Day 3:
After two days I picked up the basic stuff like saying thank you “gum urn”, happy new year “chip ming nam oi” and the rest like Hi and Bye which I have already forgotten. People do appreciate it when you at least make an effort to communicate to them in their home tongue, but some (more in the country side) find it very funny that you can actually say Happy New Year. Tet is a very sacred time for the Vietnamese people and they close all the shops and head into the country side to their family etc.
4:30am and the train conductor knocks on our door as a wake-up call, we have 30min until we arrive in Lao Cai. 5:15am and we are standing on the platform with our bikes next to us. What an amazing feeling not knowing what the road ahead holds for you... Next thing we see the whole platform is empty and we are the only two people left in site.
This is the train station in Lao Cai and you can see how deserted the parking lot is as everyone has left the bigger towns to be with their families in the country side.
Time to get cracking! First things first, we need to find some fuel as the guys had to empty our tanks before they uploaded the bikes onto the train. With a bit of directions from some of the few locals still in Lao Cai we found the petrol station and filled the beauts up to the brim. Off to Sapa!
I couldn’t believe the quality of the roads as I was expecting much worse. The scenery is amazing, but let the photos do the taking.
People drive past you on scooters with live ducks, chickens, pigs you name it strapped on the back of the scooter. Every now and then you see a whole family of 5 people on one scooter! It is very seldom that you see a scooter with only one person on it, usually two or three people are cruising along.
You will find these road signs every kilometre on the highways showing you how far you are from the next town. Sapa is just around the corner and that is where we will be spending the remainder of the day. I am still trying to take in everything as it just seems like one huge, amazing dream!
Next thing we were in Sapa which felt to me like little Switzerland... Awesome little town in the northern mountainous area of Vietnam. We found this little place open where we decided to have some breakfast and coffee as Camp was seriously cold as you can see from how he appreciates soaking up some of the morning sun.
Now this is Pho (pronounced something like “Fur” with a bit of a silent “r”). In Vietnam this is seen as a quick snack and not really a meal, but this was to be our staple diet for the next week or so. It is basically noodles with beef, fresh herbs and water. Then you can spice it up yourself with chillies, garlic, lime and whatever you feel like. Takes a bit of getting use to, but you learn to love it quickly. Camp was going on about finding the right Pho seeing as it is like a potjie as we know it. The longer it takes to make on the stove the better it is and especially if it has lots of old stock in it.
Just a quick note on the coffee in Vietnam: it is AMAZING!! I drink about 5 cups of coffee a day back home, but the stuff you get here is something else! Especially Coffee with condense milk (pronounced Cafee Sui or Cafee Vietnam).
After we had some food in our stomachs we decided to explore the little town of Sapa and its surroundings a bit. This is why I like to call Sapa the little Switzerland of Vietnam.
Duty calls without knocking and the one thing we ALWAYS had with us was a backup roll of old trusty TP aka white gold. An abandoned lodge was the perfect place for this, what a view...
We decided to unload the bikes and find a place to call home for the day. Naturally we thought it might be optimistic thinking that we would get accommodation easily as it was Tet and we haven’t book anything in advanc. The first place we inquired they offered us a double room with our own bathroom and a little balcony on the 5th floor. All of this for USD 10 for the night, which included free internet.
View from our balcony
We decided to explore the surroundings further for the remainder of the day and ended up at this nature reserve where we were told to go and check out the waterfall in the mountains which was about a 3km hike.
What a nice little spot to just chill and talk kark for a while.
We cruised along to arrive at the highest road in South East Asia if I am not mistaken. What a view.
Cruising back to Sapa as by now we were starting to get a bit thirsty...
If you like twisties and turnies, then Vietnam is THE country for you and your bike! It just carries on and on and I remember screaming in my helmet with joy not believing the landscape and the awesome ride!
These little guys were herding their water buffalo down the mountain pass towards Sapa and seriously enjoying the ride. As soon as we took out the camera they wanted to perform a bit (as a boy or man would naturally do) and the one brother almost got thrown off by the water buffalo, clinging for dear live.
There is no way that you can ride at high speeds as the road is hugging the mountain around every bend and every now and then you are greeted by a water buffalo or 6 standing in the middle of the road just looking at you. These animals are really chilled out. There is also no reason to try and get somewhere in a haste as you will be missing so much.
Quick light lunch in Sapa before we headed back to our hotel.
As we got back to the hotel the clouds were settling in for the afternoon and we decided to get a couple of local beers from the hotel bar and chill out on the balcony with some of our tunes and just talking kak like only two close friends can do after not seeing each other for a year and a half.
Here you can see how the clouds are actually settling in behind me and it feels like light mist the whole time, but not enough to bug you. The beers were flowing freely for the rest of the afternoon.
Early evening it was time to find a place to get dinner, which we ended up having in one of the more upper market places in Sapa. Some pho, beer and rice wine. Back to the hotel where we got some coke from the bar to drink with our bottle of bourbon that Camp brought along from Ho Ci Ming city. Back on the balcony talking about old times, getting smashed on more beer, bourbon and good tunes. Just before we wanted to hit the sack we decided we should just check out the bar again. This time there were a couple of Aussies and Brits playing pool, so we joined them till late into the night.
Topic: Vietnam on a Russian Minsk (Read 9677 times)
