trying to stay warm while my motorbike undergoes "operation #1"

December 23 

As it turns out “tomorrow” (Day 2 of the motorbike tour of North Vietnam) was not better.  In fact, it was fraught with problems.  In the first place, the already cold temperatures became even colder.  I don’t know for certain, but I would guess it was between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius (that’s low 50’s Fahrenheit).  I’m by no means a lover of cold weather as my father and brother are and all I could think of only thirty minutes into starting the trip that morning was “How much longer until I can find a warm hotel?”  I was absolutely miserable.  

Eric and I could not agree on which road to take to get to Sa Pa.  And then my motorbike broke down.  We had stopped in front of a Y in the road trying to figure out where we were and which fork to take.  After figuring it out, we were ready to head on again, but apparently the Fonda was not.  She simply refused to start.  We found a motorbike mechanic (“xe may” in Vietnamese - a sign that was, unfortunately, going to become as familiar to me as “hotel”) who spoke no English but was happy to try to fix the problem.  He deduced that the battery was the culprit and simply recharged mine for two hours and then reinstalled it.  At least motorbike fixes are generally cheap. This one only set me back 30,000 Dong (about $1.75).  But we were stuck in this little town for the night.

Exploring a foreign country by motorbike is generally a sheer joy for me.  Feeling cold and miserable doesn’t really fit into that joyful equation.  Eric wasn’t as bothered by the cold as I was so I felt terribly guilty admitting to him how miserable the bitter chill was making me, particularly since it had been my idea to head up North and try to catch the good weather window before the cold closed in.  Apparently, that window had already closed.  

my loving family who made my Christmas

It was impossible for me to enjoy two weeks of motorbiking in these cold temperatures and I apologized to Eric profusely.  We reluctantly agreed to head back to Hanoi and continue the trip South toward warmer weather.  We were both obviously very disappointed as Sa Pa, the area we were now forgoing, is reputed to have gorgeous scenery, interesting hilltribes and exceedingly friendly people.  I was crushed not to be able to go there, but just knew I wouldn’t enjoy any of it if I was shivering my way through.  Early fall was the best time to tour Sa Pa so we agreed to postpone our trip through that portion of Vietnam.

My motorbike started perfectly the next morning and we arrived back in Hanoi on Christmas Eve.  One upside of our U-Turn back to Hanoi was that we had internet access on Christmas and I was able to Skype with my family, including my brother’s future in-laws (or in-loves as they say).  That was easily the highlight of my Christmas.