29 April 2011

SpiceRoads Cycling Tour – Day 12
Transfer from Danang to Hanoi

I can’t remember the last time I saw a flight attendant jump seat in the overwing exit row, but there it is, directly across from me, fixed and rigid and not at all comforting.  How old is this plane?  Better not to ask, just buckle the belt, seat upright, tray table stashed, and start chanting my flying mantra “Lift Lift Lift”.  We are departing Danang Airport courtesy of Vietnam Airlines.  A few hours late but it’s a short flight and we have the nicest hotel of our entire SpiceRoads journey to look forward to once back in Hanoi.

All in all it’s been a good trip, in spite of all our whining and complaining about the bad days of routing.  Certainly there’s room for improvement there, but when you look back on the trip as a whole and think about how special it really was that we went for days without seeing hide nor hair of another Westerner, and how special it really was that we were seeing so much magnificent scenery from the saddles of our bicycles (could there be a better way to travel?), and how special it really was that we were seeing the hardworking people and beautiful children in their element, so close that we could reach out and slap them a high five or pet that water buffalo they were trailing behind, well, then you realize how special it really was.  There’s street fatigue and poverty fatigue and fish-head soup fatigue, but then there are shy children smiling and waving and verdant green rice paddies stretching for miles and vertigo-inducing limestone cliffs around that next corner and three pigs strapped to the back of that motor scooter and such a plethora of sights and sounds like no others us two Westerners have experienced that you have to pinch yourself and say wow, we really did that and saw all that and experienced all that and yeah, sometimes it was tough and tiring and I wished for a softer bed but mostly it was new and different and eye opening and once that fatigue has worn itself away then yeah, maybe we’ll do it again someday.  Only next time we’ll avoid the Hanoi donut vendor.