van got there. A few hours later, we set off from the edge of Hanoi and ended up in Hoa Binh, about 65 kilometers down the road.

It was a lovely day. It took us about an hour or so to get out of all the crazy city traffic and big trucks with loud horns. But suddenly, about halfway through the ride, we turned through this curve and we were suddenly on this gorgeous road looking at nothing but bikes in the foreground and mountains in the background! From then on, it was schweet.

When I finished my first bottle of water, I stopped at a little roadside stand to get another. But before the woman gave it to me, this man came up to me with two shot glasses full of something. I felt certain that it wasn’t water, so I smelled it. It was vodka. “No no no” I said “I have a long way to go and I don’t think this will help.” (in my best sign language, of course). He wasn’t having it. I wasn’t getting my water until I drank his. So I downed it. To cheers from the table full of men in the back. Strange but somehow wonderful.

The next place I stopped with my friend Jacinta, there was a bunch of women trying to ask us (we think) “How old are you and how many are you and where are you going?” They sort of lost their minds when we said “Saigon.” So then I got groped, by a Vietnamese woman. She mostly groped my thighs and my calves. Strange but somehow . . . wonderful is not exactly the right word, but hugely entertaining.

So that’s all. I’m feeling stellar at the end of the first day, and feeling more confident about the rest of the trip. The only mild concern is the absolute lack of low mountain-style gears on these road bikes, which I hadn’t fully appreciated until today. Ah whatever. Bring on the thunder thighs I guess.

And on a final note, I just want to say how lovely it is to be in Vietnam and not in Saigon. All the people we have seen have been so incredibly friendly and interested and excited about what we’re doing. It makes me excited to see more of the country outside of the big cities and tourist spots. I suppose the risk of food poisoning goes up, but that’s really the only downside. We were eating peanuts tonight and I went “gosh these are soft, almost like boiled peanuts back home, and I love boiled peanuts.” To which my friend took a look in one of hte shells and responded “yes, but they’re not boiled, that’s just mold.” Ah whatever. Bring it on.