After I parted ways with Karim who had driven me the first 10km of my ride to Son La, the next destination on my solo motorbike trip of Northwest Vietnam, I made excellent time. I left close to 11am which is far later than I had planned, but I had a good breakfast, morning, and ample time to spend with Hua my host, as well as Karim, and we were both convinced that this was more important than making good time.
That said, I did indeed make good time, with a full belly, heart, and gas tank (though very little sleep as I had stayed up late the night before). I was in in Son La relatively event-free by 4:30pm that evening, having covered the 170km quite efficiently. I felt quite proud of myself for making such good time, but was also quite tired and hungry from the drive. I had only to find a hotel.
Apparently, I should have booked ahead of time. I spent the next two hours driving around this city, which, was loud, dusty, hot, and quite unappealing to my tastes. I drove to five different hotels (one of which I actually never found) and they were all fully booked. It was a holiday weekend for the Vietnamese, so everyone was flooding to Son La for the weekend. By the time I reached my fifth hotel, and they told me they had no rooms, I begged them through sudden and unexpected tears to offer me a suggestion. The hotel guy took pity on me, and wound up driving me on my motorbike to a nearby guesthouse, and set me up there, after offering words of comfort on the ride over, telling me that we will find something.
I stayed in a rather dingy and over-priced guesthouse, but I was happy to have found something. My lack of sleep from the night before had caught up with me, as well as my empty belly, and all I wanted to do was find food and then go back to sleep. I showered the dust of the day off, and walked across the road to a nearby food alley. I walked into the first place I saw, and ordered the 'same-same' as what the other people were ordering, which, I assumed was beef.
When I got my plate, and tried my meal, it was not beef. It was a terrible and chewy meat which made my eyes water, and I suddenly realized as I remembered the words of my guidebooks' description of this town that I was probably eating dog. The tears that had sprung from the unpalatable flavor of this dish turned to tears of sadness and frustration as I wondered if I was going to be able to find a good meal that night, as well as the fact that the lady who was cooking the food was less than friendly, and the young couple at the table next to me were staring at me, and watching me as I chewed and cried.
I saw a plate of eggs on the table of the couple, and I stood up and pointed to them, talking to the cook saying 'same-same? same-same?' I had also just tried ordering chicken from her a moment before, so I think she was confused. She grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me over to her cooking station, pointing and gesturing to make sure I wanted the chicken. I confirmed. I returned to my seat and waited, and a massive bowl of rice was brought to me. Then the chicken. The couple next to me apparently took pity on me as well, and made a gesture that warmed my heart and dried my tears- they took their plate of scrambled eggs/omelette and put it on my table, as the cook had not understood my earlier order. I thanked them profusely, and proceeded to wolf down the eggs, and finished off the chicken.
I left, and went back to my hotel, drank some tea provided by the usual thermos of hot water that is offered in hotels and guesthouses in Vietnam, and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a new day, when I would make my way to the rural town of Muong Lay, a projected 180 km away, and potentially quite a long and challenging ride. I was determined to get a good night's sleep, and get an early start the next day.
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