D day, good byes and a motorbike ride

This was it the end of the fellowship, the day had come as I knew it would, Kat and Mike would head west then north into China and Tibet, have to put here that had I not meet Zach, Elise, Kat and Mike I would have been ready to come home by now and not have any misgivings about missing out on China and Tibet, now well I really wish I had enough money to carry on with them but alas it is not to be, I will be home in the beginning of September, going to head to Ha long bay and then Thailand for a week or so before climbing on board the big bird to bring me home.
Kat was up early again and off with the computer to breakfast, then I meet up with them, they had some bad news when I arrived, someone had got there Visa number and was spending their money online, lucky for them the bank was onto it so no loss for them besides having to cancel their card and change a load of banking stuff. It’s just something you don’t really want to deal with.
After some breakfast we headed back to the hotel to pack, I was going to have to move as the hotel we were in did not have any cheap rooms. Once we were all packed and moved out we said our good byes, good lucks, and they headed off up the hill and away towards China, they would have a fun day as they had the big downhill to ride and then a border crossing. So that was it the fellowship was over, with a few twists of the peddles.
I headed out to look for a hotel and to see if I could book a night train back into Hanoi, then I would head off to Ha long Bay. I found a hotel for my stuff and it was only up two flights of stairs, and it came with a great view across the valley to the hills on the other side, later I would find out that they throw in bed bugs for free, bugger not again.
I moved my stuff into the room then stopped at a few travel agents to find out about tickets, the train was full, I would have thought that everyone would stay around for a Saturday night but it seems not, so night train was out and the day train you have to buy the tickets on the day, excellent, so I had a afternoon to kill before sleep and the ride down.
I hired a bike and a driver to take me up to a waterfall (Silver water fall, 100m high) and then to the top of Tram Ton Pass and a look around there. We headed off and up the towards the pass, I got the driver to stop so I could take some photo’s along the way. Once at the waterfall I paid my 5000dong admission and wandered up the hill, the waterfall was pretty nice but there was loads of people all walking up doing the obligatory posed photos. I did not really spend that much time there. My driver must have thought he was onto a good thing when I was back down in only a few minutes.
The next was the pass and a look down the other side, the mountain range was mostly still covered in cloud but it was a nice view down the valley to the bottom way off in the distance, would be a really good ride down, but I don’t think I would be looking forward to riding back up. After spending a bit of time here we headed back down a bit to the start of the walking track to Fansipan mountain, I wondered up to the look out which again was a nice view, well really it was a great 360 degree view of the valley and the hills. I wandered back down and the my driver said he had got a pass for me and I could go and wander the tracks around were we where, I asked him how much it was and he said 50,000dong, which I have to say I just about choked on.
I headed into to see how much it really cost, seems it was only 15,000 I had caught him out, he tried to make out that is what he was saying but the look of panic when I had walked in said more then I needed to hear. So I was by now thinking what a cheeky git. Then when I walked out to head off on the paths around the area he said only 20 minutes, now when we negotiated the price it was for 3 hours and by my watch well mobile phone we had only been gone an hour and a half at the most. Well I took my time and headed off, the lying bugger could wait till I was ready to head back now.
There was only two ways to go, one up towards Fansipan or to Lovers waterfall, hhmmm so off to lovers waterfall I went. The track was a easy wander, on the way I came across a snake wandering down the path as well, not sure what kind of snake it was but I gave it a wide birth, did not want it getting to friendly. Lovers water was a nice little waterfall as far as they go, did a few photos and then made a hasty retreat as I had a swarm of mosquitoes looking to make me there lunch.
After we had got back to town I paid up and waited for my change the cheeky bugger was not going to pay up, excuse me my change now, the bugger just looked at me so I grabbed my money back and went to head off to get change, then he produced the change. So I was pretty fucked off to say the least, he won’t be getting my recommendation that’s for sure.
I spent the rest of the day writing the blog and sitting out watching the mountain slowly disappear in to darkness, then headed out for dinner, it would be a early start and a long day so wanted to get a good nights sleep.

Happy birthday and it what? Was not your anniversary

It was Kats birthday, she was up early and off to get a coffee, I headed out a little bit later and then Mike arrived not so long after me, I was to learn at breakfast that it was not there Anniversary the day before Kats birthday it was there anniversary the day after, and it was there 5th not 6th anniversary, well they would get to celebrate again the next day when they would be heading into China and towards Tibet.
We had a nice breakfast and then headed out for a walk around the Village of Sapa, the walk was very pleasant. Kat had noticed that I had broken a spoke so I was going to borrow one of theirs to fix my bike, it was a good opportunity to adjust everything on the bike as well and make it ready for the ride to come. After pulling the back wheel of and removing the old spoke I found out that the ones Mike and Kat have are not right for my bike, just have to hope it won’t buckle too much and will survive the rest of the trip , and later we went out for dinner and a few drinks, tomorrow we would say good bye, It had been great having other people to ride with, and people who I got along with really well, it was really great how we all bonded so quickly and easily. I was going to be sad to see them head away after having riding companions for the last few weeks.

The fellowships last day, Climbing from 233m to 1650m over 34km

Now why I put this up as the title is because I am trying to make you aware of the climb we were about to face, although not my longest climb it will be the most altitude gained over the shortest distance which means steep, very steep. We tried to be up early to miss the heat, it was overcast and looked like rain, which is not really a bad thing when climbing unless it does rain and that puts a dampener on things.
The first 10km were easy going and passed quickly, easy rolling hills, at the 24km mark the hill started and well besides 1km of downhill at the end and maybe 500m half way it was all up and some of it very steep, I mean first gear crawling, now sometimes when I’m going up I really ask myself why, we were in the clouds so it was not as though the view was incredible, the road twisted and turned as it held it’s embrace with the mountain, yes I am also putting this climb into the mountain bracket, it was big and beautiful. Well by the end anyway.
The cloud cover lasted for some time but in the end we climbed out the top, you could see across the top of the clouds to the hills in the distance it was a sit to behold, considering we had had to use our lights on the first part of the climb because the cloud cover was pretty thick, not pea soup thick more like weak tea thick, you could see the next corner and that was about it.
We stopped for breakfast just after we broke through the cloud layer and into open sky, it did look as though the clouds were attempting to cover the whole mountain range but had been stopped in their tracks due to the sheer size of the hills. After the breakfast stop we carried on up the hill climbing and more climbing it was a beautiful climb the hills the minority tribes people it was fantastic but it was a long climb. I shot ahead of Kat and Mike and then had a good break waiting for them to catch up, I took photos of the Minority people working on the side of the road. Who would not enjoy looking out over cloud covered mountains, the sun starting to pierce through in places sending shafts of light streaming down.
We finally crawled to the top after 4 and a bit hours of riding, we were all staved and headed straight for food, it must have been a sight 3 hot sweaty people waiting food before we had even sat down, the food was pretty good this could have been to do with being starving and having a hard ride. After some food we all felt a lot better and headed off to find a hotel for a couple of days, the local minority people crowded around us when we pulled up, they were a real funny bunch and I joked around with them while I watched the bikes and Mike and Kat looked for a room for us all.
Once we had our room and were settled in we finally could relax and unwind, the view from our hotel looked out onto the mountains across the valley, the only problem with this time of year is the clouds cover everything and we could not see Fanispan which is Vietnams highest peak at 3100m which would have been nice. The weather was cooler up here which was really nice after the last few days heat.
I was lead to believe that it was Kat and Mikes 6th wedding anniversary so later we headed out to celebrate it with dinner and drinks, I was willing to let them head off by themselves if they wanted to but ended up going out with them, it was a nice evening with very good food, Sapa was looking good on the food side of things.

Border towns, lightning storms and power cuts

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.

Hills with a sore back

Well my body had done it again, something had gone wrong, this time it was my back from the rock hard bed that I slept on, I realize these people sleep on the floor but give your guest a bit of luxury and provide soft beds. My back had been a bit sore the day before but this was terrible, I could hardly even stand up straight, I dropped a load of pain killers and would have to just hope that would help. Yesterday my back was alright while riding it was just walking was the problem.
I managed to crawl out of bed and pack everything, Mike and Kat were waiting down stairs for me, I was tempted to let them go on and I would just stop for a day, but it would mean the horrible bed again so best to carry on. We loaded up and once again when I was riding it was not too bad, the road headed out and then started to climb into the hills, at some point we would be able to see the lake that was up this way then we would head again west towards the border with China.
The road climbed for a while out of Yen Bai then we came to the top and a stunning view of the lake and all its islands were below us, it was a stunning vista, we climbed up on to viewing tower and looked out over cloud covered hill and a glittering lake below, well it might not have been that good, my back was screaming at me telling me not to walk around. I laid down on the cool marble surface of the viewing tower and Kat offered to give my back a bit of a massage, well she managed to find the right spot because afterwards it felt a lot better and I felt I could carry on.
We stooped in a road side café and had coke and bread with cheese for breakfast the hills were rolling away in front of us and rolling away from behind were we had just come, we were seeing Local tribes people in their colorful dress but that was still few and far between. As we headed west the heat of the day started to take its toll on everyone, its one thing to ride the roads its another to ride hills in 30+c temperatures. Mike had gone through about 4 shirt changes and I was wishing I had done the same.
We finally made our way into Pho Rang at about 4pm the sun was still stinking hot but we had made the days miles. We found a room and unloaded the bikes, my back was feeling better after a days riding, so if you have back problems get on ya bike and ride. After a bit of a wash up we headed out into town to find food and managed to find a place with a English menu, at least we would not get the wrong thing tonight and it was only a 70km ride the next day, saying that it was looking like being more hills and more winding roads.

meandering roads

Today was one of those days that is a pleasure to ride the road wandered along side of the river, passing small villages and going over rolling hills, the sun was out with a little bit of cloud, we were following one of the lesser roads west, it meant we could ride along side each other and chat to pass the time as the miles slipped away. I had managed to dry everything from the down pour the day before, my room had looked like a laundry mat with everything strung up. But I have to say it is always nice to start the day dry. Katrina had broken a glass top but again a 100.000VND sorted that out. The road continued it’s gentle up’s and downs all day. We stopped at one point to get pictures of each of us riding through the Rice fields and then carried on.
We eventually came into Yen Bai a provincial capital, this would be our stop for the night then on again the next day into the hills. We had stopped on a corner and it just happened to be right outside a hotel, so we checked in and that would be home for a night. We headed out in search of food as we had not really had that much, after finding a shop with snacks we decided to have dinner before we headed back to the hotel.
After finding a restaurant that sells rice, we placed our order, through some miss understanding it seemed we had ordered a whole chicken for dinner, Katrina went in to do battle against the lady and got yelled at, it seems the locals really raise their voices, there was a lot of yelling coming from the direction of the kitchen so Mike went in to see if he could help, I stayed back and looked after all our stuff and was ready to make a run for it if the knifes came out. She had a few big knifes around. After half an hour the yelling had died down, the lady was still throwing different things into pots but Kat and Mike had managed to secure us half a chicken and rice for 50000VND each. About as expensive as the tourist places.
It turned out to be a really good meal and we powered through the food, not only was there the chicken and rice there was also potato in a mint type source and some green stuff that was fried with garlic that was really nice, so I thought by the time I had finished it was worth the $3US that we paid, I have to say it was one of the best Vietnamese meals I have had.
We headed back to the Hotel to check on all our washing and to relax for a while, watched a DVD and then it was off to sleep and let the bodies repair for the next day and the miles of road we have to cover

No Visa, late ride The fellowship is coming apart

This was the day Zach would get his Passport back with hopefully his Chinese Visa, well as you can tell from the title no Visa, there was some problem with his Vietnam extension and so the Chinese would not give him a Visa, the fellowship was coming apart. He was going to see if he could get over to Lao and get his Visa there. So there would be 3 heading west into the setting sun. I felt sorry for Zach, what a pain in the proverbial backside for him. We left Zach heading out to organize his escape from Vietnam, hopefully he would be able to sort everything out and meet up with Katrina and Mike in China, only time would tell.
As we were about to leave the heavens opened up and the rain came down, we waited till the worst was over then headed out of town. It took us a hour or so to negotiate the roads and traffic and we finally ended up on the correct road. The road was pretty bad to start with, pot holes full of water that you could lose a small child in and the traffic was pretty crazy, the further out of town we got the better the road and traffic became, we had made the right choice to take the smaller back roads and this would only improve over the next few days.
On the way through one small town we came across someone de-furring a dog getting it ready for dinner, it was quite a site, I had seen dogs in Hanoi which had already been de-furred but they were just small dogs this was a bigger dog. Kat took some photo’s and then we headed down the road a bit for a drink before we carried on.
We managed a few more miles with the blacken clouds chasing us down the only good thing about this was the tail wind propelling us forward, we were dashing towards the unknown, well that’s just because this was the first time on this road. The blacked clouds swept over us and lashed at our backs with flashes of lightning and thunder, you could smell the rain in the air and then all of a sudden we could feel the first hints on our faces. We tried to stay in front but in the race we were the slower and in the end it was inevitable that we would get caught.
The rain fit like a hammer blow, thundering down and covering the road in a torrent of water, the tires of the bike were soon slicing through inches of water covering the road, but we were not done and would not stop for any amount of rain. It did not take long before I was soaked to the bone, the only way was forward and not look back, when I did finally look back I had left Mike and Katrina behind. I pulled off to the side of the road to ring some of the water out of my clothes out and wait for them to catch up. The rain was still lashing down as Kat and Mike caught up and I pulled out from under my shelter and pulled in behind them. After an hour or so the rain finally started to slow we had maybe another 20km to go before we could get out of the wet cloths and into dry gear.
After checking out one hotel which was not that great we headed another 15km down the road to the next one, it was starting to get late as we had not left Hanoi till after 11am. We found a little place down a back alley with the help of a local, the rooms seemed cleaner then the last place and the people were really nice. Once dry and clean we headed out for dinner, we had thought that we had ordered a meal of Chicken with rice, but in the end only the chicken came out and it was pretty stringy but I was starved so finished mine off and what was left of Kat and Mikes. We paid and headed back for noodles at the hotel and then sleep, we had more kms the next day.