March 13 - Second Time is a Charm

We arrived on time, at 5 am, in Hanoi, back to where I had started the trip. The city was waking up, with people exercising on the street, with the flag of Vietnam being raised during the daily military parade and thousands of motorbikes criss-crossing the town.

Ladies rockin' it out on the street

The flag in front of the HCM mausoleum

Flood of motorbikes

I was at the Origin Bikes shop for the opening, the owner assured me the bike would be ready in the early afternoon. I needed a place to clean up and my plan was to spend that night in Hanoi, so I booked a nice, 4-star hotel for about $30 (quite a deal...) close to the bike shop, they let me check in early, around 10 am. I took a pleasant, warm shower and even dozed off for a while. At around noon, I thought to check on my bike and was a bit alarmed to see it yet untouched. It turned out that the bolt was a very special one and that one of the employees was on a wild-goose chase around town, trying to find something suitable.

Being quite tired from the night, I just hang out in the vicinity, finding a nice Pho place, drinking Vietnamese coffee and walking the streets, gazing at the architecture. Even though this was my second time in Hanoi, I did not do a proper sight-seeing of town, I would hold it off till the end, after all, I would be departing from that city.

Nothing better than getting a good Pho with the locals

As seen on the street

Architecture

At 2 pm, they just started working on the bike, however, it would turn out to be a complicated job, as the bolt would not fit. So I was just killing time, waiting for the good news - which would not come until around 6 pm. I was handed over the bike with a new chain and everything in good working condition - I was thrilled!

In fact, so thrilled that I suddenly decided to check out of my hotel (the receptionist was quite surprised), collect my hanged clothes (they did not fully dry in Cao Bang, so I hanged these at the roof of the hotel) and made a mad dash for the bus station, which was about 10 kilometers from the center, heading back towards Cao Bang, . I rode through this vibrant town, where people were meeting for drinks and dinner after work, spotting beer gardens and BBQ places - hmmm, that smelled good! I shouted over to the motorbikers, asking then about the direction to the bus station, for a while, no one understood what I was looking for - then a young guy on his moped told me to follow him. He led me through the traffic jams, sometimes riding on the pavement. In the middle of a large round-about, one of my bags from the back dropped, I did not notice, luckily, others did, they screamed at me, so I was able to collect it. I reached the bus and took my seat, er, my bed and yet again, managed to get some sleep.

The crew at Origin Bikes

On the bus back to Cao Bang