Jen and Ted in the SEA

Today is the 24th pf February but I must recount the past few days from where Jen left of. After cycling from Hue to Lang Co, we stayed at the Lang Co Beach Resort where we were the only occupants. We were to ride to Hoi An and the day starts out with a 10 km long climb up Hai Van Pass. The weather was cloudy but not raining for a change. Jen and the other people took off ahead as we started the 8% grade (quite steep) climb and I was stopping to take some pics. The views were stunning. Equally stunning was the number of transtport trucks coming down the mountain on the wrong side of the road!

Luckily there was only the odd motorbike otherwise so the horns and traffic were lighter than normal. When I finally got to the top of the pass, our group had made some great friends at the top.

We sat down to have coffee with them when we noticed our table was covered with trinkets. The sale was on, and now that they befriended us, "You don't forget me! Buy bracelet!" it was hard to extricate ourselves without buying something. We quickly picked the least offensive pieces and headed down the otherside. Sloppy road and all.

We carried on down through Danang, stopped for lunch at Goa's Place at CHina Beach and had some awesome build-your-own spring rolls. The owner showed us, by saying in his best surfer voice, "Check it out man!" It was like having lunch wirth Cheech and Chong. We then finished off the day with a ride down a secondary highway to Hoi An.

With about 10 km to go, Jen riding first and me close behind with Adam and Andrea and the bus following. Out of nowhere I hear a guy right beside me laughing and I thought it was Adam trying to ride to close but in an instant I realized a man on a motorcycle swerved from 2 lanes over right in to me and ran me into the curb! Luckily, the road was quite flat and were only doing about 25-30 km/h. It turns out he was trying to change his glove on while driving, it got stuck and lost control while fighting to get it off.

As for me, I stood up quite quickly and the locals surrounded me. My right leg was badly scraped (road rash) and a large swelling was starting below my right knee. Adam treated my wounds and we got up to ride into town. I shook the man's hand before he left ( we waited for him to go before we go started). It was quite painful but rode the last 10-12 kms in town to the hotel. I was very angry with the guy at first but nothing really could be done about it.

The best part is that Huyen, our local guide (obviously trained with an older version of First Aid) continually poked the swelling in my leg soon after the accident. I was able to move my foot, toes, etc, and nothing was broken. Although the bulge in my leg was not supposed to be there, it deserved more poking until Jen and I told him to stop. He means well. It barely drizzled most of that day and we had the next day off in Hoi An.

Yesterday, we left Hoi An in the gray overcast skies and rain. It rained all day as we meandered on very muddy, dirty roads till we realized we were lost. Once we caught up with the bus, we got back on track and carried onto more dirty roads for about 60 km before we and our bikes were so soaked and dirty that we could not shift gears so we had to board the bus for the last few km into town.

Today, it rained all day again but we had more pavement so we rode all 83 km except for a really bad section of road that would have done the bikes in again and cost the rest of the day.

Everyday we hope for rain and our laundry to come back dry (or at all) before we leave in the AM. Maybe tomorrow!

Still smiling and riding!