An unforgettable trip on Motorcycling in Vietnam is expressed by Barbara Weibel. She had to “open up hips” to enjoy her long voyage on bike with her guide, Dzung (Dung in Vietnamese).
I am dedicating this portion of the post to my good friend and Yoga teacher, Mary Jo. You see, in Yoga, we do hip openers – a series of asanas (poses) that are designed to help open up hips that have become tight from sitting behind a desk all day long. Well, Mary Jo, I have discovered a new hip opener asana. It’s the “sitting astride a motorcycle all day long” pose. Mind you, it’s been MANY years since I even rode a motorcycle, much less spent an entire day on one. My guide for the day, Dung (pronounced Yung), arrived at 8:30 yesterday morning and I haltingly climbed on behind him for our trip into the countryside. After an hour of being seated in a spread-eagle position my hips began to ache – I mean really hurt, like they were going into a spasm. I was too embarrassed to ask him to stop, so I just breathed into it like we do in Yoga and about five minutes later I felt my hip muscles totally relax. Wow! From that point on I was able to enjoy the trip.

Yang Bay Waterfall
Our first stop was way up into the hills to see the Yang Bay waterfall. It’s an impressive cascade over giant granite boulders, alternating with serene pools for swimming. Since it has been raining off and on the last couple of days the granite boulders were damp but we slipped and slid our way to the top of the waterfall anyway. At the top, Dung had intended to cross over to the other side via a small wooden footbridge that was strung from boulder to boulder. When we reached the bridge he looked at it, then eyeballed me, and said we’d better go back the way we came. No doubt. That little rickety bridge would never had held my weight. The Vietnamese people are TINY beyond belief. I would guess that most of the women weigh less than 100 pounds.
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