Return, Legs 2

Back to Yen Minh

Today I took a different road back to Yen Minh, a town I visited almost a week ago, on the road from Ha Giang.

The road climbed straight away

And it wasn't a good road at all for the first 20 clicks or so

But the views were still incredible, some of the best on the whole loop so far.

Demolishing an old house.

Hey! Good potential nickname.

It got hazy after lunch, but the views were still the bomb

This is actually terracing, seen from below

I've seen signs for Chicken Rice, Beef Rice, Duck Rice and even Dog Rice. But this is next level.

Recent landslide

I've never eaten a bride's mid. Kissed, yes, and nibbled. But never bitten, chewed and swallowed.

Not yet anyway.

I don't think I'll ever know know what Filming Pigeons are.

It pissed with rain tonight. Wonder how the roads will be tomorrow.

From Whence I Came

So today I cycled back to Quan Ba, but took a different road, off the main loop.

I was so glad I did, there was pretty much no traffic whatsoever on that whole stretch, with just tiny villages and forest the whole way. It was really beautiful.

The local hill tribes around here live quite traditionally, they're probably the most traditional I've seen so far on this trip. In many villages around here, everyone, from young kids right through to the old people, wear their traditional clothing all the time. I haven't really seen that anywhere before. In most other places the younger people wear mainstream Western clothes, and the traditional weaving skills are dying out.

Today started with a long long climb, and ended with another. Every day I've been climbing over 1000m at least, today it was 1200m, over a distance of about 50 clicks. I feel totally used to it now.

As I was riding this morning 3 little village girls ran over and stopped me, and one of them gave me a bunch of flowers. So sweet. That's them on my bike. The flowers, not the kids.

Most of the day I rode through beautiful pine forest, small villages and forests. The views were amazing, as usual.

The back road wasn't the best in some places, but generally ok. The great thing was there was almost no traffic whatsoever.

Thick forest

Fruiting palm

Bamboozled

Eventually I descended, and followed a river for quite some time.

At late lunch I met a bunch of 5 young guys from the Midwest in the US, a region in the northern central part of the country. They all met at college in Minneapolis, and it was super interesting chatting to them about the US. They're riding the Ha Giang loop independently on motorbikes, and are having a great time. As usual, they couldn't believe I've been cycling it.

There was a whole stack of whisky jars in the restaurant, as you see in many eating places here. At first I thought this was snake whisky, but actually there's honeycombs in there. The lady gave me quite a large glass to try (for free, of course), it was really good - strong but smooth. I guess the honey takes the edge off it.

It rained on and off today, but I didn't get too wet. The cool mist has its own beauty.

A sign of things to come. A massive resort in a small Hmong village. That's the end of that place, basically.

My guest house view.

Back To Ha Giang

A met a really nice Singaporean cyclist at breakfast in town, Ming. He's doing a ride through Vietnam for a few weeks. Travelling super light too, just a small bag.

As I rolled outa town locals were burning various important things for their ancestors, to help them in the afterlife.

There was a big big climb at first today, to a pass called Heaven's Gate, but Heaven had clouded over this morning. The view of the fog was stunning.

Eventually I rode into Ha Giang, having finally completed the loop. I gotta say, this region has some of the most incredible scenery I've seen on this whole trip so far, and the experiences I've had connecting with locals has really been amazing.

If you wanna see this place, get here soon, it's changing quickly.

Unfortunately, despite (or should I say, because of) my heroic cycling over the past week, climbing over 7,500m over about 300km, my body hasn't quite shaken off the lurgy it's been fighting. Surprise surprise.

Just for comparison, Mt Everest's elevation is 8850m. Does that sound impressive? (Because that's why I said it). There's obviously no logic whatsoever in comparing the two.

I rode into Ha Giang and died. I had a really shit night, feverish, runny nose, blah blah, even got this infection on my arm, so again I'll need to rest a little before I head towards the next ripsnorting leg of my journey.

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