Hitchhiking in Vietnam: way to Ho Khoang Cha
26th of September, 2024.
Hitchhiking in Vietnam is not easy. It is possible, it happens, as I crossed almost the whole country, from Saigon to Ha Giang by hitchhiking, and almost everybody who picked me up were amazing people, but it can be hard and it can take long.
My sign reads Hanoi. I am not going there, but it is on the way and I am assuming it will be easier to get someone going to the capital. It’s not. It takes a long time until somebody finally stop for me. He is a quiet man, and even though he stopped, he seems a bit nervous, agitated and uncool in my presence. I honestly think he is just scared but he really wants to help. I explain to him where I must get out, by showing the photos of my final destination. He is not going all the way to Hanoi, which is fine by me because I am also not. But he wants to help me, so when we stop at a truck stop, and he buys us some coffee and boiled eggs, he finds a couple going to Hanoi and asks them if they can take me. They accept!
The couple is actually very kind and nice, and I think that, if it was not for the man talking to them and explaining everything, they would not take me from the road because they would also be scared. They give me some cakes! We go separate ways at a place called Bon Sin.
While I am walking in a not so busy highway, holding my brand new sign which reads… well, it doesn’t matter because it’s a very small place in the middle of nowhere anyway. And it is not even my actual destination, because if I had written that one, then really nobody would know where is it. Anyway, while I am walking, a young man pass by me but them turns around and comes back. He can understand a little bit of English and he writes in his phone that he can take me only for 30 Km. It’s fine by me.
But he really wants to help, so after stopping at his home to drop off some medicine, he drives me a bit further. He brings me to a “busier” road, but as it is already getting dark, he tells me that nobody will go where I am going at this time. He then start walking around and asking some people for information, while I keep trying to hitchhike. A car stops and the man who comes out seems to have some knowledge of the situation. Laugh. A third man joins us, and the three of them talking get to a conclusion, which until this day is still a mystery for me. Again, they tell me I can take a bus for free. How come is that I don’t know because when the bus arrive none of them pay anything to anyone, and just by talking and explaining things to the driver, they get me in.
The bus comes a bit later, and it departs from a local restaurant where, again, I can also have dinner for free with the other passengers. The owner of the restaurant and his wife are very nice, but is his daughter who surprises me the most. She is so adorable and lovely, that she seems like coming out of a movie or something. And the way that she talks to me is not at all like a Vietnamese person, but like a Western one. She is the one to explain to me about the free dinner and that they will drop me off where I showed them to.
I tried to call my host, Ben, twice already, but he’s not picking up. The owner of the restaurant gives his number to the people on the bus, so they will keep trying to contact him.
It’s not a long drive and soon enough I’m in a desert road, slightly dark but with some shops with outside lights on, but everything is closed. In a few minutes Ben arrives in his motorbike to pick me up. He’s a bit drunk, but what to do? It’s about ten minutes ride to his place and I hope we survive.
We do, but there’s very little light to the place where we arrive. It’s his neighbour’s house, and they had dinner here tonight. I meet the other four volunteers and some locals. They are all drunk, some more, some less. The locals are super drunk. I was not expecting other volunteers, even more four! Well, little I knew that a lot of things which I was not expecting were about to happen in this new volunteer work…
The volunteers are a young couple from New Zealand; a young guy from Pakistan; and Kuba, from Poland. Kuba is a bit older than I, and he’s the one who offers to take my backpack to my room. It’s been a while since someone offered to carry my backpack. Was it that?
At the house, my first impressions are good, although I still know so little, I can see very little. But it looks gorgeous, that’s for sure!
We have a quick meeting, where they just tell me a little bit about what’s going on, and that Talha is leaving the day after tomorrow.
There are two spacious rooms upstairs. The couple from New Zealand, Niki and Mika, are staying in one of them; in the other, Ben, Talha and I have enough space for the three of us, but that would become my private room starting in two days. Kuba stays in the other house, not far from this one. There’s nothing there apart from his mattress, not even toilets, so he must come and use the ones downstairs here, but he chose to be there for the view.
As we are all pretty tired, pretty drunk, or both, we go to sleep soon.
10 Years Around the World 