March 16 - Still Up North

This Friday turned out to be somewhat of an overcast, but an otherwise enjoyable day.

As I left Yen Minh, I was greeted by a large herd of cows coming my way on the mountain road, led by women dressed in black (WIB).

No concept of right-hand drive

WIB

Walking up a steep slope, I waived to two young kids, they then turned around, ran to me and indicted they were hungry. I had some delicious bean cake, so I offered it to them.

Kids munching away on my breakfast...

...and the women of their family

The road past by villages, with rather poor houses. Still, kids living there were happily waving to me.

A village (with wildly waving kids in the house)

For a while, I rode next to a river surrounded my peaks.

River (could be somewhere in Austria, too)

The entire time in Vietnam, I wanted to visit a school (something I did in Ethiopia and Morocco, too) , there were plenty to choose from. I made a decision to visit the very next one and when I spotted it, I saw a load of tourists visiting this very school. Oh well, I rode on and stopped at the next one a few kilometers later. The teachers were quite glad to see me, they let me give some math exercises to the children, on the blackboard. I first gave a simple one, 5 + 5, all hands rose to the air in union. A little girl came up to the front and gave the correct answer. The next example was not that easy, it was 327 - 86. This time, it was just one hand, that of the same little girl and she wrote the answer correctly. Then I tried singing with them, Frere Jacques, but apart from laughter, no luck here. I showed them on a map where I was from, then left, all of them waiving at me.

Cute, eh?

A small village came and saw a motorbike already with a lady driver holding a baby, and one, two, three kids already seated, when the fourth one was about to get on. Efficient! Interestingly, the helmet, which is mandatory, is only worn by adults, almost never by children.

A common sight: fully loaded motorbikes

After this village, it was yet again a big incline, leading to Quan Ba Pass (also called Heaven's Gate), around 1,200 meters above sea level. Here I met the Czech couple from the previous day - they were very surprised to see me there, did not think I would make it that far. Honestly, while there were quite a few steep stretches, I did not find either of the two passes (the one being yesterday) all too challenging - and they were also not very high.

Heaven's Gate: almost there...but not quite, there was yet 2-3 kilometers to go to the real pass

Czech couple I met a day ago at the pass

Now the landscape opened up and there was a beautiful view of a valley, with the road weaving down. Alas, it was a bit overcast, so the view was not as nice as it could have been, but I was still quite excited to be riding downhill.

Many switchbacks

Terrace farming

Uh-oh - on the downhill, I started hearing some very weird sounds from my brake, I was really getting fed up with this bike. I did ask in the shop in Hanoi to look at it, they said it was fine. I stopped to thoroughly clean it, it improved a bit, but I was still not all too satisfied with it.

Anyone sensitive to animal suffering should skip this section. In a village, I saw these poor pigs being squeezed into a cage, in order to be weighed - they were badly suffering, oinking and yelping. I felt really sorry for them. People of Vietnam - time to mend your ways...

Animal cruelty

...after all, you have been blessed by such natural beauty...

Rice fields reflecting the mountains

It was so, around 5 pm, that I reached the town of Ha Giang, a city of some 75,000 people. My priority was to find a fix to the issue with the brake. I found a modern sport shop and explained what I needed. I young guy jumped on his motorbike and told me to follow him. We rode for a kilometer or two to a motorbike mechanic shop, where a seemingly teenager technician came up to me, all excited, him apparently not having met too many Caucasians yet. He started pulling the hair on my arms and as far as I could judge, he had no idea as to what the issue was. I asked to find another shop, 2-3 kilometers later we found a shop, but the mechanic was not there. Then, a few kilometers later, at a large motorbike shop, a young fellow came up and my mood changed for the better when it turned out he had all the equipment and tools to fix bikes. Tommy, the student I had met in Thai Nguyen on the second day, helped translate via WhatsApp. And yes! He found a perfect solution to the adjustor knob of the rear brake, which had been a headache for quite a while, well before the trip. He did not even ask for any money! I wanted to invite him for dinner, which he politely declined.

I had some trouble with finding a hotel - on a Friday evening, Ha Giang was well visited and hotels were booked out. Then I made a (binding) booking via a website, but when I finally found to the hotel, it turned out there was no room. The receptionist told me to follow him - apparently, this is how the evening was to be, I was following locals around town. He showed me a hotel, but they asked for more than in my booking, so I left. He then showed another place - one I did not really like, but as I was really tired and the owners were friendly, I decided to stay. My room was noisy, the wall had mold on it - I was not too pleased. I dozed off after things had gotten somewhat quiet.

The "production" of that day was 100 km, 2,300 meters of up, 2,600 meters of downhill riding.