On the night train to Sapa I met a young Italian couple. We spoke about their travel itinerary first and when it came to asking where I was headed I just had to shrug my shoulders.
“I don’t know. I’ll flip a coin I guess. Heads for right, tails for left” I laughed .
“Now, that is real freedom”
I don’t even know if freedom actually exists in this world as there are always restraints but in some respects this as free as I can get. The freedom only brought to you by a bike.
His name is Oscar. No real reason in particular other than Oscar Wilde being a rather amusing chap and… I thought the name worked. I prefer Mark Twain for inspiring travel quotes but a bike named Twain just didn’t have the same ring to it.
It’s a ’96 110cc Honda Win although I’ve been told by local Honda Win enthusiasts here in Sapa that it’s made in China. It’s four-stroke, manual and I’ve been told it can only sustain its top speed of 75km/h for an hour before it’s recommended I pull over for a five to ten minute breather to let Oscar have a little rest. Oscar has a new clutch, new piston rings and a new piston so really, he’s like a new one and all things going well I shouldn’t have too many issues… although I am expecting a few but that’s part of the experience. I will however probably need to ensure Oscar gets a service before I travel too far given the fact the engine hasn’t yet been run in. I’ve been loaded up with a few rare spare parts on the off chance they fail and been given a crash course in motorcycle mechanics. I’m just glad I’m already familiar and relatively competent with how an engine works.
I rode Oscar back from the shop to my hotel at midday as to avoid the hectic Hanoi peak hour traffic that picks up around 4pm. From there he sat patiently on the curb for a few days before being ridden rather nervously at night through Hanoi to the train station. Here Oscar was drained of its fuel (a fire hazard allegedly but it felt like a scam to steal my full tank of fuel) loaded up on to a train to Lao Cai where the following morning I pushed it through town until I found a fuel station and then rode from the Chinese border up the mountain pass to the gloriously cold but beautiful Sapa.
Yesterday some newly made friends hired some automatic scooters and I took Oscar to go see some waterfalls about 15km’s out of Sapa. Oscar behaved wonderfully with the exception of really, really struggling up some of those hills but in his defence he was carrying both myself, a pillion and I just couldn’t shift down the gears fast enough to maintain momentum. That said, when leading the pack it was no problems to maintain a steady 50-60km/s speed. I’m amazed at the positive attention Oscar has been getting from locals though. I thought the red star to be a bit corny but I’ve had locals offer to buy it and one young guy at a restaurant yesterday was really interested in it. At my suggestion he wore my armour which then prompted all of his friends to start punching him to see if it hurt. Hilarious! He was very appreciative of the experience but I think I enjoyed it more than he did!
Not sure how long I’ll be in Sapa but it will be atleast a week. The town is very touristy but there is more to see outside of the town. Accommodation is cheap at $7 twin share which I’m splitting with another Australian guy and although the food is (surprisingly) more expensive than Hanoi it’s still quite easy to feed oneself three times a day for less than $8. I’ll use Sapa as a bit of a base to explore the north and return every day or two. From here I’m thinking to head west before looping wide and around back to Hanoi. I’m considering bypassing Laos and instead heading south through the entire length of Vietnam before potentially going to Cambodia where Oscar is supposedly worth more to westerners (Vietnamese registered bikes can cross borders whereas Cambodian bikes cannot) OR sell Oscar in Saigon and look at a cheap flight to Chang Mai for a few weeks… the downside to that is that it will be coming in to their tourist season.
Time will tell.
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