Chopsticks and the Twilight Zone Hotel

Day 14 - Monday, November 18
Distance - 160 kms = total for day ~ 6-7 hrs
Trip Odometer =  1461 kms
Route - Mai Chau - Yen Cat.  South from Mai Chau on Hwy #15 to Ngoc Lac, then HCMT (Ho Chi Minh Trail) on Hwy #15 to Yen Cat.
Hotel - Khach San Dai Lam (250,000d = $12.50)
Weather -  Hazy to dark skies to hazy sunny.  No rain = Dry!


Our included breakfast at the Mai Chau Inn was fantastic.  I should have waited to take these pictures as half of our food wasn't even on the table.  Fresh fruit, meat, eggs, juice, coffee, tea, the list goes on... and all complete at our table with-a-view.

We planned our next few days of travel while in Mai Chau and we had some tough decisions to make, well, not that tough seeing that we were on an adventure trip in Vietnam.  We couldn't stick to our original itinerary planned from home as we were realizing we wouldn't have enough time to do it all, we had to make a couple of decisions. We had enough time to either head to the Ninh Binh area to meet up with a great tour guide named 'Xuan' which was recommended to us by a fellow ADV (Adventure) rider named Stan, OR we would blast south for a few days and spend time in the Phong Nha National Park famous for it's caves and tours.  Unfortunately, it was one or the other.

We couldn't do both.  It was a tough decision.  We had watched a TV program at home about the various cave systems in the Phong Nha Park which included a couple of caves that were quite recently discovered.

It was decided.  We would go caving in Phong Nha, but it would take us x3 days to get there... after breakfast in Mai Chau, we fired up our trusty bikes, and we were off...

Chopsticks!

The riding along Hwy #15 from Mai Chau was incredible.  Really fun twisty roads that had tons of mini towns and villages road-side and lots to see.  At one point, we came across a zone that was all about chopsticks.  We would see operation after operation making chopsticks out of bamboo.  We pulled over at one and snapped a few pictures (above).

I managed to strap my iPhone onto my backpack again and I attempted to shoot a video cruising through one of the many small villages.  Turns out, the iPhone shoots very reasonable video with anti-shake similar to the GoPro.  Below is my rendition with zero editing...

We then came across an area that was promoting a certain Vietnamese 'cuisine' which we opted not to stop at.  I didn't think our x2 'man's best friends' back home would feel very good about us indulging in such a delicacy, instead, we opted to ride-on.

The riding alongside the Sg.Ma River was great.  I pulled over to have a look at this river-dredge of sorts - (at least I think that is what it was), and just before shooting my photo, a man in a suit came along on his scoot to have a look as well, he walked right in front of me so I figured I'd give him the honours and include him in my picture.

 

Along this stretch of highway and while paralleling the river, there also seemed to be quite a few operations harvesting long poles of bamboo on the opposite side of the river, loading it up on simple bardges and ferrying it to the opposite side where the road was.

I know I've mentioned this before, but one of my favourite times each day was during our morning coffee breaks.  9 times out of 10 at these random stops, we would meet at least one or more of Vietnam's colourful characters.  We bought some stale, dusty packaged 'wagon wheel' style cookies, a Coca Cola and an iced tea drink from this guy.  He then proceeded to sit with us while we enjoyed our snacks and he enjoyed a cigarette.  I showed him our map and pointed at where I thought we were and he proceeded to point at an entirely different area on the map.  Turns out, he didn't know where he was either and it didn't matter too much, we were there together.    

Above - our typical road-side Com Pho lunch stop

We arrived at our destination for the day which was Yen Cat.  I noticed this grand hotel off the highway at the north end of town, but I figured we'd push on and maybe have a look around town to see what it had to offer, if there were any other hotels and some options for supper.

Turns out, Yen Cat was a dusty little road-side town with not a tourist in sight.  We doubled back to the huge hotel and were approached by a very young and energetic man at the front desk.  He checked us into a room and helped us unload our bikes.  The place was huge.  And, it was extremely creepy.  The hallways echoed and there wasn't another soul in sight, we were sure it was empty other than us.  We asked the man at the front desk about a restaurant and he motioned over to an adjacent building and said, 'Yes!, Yes!' energetically.

Have I mentioned how creepy this Hotel was??  We ended up calling it The Twilight-Zone Hotel and we both were hoping we would for starters, wake up the next morning, secondly, at this location, alive, ... and not in some alternate universe with zombies.  I kept telling Amanda not to look too close at the sheets and/or floors once she already saw holes in the sheets and mysterious items on the floor.  I kept saying the closer she looked, the more nasties she was bound to find.

It was a place to spend the night, a roof-over-our-heads, and unfortunately this hotel wouldn't be the lowest ranked hotel of our trip.  We aren't complainers, we don't have super high standards, but on nights like these, the following morning couldn't arrive any sooner for the both of us.

IF the main hotel wasn't creepy enough, our restaurant experience was another story.  Once we were ready for dinner, we headed over to their 'restaurant', as they called it.  By this time, it was dark, which was perfect for the setting, and, it was now raining.  We walked over to an adjacent building with no lights on and proceeded to walk further to an outdoor area covered with palm palapas and a few people were sitting around a table there seeking shelter from the rain.  I said 'restaurant' and a young woman got up and waved us over to the dark building we were just at.  She brought us in the front doors, sat us down at a table in a very large, dark room and brought us each menus, only in Vietnamese.  The room must have had 30 odd tables with enough seating for at least a hundred, and we sat at large table for 8.

By that time in the trip, we knew how to order chicken, so we ordered chicken and rice and were lucky to order a plate of morning glory (fried spinach) as well.  This building was equally as echoey and even more creepy.  The next thing we heard is something that we both remember clearly.  Just after ordering, we heard our chicken being hacked up on the chopping block, continuous loud 'thunks' of a cleaver smashing against a thick wooden block followed by an immediate ignition of a hissy propane burner.  Not to be a drama-queen here, but it was quite startling.

Dinner was served.  We ate.  We filled our stomachs as best as possible, paid the bill to a random man who came out of the shadows and then we walked back to our 5-star room.  Without discussion, Amanda locked and bolted the door upon entering and I placed a chair under the knob for good measure.

The next morning couldn't arrive soon enough...

Oil Changes, meeting Vietnamese models and corn... lots of corn.

Day 13 - Sunday, November 17
Distance - 180 kms = total for day ~ 6 hrs
Trip Odometer =  1302 kms
Route - Son La - Mai Chau.  South from Son La on Hwy #6, then off on Hwy #15 to Mai Chau.
Hotel - Mai Chau Inn (700,000d = $35 w/breakfast)
Weather -  No wet!  Cloudy and cold at elevation, and then hazy, sunny and quite warm once arriving to Mai Chau.

Our day started with a huge buffet (or as we call 'Jimmy-Buffet') breakfast at the Hanoi Hotel in Son La.  The breakfast room was the size of a conference room at any hotel back home and it was packed.  The night before I read a little about Son La and it turns out that it is the business 'capital' of the Son La province hence the packed buffet breakfast with loads of suits and the like.

Flamingo Travel in Hanoi where we rented the bikes suggested that we get the oil changed on the bikes every 1000km or so and seeing that we had rolled about 1100km when we arrived the night before, I figured our first stop after breakfast would be a place we could get the oil changed on the bikes.

 

We literally pulled out of the Hanoi Hotel, zipped down the road a few hundred meters and came upon a Yamaha dealership.  It looked fairly empty and mellow in the shop section, so we pulled up and I motioned to the mechanics that we wanted the oil changed.  They didn't speak any english and we obviously didn't speak Vietnamese, so it was fun communicating what we wanted.  Both bikes were quickly brought in, Amanda's up on a hoist and oil was being drained.  Not a very tough thing to communicate.  I was also wanting to get a bit of slack out of my chain, so the mechanic quickly tightened my chain, lubed it up and that was that with my XR.  Amanda front brakes felt really soft, so the same thing, the mechanic tightened that up after the oil change, all communicated with our gestures on the bikes.

(Above)  Shop manager - all business.

It was lightening speed by the time we pulled into the Yamaha dealership, motioned what work we wanted done, took a few photos of the shop and of the 'shop manager', we paid up and were out the door... just like that.  It was the quickest 10 minutes ever... and all the work, both oil changes, my chain slack and Amanda's brakes, the grand total was 180,000 dong = ~ $9 total.  Excellent!

Both chains were lubed up and we were on the road again...

 Gold fish anyone???

Loads of corn being dried in huge piles then sacked up - we passed a quite a few of these operations on our route south to Mai Chau.  I think this guy was a few rice-wines in, he wanted to chat and he motioned for us to come on in and have a look.  We politely declined as we wanted to continue south.

Farm equipment/people hauler - saw loads of these...

At our morning coffee-stop, we met these 2 Vietnamese models... they were hamming it up for the camera and then checking the pictures out, always with huge laughs and then more poses, it was a great time.  The girls even shared their snacks with us.  One thing I was meaning to load up on in Canada before heading over to Vietnam was stickers for kids, all kids love stickers.  Unfortunately, it was one thing I didn't manage to do before leaving on the trip and I regret it, these Vietnamese kids definitely deserved some stickers from us Canadian kids.  I guess we'll have to go back with stickers...

 (Above) Amanda being corny

(Below)... a Honda Super Dream 'Family Vehicle'... hilarious what english words they had on most of the bikes - and yes, this 'vehicle' would definitely support a whole family... AND a couple bags of rice and a chicken or three...

It was a speedy day of riding from Son La to Mai Chau.  The #6 was a main route linking the north west to Hanoi and surroundings.  With that, we had more traffic than usual, but more traffic usually meant higher speeds and better roads, surprisingly not our favourite.  At times we were averaging 50-60kph which actually got us places way quicker over the long run, literally 50-60 felt like highway speeds back home, it was strange, but we were really getting used to the slow, snail's pace that is normal for Vietnam on smaller, rural roads, a slower pace we came to love and enjoy.  Much easier to smell the hibiscus and contemplate 'why the chicken crossed the road' when you are rolling at 30kph.  

I had read that Mai Chau was a popular tourist destination because of the influence of the White Thai minority village in the area.  Tourists would flock here in hordes to stay in traditional White Thai stilt houses, complete with modern conveniences such as flush toilets and WiFi.  We zipped into the main village out of Mai Chau with intentions to find a stilt house.  We did a few laps in the village and then ended up on the edge of town at a new family run hotel called the Mai Chau Inn, just down from the expensive Mai Chau Lodge.  We checked into one of the lovely rooms and started unwinding and unpacking.  It was a shorter day of riding so we managed some time to relax on our private deck overlooking the areas rice paddies, drinking a cold beer and chatting about our day.  Even though we were traveling together, you spend so much time in your own helmet and inside your own head, that it was nice to catch-up at the end of each day.

(Above) Drafting a plan for the next few days to come...

We had to make a decision to see Ninh Binh and area for a few days (which was highly recommended by a fellow ADVer) or to zip south to see Phong Nha National park for a few days - unfortunately we couldn't do both... it was a tough decision.

When the road ends... 'I guess we get on the boat?'

Day 12 - Saturday, November 16
Distance - 234 kms = total for day ~ 9 hrs
Trip Odometer =  1122 kms
Route - Sapa - Son La.  Sapa west on Hwy #4D then South on #32 to Than Uyen.  West on #279 until road ended (not on maps) then on ferry south.  South on #107? onto #6 to Son La.
Hotel - Hanoi Hotel - Son La (800,000d = $40 w/breakfast)
Weather - Clearing out of Sapa with a mix of clouds.  Clear on Tram Ton Pass.  Into clouds at lower elevations.  Dry roads for most of day until nearing Son La then damp.


After our lovely rest day in Sapa, we awoke to clearing skies.  We had an excellent breakfast at the Sapa Paradise View Hotel (our hotel which finally earned it's name!), then we packed up and hit the road.

As I mentioned before, we were treated like royalty the minute we arrived to the Sapa PV Hotel and it continued until the moment we left.  One of the managers came outside to wish us a safe trip and a fond farewell.

Highway 4D crept up and out of Sapa and we arrived at the Tram Ton Pass in good time as it is situated roughly 15km from Sapa.  We had known that Tram Ton was Vietnam's highest mountain pass and my GPS logged it at just over 2000m in elevation.  And, just as the guidebook stated, it is often cold and foggy on the Sapa side and warm and sunny dropping into the Lai Chau side.  We had beautiful weather on the Tram Ton Pass.  

The road off the Tram Ton Pass was a pleasure to ride.  It had a great deal of twisty corners and beautiful vistas as we worked our way down in elevation.

Our plan for the day was to stop in Than Uyen, but the road was in such good condition that we arrived at roughly 11:30am.  We stopped for a bowl of Pho and decided to push on further south for the day.  I looked on our maps and decided that Highway #279 would be a good bet to work our way south to the larger town of Son La.

What we were about to experience was a highlight for me on our entire Vietnam adventure.

After working our way out of Than Uyen and along Highway #279 our road ended.  Stopped.  No more road.  Both my Vietnam map and my GPS showed Hwy #279 only, no lake, no boats.  This was true adventure.

Amanda asked if we were lost and I said I wasn't sure.  One of the ferry boat captains came up to us and nodded us to proceed onto his boat.  I said 'Son La, Son La'... and he nodded, 'Son La!', so we nodded together in confidence and proceeded to board his boat in confidence.  In actual reality, we had no idea where we were headed, but it was all part of the adventure.  

A quick video when we arrived at the 'end of the road'...

I have no idea where this boat is heading, but lets go!'

A video of our random ferry leaving the docks...

Coming off the ferry and not sure where we were, or where we were headed... all we knew was that we had one road to follow, so we followed it...

We eventually came to a large bridge crossing which showed on the map.  We knew we were on Hwy #279 and came to the conclusion that the valley further north where we encountered the ferry was probably dammed and flooded at one point and this didn't show up on the maps.

Crossing the Song Da river (more like a lake system)

We arrived to a petrol station to fuel up and we had these young police officers come and check out our loaded bikes - specifically my Honda enduro.  I pulled out my map book and asked them if the secondary road south #107 was suitable and then kept nodding yes, that was the best and quickest direction to go - that is what I took from the conversation anyway.

It was one of our longest days of riding yet.  We had been traveling for roughly 9 hrs by the time we arrived to Son La.  We found the 'Hanoi' Hotel in Son La just as it was starting to get dark.  We put our bikes in the secure parkade complete with night guards, and checked into the hotel.

I'm certain we could have found suitable accommodation for much cheaper in Son La, but the Hanoi Hotel was relatively easy to find and it was recommended in our guide book.  It was a first to enter an elevator and to press the '5' button which brought us up to our room.

The front desk manager suggested a restaurant for us to eat at which was conveniently right across from the hotel.  I can't remember the name, but it was very good, filled with locals and with great choices and prices, and of course, they had very cold beer.

This was one of my favourite days of riding.  We crossed Vietnam's highest mountain pass, we had great weather, our road suddenly and very surprisingly ended which put us on a random ferry boat and we had really exciting roads all the way to Son La.

Although the day was long, we both felt great after a long day filled with adventure...