D23: Cành Nàng to Thanh Mai

February 26, 2018

Everyone should train their bodies! Just like the Great Ho Chi Minh!!

On the one hand this feels at least as photoshopped as Uncle Ho and his five pound weights growing out of a Lotus Flower, on the other hand, the images are reversed in the mirror on the wall

Back when I was waiting for the ferry to Cat Ba Island and talking with the two Netherlanders who were nearly finished with the Vietnam part of their motorcycling trip, they mentioned how annoying it is in Vietnam, unlike other countries which get more foreigners (such as Thailand), to be constantly bombarded by people saying "hello". Having dealt with years of the great Chinese "haallllo" which is far closer to a catcall than it is a greeting and only, at that point, had a few days of friendly Vietnamese kids shouting and waving, I couldn't imagine reaching a point where I would be annoyed by excited people acting happy to see me.

I have reached that point.

For one thing, it's not just the kids who say "hello". It's everyone. Or if not every single person, no less than every third person. There is no distinction of gender or age. Kids still young enough to be carried on their mom's back wave and shout hello as do grannies who, if they lived a bit farther south of here, were old enough to have been tunnel rats. I get hello'd from across fields, from the back of cafes, from tractors, and motorcycles.

If I don't respond to the kids they wave harder, they jump up and down, they actively engage in trying to get my attention. And if I still don't respond, they look rejected. On the other hand, if I do respond, although I'll make that first person smile, I risk setting off a chorus of hello's echoing back and forth the way a single barking dog sets off a whole neighborhood.

First thing I noticed about this beautiful calm river scene wasn't the color of the water, the pretty mountains, or the nifty boats along the shore, it was the fact that this is quite possibly the first river I've crossed in Vietnam that didn't have rubbish all along the banks

At first I thought the thatched roof cafe was "ironic" and "rural chic" like you might find at a resort. But apparently, it's just normal roofing material.

Traditional water wheels to irrigate the rice paddies

They really do seem to be genuinely happy "oh wow, a bike" greetings. The kids in particular. There've been a few young men shouting hello accompanied by the sniggering and giggling that happens in China. There was one "hello" followed by an "I love you" which when I didn't respond to that then got an "sorry, sorry sorry." There was also a kid outside a primary school who shot me with a slingshot. But mostly it's been happy and cheerful sorts. And honestly, I've got some potholes to deal with right now or traffic or a hill or it's late in the day and my butt hurts or my front fender is making that awful shush shush shush noise that means it's rubbing against the tire and I'm kind of starting to wish they'd all shut up.

I slept late this morning not because I sleep late every morning but because my hotel room just wasn't comfortable enough to really get properly rested. I woke up at 3am, at 6, and 8 before deciding I couldn't push myself back to sleep again at 10. Even taking the mattress/cushion off of the other bed and doubling up, it was still a very firm bed. I was also a bit chilly though it's hard to say if that's because it was actually cold in the room or if it was because the hot water heater was broken and I'd taken a cold shower.

The walls of the thatch roofed stilt house are made out of flattened bamboo

Nice smooth wooden boards and a metal roof on this stilt house

I was already to squat down and pee when this group of Vietnamese motorcycle tourists stopped on the same curve and decided to spend 5 minutes taking pictures of each other

Apparently, landslides are a bit of an issue

I planned to take what Google calls the QL15C but what the milemarkers all think is a DT road through Pù Luông Nature Reserve to Mai Châu instead of the main road along the Nam Ma River. It's 9 kilometers shorter but it goes over more mountains (well, one very tall mountain anyways). I was also thinking (correctly) that it would have less traffic. If Google had thought it was a DT road or if there hadn't been a scant handful of homestays scattered along the route, I might have been less willing to risk it. (More realistically, I might have taken an extra 10 or 20 minutes of decision making before deciding to risk it.) As it was, I doped one of my water bottles with one of the effervescent codeine with paracetemol I bought in Hanoi and got ready to go. (Knowing that I had the doped bottle available to drink any time I wanted to kept me from actually using the doped bottle.)

Bought some candy and fruit from a store at the intersection where I would head into the reserve. The teenager working there spoke sufficient English for communication though he kept apologizing that his English wasn't very good. (My Vietnamese being limited to mangling the pronunciation of "hotel", saying something that vaguely resembles "thank you" and recognizing two or three food words, I'm pretty happy to encounter anyone who speaks English.)

Unlike China, most of the foreign TV I encountered in Vietnam was subtitled but not dubbed. As a result, the percentage of random English speakers is much higher

Various socioeconomic levels of stilt house

Vietnam does Door Dogs instead of Gate Lions

Stunning ride with lots of stair step rice paddies and stilt houses. Also, although the big climb would continue for a full 18km, the grade really wasn't all that steep. Judging by the condition of the blacktop, it is conceivable that this was paved after 2006 and that the big off road capable four wheel drive bus we took to Mai Châu would have been heading here after we got off.

The gray weather I've been having all trip started turning misty the closer I got to the top and eventually became a fog bank where I was strongly considering getting off and walking not because of the climb but because of the worry that one of the infrequent approaching vehicles might not see me.

Only the lack of traffic so far is keeping me from walking

A motorcycle coming from the direction of Mai Châu passed me, turned around and came back. At first I thought this was because the driver had a foreign passenger—one of about a dozen foreigners I saw all day—on the back but, instead, it turned out to be because the driver recognized me! It was the owner of the homestay I'd stayed at in Hanoi. He told me that the fog was going to clear up soon so I went on with confidence.

Gentle grade up, gentle grade down, but still long enough that my hands and arms started to hurt from spending so much time on the brakes. Immediate roadworks as soon as I got on the main road so any chance of making it the whole way to Mai Châu (which wasn't even all that far) before sunset was killed and I had to find lodging in the first town. At 300,000 dong for the night, it was a tad on the expensive side but it wasn't like I was in any position to be shopping around.

Luckily, it cleared up shortly after the top

Lots of relatively recent straight-through mountain cuts on all the upgraded roads

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 1,183 km (735 miles)

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Bob MageeI found that wearing a face mask, along with my sunglasses, stopped 95% of the hellos.
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6 years ago

Marian RosenbergTo Bob MageeI don't like wearing face masks.
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6 years ago