Hey there,
We haven’t had much time to sit down and post any news, we have been pretty busy on the roads. Everything is great here, the bikes, the roads, the landscapes, the people. Another great trip, and its far from being over.
So as we did last year, we rented 125cc Minsks in Hanoi, and headed off to the west.
First stop was in Hoa Binh, with a little detour by the Ba Vi national park, the road along the river from the park to the city was amazing.
The river was covered with myst and the view of the other side was just coming straight out from a ‘jungle’ movie. It was a nice introduction to the scenary we were about to see.
No particular interests in Hoa Binh, just a place to eat and sleep over. Next day, we headed off to a small village called Mai Chau (Le Lac), where we slept in small ‘local’ houses .. on the floor. A bit rough and noisy very early, but it was fun and the food was excellent!!
We then had a long day to get to Son La, we are now really starting to see the mountains, and its getting better and better as we drive up. Son La was again just a pitch stop for the night so that we could get to Dien Bien Phu the next day. The road to DBP was unbelievable, a big part of it is being redone, so the sealed word has turned into a huge roadwork dust road. Which was great fun to ride, but a bit exhausting by the end of the day, but it was really worth it, the view was just great!
DBP, well we slept at the Beer Factory Guesthouse … yeah, they have a very cheap Bia Hoi (1L for 2.000 VND … and 1 euro is 20.000 VND, i’ll let you do the math, but its cheap ^^), so we had a nice evening there, and met 3 other guys there, riding bicycles, on a year trip, they were coming from China, just entered Vietnam, and then were heading south, and then back up through Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, seems like a ‘common’ trip for long time travellers, but with bicycles, it was really be something different.
Wasn’t that much to see in DBP, an old ’empty’ bunker, and some old tanks, so we didn’t stay too long and headed north to Lai Chau.
Quite a long drive, but it was a beautiful ride. Only one place to sleep in the area so, we ended up with all the other tourists there, but we met 2 nice couples there, one of them hired a minsk too but were 2 on a single one, he’s an experienced driver so they had a great time. Again we had a nice evening there, drinking beer and chatting.
Early start on the next day, and we took the road to Sa Pa, which is the big town in these mountains, and the place were all the tourists go to (by train usually), to hang out in the mountains, and trekk all over, there is also a nice view on the highest mountain in Vietnam called Fansipan, but unfortunately the mysts doesnt want us to see it clearly, but we could feel it just out there ^^. This is were we are now, we have spent 2 nights here, and are about to get ready to continue our trip, and head slowly over to the east.
Well enough writing its time to get on the road.
As we dont check on this site very often, im not sure we’ll be able to post many photos, we’ll probably send them from Hanoi before leaving or when we are back in Paris.
Cya!
Yogin.