Yen Cat, Thanh Hóa, Vietnam
June 15, 2014
We woke early in Mai Chau. Alarms were set from 7am onwards. I had tried to catch the England match the night before and set an alarm for 3:45am but I couldn't get any WiFi so had to settle for finding out about our defeat to Italy the following morning. Hopefully we can do the business against Uruguay.
Some early breakfast of Pho and coffee set us up nicely then I took the bike along to a shop near by to get it checked out as it has started to make some pretty grim grinding noises just as we arrived in Mai Chau the night before. A quick oil change later had her running smoothly and we were packed up and ready to crack on again. Not really sure where we were aiming for but we knew which road to stay on and would see where we were at come sunset and find somewhere to stay.
From Mai Chau we headed south on the only road that really ran through the town, the Ho Chi Minh trail. It was a nice sunny day again and we tootled along quite nicely for a good half hour on some lovely smooth tarmac until things dramatically changed. Back home I am used to the roads being fairly consistent. If it's an A road you know what to expect, a B road, a motorway etc etc. It's a little different here in Vietnam and the B road that we were enjoying suddenly changed from smooth flowing tarmac to clay, mud and potholes. It didn't even look like a road anymore. At times it was loose dry gravel and rocks then all of a suddenly you would turn round a sharp bend and be greeted with 12 inches of deep mud and puddles. It was good fun though and we scrambled our way up through the hillside, through tiny ramshackle villages.
The people were a mix, some really happy to see you and waving away and shouting greetings, others absolutely stunned and confused by the sight of you. This felt great. This was the adventure we were looking for. Bouncing our way along past some impressive scenery and up some seriously steep climbs in the middle of nowhere. At times you would easily go half an hour without seeing a single other soul at all. Other times you would round a tight mountain bend to be greeted by a massive lorry or truck filling the road or maybe a small herd of water buffalo and a farmer blocking your path. At one point the traffic seemed to build up out of nowhere until we weaved our way through the buses and lorries only to pass an overturned truck blocking the road. This truly was rural Vietnam at it's best. We took several short five minute breaks to let the bike cool down and also to take in water ourselves as the heat was overwhelming here. It's hot anyway but not too bad when your on tarmac and get a bit of a breeze going but when your grinding your way slowly up muddy hills at 5-10km/h you feel that heat.
As we descended back down and the tracks started to level out a little we passed a very small but beautiful village with no more than a dozen small huts when the bike suddenly started to slide around for no reason. We pulled to a halt and sure enough we had a flat tyre. I thought we would wait quite some time before a decent sized truck would appear that could take us on to the next decent sized village to get it sorted but within seconds an old woman pedaled past on her bicycle and pointed back towards the huts we had just passed. I pushed the bike all of about 30 yards before we reached a hut where a few guys were doing some work on other bikes. Could they help us out? Of course they could. This was amazing. In the middle of the remote countryside and we could get a new inner tube popped in within 15 minutes for less than £2 and be back on our way again.
The guys who helped us where great. Not a word of English from any of them and there was a full family there, from mother to grand children, even a small litter of puppies but their smiles and laughter went a long way. You could tell they were talking about us and having a laugh at our expense but it was all good-natured and they waved us off on our way once sorted. Good karma I thought.
Other times when we stopped for rests you would see all the inquisitive locals come out and ride past you several times to check you out, grinning away and laughing. Or the children rushing to the roadside to wave and shout at you. We had spoken to a lot of people in Vietnam since we arrived and most of them said that the folks in the North were not that friendly particularly compared to those in the South but I couldn't disagree more. They are some of the most warm friendly people I have come across and generally everyone we met has wished us well or given us a wave and a smile. A smile goes a long way here to reassuring the people that you are friendly. Many a time you would pass folk who looked gobsmacked and would stare until you smiled at them and then suddenly their face would change and break out in a massive grin and a wave of hello. Utterly brilliant.
As time wore on and it approached 5pm the road leveled out fully and tarmac reappeared where there was once mud, rocks and dirt tracks. We had cleared the Northern hills and arrived at some kind of small town. Hitting a cross roads and checking the map we hung a right turn and then picked up some decent speed in search of a town or village that may have somewhere to stay. Luckily enough just as it was coming in dark we stumbled across the small village of Yen Cat. Embarrassingly we squeaked and clunked our way around the village with a damaged front brake in search of accommodation. We found it in the form of an 80's looking motel type of place. We were the only people staying there and I suspect it may have been some time since they last had guests as they were eager to feed us and squeeze out a few extra dollars from us on beers. It was a great days riding with some amazing sights and people along the way. The one thing that struck me was that we hadn't seen a single westerner all day, just locals. This is what we wanted, this was great seclusion and good adventure. I can't wait now to see what tomorrow holds. Hopefully more of the same.
