Day 1: Escape from Hanoi...

Day 1 - Hanoi to 'Dream' Mo Waterfall

Ok. Tricky write-up this one, because this is one day when it all went a fair bit pear-shaped and to be honest one that we would all rather forget.

To start off, after the night out in Hanoi I woke at 3am despite still being tired and perhaps still worse for wear.  I packed some stuff, watched Netflix then tried to get to sleep again.  Packed a bit more, tried to sleep some more.  Etc.

Despite that we were up reasonably on time and downstairs for a Hotel Tirant breakfast (always good!).  I'd been looking forward to another round of banana pancakes and dumplings with honey, and they didn't disappoint. Outside, it was a typical first day Hanoi morning with damp roads but very little in the way of rain. It's always nice to stand out on the street for a bit on mornings like this before the craziness of the city begins and the streets become choked up with scooters, pollution and tourists.

Breakfast of champions. Banana pancakes, honey and sweet dumplings.

We went and retrieved the bikes from Flamingo as planned, and rode them back to the Hotel so we could load up the luggage.  I took some Kriega luggage straps which I used to mount the Lomo waterproof duffle bag on the rear rack.  A good setup but it took a bit of time doing it for the first time, getting everything adjusted.  By the time I'd done that the others were ready to go.  I went to check out and had a bit of a dispute with the hotel which took the clerk 3 attempts at reprinting the invoice before they got it right (luckily I had a printout of my deposit and arrangements with me so it was pretty cast iron).  However that cost me more time and in all that haste I forgot to set my GoPro up for the ride out of Hanoi.  Oh well...

The ride out of Hanoi was probably the most intense we've had so far I reckon. It was a complete trial by fire for Roger who was entirely new to Asia, Vietnam and Hanoi.  I wondered at what point he would be thinking what had he gotten himself into!  I think pretty soon after we set off.  

Hanoi traffic is complete chaos in action. Traffic rarely comes to a halt, people don't focus on what's behind them because you don't need to. Instead you use your peripheral vision to detect incoming traffic from the sides as well as in front, and use judgement and timing so that you avoid it all yet keep moving.  However since this is Asia, "might is right!" which means cars, buses and trucks just bully their way through it all with judicious and constant use of the horn. You get used to it, but on a trip like this there's no way around it, you're in at the deep end straight away and it gets better from there. If I'm honest I don't think any of us had slept well and we weren't really ready for battle, but we got through it.

There were a few near-misses on all fronts until we started to clear out of the city, and even then the roads take on a different type of menace for a few hours until you clear the suburbs. The aforementioned trucks and SUV's continue to bully their way through, only now you're not talking about huge 10-lane intersections with plenty of space, you're talking about main roads through villages with kids cycling along the road too.   So within the space of a two lane road, you'll have kids on bicycles or electric scooters at the outside, then scooters, usually trying to overtake each other or with huge loads, then trucks barging through the middle of all that with barely enough space.  It's pretty full-on and not very enjoyable at the time - although you do have a laugh afterwards about some of the events you just witnessed!

Our destination at this point was Pinky's house, he was going to cook lunch for us.  I can't believe that what we just rode through was his commute. It's 100 times harder than commuting into a UK city at rush hour.  We pitched up at Pinky's place and he and his lovely wife got food and coffee ready while his kids took turns being fascinated by us.  In particular they were fascinated with Joe's full sleeve arm tattoos.

After an excellent lunch including Pinky homemade spring rolls, we rode on 25km to our first drinks stop of the day. The roads gradually became less frantic and the scenery turned much more rural.  Dustbowl concrete towns gave way to more open views across countryside, with the mountains starting to creep into view and paddy fields appearing.  The weather also started to turn from cloudy and overcast to clearer skies with a bit of heat.  I'll let the road photos below do the talking.

At the drinks stop there were hammocks scattered around so a few of us took advantage.  A nice way to relax for half an hour with a G7 (coffee).

I could get used to this...

From there we rode on. Not long after setting off I followed Bryan around a couple of easy bends with a road joining partway around one bend.  Despite seeing him and appearing to wait, some old fella on a scooter decided it would be a good move to pull right across Bryan's path at the last second. Luckily Bryan was able to swerve and haul the XR up and avoid hitting him, but it was a reminder that some people can behave completely random and unpredictable, and to be super cautious at all times.

We next stopped at a bridge for a photo stop.  At this stage the weather was really brightening up and the sun was in full effect.

After the bridge stop we rode on.  I managed to shoot off a few more on-the-move photos but really we just wanted to get to the hotel and get the first day done, rounding it off with a beer. We were in the rhythm of it a bit more by now and enjoying the scenery.  The traffic had calmed down to the point where there were just occasional traffic either oncoming or to be overtaken.  Easy enough.

This is where things went drastically wrong.

We were on a long straight with no traffic for around half a mile, aside from an oncoming articulated truck. Pinky was in front as our guide, followed by (not certain on the order) Jim, Del, Joe and Phil, with myself, Roger and Bryan behind.  Pretty spread out and no hazards to speak of. Just before the oncoming truck got level with us, Pinky drifted into the oncoming lane.  The truck hauled on the brakes and almost put it into a field by swerving to the side, but an impact was unavoidable. From my perspective perhaps 150 yards back, I was paying more attention to the scenery right up until the point of impact.  When the truck slewed sideways that caught my attention and I looked forward to see a huge cloud of dust and debris as the bike hit the front corner of the truck.

We all immediately pulled over, for my part I was shouting obscenities in my helmet as no doubt the others were, and hoping that it wasn't one of our crew and that whoever was involved was ok. We ran up to the scene and found Pinky on the ground not moving. Del, Joe and Phil got to work on him to see what state he was in and check for a pulse. Me being no good at anything medical (more likely to pass out than be able to help!) I phoned Hung (Flamingo owner) and told him about the accident. I needed him to speak to a local in Vietnamese to find out ( a ) where we were and ( b ) where the nearest hospital was, then ( c ) to ask them to phone for an ambulance.  I near enough dragged a waiting truck driver out of his cab and put him on the phone to Hung, and to give credit to the chap he was very useful in relaying what had happened and helping as much as he could.

While this was going on, Joe was making sure none of the cars that were picking their way through the accident scene got close to Pinky.  The others had helped halt a taxi driver who was trying to drive through, and basically made him take Pinky to the hospital.  We're always told in the UK not to move someone after a motorcycle accident, and that's good advice, however in Vietnam ambulances aren't exactly easy to come by and sometimes it's better to get the job done by any means than wait until you can do something 'the right way'.  Pinky's left arm was in a very bad way, with a large laceration and losing a lot of blood.  He had part regained consciousness in a very drowsy way, enough that we could tell when moving his leg that his spine was still intact, so the quick decision was to lift him into the taxi whereby he could be taken to the nearest hospital. The last I saw was Del in the taxi with Pinky across his lap looking very panic stricken and taking off for the hospital.

After that the traffic police arrived and did a very thorough investigation of the accident.  We noticed a hotel about 1/4 mile away and walked back to it, putting Hung on the phone to the owner.  He arranged that we stayed their that night and we would talk about the situation further, but for now we should get everyone back to that hotel.  We pushed most of the bikes back rather than rode, and stood around dissecting the situation and trying to make some sense of what had happened.  I think we were all in shock to some extent.

Around an hour later we got contact via Joe and Del on the mobile that the Doctors had worked on Pinky in the taxi, splinting his arm and leg, and that he appeared for now to be ok as far as spinal or head injuries were concerned. However the hospital seemed very basic and there was no way to tell until he started regaining consciousness.

Joe and I cadged a lift from a chap at the hotel to the hospital where we found Del very distressed, and Pinky on a gurney by the entrance.  The plan was that he be transferred to Hanoi.  The doctors seemed to be comfortable with his condition.  Del had been talking to the Police at the hospital who had taken custody of all Pinky's belongings. Within about half an hour the ambulance arrived to make the transfer to Hanoi, and Del had already decided to go with him in the ambulance. By the time we arrived back at the hotel Joe had decided he would go back to Hanoi the next day (Del is Joe's Dad by the way). Hung arranged a hotel for Del that night.

Back at the hotel we were pretty shellshocked by it all and had major concerns about whether Pinky would be ok.  We talked over what had happened repeatedly, and at that point we all felt like canning the whole trip.  There was no way it would be the same without Pinky, Del or Joe. For my part I also couldn't see me wanting to ride a motorbike any time soon and get any enjoyment out of it.  We spoke to Hung and agreed that we all needed to sleep on it then make a decision in the morning.  Hung by this point had cancelled his leading a tour that was planned for the next day (HCMC to Hanoi I believe) and appointed another guide to do it so he could take care of Pinky and help us with whatever we decided to do next.

I spoke to my old roomie and my mate Tony on messenger because I needed to talk to someone about it, to help make sense of it and decide what to do next.

Ultimately, we slept on it since nothing more would be known until the morning.