Day 261, Dong Hoi

Alarm went off at six though was still dark outside so stole another half hour, filled up with petrol and on our bikes. It was another grey miserable day, and it didn’t stop raining from seven in the morning till nine at night when we finished dinner and turned in. I fashioned a poncho suit, using a poncho as a skirt thing and another poncho the standard way, though with the riding clothes still wet it didn’t make a lot of difference. About two hours in we stopped for a break, were making good distance through the rain, and I noticed my chain was lose, (again, it has a habit of doing this), so stopped off at a repair shop and got it tightened, then going along I lose Michael and he returns the favour of scooping up a bit of my bike that fell off (I picked up his license plate which came off coming back from Ninh Binh), so again we stop to get that re-affixed. Carry on riding through the rain and the cold, stop for a bit and first thing Michael says is “I’ve been warmer and dryer whilst swimming”, and he laughed at my poncho suit! Back on the road till lunch, stop for a bowl of Pho which was really good and back on the bike. Realise we’re not going to make it to Hue which is a shame. I was miserable, cold, wet and not having fun. Didn’t even have the effort or will to sing myself through. Though we turned a corner and the scenery picked right up, big karsts emerged out of no-where, turquoise rivers appeared, I looked around me and thought fuck yeah. It was amazing. It was also this moment I started to watch Forrest Gump in my head, inspired by him being in ‘Nam and how it kept on raining, listing all the fucking rain there is. As my mood improved Martha didn’t, she started emitting a rattle that would come and go, that go worse. We set our revised sight on Dong Hui, 67kms from where we were and it was coming and going, then got worse. As we reached Dong Hui it was getting awful and my engine was rattling and moving around and making a dreadful noise. As my kick starter had broken earlier I’ve had to running start it and a mechanic who was closing beckoned me in to sort it. Michael went off to sort a hotel and the guy set to work. He and his mate soon fixed the kick start though my engine was still moving around, they then spent about an hour doing different things, thinking they fixed it and then not. Turns out the main bolt holding my engine into the frame of my bike is broken and I need a new one. They don’t have the bolt so they patch me up and I go with Michael to the hotel, my bike sounding worse and worse. After peeling off the wet clothes and having a shower we go off for dinner, have some really nice noodles on the street, got some snacks from the market and chilling out watching the god-awful though mesmerising film He’s such a girl…