The Gear is Extra

Not pictured: pants.

T-minus about 24 hours until I get on a plane for 14 hours. I’m trying not to think about what that’s going to be like. I just stepped off a two-part, seven hour flight from Maine which was bad enough. At the seven hour mark during this upcoming flight I’ll be standing in the aisle trying to figure out if I’m bored enough to watch Downsizing.

I walked into my apartment and found a lot of the stuff I’d ordered had arrived. The mosquito netting I ordered is huge so I won’t be packing that. It’s also not likely that I’ll return it so if anyone is in the market for a pop-up mosquito net tent, hit me up. Zika is on it’s way, people. Free local pickup. The waterproof motorcycle shoes I ordered are surprisingly comfortable so that’s a plus.

This may be a good time to mention what it is Joe and I are actually doing. I don’t think I mentioned it in the first post. Our “plan” is to fly into Hanoi, rent scooters, hereafter referred to as motorcycles, and over the course of 11 days ride them down the coast of Vietnam and fly out of HCMC. I ride a scooter, sorry, motorcycle, around LA every day so I’m not that worried about the riding part but in a fit of caution I bought a few safety items. I’m wearing all of them in the photo. We will also be wearing helmets. Vietnam does have a helmet law. I’m also taking malaria pills.

I had lunch with our friend Arik a few weeks ago and we were talking about the trip. He asked me what precautions I was taking and I told him about the malaria pills. His smile faded and a darkness passed over him.  He told me that when he took malaria pills they gave him terrible, terrible dreams. Terrible. He appears to have suffered real trauma at the hands of these pills and their concomitant dreams. I told my doctor this story and he told me that there were two kinds of malaria pills, one gives you nightmares, the other doesn’t. He hopefully gave me a prescription for the one that doesn’t. I just took my first one. I’ll keep you posted.

OK I’m going to go continue prep work. I’m a little frazzled and there’s still much to do. I have to go get a typhoid vaccine, bungie cords, a haircut, and maybe some new mosquito netting.

At some point I swear Joe is going to post something. He knows about this.