FORTY CANS OF HANO
We continue the tale of our readers’ tour of Vietnam. Last time the boys had settled in nicely to the daily routine of riding together and drinking, eating and laughing, making up a great tour. Mr Dong (aka Mr Money and bags) continues has shown Letto ’do s go so boys until ! some the amazing tour sights wraps up, back in Hanoi. SW
FRIDAY - SAPA TO BAC HA 120KM
IT LOOKED LIKE IT COULD rain so on with the wet gear including my Aldi trousers. Leon lent me some warm gloves which was nice. Just as we left Sapa we turned off and followed a road up the mountains into the cold air. There were some good views and interesting houses/farms etc up there including a school and a concrete batching plant, all clinging to the mountain’s side. As we started to descend we ran into many tourists, and traffic was everywhere. The road had turned into a goat track; boy, was it rough. We passed a big dam wall under construction, and some hydro plants were also being built.
The roads were as we are becoming used to, good one moment and rough as guts the next with loose gravel and sand everywhere, and the dust. We descended to a flat area where it became quite hot again and we had another great lunch. After lunch and a refuel we started climbing again to where it was cool. We soon stopped at a Palace (?) for a look at how the rich and famous lived in the 1920s. Interesting place, but the good bit was it was only 5km from our digs for the night. This one is a bit rough and ready with a very firm mattress but the views are outstanding. Could be cool tonight and as we arrived at 3pm the boys will have time to sink a few. In fact they managed to sink 40 cans of Hanoi beer. Tonight we stayed at our 2nd home stay and it was becoming cold and the room was very draughty. I went to bed with only one blanket so I wore my Dragon jeans (they are warm)
