H2H 2012 - Ride Day 1 recap

Dear diary,


My kneeeeeeeeeeesssseesszzzz!!! Unfortunately, I've been injured since pretty much the 2nd day of the ride. I can't pinpoint exactly what has happened, but it sure does hurt. If anybody out there can help diagnose me, holler. 


Well, photodump time!


Day 1

Odometer reading at the start of the ride

All of my lovely donors! :D

Getting ready to ride out

Our first red light!

The first part of the group got a little ahead of the rest of the group, so we got lost for a quick minute. After getting into contact and finding out where to go, we find them trapped in the middle of traffic. So, what happened? Our lead van (donated by DHL, go DHL!) that is transporting all our bags decided to stop right in the middle of the road and wait for the rest of the riders to catch up. Some poor motorbike driver thought he could nudge the van out of the way and lost the battle.

Still not sure what ended up happening, but we ended up waiting around 30 minutes for it to get sorted out.

Group huddle to keep warm while we waited

"My" yellow beast. Lovin dem walls

Quinn "The Thriller" Miller, Corey "with an E" Gibson, The Great Dane, MacaRhona n Cheese Phu, Heineken Mallegrom

Guess the butt

On our way to our first town, we passed by a ridiculous golf course

Halfway done with ride day 1, we decide to grab some lunch. We find a place for lẩu (hotpot) and get our tummies warm. 

the cleanest of all the riders. !!!

The restaurant was freezing. Wide open doors and windows. I took a peek into the kitchen and noticed they had a bunch of fires going (duh.) I asked the bosslady if I could warm myself up in there and she said "Anything you want!" Hollered at some riders and we got to work.

Anna took it one step further and tried to dry her sweater

Our heater

Riding commando in under 50degree weather = a very freezing butt.
Plus, the fire was dying, so I had to throw some gas on it. 

Beef & spareribs & chicken innards, yumm!

dê núi (mountain goat) becomes dê tường (wall goat)

Coxley riding into town

Arrived! Hòa Bình

It was cold, dreary, wet, muddy. 90km (with an extra shortcut of +17km) and away we go. 9 more days of tardy updates for y'all. Be patient!


7:20 right now and time to set out for breakfast before 99.1km today. So close to Huế! We'll be riding by Hamburger Hill and a giant cemetery today. 'Til next time, friends!


xoxo,
tinothy

smooth, mr. tin

Dear diary,

I conducted a speaking test the other day. I had a list of prompts for my students and I figured I'd choose the simplest one to start with.

Mr. Tin: Do you have a best friend? Can you describe him/her to me?

Student: No.

Mr. Tin (a little taken aback): No? You don't have a best friend? One friend you feel closer to than others? Really?

Student: She died. Last year.

Mr. Tin: *pause*

Mr. Tin: Oh. Okay. So, you're a teenager, right? What do you think teenagers find fashionable right now?

Way to segue, Mr. Tin. Level 0 damage control.

In other news: the Hoang sisters swung by for a quick visit, I now play (proper) football, and I crashed my motorbike. Yep. 

Thoa, Tin, & Anh

Mr. GQ of the Year.

The tattoo shop had a song on repeat about 17 times before I asked them to change it. I looked through their collection and found this gem.

Uhhhh, what??

From the tattoo shop's book of past clients/tattoos?

Sexy, aye? Exactly what I wanted to see in a tattoo shop - pubes.

Coworker Benedict riding on his brother, Will.

 Yeah, they're twins. And, they're gingers. Twingers, as I like to say, starting right now as I just made that up.

And I went on to score 0 goals that day.

Coworker Ian and I.

The  Hung Vuong Fury! (sponsored by saigonhotwings.com)

Since it's a bunch of English blokes, they're die-hards about soccer. SOCCER I SAYS. They play every Friday and I figured I could use as much physical activity as I could get considering all the beer I started drinking in VN. I've yet to score a goal, but when it happens, I'll pull a Chastain for sure.

Then, it was a night of redemption of ILA Center 5! They placed 2nd last year, so being the secret weapon that I am, we tore through this competition. 6 straight wins through the finals. Then we traded Ws/Ls until the 5th and final match and hoisted that beautiful, golden (plastic) trophy!

The Smashing Pumpkins + Mr. Vu the photobomber at the last second.

And uh, I asked a friend to take photos of the event and I guess she forgot. So, nothing from the first 3 teams, but here we are in the finals.

First rush!

Paul chucking away with his cape following his every move. How heroic.

Someone was mad!

Following a scuffle on a rush and a questionable call, our David decided to get all up in that guy's face. Words were exchanged, fingers were pointed, and chests were pushed.

The other two teams from Center 5 cheering us on.

6'3" Paul getting pegged in his lengthy legs (for the eleventeenth time)

Victory!

Winners of the Best Dressed award.

Runners-up.

Smashing Pumpkins!
Trophy, champagne, Stolichnaya vodka, and 1,000,000₫ to a bar&grill

Poppin' champagne!

And this happened:

Right knee.

Close up of right knee.

Closer-up of right knee.

Close-up of elbow and the juices my body was secreting.

Left knee lookin' fine.

3-toothed(teethed?) vampire bite.

Speeding/rain/pothole/something or other. Fortunate this was all that happened to me. I don't remember seeing what happened, but when I close my eyes, I can re-imagine it. I could hear the thud and feel myself tumbling, getting the wind knocked out of me. Then, the sound of a crowd of people forming around. 


----- Now, if you've ever witnessed any type of accident in the city here, you know what a zoo it could become. A buttload of people stop to see what's the happs and just chill on their bikes on the side of the road. Curious (nosy) people. ----


I throw my arm over my face so no one would be able to see and as soon as I get my breath back, I jump up, rush to my bike, let out a giant "FUCK!" and ride off to my building.


I didn't even bother cleaning up or checking myself. I just know I woke up wondering why I was in pain and then I realized. Trail of blood on my sheets and blanket and shorts. 


But, I got my bandages and ointments and tapes. Nothing broken except a little pride. 6 months in and I get my first life-long souvenir. Everything's just sore now. I can't laugh, sneeze or cough without wincing. Which is unfortunate since my other dodgeball tournament is tonight! 


Silver lining in the story, though: got a phone number last night. But, I'm pretty sure she just wants me to visit her at work and spend money. Oh, girls from the bars, mother warned me all abouts youse.




Ah, well. C'est la vie.




xoxo,
tinothy