Ok, maybe more of a piece of shit glorified scooter but it's still a big deal :)

We decided to get the typical backpacker's Honda Win and drive the length of Vietnam from South to North. So we bought our 125cc piece of shit for 200$ (that we'll hopefully re-sell for the same price up north). These bikes are crap and fall apart like crazy, but it's part of the deal and mechanic costs here are negligible. About 30 km in, we had to replace all 3 back wheel bearings and worn out brake pads for a grand total of 9$. Then, gas filter was leaking so we got one for 50 cents. Yesterday, the exhaust fell off so it set us back another 5$.

This whole deal seems like a jenga tower game: everyone that buys a bike puts a little piece on the already shaky tower, hoping it won't come crashing down. Some put it carefully, others not much so. But one day, the engine blows and the unlucky person is stuck with a bike that can only be sold to to a garage for parts (at 50$). We're halfway through our journey already, and hopefully we'll pass on our bike to the next person without problem! But if not, I'm ready to accept the 200$ loss for such a great adventure.

A lot of people at the hostel were telling me "if you can ride a bike, learning to drive a motorcycle is a peice of cake" and many have said so after doing the journey. However, considering the fact I can't walk around the grocery store without bumping my cart into people and have to clue how gears work I decided to trust my boyfriend with the driving.

Sidenote: I did try on the empty road for the first time yesterday, and it was super fun! The accidental wheelies freaked me out but it was the best! Maybe I'll try getting it in 2nd gear today.

Traffic is crazy, but the landscape is gorgeous! I'll post when my vlogs are edited, I've never seen such epic mountains of beautiful fields before. And I love stopping for lunch or coffee in little villages, where food is so amazing and people so nice. I've been slow at editing mostly because I don't really want my mom to stress for too long when she finds out what we're doing.

It's a little bit of a risk, since it's not the safest thing to do but it's such a great journey I've decided it's something I still want to do. So far, the scariest moment was running into the bunch on cows on a very curvy road: we were going slow enough to stop in time, but we would not have had the time if we were only 10 km faster!

Anyway, it's been a blast so far so I wanted to share. Much like the hitchhiking in 2014, we were not planning to do such a thing, and I would have never though it's the kind of thing I will ever do, but sometimes things just fall into place.