North by Northwest

So now I'm in the Northwest, an area far more densely settled than the Northeast, at least so far. When I reappeared on paved roads near Ha Giang, I immediately noticed that the cultivated areas went far further up the hillsides than in the northeast. As well, along the road I saw lots of colourfully dressed Hmong and Dao women in full, colourful tribal regalia, something I really hadn't seen up until then.

The riding has been fairly uneventful since Ha Giang. I had a long day riding down to Viet Quang (the place that I missed by 45 km on my first attempt) and then across to Pho Rang, along gently undulating roads under bright sunshine (haven't had much of that this trip so far!). The roads were paved and wide and a pure pleasure to ride along.

From Pho Rang, I rode yesterday up along highway 70 towards the Chinese border at Lao Cai. I got royally ripped off by the hotel owner on the food bill, the first time that this has happened in Vietnam. I had a very average dinner and a lame breakfast, and got charged $10 for them. Based on past dinners and breakfasts, a bill of $3-$4 would have been reasonable. It wasn't a huge absolute amount, but in relative terms it was a fairly cheeky bill. From now on I will have to ask the price of absolutely everything ahead of time; I'm now in tourist country, so the local hoteliers and shopkeepers have learned that "white face = license to gouge".

It was sunny again, and tremendously hot and humid. It was also very, very hilly. I climbed and dropped all morning until I reached the turnoff for Bac Ha. From there, there were some more undulations before the road got serious about gaining altitude. Under a pitiless noonday sun, I struggled uphill in 41-degree heat until I suddenly felt as though I might faint. I pulled off the road and sat in the shade for an hour, drinking the last of my water and slowly cooling down. I continued the ride slowly after that, stopping to bathe in waterfalls that dropped my body temperature a bit. I was pretty tired when I finally topped out at 960 metres and rolled into the town of Bac Ha, having done 1650 vertical metres.

It's funny; I don't often crack on climbs, but yesterday I didn't just crack, I crumbled. I think that taking today off to rest was a good idea, since even if it was hot and a long climb, my body did not react to the climb in quite the way I had anticipated. Last summer I had problems on some of the climbs, but a lot of that had to do with not being acclimatized to altitude in Ladakh. This year that's no excuse. Maybe it's just advancing age catching up with me. Or maybe I just need to leave earlier so that I'm not climbing in the middle of the day!

The plan here is to take some photos of the local tribal market, ride around the valley a bit, and then tomorrow head to Lao Cai and the day after do the biggest climb of the trip, up to an elevation of 1650 metres at Sapa. I will certainly try to start very early that morning to beat the sapping heat.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of colourfully dressed women here in the Northwest, and to climbing Fansipan, Vietnam's highest peak, out of Sapa. Then it will be time to ride down to Dien Bien Phu and down to the coast to give my legs a break and me a chance to lounge on a few beaches after a day's riding.

Until next time,

Peace and Tailwinds