How easy it is in a foreign country for things to come crashing down.
‘Crashing’ because I’ve had a second bike accident. Very suddenly, the cock-a-hoop of the last post became a dead chook.
It means everything has suddenly become twice as difficult, because moving around is uncomfortable.
I landed on my left side, so have some scrapes, the worst on my hip.
After the Thailand accident & following infection, the second thing I did was get to a pharmacy and clean and patch the wounds.
The first thing was dealing with a swarm of yapping Vietnamese who rounded on the fresh meat ( me ) of the accident scene.
Only the taxi driver I collided with spoke a little English, but I didn’t need a translator to clarify that I wouldn’t win this argument.
He’d started a U-turn right in front of me. I came off the bike, which then slid into his car.
I made the mistake of trying to swerve and brake at the same time. The road was wet, and I was going a little too fast for the conditions.
As I slid, there was a marked flash-back to the Thailand accident, to that point where things there suddenly became a truckload more difficult.
The taxi driver demanded $3
I negotiated him down to $2m VND ( small crack in his left rear side-panel ), and scarpered the scene after convincing him of my address and Serial Number.
It doesn’t end there. Today I’ll fork out $750
The bigger picture is that recent anxiety about the stability of my situation here has shot up. Part of that is uncertainty about when my school re-opens.
For now, I’m doing what I can to batten down the hatches – optimising sleep, diet, and health generally. One step at a time…