March 15 - A Pearl of a Day

I took my time to get ready in the morning - it was close to 9 am that I had left the hotel. It was a pleasant day, always a good thing, especially when more mountain climbs are ahead. Right outside town, a motorbike with a young couple came up to me, this was Oliver from South Africa with his girlfriend, they were on an amazing 8-month cycling trip from China to Vietnam, back to China, then to Mongolia - they were taking a rest day. We chatted for a while, they told me some interesting stories.

I knew there was a mountain pass ahead of me - called Ma Pi Leng. I was a bit surprised that the road was just flat for a while, it even descended for a while. Then came a rather interesting warning regarding the "means of transport speed", after which some climbing began.

I required means of transport speed with my bike

The vistas were simply spectacular - the only complaint was that the weather was a bit hazy. At the same time, it added a sense a mysterious flavor to the mountain ranges overarching each other.

Deep gorge

One more, as it was so breathtaking

Mountains everywhere - deep into China

Winding road

There was not a lot of traffic - there were quite a lot of motorbike riders, many of which were international tourists, mainly from Western Europe (France, Germany, Netherlands, England - this was the top 4 order of my unofficial survey, but I met folks from all corners of the world). They would be spending anytime between 2 weeks and 3 months (the maximum the visa allowed) in country, and would either be renting a motorbike or buying one for some $200 and then trying to sell it for the same amount. Of course, there would be tourist buses, but riding through Vietnam in a motorbike is a popular means of transport (speed, hehe). Road biking is not so common, still, I did meet quite a few of my "colleagues" during the six weeks.

Then I also met locals, navigating the steep slopes on foot, sometimes with heavy loads.

This lady just climbed an incredibly steep slope with the firewood on her back

She carried a big sickle on her back

Switchbacks in the background

The summit came sooner then expected, it was just around 10 kilometers of the steep incline. There was a typically communist monument - reminding me of Hungary 30 years ago. Here I met a Czech couple on a motorbike and said, casually, that we might meet again later on the road. They strongly doubted it, as they were faster with their motorbike than me with my bike. Spoiler alert: we did meet the following day...

Victory for the communist people

Even after the summit the beautiful views would continue. As I am writing this, I am having a real hard time deciding as to which of the many photos I should include, it was really one of the most wonderful days of the trip.

Peaks everywhere

Lush vegetation

I reached Dong Van, another highlight in the Stefan Loose guide book, which is a sort of a "base camp" for tourists exploring the area via hiking. There were lots of hotels, motels, restaurants, coffees - however, it wasn't crowded, as it was early in the season. I ran into Oliver and his girlfriend, they were just finishing lunch when I arrived. I was getting hungry, too, so I had some Pho and then some stir fried beef. Hmm, I think to have picked some sort of a tourist trap, the food was not up to the level common in the country - and was a bit pricey.

Reception committee in Dong Van

I left town soon after lunch, just visited a huge market, which gets busy with people from the mountains selling their products on Sundays - alas, it was a Thursday, oh well, next time.

With a full belly, it wasn't too easy to master the uphill from the town, but yet again, the views were amazing. We were very close to the Chinese border an there was a sign indicating it was a frontier area.

Close to China

Think this was my favorite picture on one of my favorite days

Collecting herbs

There was a possibility to head to the north, a road of about 30 kilometers leading to the very north peak of Vietnam, with a flag tower, but as it would have been sixty kilometers, I felt compelled to ride on. I did visit, however, a mansion built by the French in 19th century for a local king, called Vuong Palace.

Vuong Palace

I had a busy afternoon meeting people: first, I met a solitary Vietnamese biker touring the mountain roads, then an older Czech cyclist (by the way: in many countries I had cycled earlier, I would keep meeting Czech folks) and then I met Oliver and his girlfriend for the third time on their motorbike. Well, in this remote area, there are only a few roads, so it is inevitable to run into folks multiple times...

Nice peaks, nice road

A fellow cyclist from the Czech Republic

Oliver and girlfriend from South Africa

Oh, Nature...

The road leading into the sunset

Later I met some kids - took out my camera and look at their faces...no respect for the older!

Lack of respect...(look at the guy in the middle)

Sigh, I am really having a hard time choosing which of the many many pictures to include for this day - it was so wonderful! And did you notice there were no bike issues whatsoever during this day? Sort of a rarity on this trip!

In the evening, I got to a town called Yen Minh, found a clean motel, according to Google Timeline, called Cao Nguyen, with a large, nice room (and reasonable price), but somewhat hard matrass - and had a good night's sleep.

Google indicated that I had done some 73 kilometers, climbed 2,500 meters and descended 3,200 meters that day.