chrissables

The Hai Van Pass viewed from the top, looking north,west and south.

Day 74  27 June. Hue

I serviced the bike and spent time relaxing.

Day 75. 28 June 200 km to Hoi An

Today’s ride was stress free and I had time to explore the Hai Van Pass area again. I was lucky with the weather, hot but good visibility.

Day 71. 24 June

I stayed in my room all day resting, except for an evening meal.

Day 72. 25 June

Hanoi to Hue

I left Hanoi at stupid O’clock, 4.45am in the dark and arrived at Hue 12.5 hrs and 689km later! It was the longest and hardest day of the trip as well as difficult due to the traffic on the main north to south road.

Day 73.26 June

Today I walked to Hue Citadel and enjoyed looking around again. But lots of it were being renovated.

When I was crossing over the bridge back into town I was offered a blow job by someone on a push bike, the trouble was he needed a shave!

Day 69. 22 June 188 km. 4 hrs

Cam Pha to Hanoi

Today was an easy ride to go and meet Jeff for a few days. The road was full of crazy truck and bus drivers!

Day 70  23 june Hanoi

Jeff and I decided to get very pissed, Jeff was more successful than I was! A great night!

Day 68. 21 June  324 km. 8 hrs

Thai Nguyen to Cam Pha via Lang Son

A great road across to Lang Son, but my seat was getting so uncomfortable I found it hard to enjoy the ride.

Cam Pha  is a industrial City looking over into Ha Long bay.

Day 67. 20June. 324 km. 9.5hrs

Cao Bang, Ba Be back roads to Thai Nguyen.

The weather was clagged in until Ba Be Lake, after that some great views but a hard day. The back road out of Ba Be Lake is a wonderful ride through the countryside.

Day 66. 19 June. 127 km.  6.5 hrs

Cao Bang to Chinese border near HCM’s cave.

The ride today was very remote and filled with stunning scenery. Again my plan was to try and sneak into China.

I  headed north on DT208 and turned right on a very small road at Ha Quang which wound its way through the mountains. I continued on that road until I found the New Great Wall of China!

Nobody was around so i walked through a gap in the railing to take some photos before returning to Vietnam and Cao Bang.

Smugglers boats.

Day 65. 18 June. 9 hrs. 215 km

Ban Gioc Waterfall

I received a bollocking from the hotel owner as he thought I used his towels to clean my sandals. But it was the ingrained clay from the accident! I was too hurt to scrub it hard, so washed as well as I could, but when drying it the clay stained the towel.

Today’s ride I was really looking forward to, the Ban Gioc Waterfall, which is half in Vietnam and half in China. I went here on my last trip also.

There is a temple complex that has been built on a small hill that is great for taking photos, when at the waterfall is was too wet to get near with lots of mist blowing everywhere.

I then rode along the river trying to find a place I had read about where you can get across to China on a smugglers boat and walk around the market there, but I could not find it.

I did spot some smuggling going on and was told “no photos”! I did eventually find a road that arrived at the Chinese border, but there was no way into China.

On my return trip I stopped behind the top of the waterfall where there is a market and I could shake hands with the Chinese tourists and take selfies, but not cross into China.

On a sunny day this ride would be great!

I found a nice place to clean myself up hahaha

Day 63, 16 June Dong Van landslides. 70 km

My original plan was to go to the North Pole, but many road works and landslides followed by a blocked road stopped me. I had been on my previous trip and today the weather was very overcast and foggy, so I was happy to ride around seeing different sights.

The well guarded border.

The view were so good even the locals could not stop looking!

Day 62. 15 June. Dong Van to Chinese border (Cho Xin Cai 1500m high) 6.5hrs 100km

Today the weather was not good for photos. But I wanted to get to another Chinese border point.

The road from the valley up to Xin Cai was bad at times, but the views great!

Once I got to the border point I walked as far as I dare into China, the Vietnam side was a muddy track, the Chinese side a newly laid concrete road!

Day 61. 14 June Xin Man to Dong Van. 10 hrs 295 km.

There was light drizzle and bad roads for the first 100 km, but with great views again. In Ha Giang heavy rain.

Great roads winding through the valley.

Leaving Sapa looking north in the morning.

Day 59 12 June. Sapa

Day 60 13 June. 7.5 hrs 196km

Sapa to Xin Man. Via Muang Khuong,

Jeff had decided to call it a day and was leaving on the night train to Hanoi, where we would meet up again later

I left in heavy drizzle at 6am, but as I rode up into the mountains north of Lao Cai the weather was ok and it was a good days riding. Quite cool up the mountains though.

The route is here: http://vietnamcoracle.com/ha-giang-extreme-north-motorbike-loop/

Just caught the rainbow.

China to the left.