To go back to.......

.....the origins of this blog.

This blog was named "What the hell was I thinking???" after I had executed (what any sane person would feel are) a series or irrational changes in my life. These changes included -

• In April, 2008, quitting a job in the Urban Planning field with a municipal government (I'll take that into greater detail with you all someday, but not right now as someday in the future, I may be seeking employment for others again [as I am self-employed right now].....and blacklisting is physically impossible to prove in court, sooo......)

• Cashing in my frequent flyer miles and going to East Asia for a month....figgering "Why the fuck NOT?? I've never been there before?"

• THEN, the day after I returned from said month in Asia (jet-lagged as all fuck), I hop on my skooter (a 1986 Honda CN250 Helix) and proceed to ride 12,500-plus miles around the perimeter of The United States (and parts of Canada) for the next three months.

• Then, after realising that we are in the middle of an economic depression, spending five months looking for employ anywhere in the Lower 48....with no luck.

• THEN, in January 2009, deciding that I can no longer survive on my dwindling savings, I accept a position in Vietnam teaching English......

.....and here I am. Still here today!

So, in yet another chapter of insane antics that have been undertaken by The E, I will be off on a three-week skooter ride around all of North Vietnam. This includes a good week or so in the mountainous terrain of Northwest Vietnam.

"Vietnam is NOT a geographically LARGE country, and it's taking you three weeks by skooter to go around only the Northern part??"

Errmmm......these are definitely NOT Interstate Highways that we're talking about here......

So, yeah.....we're also talking about one of the worst parts in the world (along with Southwest China) for landslides.....so this'll be a treat......gonna TRY to stay on the paved roads (and "paved" here is NOTHING like what "paved" implies in The States)!

....oh yeah - forgot: And it's only gonna be me, my buddy Finchy and a friend of his coming up from Australia doing this ride. No guides, no organised tour bullshit.....and between Finchy and I, we have a combined vocabulary of Tiếng Việt that encompasses maybe 200 words on a good day.....Finchy's wife and my wife are gonna be our only lifelines, so to speak. Let's hope that out fones don't get nicked or lost.....otherwise, it's back to the good old grunt-and-point.....

Thank God my father departed this realm this past April.....otherwise, he'd absolutely fucking KILL ME if he knew about this......

Still, though - this is supposed to be a geographically stunning region, and, with the Hmong, White Thai, and several other ethnic minorities, this should be a really interesing ride....

.....SUPPOSEDLY, some of the somewhat more developed villages along this Tour-du-Farce claim to possess Internet access, so I'll have my trusty ASUS EEE pc netbook with me (which has been recently reverted back to LINUX ), and I can't imagine a lot of wild parties, drinking, sex, gambling and such in these here parts, so I should have lotsa time for writing in this journal......

***************************************

Anyways, back to Ten Pictures of life in Vietnam......

- I LOVE going shopping in Hai Phong....'cause you'll never know what you'll see.....

....like Vietnamese employees hard at work, setting up a computer display screen for a vendor.

....or, that old Asian favourite, MSG! Seriously, the Vietnamese buy KILOS AND KILOS of this stuff.......

....or, a T-Shirt with a ticket stub on it from that cool late 70's punk band, The Buzzclocks.....

....and, to prepare for those intimate moments, you might wanna pick up some poke jelly......

....and, don't forget the young'un!! Always interesting to purchase products that were donated.....

Now, in the Vietnamese supermarket chain called Metro, they will bundle little goodies to the main product with strapping tape to make it more enticing to the prospective buyer. USUALLY, these combos make sense, like you might get a free scour-sponge with a bottle of dishwashing soap, or a free glass with a purchase of iced tea mix, or something like that.

This is one of the stranger combinations that I have seen.....Smirnoff Ice and soy milk....um-hum.....

...speaking of shopping - I'm onto my last gallon of Frank's! Anyone wanna swing by a restaurant wholesale place and grab me another coupla gallons? ;-)

...and then, it's off to the local bakery, where you discover that, 12 time zones away, no, you have not escaped the clutches of Bob The Rich and his evil empire.....

Now, all that shopping is gonna make one a bit famished.....so try the dandruff soup with noodles....it's wonderful.....

But if dandruff soup isn't your thing, then settle down for a nice goat barbeque and a few beers.....surprisingly tasty!





More in a few days from the road.....

-E-