Current location: Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam (there's not much to do here...)
I set off from Yen Bai into the cool morning air, driving along the steadily climbing road and the wide open farming lands started to give way to mountains, valleys and rivers.
Before long the straight highway turned into a winding mountainside road, and I found myself navigating hairpin turns and dodging oncoming traffic, as rather than staying close to the curb of their own side of the road, every truck and bus seemed to just drive in the middle of the road, even if they couldn't see what was coming beyond the next turn.
Despite my fellow road users' apparent suicidal tendencies, I managed quite well and made it to within 10 km of Lao Cai on the Chinese border before things went south for me for the first time.
I was riding in to a right hand hairpin, with the side of the mountain to my right, so I couldn't see oncoming traffic. The road was going downhill and I had to brake for the turn, but as I applied the brakes I heard a loud bang and lost my rear brake. I was lucky there was no one coming the other way as I went wide all the way to the shoulder of the road on the other side before I managed to stop by downshifting and using the engine to decrease my speed.
I stopped, got of the bike and inspected the rear wheel only to find out that a little lever that connects the cable from the front to the brake pad (or what ever the hell it's called) was busted and needed to be replaced. I decided to make my way slowly to Lao Cai to get it replaced. The mechanic I found on the outskirts of the city (little bike repair shops are everywhere in Vietnam) replaced the lever while I sat drinking coffee and looked over the river in to China. After lunch I started on the last 35 or so km towards Sapa.
The road to Sapa was steep uphill all the way, the road was truly a joy to ride on and the sceneries awesome.
I had planned to stay in Sapa for two nights, first one in town, and the second one in one of the hill tribe villages, but as the weather wasn't playing along, I just spent the two nights in town, making little trips to the surrounding villages, buying supplies for the trip and enjoying "western" food, as I anticipated to eat little else but rice and noodles for the next couple of weeks.
On the second morning I loaded my plastic bag and rice sack covered backpack on to the bike, put on my weatherproofs and my three size too small rubber boots (it sucks to have a size 45 foot in Asia, can't find footwear that fit anywhere...) and despite the hostel receptionists warnings of bad weather, headed off into the rain.
Few minutes after I took off the rain actually stopped, but the mountains were still covered in clouds, so I passed the highest mountain in Vietnam, Phan Xi Pang, without ever even catching a glimpse of the damned thing.
After riding for an hour or so the road started to level out and go downhill, and I soon rode out of the clouds and could properly see where I was, and where I was going. The scenery on my way down was just as impressive as coming up, so I had to stop a few times for photo ops.
As I reached a little village called Huoi Ke, I decided to stop for a while to let the engine cool down and to have a sip of water. I stopped at a crossroads and saw some hard core off-road bikes parked next to a cafe. I walked over and found three Australians going to Sapa. As I explained my intentions to them, they told me about two French guys who were heading to Dien Bien Phu as well, and were maybe half an hour ahead of me.
After giving my bike a quick look over the Aussies wished me luck and took off towards Sapa, and I got on to my bike and started gunning towards Lai Chau.
Before long the straight highway turned into a winding mountainside road, and I found myself navigating hairpin turns and dodging oncoming traffic, as rather than staying close to the curb of their own side of the road, every truck and bus seemed to just drive in the middle of the road, even if they couldn't see what was coming beyond the next turn.
Despite my fellow road users' apparent suicidal tendencies, I managed quite well and made it to within 10 km of Lao Cai on the Chinese border before things went south for me for the first time.
I was riding in to a right hand hairpin, with the side of the mountain to my right, so I couldn't see oncoming traffic. The road was going downhill and I had to brake for the turn, but as I applied the brakes I heard a loud bang and lost my rear brake. I was lucky there was no one coming the other way as I went wide all the way to the shoulder of the road on the other side before I managed to stop by downshifting and using the engine to decrease my speed.
I stopped, got of the bike and inspected the rear wheel only to find out that a little lever that connects the cable from the front to the brake pad (or what ever the hell it's called) was busted and needed to be replaced. I decided to make my way slowly to Lao Cai to get it replaced. The mechanic I found on the outskirts of the city (little bike repair shops are everywhere in Vietnam) replaced the lever while I sat drinking coffee and looked over the river in to China. After lunch I started on the last 35 or so km towards Sapa.
The road to Sapa was steep uphill all the way, the road was truly a joy to ride on and the sceneries awesome.
I had planned to stay in Sapa for two nights, first one in town, and the second one in one of the hill tribe villages, but as the weather wasn't playing along, I just spent the two nights in town, making little trips to the surrounding villages, buying supplies for the trip and enjoying "western" food, as I anticipated to eat little else but rice and noodles for the next couple of weeks.
On the second morning I loaded my plastic bag and rice sack covered backpack on to the bike, put on my weatherproofs and my three size too small rubber boots (it sucks to have a size 45 foot in Asia, can't find footwear that fit anywhere...) and despite the hostel receptionists warnings of bad weather, headed off into the rain.
Few minutes after I took off the rain actually stopped, but the mountains were still covered in clouds, so I passed the highest mountain in Vietnam, Phan Xi Pang, without ever even catching a glimpse of the damned thing.
After riding for an hour or so the road started to level out and go downhill, and I soon rode out of the clouds and could properly see where I was, and where I was going. The scenery on my way down was just as impressive as coming up, so I had to stop a few times for photo ops.
As I reached a little village called Huoi Ke, I decided to stop for a while to let the engine cool down and to have a sip of water. I stopped at a crossroads and saw some hard core off-road bikes parked next to a cafe. I walked over and found three Australians going to Sapa. As I explained my intentions to them, they told me about two French guys who were heading to Dien Bien Phu as well, and were maybe half an hour ahead of me.
After giving my bike a quick look over the Aussies wished me luck and took off towards Sapa, and I got on to my bike and started gunning towards Lai Chau.
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| On the way to Sapa. |
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| Rice terraces. |
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| There's supposed to be mountains beyond those buildings. |
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| Peek-a-boo! |
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| Visibility: 5-10 m. |
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| The winding roads of the Tonkinese Alps |
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| My favourite food, meat of a random, unknown animal on a stick. |
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| Victor Mike at the Silver waterfall. |
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| Victor Mike and the Aussie off-roaders. |
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