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The 5 am Hoi An sky the day of the trip.

It took…

* 9-10 hours (in one day, starting at 5am)
* too many bottles of water to count
* a lot of AA batteries for my MP3 player
* many stops to ask for directions during the first hour
* many photo opportuity stops
* 4 coffee shop stops once it stopped raining
* 1 beef noodle stop (breakfast was baguettes while riding)
* and an entire container of Tiget Balm afterwards

But I DID IT. The books/maps say that it is a 100 kilometer journey, BUT according to the road signs I was 98 kilometers to Quang Nhai 1.5 hours into the trip. So, no way.

There is much to share about this trip, but for now (due to slow internet access and my inability to sit on my ass, for obvious reasons, haha, I will make this a visual experience.

I was treated to some beautiful nature scenes in no time at all:

Highway 1 sign

The highway was a 2 laner the whole way. It rotated between going through town centers to going through farmland. At no time was it anywhere near what a “highway” is like in the states. The buses and trucks were incredibly loud with their horns, and I think I lost what is left of my good hearing due to this, but never did I get run off the road by the vehicles. There were a lot of locals on bikes around me most of the time, although, admittedly, they were probably not going as far in one day. (Or were they?)

Coffee shop owner kicking it after we both had hammock naps.

See…

Some friendly locals cheering me on (me thinks)

And right around the last 30 k’s I wanted to see how badly my face was burnt, it was tingling, to say the least. But no mirrors anywhere in sight. So, I did the next best thing, I took my photo to see. Ut-oh, better get out of the sun soon!

Oh,and here is a catchy tune that helped me through the tough moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_cB5UNGqVs

Last night I was fortunate enough to watch this delicate, harsh movie. What? Yes, I mean every word of that!

Buffalo Boy is a movie of gentle personal connections and the harsh reality of daily life in rural Vietnam mid-20th century. It’s all at once a coming of age story, a family story, a farmer story and a love story.

Like so many movies I seem to fall into that are set in Vietnam, gentle water is the main character and the people are fortunate enough to not get washed away in it. This movie is no exception.

Honestly, the beginning is a little slow, but stick with it for a bit and I guarantee that you will be touched, in the deepest, most sincere way, by the end of the movie.

Oh, and my personal favorite character is Ha Bai (may be spelling it a bit wrong). She is the woman that pushes her husband to help the ‘buffalo boy’ bury his father. She is non-judgemental, motherly and such a delicate and strong spirit.

New York Times review of Buffalo Boy