On the Ground, in Hanoi. . .again?? Indeed

Actually, there aren't too many other places I'm likely to start from these days, the little horse lives here, twenty five km out of Hanoi, getting dusty under a lean to against Mr. Dung's country home, which is also his lady wife's dry goods store and general merchandise shop and home to four, count 'em four kids.  When I met Dung (you say that "Zoong" in the northern pronunciation) there was only the one child, but that's been years ago now.  For a while it seemed as though they added as child every time I came back, but for some time  now, when I ask (the first thing after "how've you been?") is "How many kids now?" and it's hung tight at "Just Four" with a big grin.  Dung and I got off to sort of a rough start. . .I had a brand new bike to sell but with no title and he could only offer me "parts" value for it. . .a perfectly reasonable business position, but it left me quite short on the deal.  The scoundrel in Sapa who sold it to me (and that's a long story including a very tired old but beautiful Suzuki that barely got me up the mountain to Sapa before it died on his doorstep). . .,that scoundrel, as I was saying, sent me merrily on my way with a piece of official looking scrap paper that was not a title at all. . .,and kept the title himself.  I've no idea how he thought that would work well, given that I didn't bring the bike back north at all after my ride to the south but no matter, I had a bike with a piece of pretty paper and Dung gave me $100 for it when I needed $150 to get out of town whole.  H'mm.  In the end, he talked the original dealer out of the title and ended up with a usable bike to rent after all, but that was good luck.  And I survived after all.  The present little horse is, what, the third or fourth since I paid full new price for a brand new, top of the line (cheap, Chinese knock off of a line, but still, the top of that line) bike and convinced Dung to keep it for me between trips.  The deal was he could rent it out when I was gone as long as it was ready to ride when I got back. . .and it was never the front line of rentals, just a spare at the back of the lean to.  I think that brand new bike got wrecked. . .Dung never said. . .but one way or another, there was a fresh replacement waiting for me the following year.  That bike lasted a couple of rides and something went wrong with it, which brings us to yet another brand new blue bike (I like blue!!) that he snatched back from me after what would have been just the break in ride and presented me with the present Little Horse, with about the same mileage (kilometrage??) as the missing bike would have had, but with the cheaper head light (I really liked the big round headlight we started all this with) but also with a great set of racks for my saddle bags.  After a clutch replacement last year she's been superb, 120 cc's of raw power (yes, these little things are loud), smooth and fine to handle on the road.   I'm prejudiced, but she's a great bike for long adventures.  She carries 185 pounds of me and another 40 pounds or so of my luggage and in a pinch she'll lug along a passenger for a little ways too.  I've had her on roads that were just big chunks or rock sort of smoothed out by a bulldozer on the side of the mountain, along winter roads of pure slippery red clay and pushed her along through 400 km days on the highway and she just keeps going.  She'll cruise at the legal limit of 60 kmh all day on level ground, and grind up any hill that has pavement on it at least in second gear, all while delivering very close to 100 miles per gallon of Vietnamese gas.  If you buy one like  her, be prepared to scrap out most of the electrical thingy's, replace them with the Vietnamese spares you can get in any town, and you'll be fine.  The frame, motor and tires are great. . .some of the rubber is a bit shoddy, and the electrical boxes. , ,yes. , ,well, 'nuff said.

This year's first important chore, once the bike had been retrieved, was to meet with the publishers and specifically the book designer who is putting the English edition together now.  I don't write a lot of books (er, just this one really) and it seems I put an enormous amount of text with each photo, rather more like a chapter than a caption, and since she wanted a photograph on every page, the problem became getting all that verbiage in too.  So we talked about layouts and formats and looked at square samples and rectangular ones, hunted through and picked out the cover photos (front and back) and I dug out a shot of me with a canoe looking mysteriously younger to go with the "author's bio" on an inside flap of the cover.  So a final draft will be ready by the time I get back from the road this year and actual publication in. . .er. . .early 2019?  Sometime?  Clearly, stuff is happening!

Now that I've gotten the bike out of storage and met with the publishers, I've had to take care of a few minor details to get ready for long stretches of the high road.  This year those minor details have rather gotten out of hand.  To begin with, my 72 year old teeth have been begging for attention. . .which I can afford here in Hanoi. . .so there was the matter of setting up an appointment to rearrange my facial expressions a bit, new front tooth, to be clear, and a new crown and. . ,wait, you don't need all that information.  Just take it that the Preston dental work has slowed down this year's departure from the city, and I'm not smiling a whole lot in public just now.

I also managed to pack a cold along in my baggage, just taking hold on the flight over the Pacific (did I mention it was a new record for me, all of ten minutes short of twelve hours in the air!!  Goodness, just how long can these new airplanes stay up there?)  Anyway, it was 12 hours to all intents from Seattle to Seoul, an hour changing buses in Seoul, and another 4:35 on to Hanoi by 10:30 at night, and on top of all of that there was a cold settling in for a serious discussion.  Sigh.  That's slowed me down just a bit, what with naps in the middle of the day and such like.

There are the every-trip requirements, a new sim card for the cell phone for example. . .er. . .and this year, a new cell phone to go with the sim card.  My scrawny little ATT iPhone won't work on the Vietnamese networks, no matter how many sim cards you buy it.  Darn.  I like the new Nokia fine though, and maybe it'll plug in to the network at home.  So much for Apple for now!  (full disclosure, there are millions of happy iPhones in Viet Nam. . .just not from the ATT network.  Sigh.)

What else??  There was money to change and a new rain cape to buy (they don't last from one year to the next, and they're very nice to have when you're plugging through a rainy day on the bike). And I had to replace the keyboard on this poor little computer, not once but twice. . .The original built in keyboard decided to do without e's, t's 7's and a few other minor keys, so I found a young fellow with a tiny screwdriver who replaced the entire keyboard for $20. . .and that didn't do the trick.  Yikes!  Some sort of a software glitch I guess, it can't be the new hardware making the same exact errors.  So now I'm typing on a really lovely little bluetooth keyboard with the screen and "tablet" portion of the poor little laptop sitting in a blue rubber groove at the top of the keyboard. . .very cool. . .and a very nice keyboard to work on,   We won't discuss the un-budgeted expenditure, but I'll economize somewhere down the road.  Honest.

So, there's been a good bit of walking around on these errands and just seeing the neighborhood (gosh how it changes from one year to the next!!) and so there are some photos. . .nothing fabulous for now, that might come later.  In any event, tomorrow should be the first day on the road. . .out toward Hai Phong, then cutting cross country to Uong Bi and from there to Quang Yen and the wonderful sailing junk.  After that, Halong City and dinner with friends and we shall see.  Something good always happens around there.  Pack your rain gear, it looks like a damp trip this year. . .

A block from home and Traffic at a complete standstill on all four sides of the intersection, but more cars, bikes and cyclos closing in on the place moment by moment.  Much better to be walking just now.

Oh dear, he's dropped the last bite from the skewer.   .and he's going for it,  Sis looks very doubtful.

This is the secret to really quick and really good wonton soup. . .you pre load everything in separate bowls, have the noodles in reserve and an enormous kettle of lovely broth bubbling on the fire.  An order comes in, chop off a handful of noodles, throw the meat and wontons on top, add broth and a big crispy fried wonton sort of thing, a small handful of greenery and put it on the table.  ,elapsed time about 30 seconds, and a lovely supper.

About halfway through I realized this would make a fine photograph. . .plain yogurt, jackfruit, and who knows what the other stuff is. . .delicious I guess.  it's called "sua chua mit" yogurt and jackfruit.  You have to walk half a mile to get a bowl full, which maybe helps with the waist line

A fine view down one of the display cases in the best bakery anywhere around here, oh dear, it's on my block too,  The chocolate tart on the bottom shelf is to die for.

A street duck?  Later I met his person and found out he's seven years old and shares the room with a chicken and four cats.  No kidding.  He pecks your toes if you stand still.  

And this pair of street chickens seem just to hang out next to a busy noodle shop and roost right out in the open on the sidewalk.  Actually, street chickens aren't all that uncommon.  Ducks, on the other hand. . .maybe there's only one?

Here's a surprise set up in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Hanoi, the circle drive around Hoan Kiem Lake!  It's a huge and elaborate stage, all sorts of lights and mirrors and several thousand festival goers right where you would usually vie for space to ride your motorbike.  

I didn't have to wake him up to buy my supper, as soon as I paused in front of the steamer he was ready to go,  Steamed buns filled with meat, egg, noodles and that sort of thing are a ready staple in the city.  Out in the countryside though you'll rarely see them, and they won't likely be as tidy looking.  Home made ones tend to be lumpy, but very good.