Motorbiking Northwestern Vietnam. Days 5-6

Day 5: Lai Chau to Sa Pa, 65 km.

Woke up in whatever town I stayed in last night!  I headed solo to Sa Pa.  Along the way, I passed the town that Brandon must have stayed in.  I stopped and asked if they’d seen an American on a motorbike…all sign language.  Sure enough, the girl showed me his reg card.  He was only a half hour ahead.
About 20 minutes later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw his jacket.  So I U-turned.  He was at a school and had all the kids out in front, teaching them the ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes song.  Awesome!  After a quick detour to fix his clutch and for me to out my ridiculously small rain suit on, we were off to cross the massive and mysterious pass to Sa Pa.
I stopped about half way up to take some pictures and make a quick video.  My bike never started again, and Brandon had already left for the summit.  I got picked up by a massive truck.  We lifted the heavy bike with my bag on the back, up and into the truck.  He took me to the beginning of Sa Pa town through some of the worst mid I’ve seen on this trip.  I can’t believe I didn’t get to ride it!
The guy strapped my bike into the truck in a miserable fashion.  Half of the plastic housing that holds my headlight in place was trashed.  My left blinker, trashed.  The kick stand, bent to heck.  My fault for not tying the bike myself.
The worst part, though, is that I had a flat tire as soon as I got going on the bike to look for a hotel.  That’s three in as many days.  This is a big problem.  It’s not easy to change the rear tube, especially in the cold.  So I called the guy in Hanoi who rented me the bike and had him talk to a local repair guy.  Hopefully it will be an issue of the past…
Funniest part…when the repairman pulled the tune out of my tire, it was severed through, radially.  In other words, it was like a donut cut by a knife.  I’ve never even heard of a tube failing in that way.  Unbelievable.
Worse still…I went to take a picture of it and my camera wouldn’t open…the most expensive part of the terrible decision I made to hoist my bike about 4 1/2 feet into the bed of that truck.

Still, the scenery before the breakdown was some of the most beautiful I could imagine!  Today was priceless.
Staying in Sa Pa in a hotel with beautiful mountain views…of course, we can’t see anything as the fog is intense…but I can feel it’s there!

Sa Pa is a huge tourist town.  Unfortunately, the H’mong people have come to this region to beg for money and to sell their goods or hash or pot.  I really wish I hadn’t seen the ugly side.  I was amazed at how well the tribes had been preserved and how well the people were adept at getting by with what little they had.  I never heard one word from someone in a hill tribe.  Now they’re using the same few English phrases that people learn to get money from tourists.  It was the same lingo in Egypt.  Sad.

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Day 6: Sa Pa to Bac Ha, 75 km.

Another short travel day.  The hotel in Sa Pa, along with the whole town, lost electricity in the morning so my laundry was stuck in limbo.  At 11:30 it was finally done and near noon we struck out for our next stop, Bac Ha.  About 15 km down the mountain I had another blow-out.  I was dangerously close to going off the cliff this time.  That’s it.  No more of this tire business!
In Lao Cai (a big border city with China) I called Hung in Hanoi and arranged to have him pay for the new rear tire I surely needed.  So, after having to ride a good 20 km on a flat rear tire a remedy was in motion.  We stopped briefly on a bridge so I could answer the phone and right there, at my feet was a whole heroin kit complete with 4 or 5 needles.  Wow!  It was a prime location for another Zank Homeless shot.  It’s quite sad, however; Vietnam is well known for having a skyrocketing AIDS rate.  From the posters I’ve seen along the way, dirty needles play a big part in this.
We ate lunch while my bike was fixed and it was off to Bac Ha.  The road was beautiful for the second half, during the beautiful climb up to the city.  It turns out that there is a magnificent market here tomorrow, so we’ll get another late start and have a 3/4 day of riding.  Heading north and east.  The best is yet to come.  It’s hard to believe.  The sights so far have been so amazing.
No sooner had we left the Sa Pa town center, people began to wave and smile at us in the manner we were used to.  It felt really good to get out of the tourist center.  Back at it….
Tomorrow will be the first in five with no flat tire!

This entry was posted on February 3, 2007 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Motorbiking Vietnam, SE Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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