Ride a motorbike through Vietnam

“Eventually we hit the AH1 and found some rhythm. I was beginning to learn the flow of the traffic, the language of steering the bike. We were taking the ride leisurely, making frequent stops to sample the local drip coffee sweetened with condensed milk and other roadside snacks. [...] I pulled over next to a small roadside shop that fronted a house behind it where a lady was sitting at a concrete table meticulously splitting apart sunflower seeds with her teeth and eating them. I didn’t do the bike stand right and it fell over. It was rock bottom, and I began cursing the idea of this motorbike trip and blaming Michael for pushing it.”

“Second time I rented a semi-automatic for 7 weeks, and I ride from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh in a solo trip. Third time I rented a manual old Honda Win (or something like that) for 10 weeks, and I went from Ho Chi Minh to Luang Prabang, crossing Cambodia and Laos from Vietnam. Yes, the day I rented the manual motorbike was my first time ever riding one and I learn changing the gears in the city on the way to my hostel. I am in love.”