here, there, everywhere

After Na Hang, our quiet, tranquil road trip became less of a pleasant ride down nice roads and more of a slog over piles of rocks and mud, or any combination of rocks and mud. When I get back to the States, I can happily launch into a dramatic retailing of the woe we encountered, but for now - as I'm getting rather backlogged on blogs - here are some highlights from our two days of terrible driving:

• Iain's bike's clutch snapping off, which meant the hilarious sight of Iain coasting through the Vietnamese country side on a crap bike, unable to stop, calling Bike repair? Bike repair? to anyone who happened to be listening in what must be the most hilarious example of the doppler effect I can envision. (Imagine you're a local Vietnamese guy in the middle of nowhere, minding your own business, when suddenly a foreigner on an unstoppable bike comes rolling down the road crying out for a mechanic in bad Vietnamese. Hilarity!) 
• Asking countless locals about the state of the roads, and being told they were fine; and then, when we either pointed to the current terrible road or showed them a picture of a terrible road, they'd nod sagely and say "Yes, just like that." 
• Relatedly, learning that my definition of "really big rocks" and other people's definition of "really big rocks" do not coincide. Not even a little. 

• Me taking advantage of what I thought was my solitude on a particularly harrowing road to cuss it out, loudly (after three hours of driving a Wave over rocks up and down hills, it seemed like a reasonable move) ... only to be busted by some Vietnamese dudes on their bike not 2 yards behind. Oops.

• The humbling realization - or reminder, really - that everyone who lives in that area drives over those roads all the time and probably does not feel the need to blog triumphantly about it. Not that we didn't already know this, but Vietnamese people are way tougher than us.