Part 05 | The most memorable adventure
The first thing that came to mind was an insane adventure I had many years ago in Vietnam. At the time I was living in Hanoi, Vietnam teaching English. After a few busy months of teaching, my boss told me to get out of the city and take a holiday. So I flew to Da Nang in Central Vietnam. I opted to stay in a hostel so I could meet fellow travellers and rented a motorbike to get out into nature.
The day before I was meant to leave I got up early and headed towards some waterfalls. Back then Google Maps was a thing but network connectivity was scarce in certain parts, and rightly so because I was in the jungle! I had pre-loaded the map in my phone so I would know where I was going.
My motorbike zoomed through the gravel country roads. The warm tropical wind was blowing through the hair that was peeking out of my bucket helmet. I would stop at rice fields or any place that looked picturesque and just soak in its raw, green beauty.
I took a left turn (I think) to what I thought was the way to the waterfalls. Following the path, I drove alongside a river, and smiled at the farmers and road workers I passed. After about 30 mins with a fuel tank getting low, I had the creeping sensation that I was going the wrong way. I took out my map and panicked when I saw that the map wasn’t loading. I had no idea where I was, where the waterfalls were or where I had gone wrong.
I retraced my route to a junction. This was where I must’ve gone wrong but I still had no idea which of the three paths I needed to take to get back to the main road. No signal and my fuel tank was nearing empty. I parked my bike, took the keys and went running to look for someone. I probably looked like a mad woman running in flip flops with a burnt nose. Eventually I found someone working in their rice field and mimed where I needed to go (they didn’t speak English and my Vietnamese was laughable). It worked! She figured out what I needed and sent me down the right road which actually led me to the waterfalls! From there I could make my way back to Da Nang.
You’d think that would be it, but no, it got crazier! Once back in Da Nang I had a delicious dinner of fresh salad rolls. With my belly full I arrived back at the hostel only to find a fellow traveler in apparent distress. She seemed frantic so I asked what was up. She took me aside and explained she had a secret mission that she desperately needed to carry out before she left tomorrow. I offered to drive her to the address she showed me.
She navigated us through the busy night streets as I dodged traffic. We pulled into a tiny cement alleyway with chickens running about and children playing. Initially we couldn’t find the house number she had written on the paper. She seemed to be panicking even more. So with some miming skills, we were directed by some locals to a thin man. He could speak English so she explained who she was looking for and what house they were in. He took her by the hand and ushered her farther into the cement labyrinth. Looking over her shoulder she motioned for me to follow.
Finally the man brought us the house we’d been searching for. He smiled and left us. We were greeted by an older woman and a man who seemed to be her son. They welcomed us into their humble home and offered us RedBulls to drink. I sat there silently as the scene unfolded in front of me.
The woman from the hostel pulled out a backpack with some photos of a young boy and his mother with someone’s contact information. She had been sent on this mission by her friend from back home to find the father of her son. Apparently this woman’s friend had come on vacation and fallen in love with this man but had to go back home for work. The father of the woman’s son had no idea he had a child somewhere across the world.
The two family members said that the man she was looking for was at work but that they would give him the photos and her friend’s contact information. The older woman assured us that he would call her via Skype. The family was very caring and thanked us for coming. And I never heard from anyone ever again, the woman in the hostel vanished.
Sometimes, the best stories are the ones caught off film.
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