Escape from Siagon (part deux)

It’s getting dark now and I’m tired. Just a few more kilometres to go…

I had been riding incredibly carefully since we noticed the crack in the rear rim so the impending darkness made me very nervous. These Crossmax wheels may be super lightweight but they were built for serious off road riding, 40km after I noticed the cracked rim it was still just a crack, no blowouts and no disasters (yet).

Picking the wrong line now would be bad news – One sharp knock to the back wheel and our epic day would be far from over. We had no idea if or when the local ferries stopped running, we hadn’t seen a bus since we left the main road and taxis just aren’t a thing where no one can afford to use them.

We were well off the tourist trail again and a long way into the flood plane know as the Mekong delta. The last few nights had brought heavy rain to the area, you’d think two boat dwellers might have considered these things when choosing somewhere to stay. As we approached the location of the traditional home stay we had booked for the night we realised that we were cycling through water, the Mekong was in flood.

We arrive at the booking.com pinpoint to find nothing but a flooded field, some upturned boats and a couple of stray dogs, no warm welcome and no dinner.

Shattered we turned around and began pedalling in the direction of the last place we’d noticed that looked inhabited. As I shifted the bike my back wheel dropped off the broken concrete path into three inches of muddy flood water. That didn’t sound good. I realised I had no idea where my torch was and that it was too dark to do anything now any way, I’ll have to push the bike rest of the way…

As we walked back towards the road we noticed a Vietnamese lady beckoning us towards the ever present corner shop (I’m sure that wasn’t there a minute ago) a few poorly pronounced Vietnamese words later and the lights were on, our room was ready and dinner was being “collected” from the fish tank.

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

 

 

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

 

2 thoughts on “Escape from Siagon (part deux)

    1. the crack is propagating a bit and opening up.. we’re just a few days away from picking up the replacement in Bangkok, so all should be fine…

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