The bus to Lao Cai was only a couple hours, but still not exactly a great experience. At one point we passed a motorcyclist and I'm pretty sure I heard a thud from the back of the bus as we clipped it going past. The driver and co-pilot exchanged some words and we kept going...
For Vietnamese, the busses are a hop-on-hop-off setup, where people can jump on and off the route as they please. One guy jumped on and sat up front next to driver.. and proceeded to fall asleep on the dash. Going around a corner he literally fell onto the steering wheel. The driver casually pushed him off. And here I thought riding a bike was dangerous...
Upon arriving in Lao Cai, we asked where the bus station was. The driver flagged down a bus that was going to Bac Ha and told us to get on.
The bus wasn't exactly what I'd call a normal bus either.
It was more of a cargo bus than passenger bus. Carrying four scooters, a bunch of tiles, rice noodles and goodness knows what else. Shortly after leaving the city, it pulled into a workshop and loaded the roof with steel beams...
We made it almost all the way to Bac Ha, and some 20km out of the city the driver pulled over, next to a small stream. From here, they proceeded to upon up the compartment housing the engine and undo the radiator cap.
... and fill it up with water collected from the stream.
Never a dull moment...
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The next day in Bac Ha I hired a scooter to join Rosie on a tour to Ha Giang.
The ride itself was not all that exciting. The tour dude with her on the back went pretty slow, I guess being cautious.
We stopped off at a local market, followed by a waterfall, before riding to a small village where our homestay was for the night.
The homestay was a great experience. The house was made entirely out of wood; a lot of which being bamboo. The family grows all their own vegetables, farm their own chickens, catch the fish we ate, make the corn wine we drank!
Dinner was amazing. So much very tasty authentic Vietnamese food. I was totally stuffed after!
From here we made the rest of the journey to Ha Giang in the north.
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I once again hired a scooter and was on the road again. It really made me miss the Win ... the scooter was horrible to ride!
Starting from Ha Giang town, I headed up to Yenh Minh and stayed a night. The roads up in the north are no where the quality as the rest of Vietnam in terms of road conditions. Constant potholes and broken road makes riding a little stressful!
The next day I headed up to a little town called Lung Cu - the northern most town in all of Vietnam! At the top of a mountain there is a tower with a massive Vietnam flag on it, overlooking the Chinese border. I almost feel like this is an intentional middle finger to China...
The road following that stretch was absolutely incredible - another beautiful mountain pass. I then spent the night in Meo Vac.
The final day of riding was a lot less interesting - simply a transit back to Ha Giang. Again, difficult roads made riding very mentally and physically exhausting. By the time I got back I had spent five straight days on a bike; it was intense!
I caught a night bus back to Hanoi that night. Much to my pleasure I was instructed to sit up the back of the bus where there are five beds next to each other with enough leg room for even me to stretch out!
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