This is a little story about losing our van, wandering through a village, and hitchhiking with a rice truck driver. It started with this:
Impassable except by motos. (I am convinced they can go almost anywhere.) Our guide suggested exploring a nearby village while we waited for the roadwork to clear, so we left our van and driver and wandered off into the mountains.
We were having a great time in the village, and then we saw our van drive by. Our guide tried to call the driver but the cell connection wasn’t working. So we started walking. The road snaked up the mountainside and we all watched as our van climbed higher and higher.
I had hopped out of the car with only my camera, and as we trudged up the mountain road in the muggy heat I thought about all the things I’d been so careful to keep track of the whole trip, like my passport and wallet, that were driving up the mountain without me. But hey, at least if I never saw the van again I had a whole bunch of great pictures!
And then our guide flagged down a rice truck. The truck driver got a big kick out of giving us a lift…we were the first hitchhikers he’d ever picked up. I don’t have a picture of the whole truck but the wheel was just about as tall as me, so it was no small feat to jump inside.
Here we are squished into the rice truck with our guide, Mr. Hoa…so happy to have a ride!:
Our driver was waiting for us at the next planned stop. Ben and I never figured out what happened but there was a heated exchange in Vietnamese, and clearly some sort of misunderstanding about how things were going to happen after we ran into the roadwork. Anyway, all was well and we rode on, this time a little more comfortable and happily reunited with all of our belongings. Up and up into the mountains we go, getting closer to China with every mile.
Harvesting mountain corn:
I love the little moments like this that creep into a trip unplanned. It wasn’t fun for a few minutes when I was wondering if we would ever see our van again, but everything turned out ok, and when will I ever hitchhike with a rice truck again?
We stopped at a few more places on this day and got to see a weaving village and a family harvesting rice, and a tower way up in the mountains that is right on the border with China. (Yup, I’ve got photos of alllll that.)
At this point I’ve stopped numbering all the posts I’m gathering about our Vietnam trip. I suppose I don’t have to be that precise when I’m sharing all the pictures nine months after we got home anyway. >>>See all the posts here.<<< If you are interested in fresher reflections I wrote this right after our trip.
This post has a map and more information about where all we traveled. We have jobs and a sweet pup we left behind in Seattle so we crammed a ton of stuff into a week!
