Seeing a dead body on the road in Vietnam - Viet Road Trip Day 15-17 - Vinh to HanoisteemCreated with Sketch.

in #travel7 years ago (edited)

Viet Road Trip Days 15-17

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Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Viet Nam. This is day 15. Day 14 can be found here.

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This post is going to be a little bit different. I'm combining days because I only have a handful of photos for days 15, 16 and 17. I think I used up too much of my photography energy on day 14. The weather was also a problem. My phone wasn't waterproof, and the underwater enclosure for my GoPro was broken in Thailand, so that wasn't waterproof either. When it rained, I had to put my electronics away.

As for Hanoi, honestly, I didn't care for it very much. It was crowded, loud, expensive, cold, and rainy. Maybe if the weather was better I would have liked it more. The food was great there, but I was happy to leave.

Anyways, I'll get into Hanoi later in this post. Let's pick up where I left off, in Vinh.

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Leaving Vinh, I knew I was going to have to spend a lot of time riding on Highway 1. That's the one highway I was trying to avoid. It's full of traffic, construction, and there's nothing enjoyable about riding on it. I decided to take some side roads and quickly got off the beaten path.

Around here is when I started wondering if maybe Highway 1 wasn't that bad after all.

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The good thing is that Google knows about most of these roads, so being lost isn't really a thing. The bad thing is that Google doesn't see much difference between tiny dirt paths like this, and brand new 2-lane highways. It was cool to explore the area, but I knew that I was hardly making any progress on those small dirt roads.

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As I made my way north, I stayed next to the coast. The people in this area all seemed really friendly. Lots of people yelling Hello and waving. I was feeling pretty good.

Then this happened.

Things go from happy hellos to dead bodies pretty quick in this video.

This was a strange thing to experience. I was having fun, listening to music, saying hello to all the friendly villagers. Then I noticed a change in the vibe. People were getting more and more serious as I went down the road. You could feel the tragedy in the air. I turned off my music and saw the crowd up ahead.

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I could see that a motorbike had gotten smashed under a truck. The police opened up a little space to let me through. On the other side of the truck was the grieving family. Crying next to a body covered by cardboard, with only the feet showing. I was trying to make my way past as solemnly and respectfully as I could. Then "Hello!" from the crowd. Right in front of the grieving family. Then another "Hello!" from the crowd, like we were at the market or something.

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I just kept on going. Later that day when I was looking for a hotel in Ninh Binh, I saw another accident but everyone was alive, though injured. That night I stayed in Ninh Binh and went to Hanoi the next day.

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Getting close to Hanoi.

Light Hanoi traffic.

Hanoi was a big wet chaotic mess when I arrived. The weather sucked and I just wasn't all that interested in hanging out in the tourist areas. I did want western food and beer, so I went out and got some.

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At some point I met these people.

I don't remember much about what happened on my first night in Hanoi. Somehow I started drinking with the people in the photo. After that, a few of us went walking around for more drinks. At some point, I was offered back-alley sex by an Austrailian woman. As much as I wanted to have that story to tell, I declined the offer. Call me old-fashioned, but drunk dumpster sex in a Hanoi alley doesn't appeal to me.

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The next day I tried to be as lazy as possible. I spent hours in my room, looking at my phone. Then I went out for Western food. For some reason, I was unmotivated to take photos. I had to force myself to take pictures because I knew I'd want them in the future. Thanks Past me! You were right!

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Hanoi definitely has its own unique charm. I was just feeling a little out of sorts when I was there.

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There's something about these tiny, crowded little streets that I love. There's a palpable vibrance to places like this.

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Just a random street.

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These are my favorite photos from Hanoi. This is what it looks like when school gets out. I used to think that American schools were crowded when they're dismissed. This the Vietnamese take it to a new level. It took me 10 minutes just to walk through. I don't know how these folks do it on motorbikes.

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Everyone just waits in front of the school until their kid comes out.

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I wonder how many students go to this school. It looks like thousands.

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In Hanoi, my bike started having engine problems again. The bike had shut down once or twice while riding. It started acting up again, in Hanoi. I took it to a mechanic and he found the problem. Due to the rain, my spark plug was getting wet and causing problems. The mechanic fixed it with some electricians tape.

With my bike fixed, I was ready to get back on the road and head north to Sapa. Until then, ride safe!

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Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Vietnam. Read about days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7.1, 8, 8.1, 9, 9.1, 10, 11,12, 13 and 14 here.

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Oh no! That wasn't a pleasant thing to see. I hope you do not encounter it again.

Safe travels my friend!

If I'm remembering correctly, the accidents on day 15 were the only ones I saw up close.

After seeing the accidents, I kept feeling like it was going to be my turn to have an accident soon. I was a little relieved when I sold my bike a few months later.

Yes thats rather frightening. Glad you gave it up before anything happened.

Safe travels!

Really sad, i suppose this type of event really puts things into perspective and makes you think. Glad your ok, and thanks for sharing.

The Hanoi pics are amazing by the way! I remember drinking homebrew on the streets sat on plastic chairs, do you know what its called? I think it had a name...

They did have a name like Beer Hoi's or something that means keg or on-draft.

The accidents definitely put things into perspective. When I was in Da Nang, I went to the college graduation of the girls who worked at my hotel. A couple weeks later my friend told me that one of the girls who graduated with her died in an intersection that I used daily. It made me slow down, for sure.

Bia Hoi is the word you are looking for... follow my blog....most of mu pictures are fro Hanoi... @dragonator

Yikes! glad you made it safe!

Hanoi looks pretty intense man. I stayed in Nha Trang for a couple of months, scuba diving around. It's common to see motorcyle accidents on the road, it's crazy!

I know I stayed a night in Nha Trang, and I was already scuba certified, but my first visa was only 30 days so I rushed through.

How was the diving? The only scuba diving I did was in Thailand.

I kind of worked for a couple of months in the scuba dive shop who gave me the license. I was scuba diving almost everyday. It was pretty cool! You won't see big fishes but the coral reef was amazing too, and there's pretty decent dive sites like the tiger wall and madonna rock/ cave.

I'll have to keep that in mind. It would be cool to scuba dive again, and I definitely want to return to Vietnam.

Let me know if you will return, as I might as well. Who knows?!

what are your favorite diving spots in Thailand?... my best was Similan islands with my first and only Manta Ray encounter...but i heard they have massive coral bleaching there now...so probably not so great

I only dove in Koh Tao and the Similan islands. After I got certified in Koh Tao, I did a six-night live-aboard on a Chinese Junk. The boat went all over the Similan islands and we did 4 or 5 dives a day.

To be honest, there were so many dives and so many names for the dive spots, I can't remember which ones I particularly enjoyed. Actually, I haven't really looked at any of the footage since the trip. I should see if I've got anything interesting.

The biggest animal that I saw was a big turtle eating coral.

the massive gatherings around traffic accident victims is quite a common thing around Vietnam. As far as I know, people believe that the good spirits will transfer from the dead body to themselves...maybe thats why the mood is not grieving only... still i also dont understand the disrespect sometimes... i blame it more on the cultural differences than anything else

I didn't know that about the spirit leaving. That's interesting, and it does put things into a different perspective.

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I have just one comment. Vietnam is food Heaven so why the heck are you A tourist in Vietnam, yet always looking for western food?

By this point in my trip, I had been living outside of my home country for 9 years. I had already spent years making meals into "cultural experiences". At this point, I just wanted the food that I wanted. Plus I don't like seafood, and soup isn't considered a meal where I come from.

I had some great local food in Vietnam, but Thai is more to my taste. I think if Vietnam had Thai cuisine, it would the perfect country.

Crying next to a body covered by cardboard, with only the feet showing.

Do you have nightmares or dreams? Also, good life choice on skipping on the dumpster sex. Definitely would have caught something 👍

No, it wasn't that traumatic for me. The villagers yelling hello to me as I rode by the family kind of lightened the mood.

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