I made it

I really did not think I could do it. I have never been so scared in my life. Piers never made a wrong turn- he has an amazing sense of direction. We had his HUGE red duffle in the back and his back pack and he wore my back back backwards in his chest. We went maybe five minutes before we realized the bags had shifted so much that one side was rubbing in the tire and was against the exhaust pipe so we had a hole in the bag. We made it to a gas station another 5 minutes away and were able to buy a long rubber strap from a biker with huge coolers on his bag. I credit my parents for the fine gesticulating skills i have (as does piers) which were from playing charades (which I still love) as a kid. Very few people speak English outside of places like hotels and tourist traps in cities. Piers is definitely showing me the real Vietnamese ways. He knows enough words to get by and of course to make people smile. After strapping everything on again we made it about an hour before the first rain drips which we drive through. We could tell from the road that storms had been super localized as the road would be very wet but we experienced no rain- for awhile. Then a small monsoon (it is the season). We had to stop under the leaky awning of a closed shop. Maybe 15 min later we continued with Piers in my rain jacket as he was shielding me from the rain. We were bone to bone on the bike- totally squished together due to the bags- no one complaining.