Chicken Tonight

Day 53: Phu Yen (VN) – Hanoi (VN). Ahead of us; the evening sun was low in the sky sending long shadows along the dusty road following a hard but extremely exhilarating day in the saddle. We were less than 5 miles from base-camp and I was already dreaming of a cool beer to soothe my parched throat. Back in the UK, they say this is statistically the most likely time to have an accident; when you lower your guard after a days ride out. Motorcycling takes complete concentration and if you don't give it 100% you are in the lap of the gods. Today the Gods were not on my side. Today, I had my first motorcycling accident in over five years of riding. Today, in Vietnam.

Entering Mai Chau, a group of children came to the roadside to wave their hello's and I was only too happy to reciprocate. To my left a lone buffalo walked along the side of the road and ahead of me to my right, a couple of chickens scratched around in the dirt. Ordinarily, my focus would have been with the animals but that evening, to my detriment the children took the best share of my attention. As I drew along side the birds, something in their minuscule brains must have clicked, and they both decided that it would be a cracking idea to play 'chicken' with the bike. Despite my best avoidance techniques, I couldn't stop quickly enough and with an explosion of feathers I struck the first rooster . As the bike continued over the bird, it's animated 'cock-a-doodle-doing' was soon silenced.

Whilst this may have signalled a permanent end to the chicken's problems, it was only the start of mine. With the front wheel now in in the air and the bike unsteady from the action of my sudden breaking, I couldn't prevent it falling away to the right. Hitting the road we slid for about 20 meters of so leaving a path of broken glass and bits of dashboard to mark our progress. My helmet crashing into the hard road surface marked the victory of friction over momentum as a cloud of dust and feathers filled the still evening air.

Behind me, I could here the commotion as a dozen or so local women came running from their little bamboo houses to the scene of the accident. Still trapped under the bike, I was pretty sore from my encounter with the road, but I knew I was fundamentally OK so me-thinks I'd get a little sympathy and perhaps some TLC. So I lay there. ...And I lay there. ...And no one came!

Glancing over my shoulder, I caught sight of the women, crowded around the deceased bird fighting over ownership of the remains! Whilst this melee continued an old man came to my rescue and helped resurrect both me and the bike. By the time Karen and Khanh arrived at the scene, the women's dispute appeared to be over and an old lady disappeared in to her traditional village house clutching the lifeless chicken by it's legs.

“Look on the bright side”, Karen said trying to cheer me up, “At least you provided that family with a good meal tonight!”. Try as I may, I found it extremely difficult to share in their new found happiness!