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#7 Vietnam Hitchhike
Participants: Karin Muller
"A tourist man is badly hurt," I said in Vietnamese. "There is much blood. I need the doctor - please."
We were hiking high up in the Tonkinese Alps along the border to China. Jay was ahead of me and came upon a run-off ditch across the path. Just as he was jumping over it his sneaker lost its purchase and he slid two feet down the slick clay wall.
"Are you all right?" I asked. He seemed to be having trouble climbing back out. "No," he said, way back in his throat. I jumped down behind him and caught a glimpse of his leg impaled on a bamboo stake. He hung suspended halfway down the wall, like an insect struggling on a pin. I gave him a push from below and he scrambled upward, his leg finally sliding free.
The wound was two inches wide and twice as deep, angled into the muscle right below his knee. It was barely bleeding but Jay's face was bone-white and he was panting with pain. We were several miles' hike from Phuong To, eight hours by bus to Lao Cai and a twelve hour train trip to Hanoi - and from there by plane to Bangkok. It didn't look good. "I guess I'd better hike," Jay said heavily and levered himself to his feet.
An excerpt from "Hitchhiking In Vietnam", an online photo journal that can be viewed at www.pbs.hrg/hitchhikingvietnam/.
"Hitchhiking Vietnam", a book published by Globe Pequot Press in April 1998, can be ordered from www.globe-pequot.com |
