I do wonder what Thai people would think riding with these foot rowers!

Day 30. 14 May

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

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.

Cold beer watching the rice grow!

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/

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.

I found a nice place to relax today!

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.

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

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.

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 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 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.

At the A1 Battle Ground Memorial.

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.

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 43. 27 May.

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

Day 44. 28 May Sapa to Hanoi

392 KM. 11 hrs

It was cold and raining at 6am when I left in the morning. A bus tried to wipe me out too, the damn idiot!

In the traffic in Hanoi a taxi hit me and received some explicit language in return! I stayed at the hotel I stayed before but this time the member of staff refused to park the bike because he had a fever! So I gave him the keys with a “thanks” and gave him no choice.

Day 45 to 49, 29 May to 02 June

Around Hanoi

My mate Jeff arrived from the UK and we spent a lot of time drinking too much and eating steak suppers, great fun!

We also collected his bike for the trip. And were looking forward to riding into the mountains.

I was actually re-tracing my previous route of Mai Chau to Sapa, but still looking forward to it.

Day 50. 03 June Hanoi to Mai Chau

154 km 7.5 hrs

When checking out of our hotel the staff were amazed old people, (us) who are their granddads age could do this ride!

The route was easy and within an hour we were in the mountains and countryside.

Day 51 04 June. 144 km 7 hrs

Today the ride was back through Pu Luong National Park again. A small bridge had been washed away since I was there earlier on my trip.  

It was very hot, but an easy day of exploring.

36 minutes ago, chrissables said:

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following from here i found the "goat track"!

Day 52. 05 June. 8.5 hrs 163 km

Pu Luong again today, and up to the dead end for the views before heading towards the “goat track”, but I decided it would be a bit much for Jeff who had just got his bike licence prior to arriving! The road we took was far easier and still great views.

Day 53. 06 June 8 hrs. 221 km Mai Chau to Son La

We had a bit of a lie in as it was an easy ride today. But detoured to a tea plantation and stopped for lunch. Due to that the afternoon heat really made it hard work.

Jeff was having a great time making signals and the shouting at the crazy bus and truck drivers, I did not know there was that many <deleted> here!

Day 54. 07 June. Son La to Tuan Giao 8.5hrs 150km

Today trip went wrong, the original destination was QL4H near Muong Lay.

We took a side road DT107 which was covered with red slippery clay, and terrible to ride, but with superb views. Jeff found this very tiring and decided to take a mud bath and relax a little, but for some strange reason he took the bike with him!

The road changed to dry and no clay and we made good time up the QL6 until Jeff realized he had left his rucksack with his wallet and camera in it at shop earlier. It took a few hours to track it down and we decided to overnight in Tuan Giao.

The hotel advertised a restaurant and was the best in town, but no customers equaled no open restaurant, which they only told us after we checked in.

Trying to checkout in the morning I found myself locked in the building with no way out which brought another claustrophobia attack along with an extremely angry me nearly smashing the reception window to get out!

Day 55. 08June. Tuan Giao to Sapa 9.5 hrs 226 km

We left at 7am and good views straight away, this area is fantastic. If they sort out the hotels and food it will boom.

New roads for me today QL279 then QL32 over the pass again. The hotel where I stayed previously was fully booked, and the others in the area were expensive compared even to Hanoi for some reason.

Fansipan mountain, the highest in Indochina at 3,143m high.

Amazing trip! Thank you for sharing. It is a lot of work to edit photos and write a description.

Day 56-58 Sapa

Day 58 11June 10.5 hrs 215km

Today we decided to ride to Lao Cai and long loop around the Sapa Y Ty route.

It was a great ride but long, cold and a little rain at the end. A hard day and Jeff was suffering from sores on his arse which had actually started bleeding!

We also came across some local kid mafia riding around having fun. The locals here are very poor and not used to many visitors, this was very rural with beautiful rice terracing.

 

http://vietnamcoracle.com/sapa-y-ty-scenic-motorbike-loop/

China to the left.

Just caught the rainbow.