Anna All good things must come to an end. So our adventure in Hong Kong also came to an end. I wasn’t sad to leave because a new adventure awaited us. We flew from Hong Kong to Hanoi. We stayed at a lovely hotel in the old quarter. They even served breakfast in bed, which I am a big fan of!
It saddens me to admit but I didn’t see much of Hanoi. I vaguely remember the hurdles of scooters on the streets which made it hard to cross a street. I saw some bits of the old quarter but not much as I got sick on our very first day in Hanoi. It was entirely my own fault. After traveling through the USA, Beijing and Hong Kong I had not realised that in countries like Vietnam, you can’t just eat and drink anything. Probably naive on my part but the thought just never crossed my mind. So on our first day I had a milkshake with whipped cream and pancakes and in the evening I drank a strawberry drink with lots of ice cubes, which was a recipe for disaster.
As you can imagine, I got really sick. I couldn’t leave the bed. Well, I could but only to go to the toilet. It was horrendous. So, that was the end of my adventure in Hanoi. Not sure if I should tell this story but what the heck! I did go out one evening in Hanoi because I had to buy a new hairdryer and I didn’t trust my boyfriend to buy the right one. So my stubborn ass had to accompany him. I am very vain when it comes to my hair. So once again, I had called this unfavorable fate upon myself. We went to the shop and bought me the hairdryer I wanted, everything was still fine at that point. What I didn’t know was that, when you are “ill” like I was, you cannot fart. So I made the humongous mistake of farting. So, as you expect, I shat myself. Right there and then, in the middle of Hanoi, I had crapped my pants. It was mortifying but in hindsight quite funny to be honest. My hand smelled like poop (which was how I found out I shat myself) and my boyfriend (who could blame him?!) didn’t want to hold my hand anymore. He told me to “piss off with my poop hand”. To be fair, I would’ve done the same but I just really wanted to hold his hand as crossing the streets in Hanoi wasn’t that easy. We made it back to the hotel and needless to say, I threw away my underwear.
Moving on, we planned on riding the Ha Giang Loop (with easy riders) so my boyfriend had to take care of everything, explore the city by himself and feed me occasionally. I wasn’t totally recovered when we left for Ha Giang so I stuffed my face with loperamide. Our transportation to Ha Giang was great, we rode in a limousine bus. It was super comfortable and we made plenty of stops on the way. When we arrived in Ha Giang, we weren’t quite there yet. We still had to go to our homestay, we were staying with locals! Our host gave us a tour around the village and he was super friendly. He told us stories about the region and showed us lovely sights. In the evening his wife cooked us (and 5 other guests) a traditional Vietnamese dinner and we drank “holy water”, which was not water as I found out the hard way.. The food was the best food I had ever tasted! I instantly loved the Vietnamese cuisine. There were more guests in the homestay with us and we all had so much fun getting to know each other. There was a German couple whose roots were in Vietnam so they came together to get to know the country a little bit better.
We slept in a bungalow next to the main house and it was made entirely out of wood. The host made it himself. It was pretty cool and the view when we woke up was just indescribably beautiful. After breakfast our easy riders picked us up and off we went. My easy rider didn’t talk much, I think his English was not that great. I didn’t mind as I could just enjoy the views. The Ha Giang loop is up until this day the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Riding through the mountains on a motorcycle, seeing this amazing scenery. It was simply perfect. At the end of the day they dropped us off at a hotel and we were able to eat at the nearby restaurant (where all the tourists doing the loop were dining). We didn’t sleep that well because there was a big neon sign in front of our window but who cared! We were in Vietnam having the time of our lives.
So we thought.. the next day didn’t really go as planned. It drizzled a bit in the morning so the roads were a little bit slippery. We didn’t think much of it. We didn’t really think about how dangerous the Ha Giang Loop was at all before riding it ourselves but apparently it was not that safe. I would find out soon enough. We were heading towards a sharp turn and my boyfriend and his easy rider were riding in front of us. My boyfriend had this strange feeling telling him to look back and see how I was doing. So he did and what he saw would scare the living shit out of him. My easy rider lost control over the motorcycle and we slipped. It’s funny because people ask me if it happened quickly but in my mind it didn’t. Everything slowed down, it felt like everything was in slowmotion. I felt the motorcycle slip away under me, I saw the easy rider falling to the ground and then I felt myself hitting the asphalt. I rolled a bit, I vaguely remember that. I was in utter shock, I remember that too. So my boyfriend was franticly tapping his easy rider on the back and shouting that they needed to stop. He told me this afterwards but in those few seconds he didn’t know whether I was alive or not. I was laying there on the ground but he said that I stood up with my arms in the air, screaming. He ran towards me asking me if I was okay, at the time I didn’t know if I was okay. I didn’t feel anything. I had peed myself, I knew that and I was crying. My easy rider only cared about me and my wellbeing, which was super sweet but afterwards I felt guilty as he probably hurt himself too. In the aftermath, I had contused my arm and ripped my clothes and (day) backpack. So I was lucky. But there was still a long journey ahead of us, there was no time to be afraid. I had to get back on the motorcycle and ride for 6 more hours. That wasn’t great but we didn’t have a choice. In the end, I did get a moment to ask my easy rider if he was okay too, which he was. All in all, the experience was a rollercoaster. It was amazing and scary at the same time. I still recommend the Ha Giang Loop to everyone as it was, besides the accident, the highlight of our Vietnam trip!
After a few days, I facetimed my mum and she cried when I told her what happened. I told her that she needn’t worry as I was still alive and kicking. Mothers, they are so precious!
