We had a long 250km ahead of us today. My ass was fine on the small seat (joes main issue) but it was the knees that were killing me.
We were to ride down to Lao Cai at the China border and over to Thac Ba lake. It would get easier after that. 250km is not seem like a lot but when you are on high alert at all times looking for chickens, kids, pigs and semis it can be exhausting. We would finish up the day on a secondary road along the Thac Ba lake, Dzao and Tay territory until the traditional village of Vu Linh where we would have a homestay.
It rained all night but cleared up for us. Besides the first day of rain we really lucked out on this trip for the beginning of the wet season.
It was mostly downhill to start. We stopped off just South of Sapa to see some French ruins and buy some textiles from a Hmong group. Or what I assumed was a Hmong group
We stopped at the Chinese border. It was just across the Red River only 50 ft away. Too bad I couldn’t walk acroos the bridge to check off another communist country but oh well
We stopped for lunch at a spot along to main road. This is where we discovered my bike was leaking oil. It was almost dry and Kim said it probably would have seized up on the next 20 km….great.
We would just add oil at each stop from here on out. Funny thing at lunch. Some kids rode by and I waved. They yelled, ”Fuck You!”. We all laughed. Gotta practice your English somewhere.
We made another stop to top off the oil
The locals hear saw the bong on the back of Joes bike and tried to get us to smoke, but we had to pantomime that if we smoked I would fall on ground and be unable to function for 10 hours.
We also passed more mountains where they were cutting marble out
A cool part of the trip. Along the lake we found a dirt road and spent 20 minutes spinning the bike and trying to pop wheelies.
We ended up at the Homestay. It was the highlight of the trip. The father was the local Shaman. The son, Numb, had a maniacal laugh that just made everything funny.
After showering and chillin for a bit we settled into a feast and then out came the refreshments.
This was a bottle of Rice Wine seasoned with poisonous Banded Krait snake. Here is the video of toasts
That evolved into more drinks
We must have had 20 shots of that stuff. Then the Shaman returned. We thought Numb might get in trouble from sampling his dad’s private stock but the patriarch joined in and we all went out for a smoke afterwards.
Joe and I were real careful around the Shaman as he had just come from some sort of ritual / healing / sacrifice and we did not want to end up in some sort of Hannibal Lecter pose in the morning with our bowels displayed or fed to the locals.
We slept good on our floor mats, alcohol helped and we were up early for the last 200km back to Hanoi
We made a stop at this wood processing factory
We had seen these thin sheets drying along the road in every town we blew through. It turns out they were shaving wood logs into these sheets and then stacking them to create plywood to be sold at Home Depot back in US.
Here is a shot of Kim almost losing his arm in the shaving device
One more stop for lunch
We entered the chaos of Hanoi and the city threw everything she had at us. I told it was like a video game and we were getting close to the final boss so all sorts of evil was coming. Dogs were trying to bite me while riding, we had to make passes on the shoulder, and barrels falling off trucks in front of us.
We dropped bikes off, said goodbye to Kim and headed back to the hotel to clean up and chill. I think Joe had to drag me out for dinner again that night.
The following day we did the tourist thing around Hanoi. We wanted to take a sea plane to Ha Long Bay, but they were all booked and the thought of 8 hrs in a bus left us to swelter in the streets of Hanoi.
We did visit the “Hanoi Hilton” where John McCain was captive for 6 years. It was kinda weird. The prison was originally used by the French to incarcerate locals, but the section mentioning American Prisoners in the 60s showed them decorating Xmas trees and having fun. That’s not how I remember it being depicted.
We then walked through the Temple of Literature
After that we headed over to the Ho Chi Minh complex. There was the mausoleum where he was buried and various parks guarded my guards in elaborate Michael Jacksonesque garb.
At this point we were dying. It was 100 degrees. We hailed a cab and he charged us $45 for a $2 cab ride. We should have argued and refused payment but we just wanted to get back to the pool and shower.
We hit a couple more bars that night
The next day we headed back to Saigon and spent the day poolside
A massage before the evening flight and then just a short 40 Hours in airports and airplanes before getting home.
What a trip! I had an amazing time and can’t wait to do something similar in another location.
Until Next Time
Darren
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