March 11 - Boom, Crash, Bang!

The previous day ended with a very good soup, this day kicked off with an even better one. I saw a large table in the open surrounded by a dozen or so people enjoying their meal, so I sat down with them. I guess the little boy across was a bit surprised to see me.

Delicious soup for breakfast

The soup was served with a fried egg, then there was some pork meat in a dumpling, and then noodles - all of this with about 10 more ingredients one could add, all kinds of spices, parsley, onions, cabbage salad - it was a real treat. I had two portions and paid, if I recall, less than two Euros.

I left town on a scenic road next to a river with a number of hanging bridges for about 25 kilometers in a westerly direction, in all, it was a relative flat ride. Little would I know that a few days later, I would bike the very same route again...

Hanging bridges

After those 25 kilometers (on QL34), I turned north (to the road QL4C), which was a challenge due to a very steep incline, gaining a few hundred meters of elevation within a couple of kilometers, only to lose this soon thereafter. As a sort of a "compensation", not only were the views of the surrounding mountains beautiful, I met lots of ethnic people in their bright, colorful dresses.

Colorful dresses all over the place...

On the downhill ride, I was trying to adjust the read brakes as much as possible - trying to stuff all kinds of different materials behind the pad - after cardboard, I trying plastic and then metal. A group of Israeli tourists on their motorbikes stopped to help me, that was nice of them, but they were also unable to find a permanent fix.

But this turned out to be the lesser of my problems, when , suddenly, on a short, steep incline, it happened: boom-crash-bang! I was changing gears, probably a bit too late for the hill, and the chain sprang out of the crank and got caught between the wheel and the crankset. This had happened to me in the past on a few occasions, no big deal, but when I was trying to free the chain, I suddenly saw something quite terrible: the bolt that holds the derailleur was broken...game over! So here I was, on this very remote stretch of road, 10 kilometers or so from the Chinese border - how on earth will I get out of this mess?

Priority one: get back to some town. There were a few cars, like on every two-three minutes, so I started hailing them. The first one was fully packed, the second one was fully packed - but it stopped. It was a large Toyota SUV, a five-seater with a large trunk, already quite full with five adults and a child. To my surprise, they loaded my bike to the trunk and squeezed me to the back seat. I would not have thought that I would be moving only after five minutes of hitchhiking. Thanks, helpful people of Vietnam!

It was a bit painful having to backtrack on the road that I had earlier ridden on, but at least I was heading towards civilization, somewhere they could (hopefully) fix my bike.

There was a large town, Cao Bang, some 150 kilometers to the east and not really being able to communicate with the folks in the car, I thought we were heading there. However, reaching Bac Lao (the town I had started that day), they said this is the final destination and showed the bus station, explaining the bus to Cao Bang would be coming in an hour, around 5 pm.

I felt a taste of defeat, but, at the same time, I was hopeful to find some sort of a solution to the issue, sure I would find a bike store in Cao Bang, Google Maps indicated a couple. I started strolling around in Bao Lac, a town which had a special place in my heart, due to the delicious breakfast...Another delicious piece in the town (and elsewhere) was pineapple, meticulously cleaned, all for about 50 cents!

Bao Lac street scene

Street market, with a pineapples on sale (for 50 cents)

Fish on sale

Saleslady at the market with smartphone in her hand

Well, there was no sign of a bus at 5 pm, a friendly young receptionist at a hotel with good English (a real exception in the north), told me I might have to stay there, as the bus might have broken down (not only my bike...). No: an hour later, by the time it was getting dark, it showed up, real packed. They threw my bike to the top and squeezed a seat for me somewhere in the back, where I was seating half on a bench, half on top of the luggages. They did not have an additional charge for the bike, I paid 90,000 Dongs, or about $4, for the journey, just like all other passengers - so no tourist tax. Unfortunately, however, I did lose a few items: my front light must have fallen out of one of the bags on the journey and a tape also disappeared.

We covered the 100 kilometers on the mountainous roads in about 3 hours - it was not the most pleasant trips of my life. Up front was a lady, who was barfing through the journey, she apparently did not appreciate the bends. My legs were soar - I was really glad to arrive. A few kilometers outside Cao Bang, they asked me whether I was headed to Hanoi - there were nicely lit, modern night buses waiting to pick up passengers. I was convinced to find a solution to the issue up north.

My guide book recommended an inexpensive hotel in town near a market, I mistakenly entered the first hotel (the recommended one would have been a bit further), negotiated a low price - a bit later, seeing my room, the Hungarian proverb came to my mind - "cheap meat produces thin broth". The room, yet again, had no window and the bathroom had an big hole at the top towards the corridor, the bed was rock hard. I went down to the reception to ask for another room - it was not really a reception, just a somewhat unclean desk - to find out that not only was it unmanned, but that I was locked inside the hotel with a gate grid! Oh nice. Quite frustrated, I fell asleep.