chrissables

Day 43. 27 May.

Sapa was getting the rain early, so i walked around town between showers.

Day 42. 26 May.

Sappa to Y Ty 143km 7 hrs

A ride to see the view point I saw on my last trip of China.

It’s very mountainous and there are many different Hill Tribes in the area.

The rice planting was starting also.

Day 41. 25 May. 8.5 hrs 284 km

Dien Bien Phu to Sa Pa

I planned to leave at 6am and go to QL4H rated in best riding roads by the VC.

There were heavy showers and bad visibility, so delayed my start until 7.30 and left that trip for later. (As it happens I did not make it at my second attempt too). After about 80 km the weather improved and it was a great ride to Sa Pa coming over the Deo Tram Ton Pass.

At the A1 Battle Ground Memorial.

Day 40. 24 May

I stayed in town today, first thing was a walk around the local market which was interesting, but nobody wanted their photo taken, that is until a large group of ladies wanted selfies with me and for their amusement started molesting me playing with my man boobs, damn it was so funny!

From there I walked to the A1 Hill battle ground which had nice views from the top.

Day 39. 23 May Son La to Dien Bien Phu

5 hrs 15 min 167 km

This is a very good riding road (QL13 and QL729) and after Giao Tuan the views are tremendous.

Riding through here is great also because  spotting the local ladies with top knots wearing helmets perched on top. It's very comical.

Day 38. 22 May 2018 302 km 9 ½ hrs. Hanoi to Son La

I left early to miss the Hanoi traffic, which worked and for once the “google” app spot on. Not any issues for the whole ride.

After Pu Yen the scenery was great on QL37 down to QL13 and up to Son La and worth a visit another day.

Arriving at Son La all the good hotels were booked, some army do. I saw the news a few weeks later that they were after some of the biggest drug traffickers in the country and they were arrested near there.

Day 35. 19 May Mai Chau to Hanoi,  about 4 hours 169km

The hotel was dive but in a good area.

Day 36. 20 July Hanoi

Woke at 5am to the sound of jack hammers working in the hotel adjoined to my room. So I checked out.

Found a great room by the Cathedral, cheap for the area, but no parking! The parking area asked 4 times the Vietnamese amount, so I got the manager to sort it out.

It was time for the bike to have an oil change and they found the clutch cable was on its last thread. All done for ten pound and very quickly.

After 5,000 km of arse ache I decided to re-design the seat of the bike as its easily done in Hanoi.

Day 37. 21 May 2018

Hanoi train street and old quarter.

Really fun walking around the City today.

The girl in the green took most of these photo's, she was really having fun!

Day 34 18 May Off road loop 161 km 8.5 hrs

Another great day of fun and challenges! I headed south east again through Pu Luong National Park, I then went due north towards Lung Van. From this road I rode north west along a great road until I could go no further, really up in the wilderness. I returned to the road for Lung Van which is a great and crazily steep in places road. I mean first gear steepness. Eventually the road levels off at a plateau and you have a choice of two routes back to Mai Chau. (This route is marked on the Vietnam coracle map as “extremely bad one km”. The problem being I had planned the route myself and did not check!)

I stopped off to buy a bottle of petrol and beer and had a pleasant 30 minutes with the locals and the children playing with my camera taking so many photos.

I eventually found the “extremely bad road”, in fact I would call it a goat track, but goats would do a “U” turn and find another route, as I did. But the locals insisted the “road” went to Mai Chau! So I turned around once again and gave it a go.

It was level at the start and not too hard, but before long I came to a rocky track which went up very steeply over large rocks. I was on the equivalent of a Honda Click, not an off road bike, wearing shorts and sandals and had at that time no idea how far the track would be this bad.

Anyway I decided to crack on as it was hours to go back and there was a thunder storm rumbling around.

After reaching the top it was mostly level again and I joined up with the main road to Mai Chau.

I found a nice place to relax today!

Day 33. 17 May Laos Loop

305 km 10.5 hrs

Hard days riding with good and bad roads, especially at the end of the trip.

From Mai Chau I start the same loop as yesterday but left the Ma River and rode west along QL217 towards the Laos border before turning north and up to the DT520 and to Muong Lat then heading east along the Ma River to the Co Luong junction and north to Mai Chau.

Good to see working water wheels on the way round too.

Day 32. 16 May. A ride through Pu Luong Park and back. 138km

Stunning views, exploring dead end roads at the National Park.

I rode south to Co Luong the southeat along QL15C through the park to the Ma River at Canh Rang and then continued clockwise on a loop back to Mai Chau.

The routes and more information are here: http://vietnamcoracle.com/province-of-paddies-and-pinnacles-the-thanh-hoa-loop/

Cold beer watching the rice grow!

Day 31. 15 May. Tam Coc to Mai Chau

5 hrs 167km

Nearly run off the road a few times today, lots of swearing coming from me and single digit waving!

Arriving at Mai Chau made the ride worth it, chilled out in the afternoon with cold beer and watching the rice grow.

Day 30. 14 May

I rode around the local paddy fields today. Great views and a relaxing day.

Day 29. 13 May.

A ride with the “foot rowers” today. I chose a quiet place and went early, so there were not any tourists except me.

When she tried to enter the cave my claustrophobia decided pop its head up, so we cut the trip short.

The two other sites I visited in the area i rode away from due to the parking mafia annoying me!

Day 28. 12 May. Vinh to Tam Coc. 4 hrs 207 km

An easy ride to this tourist destination today straight up QL 1A and arrived with time to take some photo’s.

Day 27.11 May. Phong Nha to Vinh 8 hrs 290km

Great views in the morning sun riding north from Phong Nha mostly on the HCM road before droping down to Vinh.

Crap hotels here, as soon as you pull up the guards try to make you go and park in the staff parking areas, which I refuse to do until the bike is unloaded.

Then the bar was not open and the restaurant too.

Day 26. 10 May. Khe Sanh to Phong Nha, home of the great cave complex here in Vietnam.

10 hours 278 km

Incredible views! I needed to use my spare petrol bottle due to lack of petrol stations on the route. Heavy rain at end of the day.

There were too many back packers who for some reason were walking around shoe less, very strange.

This idiot missed me by a few seconds, he was following me down the hill but lost it at the bend. I went back to laugh!

Day 25. 09 May. Hue to Khe Sanh 193 km I missed big storms at end of the day, shit food at the hotel, really dire!
But some great views along the way!

Day 24. 08 May.

Relaxing and visited the coast.

Dirty, not nice at all!

Day 23. 07 May

Relaxing and visited the Tomb of Khai Dinh