Important meeting – nervousness before setting off
N 20°40'14.6'' E 105°05'01.5''
Date:
31.10.2016 until 03.11.2016
Day: 493- 496
Country:
Vietnam
Province:
Hòa Bình
Location:
May Chau
Latitude N:
20°40’14.6”
Longitude E:
105°05’01.5”
Daily kilometers:
Covered 150 km by car
Total kilometers:
20,312 km
Total altitude meters:
54.661 m
Sunrise:
06:01 a.m. – 06:02 a.m.
Sunset:
5:25 pm – 5:24 pm
Temperature day max:
25°C
Temperature day min:
20°C
(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).
Hai, Manh Do and the TV boss Tien come to Mai Chau from Hanoi especially for the meeting. Unbelievable. They really do care about the future e-bike elephant expedition project. During a meal together, I talk about our detailed ideas. “We are primarily concerned with lobbying for elephants, which are threatened with extinction. We want to get people’s attention, we want to sensitize them to the issue of animal welfare, especially the global protection of elephants. Especially in the corrupt country of Vietnam, where environmental protection is not yet a public issue, where poaching is still rampant, where more and more pristine forests are having to give way to human activity and where the ivory business from Africa is booming like never before, there is an urgent need for action. Together with the media and the government, we can make a difference. As Vietnam is one of the main transshipment countries for ivory smuggling, stricter monitoring of Vietnamese customs and police would be a big step towards ending the slaughter of 40 to 50 African elephants a day. When you consider that more than 110,000 elephants have fallen victim to human greed and profiteering since 2006, this borders on an almost indescribable madness. It is a great wish for Tanja and me to be able to contribute with our upcoming expedition so that our children can still admire these extraordinary creatures tomorrow. Tourism in Vietnam can benefit if the remaining working elephants that still exist are given a worthy task. If resorts or national parks are created where visitors can see the animals up close. Perhaps be allowed to work with them as volunteers. There is so much we can achieve with our e-bike elephant expedition if we work together. Even your Nature Lodge can benefit. You could put a small percentage of your revenue into the future of Vietnam’s wildlife and market that. People like that. And… it’s good for people and animals. A so-called symbiosis of life. The people of the future will not survive without animals, because without animals there will be no nature for humans to live in. We are all responsible for our future. Tomorrow is being shaped today, so let’s start this conversation now,” I say. Hai, who has been taking notes, looks deep into my eyes and nods. At least I have reached these people here at the tableit goes through my head. “What exactly do you need?” he asks. “An elephant. Preferably one that doesn’t kill people,” I reply, because 20 years ago we had already traveled through Nepal with an elephant that was a killer and had killed three of its mahouts. On the journey with the elephant, we need enough food for the animal. He should be well. We need an elaborate route on which we can move with the pachyderm. We need an annual visa so that we don’t have to leave the country every few months and a lot more. We should discuss the details when we see a chance to see if the project is really feasible and if the government wants to participate.” “And what can we do specifically to promote the project?” “We will certainly write a book about it. We need a film crew to document this extraordinary journey. We need to make the press aware of it. We need your commitment, the desire to do something new and to see it through.” Hai, Tien and Manh Do look at Tanja and me. They all nod. “I’ll summarize everything in a protocol and present it to the relevant people. You must sign this protocol so that my credibility is not damaged. We’ll see what comes of it,” he says, smiling at me. Two hours after dinner, the three men get back into the car to make it to Hanoi before midnight. Hai has important meetings tomorrow. Tien has to return to his station to run the day-to-day business and Manh Do is more than busy setting up a travel agency and another resort. “Thank you for coming all this way,” I say to Hai. We hug each other. “It was important for me to see you again before you continue your journey,” he replies and climbs into Manh Do’s jeep. On the way to our bungalow, I say to Tanja, “If this really works out, I know why my fate made me fall off the bamboo bridge. Only through this long convalescent stay here in Mai Chau have we got to know all the people and only through this long time have we been able to build up a friendly relationship. However and whatever develops from it, it was a very nice time. A time in which we were able to share the intense life with the ethnic minority of this region from the rice seed to the harvest.”
On the penultimate day before our final planned departure, I take our dog trailer back to the garage to have another reinforcement fitted. Then I inflate all the tires, clean and oil the chains and test and check all the systems again. From a technical point of view, everything should then be in order again so that we can continue to cover thousands of kilometers.
“Phew, hopefully it works this time. I’m really nervous,” I say. “You too? I thought it was just me,” Tanja replies. “It’s strange how quickly you can get stuck in one place and how difficult it is to break away again.” “The longer you stay, the more difficult it becomes,” Tanja agrees. “Yes, it’s probably because people then experience more and more and become more and more embedded in social life.” “That’s right, we saw that from the TV appearances and invitations. Hai also wanted to invite us to his home. If we hadn’t set ourselves a serious departure date, we would have stayed another week. Who knows what would have come up again. Anyway, I have a lot of respect for tomorrow’s start. I hope your shoulder holds out.” “It’ll be fine. I feel much better than four weeks ago. Apart from that, the last test rides went well.” “Without heavy luggage,” Tanja points out. “I think the nervousness is quite normal. It’s the same before every big departure. The only thing that really bothers me is that I haven’t managed to keep my records up to date. I’m at least ten days behind in this respect. Would love to be up to date with our reporting. But that seems to be impossible because there’s always something happening that’s worth reporting on. The live reporting of a life only ends with illness or death. So it’s better for me to lag behind and for us to live,” I conclude and settle for that for the time being…
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