The bike that gave so much love

My journey with Momo started out after spending a few nights in a hostel in Ninh Binh. There were so many backpackers driving motorcycles from north to south, or even border crossing to Laos and Cambodia. Some even make it to Thailand given their strict import laws. I felt such awe and amazement because I too wished I had such an adventure. The bikers invited the idea, go buy one. I found an awesome German guy on my facebook backpacking group that was selling his in Hanoi. I took a bus to Hanoi and found myself testing out his bike in the middle of so much traffic. It was exhilarating and overwhelming. So much foot traffic and motorcycles galore. His bike was super well maintained, I could feel her smooth acceleration and gear shifting to his love of maintaining this awesome ride. He told me the stories of him going on multiple trips in Vietnam, stopping here and there for maintenance, and picked up some Vietnamese and learned lots about his motorcycle. What a lovely way to travel and see Vietnam, I thought. For an equivalent of 200 USD, She was all mine.

I wasn't sure how much load can a 120CC bike handle, but I've seen it all. I've seen people carry their construction supplies, their farm animals, their bamboo stalks longer than three tall vikings. So my friend and I threw our backpacks on with bungee cord wrapped like a million times, and I practiced weight balancing. So freaking difficult at first, because I'm only used to riding unloaded with my sportbike. Now that we had a passenger, and two heavy backpacks, it was a different story. I eventually got used to driving after like the first 200 kilometers.


We drove from Ninh Binh across many beautiful provinces and national parks down south where we planned to camp out on the coasts of Vietnam in random beaches with our hammocks. The dream was big and my experience was quite low when we went off the paved road and into rice paddy paths to get closer to the beach on the unnamed roads the locals used. Scary sometimes because the narrow paths could have meant I made a little slip and we'd both fall into the water with our gear.


There were days like these where we would take a break from camping to get some clothes washed and take really nice showers. We found a really awesome hostel/homestay that we truly felt home in. Our host would teach us Vietnamese and play card games with us. Hoi An is a wonderful place to relax and absorb in a little bit a history and eat lots of yummy food. She let us spray paint Momo in her space, and also helped us too!


We had so much fun painting her all over. It made us feel like her personal legend was being fulfilled as people would recognize Momo as we traveled with her. We took her up the mountains to Dalat, and on to many beaches all the way down south to Can Tho. When it was time for me and my friend to part, (We traveled together for a total of two and half months!), I spent some time alone in Saigon, and then met up with some more "bike" packers. I traveled more south to the Island of Phu Quoc, but decided not to go on the island, for it was typhoon season.


We crashed wedding parties, found beautiful places to pee off cliffs, and when we found fellow stranded backpackers, we helped them find their way to a safe place to contact help. Momo the adventurer was like our tank with tons of vitality spec because she really kept us going and kept us safe from so many weathering conditions during our journey to the south.


When you're with a person where you can't hide from for weeks on end, a strange relationship forms. Sometimes you think you love the person romantically. Sometimes you feel like it's time to leave. Sometimes you even think it's your little momentary family. When you courageously stick together through tough and happy, you start seeing a new person in the mirror, because that person has naturally grew on you.


Momo brought me closer to people than I could ever have imagined, believing that I am a severe introvert. I think I've become somebody confident in showing people around, teaching young travelers how to drive Momo, and just fulfilling my personal dream of sharing my practiced goodness and wholeness with everyone that decided to stick around a quiet boy like me.

Thank you for tuning in, I'm trying a new thing with borders, because I'm subscribed to steemschool.net. I hope this has been a good story that makes you wonder what you can do to fufill your own personal legend. :)