Friday 11 March 2016

Around Vietnam on motorbike - North West

Day 115 - 11/3/2016
An Khe - Southern central Vietnam

Dien Bien Phu - Tuan Giao - Muong Lay - Chan Nua - Sin Ho - Tam Duong - Ban Ho via Sa Pa (Homestay) - Bac Ha via Pho Lu - cca 600 km

Welcome to Vietnam !
Finally we’ve got to start writing about Vietnam.

It was little bit more than month ago when we crossed the border from Laos and submerged into hectic life of Vietnamese culture.

Nothing is impossible !
It all actually started already on the bus from Phongsali (link to previous post) where we slowly picked up approx. 45 people ( bus had 20 seats ) and in over crammed conditions we’re heading lightning fast through crazy mountainous roads. There were moments when the bus was swaying 40 degrees left and right and both of us stopped breathing for few moments as it would help to overcome the dangers...

We thought that all those people were Lao guys heading just to Muang Khoa or little bit further, but as we passed through all main stops the bus was still crowded same way. Some passengers had to stand for crazy 10 hours, leaning on each other. It was impossible to open side doors without reshuffling the crowd.

Fully loaded as inside as outside
They were all heading back home to Vietnam to celebrate Lunar New Year - Tet (link)! Now we know, so if you want to avoid similar situations just don’t go on any bus heading to Vietnam one week before the end of lunar year :)

Border crossing Tran Lay is in deep jungle forest at altitude around 1000 m so even though we didn’t expect to see more sunsets in Laos we were given one more !

If you have Vietnam visa already shining in your passport the process is smooth and fast. Stamp out on Laos side, 10 minute bus ride through no man's land and Vietnamese counter is waiting you in full communist power !

There is huge difference between Laos and Vietnam officers. While on Laos side, crowd surrounds the window to hand in the passport, people almost fighting each other to get to the window first, on Vietnamese side strict officers enforce proper queue ! Something more than unusual in Asia :) ( not that Vietnamese citizens would understand what it means, later coming guys were trying to either jump it all in once or at least to get half way in :)

In one window you get your visa checked and get stamped into the country and some 50 m further by the gate you show your passport to different officer who asks for chair money :)

I guess they would accept whatever currency in whatever reasonable amount, but because the visa got already super expensive we showed him no respect and with “No Dong, no Kip, visa expensive” we moved on ;) Not sure it would work all the time to be honest.

Soon after we got lower from the mountains unending purgatory started. Every 100 m bus stopped and one or two passengers got out. Each of them carrying at least 3 luggages strapped on top of the roof. Each stop didn’t take less than 10 minutes. In some way one starts appreciating strict European bus stops. After painful 2 hours on Vietnamese side we finally arrived to Dien Bien Phu (DBP).

In memory of fallen heroes !
There is few guest houses right opposite the bus station and after 11 hours of crazy bus ride we didn’t look further.

ATM is located just little bit up the main road (Vietin bank, Agribank and Vietcom bank don’t charge any fees while the limit is usually 2 000 000 VND).

Our first Pho for dinner and straight into the bed !

The famous Pho, you'll eat one at least once a day
Next morning there was serious challenge waiting for us !

It was the time to find Xe May (motorbike) !

Quick search online and there were plenty of bikes  available, but none in DBP. Oops !
No printed adverts around the hotels area either. Oops !

No problem, let’s have a look on the market first, eat some Pho, find a coffee and some bikes will pop up :)

Pho in market area was delicious and cheap (20 000 VND). Followed by coffee in one sided street and we fell ready for the mission.

Let’s ask locals :) So we started with the owners of the Cafe place. After 20 minutes of waiting, their friend arrived and brought us to main road opposite the airport strip.

There are few shops with both new and second hand bikes. Well new was out of our limits and all second hand available were scooter style ( semi or full automatic) and not really what we’re looking for !

Our aim was classic Honda Win 100cc - not manufactured by Honda anymore :(

With smile on our faces we thanked the guy and started walking the street in hope that we’d find something further up. After one complete circle of all shops on this road, the lucky fairy smiled at us and threw a guy in our way who asked us with good English whether we need a help :) We described our situation and what we’re looking for and he offered to give me a ride around the town to see what we can find.

Only stupid would not accept it !

It didn’t take that long and we parked in front of small garage with a dozen of second hand bikes parked in front of it. There it was, one bike which looked like Honda Win :))

Whoo Whoo, we might score !

After quick go on the main road, all basic stuff looked ok, 100 m down dirt road chain came off and that didn’t look good at all.

I got the chain back, no big issues, just dirty hands, but then the bike didn’t want to start again... After 10 minutes of kick starting I gave up and started pushing it back to the garage.

My hope of possible success was gone.

Some 500 m further I’ve tried again and this time I realised that I was holding clutch all the time before. Tra da ! The bike got back alive :)

Ok so not all hope was gone :)

I’ve asked to get the odometer changed, chain stretched, oil changed, handle bar tightened up
(as it rolled over while I was pushing it), put on 2nd mirror and then I agreed to pay price of 5 000 000 VND.

As I learnt later it was well overshot for local conditions, but it was around 250 USD, same price what most bikes where advertised online and those sold in the main centres as Hanoi or Saigon. If any local asks us the price we say 3 000 000 VND and they get quite surprise with such a good deal !

The guy originally started on 350 USD, so I thought that I made good deal, as we found much later this was just initial investment :)

All together it took just 4 hours and we had our transport !

We named it Hwin Dee - H(onda)win Dee (good in Tai).

Hit the road Hwin Dee !
It was missing one little upgrade and that was backpack rack extension, the original one was not big enough.

So we kept riding around the town and after more than hour we gave up as no one was willing to either make one or to bind something existing on top of what we had.

Well new year was approaching and that means long term holiday and a lot of drinking well before and well after the main day.

In the last garage I’ve found piece of furniture which fit perfectly on top of existing rack, so I grabbed it, strapped it with thick wire and it’s been working perfectly since then. Nothing like DIY !

There were still few things missing - chain to lock when parked overnight, bungees to strap our bags tight and last but definitely not least some comfy helmets !

The beauty of Asian markets is that you can find everything you need on one place :) Chain and bungees were really cheap, helmets price range is huge, depending whether you want plastic baseball cap or Darth Vader style one. Middle range was starting around 300 000 VND, after few minutes of trying and more minutes of negotiating we scored nice and fitting helmets. Altogether 600 000 VND.

At the end of all this crazy day we still managed to find bookshop and to buy road map of north western Vietnam, which was enough for more than 3 following weeks.

Afterwards we ran up one of the war memorial hills and caught last 10 seconds of sun disappearing behind the mountains on the border with Laos.

First sunset in Vietnam
Afterwards we were invited to a dinner in a house of a guy who helped me to buy our Hwin Dee for home made Lau and it was amazing experience :) duckling eggs, lot of rice wine and rice and noodles as much we could eat.

That was the end of our first full day in Vietnam, we’re ready to hit the road next morning in full power !

We woke up reasonably late, strapped all our luggage on the bike and kick the black horse to move forward. With all the weight sitting above back wheel, first 500 m were quite difficult.

It felt like riding a bicycle after 10 beers on empty stomach :) After few kms it felt little bit better and we slowly gained confidence.

Our first try to get off the main road and take back roads through the nature didn’t end that well. After some 20 kms, it looked like we reached really big village with wide streets and lot of traffic. In next 5 mins we started recognising surroundings. We’re back in DBP market area LOL. Oops !

So we tried again and this time we stuck to main road and were heading east to Tuan Giao.
It was cloudy cold day and within first half an hour we found out that our clothing was well underestimated.

Quick stop to warm up with hot tea in a shop by the road was necessary.

Our bike sounded almighty and we flew over first mountain pass with no troubles, except now and then when in 3rd gear the engine made funny noise, like the gear wanted to jump out. We didn’t pay any big attention to that as we knew that our Hwin Dee had some decent history and thought it’s just normal...

After couple of hours of riding we reached Tuan Giao, little town wedged between limestone mountains with busy main road where all life was happening. Here as well as in DBP and actually in all our northern journey, one could see hill tribe minorities colouring the road, around the Cho (market) ! The women dress colourful costumes and contrary to Thailand or Laos they are well proud to show it !

Bia Hoi to celebrate first safe arrival 
Little community guest house was our sanctuary for a night.

Tati was determined to buy additional jumper to prevent getting sick as the weather forecast didn’t look any warmer for next at least 5 days. Shopping at local market turned out to be quite a mission, as most of the jumpers were little bit to short and small for European size people.

At the end we found reasonably warm and big enough jumper carrying magic symbol 23 on the back.

After long sleep, strengthened by baguette with egg and bacon we set off for next adventures.

Joining road 6 little bit further above the town we slowly made our progress through rural villages surrounded by rice fields and limestone cliffs.

Yes this is Highway :)
Around 1 PM we stopped in Huoi Long village for quick coffee and visit of a cave (Dong) which was marked on the map. It turned out that the map was wrong and instead of right side of the road the cave was on the left side little bit before the village.

This time we didn’t venture too deep into the mountain and pushed further on our journey instead. Our goal for this day was to reach town of Muang Lay some 90 kms from Tuan Giao.

Somewhere half an hour after our cave stop we started noticing that it’s becoming harder to get into 3rd gear. Sometimes it worked fine, sometimes it just didn’t want to clap in... As long as it worked after few tries we kept going.

Half way through the road in a steep hill above tiny village, while in 2nd gear, our Hwin Dee started sounding ill and the gear was jumping out at free will. The result of that was chain off the wheel for first time. We returned back to the village, found first Xe May garage, stretched the chain and started diagnosing trouble with the gear. Result was not good. Supposedly our gearbox (Bo So) was ill and we were in need of replacement. Good news : 1st and 4th gear should still work fine, bad news they couldn’t fix it as they didn’t have the parts on stock.

Still the same highway :)
Advice was to keep going to Muang Lay or return to Dien Bien Phu. It was just 45 kms to Muang Lay so we pushed further.

But who would mind with this kind of views
Most of the journey was decently uphill and sometimes steep uphill. 1st gear worked fine, but you can’t go more than 10 km/h on it so we knew we’re in time trouble. Mountain pass of 1000 m ahead of us and then 10 km downhill. Hwin Dee was rattling like a small dog in snow storm. Patience was the key. After almost 2 hours we reached the pass and stuck to 4th gear on the way down. The vision of getting new gear box was holding our morale high !

Rice fields before Muang Lay dam
Muang Lay used to be town located on a river in deep valley. Used to be... These days it’s relocated ugly town on the bank of huge dam. From the top of the mountain it looks inviting. In reality it’s not.

Muang Lay could be pretty town, unfortunately it's not !
We found only one hotel and by bad luck it was hosting terrible karaoke party on the floor above us (Vietnamese people love karaoke btw). Food was really hard to find and finally mr Fix Everything who was scary but could speak some basic English, after 2 hours of doing Xe May magic figured out he can’t fix our baby as he doesn’t have the gearbox either. In the meantime he changed the clutch, cleaned the engine with petrol and changed the oil. His advice was to keep going direction to Lai Chau and 20 kms further there should be a village with another Xe May magicians who should be able to do the trick.

Not the best start of the day, but what can one do. We definitely didn’t want to get stuck there for longer. Another trouble we caused upon ourselves was the lack of local money. There was no working ATM in Muang Lay. Agribank was closed on Saturday morning as New Year day was coming following Monday. Oops.

At the end we got saved by mr Fix Everything who exchanged our Euro reserve with just a little bit unreasonable rate.

We packed our belongings and kicked Hwin Dee to another 1st and 4th gear mission. Within hour we reached village of Chan Nua and located a guy who was willing to help us fix the gearbox. His estimate was at least 3 hours of work and 900 000 VND. Steep but we had no other choice. Unfortunately his estimate was based on the assumption that he would work on it without interruption what was not the case at all.

Chan Nua is definitely nicer place to stay than Muang Lay
Every 20 minutes there was someone coming to get his flat tyre fixed or change the brakes or anything else. By 5 pm we checked into guest house which was just next to his shabby garage and prayed for his success.

I know what's wrong with it : "It's broken"
Good part of this nightmare was that we got invited to eat with his family and the food with beers was included in the fixing price. By 9 pm everything looked like it should be ready for final mount back to chasis and try on the road. How easy are things back in Europe, you come to garage they have brand new piece, take the old out, put new in and everything works fine... Not in Vietnam :) He was fiddling with different gear wheels for hours until he found the right match. Bad luck struck again. 2nd gear was working fine, 3rd gear didn’t like the positioning. So when I went to try, the engine got stuck at some point and didn’t want to move further, nor to get off. Finally by 11 PM everything was working fine and we’re ready for mountains mission.

Vietnamese puzzle, difficulty hard :)
Full of excitement of fixed Hwin Dee we started our ascent early in the morning and caught first direct sun rays just few kilometers above Chan Nua. It was last Sunday of the lunar year and New Year celebration preparations were in full swing. Families killing pig, buying food and drinks reserves for next few days. We’re on our way to Sin Ho, village situated on a plateau at altitude of 1500 m. Alternative to Sa Pa and Bac Ha, also famous for traditional Sunday market where women from local tribes come to buy food for following week.

Tribe costume still has high value in the mountains
Our aim was to get there before 10 AM to catch the best of it. We succeeded pretty well, but paid with frozen fingers and slight hypothermia. It was first sunny day after long period of cloudy wintery weather and above 1000 m high it was just few degrees above zero. Not really Asian tropical dream weather :)

Early morning ride to Sin Ho
We checked into hotel close to the main market and headed for Pho breakfast. Market was bustling with women mainly dressed up in blue clothes with pretty nice jewellery and interesting headwears. The market itself is not as big as one would expect, but definitely lively enough.

Variety is the key !
When we had enough of people watching we moved on and went to discover little bit of surrounding nature. Following the same road we came on, we got to small cemetery on left side and took dirt road which finished after 500m, just to find interesting walk above rice paddies through rocky slope covered with thick forest.
Xin Chao Vietnam !
Later on we’ve explored the road few kms direction to Lai Chau and as the sun has hid behind the clouds, hunger and cold sent us back to our hotel to seek refuge in our room and later restaurant and finally owners of the hotel prepared amazing snacks session downstairs in the main entrance hall. Here we met 3 English guys travelling on off road bikes from Hanoi. After few days out of social contact with western people it was pretty cool to have a chat and few beers and shots of rice wine.

Discovering nature around Sin Ho
Next morning was quite unique. Woke up around 8 AM to find whole town being completely dead quiet. No motorbikes on the road, no shops open, no people shouting as any other day would be normal at this time of the day. Welcome to Lunar New Year day, one of few if not only real day off for all Vietnamese people. Pretty surreal feeling, little bit like the town got struck by alien force which took everyone away.

Completely dead quiet...

Rare to see, empty socialist avenues in empty cities - Lunar new year day
We set off for our ride to Lai Chau around 9:30 and slowly took in warmth of the sun now being pretty high on the sky. The road drops down for maybe 20 km, followed by 20 km hike to another pass and final section is again 20 km drop to Lai Chau. Little villages are dotting first section of the road, becoming more sparse afterwards.

Bizzare hills around Sin Ho
Local girls VS falai
Just few kms above Lai Chau we’ve discovered impressive cave - Dong Pu Sam Cap, for 30 000 D each, we got in and local guy turn the lights inside just for us, followed our steps and then showed us second cave hidden in jungle some 15 minutes walk away. Little hidden gem not many people seem to know about.

Deep underground
Inside dragon mouth
We’ve passed through Lai Chau pretty quickly, just stopped to fill up a tank ( petrol station was closed, but there were some guys hanging around market and they drained 4 liters from their generator and shared with us ) and went further to Tam Duong, where we decided to stay for a night before the ride to Sapa which will require at least 2 hours more of riding.

Business as usual, regular rockfall
In the next morning with all clothes on, we started the beautiful steep hike to Sa Pa through Hoang Lien Son mountain range where majestic Fansipan, the highest peak in Indochina (3143 m high) touches the sky.

Fansipan - Highest mountain of Indochina
An amazing winding ride took us up to 2010 m high in the pass with amazing mountainous scenery and very very cold air. Views along the road are stunning. Definitely highlight on the list of Vietnam roads.

You definitely want to ride on this road on a day like this !
On the other side of the pass, first white faces on rented motorbikes greeted us every 500 m, and passing Thac Bac (pretty but unfortunately paid waterfall on the way) we arrived in Sa Pa.

The town of Sa Pa has got the charm of old french colony. It has been quite a while we have seen such a crowded place (and it is winter !) and mutually we agreed to explore the valley below Sa Pa, after a black H’mong lady told us about the possibility to overnight in a homestay.

Steep slopes of 20 km long valley are covered with endless terraced rice fields where scattered minority villages are located. The famous rice fields of Sa Pa are actually here !

Famous rice fields of Sa Pa - nothing is growing here in February though :) come back in August
In spite of being in winter and the rice fields not being in its most greenery splendour, the views were magnificent!

Endless rice fields
The road was bad but we had a lot of fun covering it together with locals on similar Xe Mays or by foot. After passing a couple of more popular villages we arrived in Ban Ho, with Tay people.

Entering the first narrow steep path on the top of the village we got to a friendly homestay where we stayed overnight, as only guests, with both dinner and breakfast included, for 300.000 VND :)

Hope I'm not gonna meet buffalo on this path ;)
The stilt house lodged on the top floor the guests room - an open room filled with mattresses, mosquito nets and curtains, creating more privacy, while the kitchen and family rooms where located on ground floor surrounded by open space as a terrace.
 
Beautifully simple
Homestays actually offer the best accommodation and food one can have in Vietnam for reasonable price !

A Dao woman came along to sell her crafts ... after some laughing and a lot of patience on our side and insistence on her side, we got rattling keychain for our Hwin Dee.

Dao tribe woman
Having still some light before sunset, we decided to walk around the village and try to find the way to the waterfall. The god Dionysus (or the beer Hanoi) did not show us the way !... we have got lost in the jungle with the sandals dirtied by buffalo shit and fell down on our arses few times :)

Back in the homestay, we had one of the most amazing dinners we have had so far in asia, endless amount of rice, eggs, vegetables (seasonal cabbage) and meat (pork and chicken), everything freshly cooked and produced around the house. Tet was just a couple of days ago and that’s why there was plenty of meat left and needed to be eaten !

Inside Ban Ho village
We fell asleep early with a symphony of frogs, cicadas and crickets and were woken up with the first light of the day by clucking of chickens and cocks!

After enjoying fresh pancakes with banana and honey for breakfast, we set on our previous day mission : Ban Ho waterfall.

This time the way led us to it. The water was inviting and Roman tried how cold it was :)

This was very short dip, bloody cold water ...
A long journey through valleys of Lao Cai province was waiting for us. Around midday we set off to Bac Ha.

We took a dirt road on the banks of Ngoi Bo from Ban Ho, which lead us close to Pho Lu and spared us a back journey to Sa Pa.

Easy roads are for lazy tourists, adventurers can take some dirt ! 
It was a long way on half dirt half tarmac road - we made 30 km in 2h ! but the beautiful scenery compensate the time !

Dam on Bo river
Path is a destination in the first place !

The bumpy road turned to be good after the dam anyways ...

Approaching Bac Ha
Bac Ha is, same as Sin Ho or Sa Pa, famous for its Sunday market.

Villagers of neighbouring minorities come to sell and buy their products. This time we did not match with the weekend but in every corner we could greet the colourful Flower Hmong women, dressed in their best costumes.

Flower Hmong tribe girls
Flower Hmong tribe women 
We stayed in Bac Ha 2 nights and decided to explore its surroundings.

Traditional house with little rice fields
From Bac Ha town we rode the loop through Ban Pho and stopped for a break close to a waterfall where we met randomly our British friends from Sin Ho.

Waterfall after Ban Pho 
Hwin Dee and bigger brothers
We left the waterfall to discover way back to Bac Ha together. The road turned to mud pools filled with huge rocks and for some 10 kms didn’t resemble road at all. Surprisingly our Hwin Dee loaded with 2 rastas behaved almost as good as their off-road bikes and we caught up with them in tiny village on the ridge.

Fun in the mud
That definitely was the roughest ride we’ve done so far !

This might be highway one day :) not yet though
Local mountains are covered with mixture of pine trees, jungle and rice paddies cascading into different valleys all around.

You don't need to go to Sa Pa to see great terraced rice fields
Coming back to Bac Ha town
Back in Bac Ha town we still had some time to explore first few kms of the road in direction to Coc Pai - the next day trip :) on the way we found decently steep hill where we figured out that our head gasket was blown and needed replacement.

Komatsu sound system :)
Pretty crucial part, hole in a gasket and your bike goes no where, doesn’t even start ... Oops :)

Next morning we started early, our ride towards extreme north is covered in next section.

Spot the bike ?