My back was better I had borrowed Mike and Kats bed rolls and sleep on them made my bed really nice and comfortable. I was still popping pills as I am a bit of a pill popper, have to keep on going, must reach goal no matter what, never give up. Just pop the pills and hope you’re not making it worse. We struck out from Pho Rang early to try and get most of the riding done before the heat takes it toll.
We were now on a minority village hunt, well did not really have to hunt we were passing local minority tribes all the time now, locals with their water buffalo, riding them out to the fields, women dressed in traditional gear following the kids on the buffalo, it is really an amazing site, now these people are the real thing, not the tribes that look after the tourist market, kids up in elevated houses with maze drying below. Rice fields and other plants growing in terrace fields it really is spectacular, beauty to the beholder.
We had a very long hill climb in the middle of the day, the road seemed to twist and turn its way up the hill sides climbing up forever moving on towards the heavens, and this was only a small hill of around 600m or so, the climb into Sapa which would be the next day was over 1000m climb. When we finally made it to the top and started our decent it was not too soon for me, the rest of the ride we followed a river towards Lao Cai our stop for the night. With just over 10km to go we stopped on the side of the road for a sugar cane drink, these are very refreshing.
Katrina was, well the only way to describe it was attached by the sugar cane sellers wife. It started with grabbing her legs, we were not really sure what she was trying to say but I think she was impressed with the size of them, this I have to say was really funny for me and Mike who just sat off to the side and laughed, very supportive, the lady also saw a couple of photos of Katrina’s sisters kids, there was a bit of a miss understanding and I think the lady thought they were mike and Katrina’s kids, after pulling out the English Vietnamese dictionary the issue was resolved. I we headed away Katrina got her arse slapped by the lady, this was starting to happen a lot to Kat, I was most disappointed that I was not getting any arse slapping action.
We finally rolled into Lao Cai our stop for the night, the sun and heat had again beaten us down and we were thankful to be able to finally stop, we got some drinks and food before we made our way to find a guest house for the night. Luckily it did not take too long. We moved into a big room for a pretty good price and relaxed, the aircon was on and the body temperature was finally coming down. I am not sure if you can ever get used to the heat.
Kat headed out to use the internet and me and Mike just hung out in the room, the temperature in the room seemed to be getting hotter and then Kat walked in and said it was hotter in the room then outside, the aircon had failed. We told the owner and with in what seemed like minutes the owner had got in a aircon repair man, we headed out and left them to it, it was time to find food again, supplies were needed for the ride up the hill the next day.
When we got back we moved rooms seems the aircon was dead and not coming back to life, well not today anyway. We ended up staying in that night and eating noodles for dinner, no one had the energy to go out. At about 8:30pm the heavens unleashed hell on the city of Lao Cai, plunging us into darkness and then lighting up the nights sky in a magical display of power. Lightning and thunder crashed all around it was dazzling to see, I managed to capture one photo of lightning firing off in the distance. The raw power of nature at her stunning best. Lucky for us it did not last too long and we were able to sleep soundly through the night, we would need our energy for tomorrows ride.
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