An Early End

After a long bus ride and border crossing into Vietnam, I made it to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I met up with a friend I had been previously traveling with and agreed on getting motorbikes and riding them all the way up Vietnam. I searched all day to find a bike and at last met a guy giving his bike away for free because he just wanted it to keep going. Wanted me to take the bike and then give it away, while blogging about it and keeping the story going from one owner to the next. I accepted and after a rocky start of getting my first manual motorbike to work, I said good bye and took off into the overly crowded streets of the city.

     The next morning Tim and I set off as early as we could manage. Trying to navigate the insanity on the narrow city streets was enough to get my heart rate going and my fingers melted into the handle bars. We were trying to pay attention to the road and everyone around of us, some motorbikes carrying long metal poles or even a saw, while using an Iphone as a GPS. It was hectic to say the least! I can feel my stress levels start to rise just thinking about it. I even killed the bike once in the middle of an overly crowded roundabout. 

     Eventually we made it onto some less populated streets and went in search if the Chu Chi Tunnels. After a few stops and impossible conversations with local villagers, we made it to the tunnels. With our guide he showed us traps set up by the Vietnamese people, and hills that looked like termite hills but were in fact entrances to hiding places below. After crawling through some tiny underground tunnels, Tim got to shoot an AK47. We saw shoes that they'd made out of tires, and photos of bombs that they deconstructed and made into other weapons or useable items. It was a learning experience and my first taste of the war between the USA and Vietnam. 

Ground Trap

Fake Termite Mound

    

Going through a tunnel

 Back on the road, we drove and got lost and turned around and drove some more. Hours went by, and Tim got a flat tire. Luckily there are little mechanic shops everywhere and in a few hundred yards we'd found someone who could help. I played follow the leader with the daughters of the mechanic for nearly an hour until we were able to leave. With the guide book out, we stopped to eat and I tried to tell the woman through hand gestures and simple words what we wanted. After a good 10 minutes of her and I going back and forth between talking and laughing, we got some rice and vegetables.

     After that, everything just became perpetual motion, riding riding riding. It got dark, we didn't want to ride at night but there were no places to stay. So we kept going. On awful, gravely, winding roads. We knew better but we'd just been going for so long we didn't think much of it. We'd have to play chicken with semi-trucks and buses to get around other semi-trucks and buses. All of us on motorbikes would have to come to a near stop abruptly when construction was being done on the road. 

     Tim made it around a slow moving vehicle so I started to follow, went to the left side and started speeding up to get around it. I didn't see the huge lip that turned the road into gravel and before I knew it I was off it and skidding on the ground. My first thought was that I was going to get hit, there was a man on a scooter just behind me. Thankfully he was able to stop and not get hurt himself. My knee hurt. I was only laying there a second before I was being helped up and set in a chair by 10 or 15 Vietnamese people. They began tearing at the leg of my hiking pants which were already torn anyway. They had flashlights shined on my knee, all speaking but I couldn't understand a thing. Tim talked to one man who spoke some english and they put our bikes in their home. I wondered what had really happened and when I looked down at my knee I was shocked to find a massive hole. I turned to Tim and choking on tears told him there was a hole in my leg and he tried to comfort me until a minute later when miraculously there was an ambulance driving by. They put me inside and that's when I met Alex. He came up to the ambulance speaking english as perfect as can be and said he'd follow us to the hospital. On the long bumpy ride there, I was hysterical just trying to talk and not think about the pain I was feeling. 

     Besides my knee, my entire arm from armpit to wrist was covered in scrapes with my elbow having a little deeper wound. Upon arrival, I was a little freaked out by how ancient the hospital looked. The beds were old and rickety, the ceiling had mold, the floor was missing tiles. But that wasn't my main concern. After I was cleaned and had an x-ray, I was shown a rock on the x-ray that was lodged in my knee, which then prompted surgery. They gave me an epidural and went to work on my leg. I think I slept. I don't really know. I had shots and an IV and by the time the surgery was over it was around 2am. I am so grateful to Alex who translated everything the doctors said to me the entire night. This was my first time in a hospital and doing it in a foreign land makes it even sketchier.  Tim left to find someplace to sleep and Alex stayed with me all night. 

Before Surgery

      It all worked out so perfectly because he lives right next to where I crashed, but also spent most of his life living in the states. The next day I wanted to get out of there! So Alex took us back to his family run hotel with lots of meds and for the next few days till my parents got me a flight out, him and his family took care of me. With a brace on my leg and crutches I could still hardly move. Getting on a plane was not very fun but actually went smoother than I expected, except a layover that had me hobbling as quickly as you can imagine for someone on crutches.

     I'm still recovering now even though it's been a month since my accident. An MRI last week told me that all the bones around my knee are badly bruised (contusions) and the tissue under my knee cap is torn. My doctor was a little surprised that I didn't have any torn ligaments as my other injuries would usually go with that.

     Sometimes it hurts, and it's hard for me to be somewhat immobile, but all in all, I am so lucky. It could have been so much worse. I can't imagine having not met Alex and not being able to understand a word from the doctors. I have no torn ligaments which would make the healing process even longer. I had my friend Tim there who helped in every way he could. I can start planning my next travels hopefully to South America.

And I don't know why, but this happened for a reason.