A Solo Travellers Mind

This post is dedicated to Tyrone the octopus, Clarke and Aaron. 

On return to my room on Tuesday night I am greeted by TWO ENGLISH MEN! This may seem small to some but after three days of no one speaking English this was a joyous occasion. After formal introductions, it was dinner for three. Ending up in a local restaurant, I opted for ordering one of those cook your own meats selection meals. We were shocked to find pig tongue, cheek, and intestine on the plate… with me refusing to try, Ali takes one for the team and eats all the intestine, (no food poisoning occurred). Next stop was a local bar I’d been wanting to try out. With the initial entrance looking slightly like a dodgy alleyway, I was sceptical… However, when inside it’s quite the place. A pretty to do establishment that served some splendid cocktails! Over the course of the night I heard the story of Tyrone, an octopus teddy on a quest. Amused, and quite impressed with the imagination and skill required for such quests, I pledged to join the group with an octopus tattoo.

Having spent the evening telling Ali that if he snored I would kick off, we were all incredibly upset to discover our other room mate not only snored, but also sleep talked. With Blake awakon at 3am and attacking the man in an attempt to get him to stop (he didn’t). This resulted in two particularly tired group members in the morning… 

The boys had acquired some pretty good motorbikes, and with my spare day, I took up the offer to join them on their adventures.

First stop is the famous waterfall, which I was more than happy to revisit! This visit was far more adventurous with us climbing up and over with the idea to cross the border… Blake had the brilliant idea to go swimming, with the current not looking too strong when he enters. A sceptical Ali follows, with me trailing behind particularly afraid about going flying off the edge of the largest waterfall in SE Asia… With Blake joking about how funny it would be if it was controlled by a dam and suddenly more water started coming down, I took an attempt to join. Upon entry, and with a show from Blake, we were made aware of how strong the current had become… Opting for a paddle, it was soon time for the boys to get out. This is where I saved their life (kinda). As they fight the now much stronger current to get from the pool of water back to the edge my “mega strength and grip” grabs hold of Ali to help him up. Blake followed, this time it was a more difficult exit and Ali most certainly proved more life saving than myself. After counting our blessings and laughing about how much water was now flowing through the waterfall (it’s connected to a dam lol), we headed back down. Over all some incredible views (only of the waterfall of course). 

It is decided that, after manifesting snoring roommates and stronger currents, we shall not discuss negative things again as a group, as they seem to become true! 

Next we stop at a lake nearby, crossing over a bridge clearly not fit for purpose, but still a much safer task than the previous. However with boys being children *COUGH BLAKE COUGH* and jumping up and down the fear was most certainly implanted. Cool scenes though.

Our final stop was the Angel eye mountain, however ignoring the way I’d gone on the day previous, we followed Google maps. This subsequently sent us to the back of the mountain and a dead end. Various questionable dirt roads later, and we had finally got into the valley where the mountain is. This set us up for lots of fun, and some rather impressive driving skills being shown from the boys. Trouble arose when it became apparent we could not cross the canyon in the centre of the valley, with a waterfall one side and a cave the other, going around was not an option. And neither was going back on ourselves to go up those roads again. We did however find a small mud bridge, described as “sketchy”. To cross said bridge, it involved Blake driving the bike down, getting off the bike on bridge, (as the mud fell from the sides), and the bike being pulled by myself and Ali while Blake attempted to get the bike up. Twice. Two bikes. Once again, an incredible set of skills on show, and team work truly to the max. 

The ride was impressive, and I must say with the tunes in, riding on the back of a tall man’s bike, I kinda felt like I was in a movie, specifically when turning corners or when no hands were on the handlebars…

We may have nearly drowned once, had potential to fall off a bridge, got lost on dirt roads in mountains and then had to get two bikes over a very small “bridge”, but honestly it was one of the classes days yet. With us all in agreement that it’s potentially the madess day of our travels so far!

Dinner for three in the evening, opting for pizza, a safer option compared to last night. The evening entertainment supplied by the male species with their topic of conversations. Before a final bike ride to drop me at my overnight bus to Hanoi (which actually took two attempts because I didn’t have the correct address). A particularly sad fair well I must say, but without kissing ass too much, those lads are potentially the funniest lads I’ve ever met, so fair play, blessed to have crossed paths. 

It’s rather odd how the world works, with my original plan to leave the night before, but being unable to do so, it resulted in a truly fantastic and incredibly memorable twenty-four hours. 100% a core memory. The universe knows where you need to be.