May 11, 2009

Having lived in Vietnam for 3 years now I was beginning to think that I needed to get off the beaten track and try something a bit different. I had already done all the high profile sites – Ha Long Bay, Sa Pa, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Da Lat, Mui Ne, Ho Chi Minh City and so forth. Interesting spots that they are, it was high time to get off the tourist highway. A chance encounter with Travis from Wide Eyed Tours one Sunday morning, and the seeds of an adventure began to sprout. The reco

mmendation was a cycling trip in the province of Ha Giang - a part of the country not visited by many foreigners, partly due to the fact that it is one of the few areas in Vietnam that still requires a permit to visit, and partly due to the sheer ruggedness of the geography. Just what I wanted – something physical, rugged, remote, and quiet.

The team at Wide Eyed Tours put together an itinerary for a 5 day cycling trip. For three of the days the itinerary described the cycling as 'Very Difficult'. Furthermore, a number of times when speaking with Travis and his colleague Mike, I was warned of the physical difficulty involved. Look, I am not the lean mean athlete that I may have been many years ago, if I ever was, but I brushed these comments aside assuming they were aimed at couch potatoes suddenly inspired into super human feats after watching too much National Geographic. I had completed the Vietnam Triathlon last August and presumed that whatever residual fitness might be left over from that, plus the two 45 minutes runs I was doing each week would pull me through. How wrong I was to be proven in the coming days!

Our adventure began out of Hanoi. On board for the journey was Glyn, a mate from Hanoi; our support vehicle driver, Mr An; our cycling guide, Nam; and Hang, a sales agent from the Wide Eyed Tours office in Hanoi coming along for the ride to get a taste of the tour that she was inflicting upon unsuspecting cyclists. The first day began as a drive, with the bikes in the back, heading north from Hanoi, following the meandering Lo River for most of the way. About 60km out from Ha Giang city we jumped on our bikes for the first time. It was a flat riverside ride on the main road, though there must have been a small incline as we were heading upstream - I may not be a geologist, but I do know that rivers only flow down. Our first day of riding was nothing spectacular, though it did include the odd crazy bus crossing lanes and playing chicken with poor motorcyclists coming the other way – a disturbingly regular sight in Vietnam. It was an important day though to ensure the bikes worked and, perhaps more importantly, to remind me that, after so many months since that triathlon last year, my legs still worked too. We had been advised that today was to be the only easy day of the trip, and it proved to be so. I just hoped that the scenery improved.

We arrived in the metropolis (not) of Ha Giang just before night fall. It was very quickly apparent that one does not visit Ha Giang for it's night life! In fact, one does not visit any town in this part of the country for their night life. That is not such a bad thing when you are journeying under your own steam and want to be a relatively good shape to head off on the road again each morning. So after a meal and a beer at a local restaurant it was back to our modest but comfortable hotel for a few glasses of cabernet sauvignon which we'd smuggled along for the ride – oh the joys of having a support vehicle to throw excess luggage into.

As we downed a bowl of pho for breakfast on Day 2 Glyn and myself commented that, tasty though it was, a bowl of watery soup with noodles, a few strands of beef, and some lettuce was not really the food of 'giants' about to toil on their bikes for the entire day. Alas, we knew the support vehicle was full of oreos, dried fruit, energy gels and, perhaps most importantly, seats to take us to lunch should we fall behind schedule.

At 8am we were on our way. Ahead of us lay a 95km trip to the town of Yen Minh. The first 30km of our journey began as a lovely meander alongside the Miem River, a tributary off the Lo River, until the road split from that and followed the Nam Dieng stream. While riding along this section it was interesting to consider that pretty much all the rivers in this part of the world ultimately feed into the Red River, flowing down past Hanoi where we had begun our journey, before they empty themselves into the Gulf of Bac Bo (or Gulf of Tonkin as many may know it). The traffic was quiet by now and the scenery was beginning to become more picturesque as we rode up the valley through lush green rice paddy fields with limestone mountains towering above us on either side. Like the ride into Ha Giang, this first part of the day was easy. Up ahead though we could see the faint outline of a road making it's way up the large mountain that was to be our destiny for the remainder of the morning and early afternoon. We took our first break of the day at the base of the climb and surveyed our impending ascent. The road literally zigzagged up the hill in front of us until it was out of sight. In a few hours time we were to discover that 'out of sight' did not mean the end of the climb!

Still fresh, we jumped back on the bikes and began our mission to the top of the hill. Known locally as Heaven's Gate (not to be confused with numerous other passes throughout Vietnam going by the same name), the pass we were heading for lay around 3,000 f

eet above us and 13km ahead of us. Whatever the meaning to the Vietnamese of Heaven's Gate, we figured the descent on the other side was certainly going to be heaven to us! Slowly we edged our way up the mountain road, and very soon it became apparent that the folks at Wide Eyed Tours had been quite serious when they had talked up the difficulty of this journey.

One of the great rewards of doing a journey like this under your own steam is that the scenery leaves a whole new impression on you. Just like having a cold beer at the end of a long days work as compared to just grabbing a beer after slouching at home all day, viewing scenery that you've arrived at under your own physical exertion is so much more satisfying and refreshing than if you'd just jumped off a tourist bus (or motorbike). With the valley floor slowly dropping below us we were just beginning to get a taste of this feeling as the views back down the valley from which we had risen became more and more grand. And as the climb went on that morning, and the legs were tested more and more we found plenty of excuses to get off the bikes and take camera breaks. Ah the beauty of a camera stop - technically, it is not a rest stop. ;)

Alas, the number of camera stops we were taking, added to our slow pace due to our lack of fitness, was beginning to put us behind schedule somewhat. Soon after noon, thinking we only had a kilometer or so to go, I asked our guide Nam “I presume the road slips around the bend there before it drops down in to the town of Tam Son for lunch?” My question was one of hope really as, apart from that route, I saw no saddle in the wall of the mountain ahead of that might get us to lunch anytime within the next hour. Pointing to the right of where I had been alluding to, Nam said “nope, that is Heaven's Gate there”. It was a saddle between the two highest points that lay ahead

of us. Sadly, I now had a better appreciation of the concern Nam had expressed earlier about out progress. “Ok”, I said, “I think we'll call in the bus from here”. It would have been nice to have climbed the whole mountain on our own steam, but there was at least another 5 km of steep climbing ahead of us, and there is only so far a man can ride on no training, a bowl of pho, and some oreos. Moments later Mr An and Hang arrived to our rescue, and we all jumped on board with our bikes.

The climb up the hill continued in the vehicle, and we slotted through the pass at Heaven's Gate some 20 minutes later. And what a magnificent sight that greeted us on the other side - Heaven's Gate is an appropriate name. Down below us, stretching to the north and south was a valley of fertile land, and set in amongst it all was a myriad of small hills dotted around. As though the creator had poured mounds of dirt, each up to two to three hundred feet, randomly over the valley and planted luxurious forest over them. Two such hills right next to each other had a reputation amongst the locals as representing a pair of womens breasts. It did not take much imagination to pick out which two they were referring to. And I am sure that local folklore would explain how they were created, and how they no doubt keep the land fertile ;). The whole valley was a surreal, magical sight.

Ten minutes later we were in the town of Tam Son, located elegantly amongst this picturesque valley. Minutes after lunch, much to our delight, we

were to discover that we were not yet at the bottom of the valley. As any cyclists know, what goes up, must come down, and moments after leaving our restaurant we were to be rewarded for our morning climb. For the next 20 minutes, the road just went down down down down. Ten kilometers of it, and it would have been at least a 2,000 foot drop to rejoin the Miem River valley that we had left about 10km out of Ha Giang this morning – it had gone around this range of mountains while we had gone over! We took no photos during this 10km descent – nothing to do with the quality of the scenery, magnificent as it was, but all to do with the exhilaration of such a rapid and winding descent down the zigzag road cut into the mountain side.

Once alongside the river again, we continued upstream at a good pace. The valley at this point was fairly narrow and either side of the river the mountains towered above us. It was almost like we were riding through a corridor with tall walls on either side of us. We truly were in a part of Vietnam where every turn produced spectacular views. We continued on riding up the valley, then up another tributary until about 20km out from the town of Yen Minh which was to play host to us for the second night of our journey. Unlike our premature calling in of the bus just before lunch, this was a scheduled rendezvous to throw the bikes into the bus and to have a well deserved rest for the final stretch into town.

Yen Minh made Ha Giang look big. Like many of the towns we passed through on our journey, it essentially just straddles the main road and goes no deeper than that. So after dinner and a beer again, we walked up and down the main street, confirmed there was nothing to see nor any bars of note to visit, then headed back to our rest house for some another cab sav night cap and an early sleep in preparation for day three.

Apart from the horror climb of day two, day three was going to make the previous day seem somewhat ordinary. The scenery was to be even more spectacular. The ride began down a valley through lush fert

ile farmland, where farmers guided their water buffalo as they ploughed the land in preparation for the next crops. As we rode down one short descent I stopped my bike three times in sheer amazement. The first stop was to get as close as I could to confirm that my eyes were not deceiving me – sure enough, a stream with no visible source was flowing out of a mountain, and joined the main river. About 500 meters further down the road the river we were following suddenly disappeared into the earth. It had cut it's way into the rock and had left flat, fertile, arable land above it. Given that the valley remained the same shape for a few kilometers ahead of us, Glyn and I had a pretty strong hunch that the river might reappear somewhere further down. And sure enough, about a kilometer downstream it came out of the rock again. What was even more fascinating was that the water had gone in muddy and was coming out the other end clear. You can bet that I'll be checking the reason for that out on Wikipedia or somewhere else very soon.

I am no geologist, and I will not try to pretend to be one. But the incredible scenery that we were witnessing, had witnessed over the last 2 days, and would witness for the remainder of the trip were essentially all erosional landforms created by slightly acidic water (in the form of rain, or streams and rivers) wearing away the limestones mountains over millennia. This was limestone k

arst country – big time. Throughout the trip we came across a number of entrances to caves, and heaven knows what expanse of cave networks lay inside the hills around us. I am sure those crazy caving type people would love to have a chance to explore the hills in this part of Vietnam.

We had witnessed them on a less grand scale every day of our trip so far, but later on in day three we would see and cycle up even more impressive karst peaks. Are you familiar with those old Chinese paintings of steep mountainsides, with forest struggling to hold on, and wisps of cloud rising up through them? Well, that is what we began to cycle through as our morning proceeded up into the mountains. And the similarity to the Chinese paintings is not as uncanny as it may sound – one of the provinces from which many of these paintings were created is Guangxi. Guangxi straddles Vietnam's north eastern border and at times we were only kilometers away from it and could see it's mountain peaks in the distance. So, one might surmise that many of those paintings may have in fact been taken from the same mountain ranges.

Even more striking scenery was to avail itself to us during our afternoon ride from the

town of Meo Vac to our night stop at Dong Van. About half way up this climb we rounded a bend and below us the mountainside plummeted to a gorge that must have been at least 2000 feet from the top of the ridges either side of the valley down to the Ngo Que river below. At one point, a kilometer or so downstream from our position, the river passed through a point with sheer cliff on either side of around 500 feet in height. Oh, to be in a kayak or a raft passing through that gap and peering up at the cliffs rising straight from the riverside. This bend in the road provided perhaps the most impressive sight of our whole journey – now that's a big call.

Day 3 ended with a welcome downhill plummet into Dong Van. And what a surprising little town it turned out to be. It was certainly the most attractive we visited during out entire trip. It even had it's own 'old quarter' which, although small, was very quaint. By day 3 we were feeling somewhat more fit and managed to walk around the town for an hour after washing up at the rest house. Wandering through the 'old quarter', we passed a funeral party and had the honour of being invited to share in a quick swig

of the local brew – actually, it was kind of forced upon us, and who were we to refuse such an invitation on such an occasion. It was a pretty strong brew, and certainly left a very reluctant Hang coughing as we continued down the street. Later on in the evening we almost suffered the same fate at the hands of some local party committee officials who had come along to quite a groovy wee bar that Hang had brought us to. They had obviously started drinking well before they had arrived at our location (if they were in fact ever sober – they do drink a lot in these parts), and before we knew it we were being invited to join them at their 'table' for some serious drinking of the local wine. Any other time, it would have been a delight to while the evening away in a haze of the local brew, but our rides were painful enough and we did not need the addition of a hangover in the morning to add to the punishment. It is perhaps my only regret of the trip – it could have been quite a fun way to get to learn more about the local people from these gentlemen. But alas, I am not 20-something anymore!

Right, I've dressed up the scenery enough for you now. Days 4 and 5 were equally impressive and I do not intend to spoil your own discovery of the region. I would now like to move on to another important part of this unique part of Vietnam. The people.

One of the most delightful things about this part of Vietnam is the relatively low population density. It was such a joy to be able to ride without actually seeing people or other vehicles for some kilometers. Right, this country is similar in size to New Zealand with twenty times the population (87 million versus 4.3 million) so if your need is to escape people completely then you've simply come to the wrong country! That's just not going to happen. But after the crowds and the noise of Hanoi, it is a delight. Another very appealing aspect of the people here is that, unlike the more popular tourist spots like Sa Pa, they really could not care too much about us. Of course, we were looked at and waved at regularly, but more in the 'I haven't seen one of those before' (that is, crazy foreigner on bicycle) kind of way. At the colourful Sunday market in Dong Van, no one could have cared less about our presence. Compare this to Sa Pa and many other popular tourist spots around Vietnam where young children and women will follow you on a trek for kilometers hawking stuff. It was such a joy to see life as it really is for these people.

The children were a delightful sight throughout the journey. Their young, innocent and unwashed faces, and their smiles and waves as we would ride by. “Hello” they would cry. “Hello” we would yell back. I doubt we were ever going fast enough for any local school teachers to be provided with an opportunity to explain to their students the Doppler effect on our cries. Several times a day we would find ourselves jumping off the bikes to take some photos of children playing or working. The reward to them in return for the photo was simple – the chance for them to have look at photos of themselves. I am sure it would have been a first for many of them. They never asked for anything more. One afternoon we were cruising along a flat section and we passed a young boy of maybe 5 or 6 years old in a field. We waved and yelled “hello” as we cruised by. He said nothing but waved crazily. I looked back a few seconds down the road, and he was now running after us (I mentioned before that we were unfit, but we're not so unfit that there was any chance that this young lad might catch us). In situations like this, you just had to stop. He got his photo taken, and the joy in his eyes and the smile on his face at seeing himself in the camera was just brilliant.

Life in these remote frontier regions of Vietnam is tough. And the more remote you get, and the higher up the mountains you get the tougher it gets. It is a very poor area. Everyone looks pretty well fed, but it's

just a hard physical life, in most cases living and working the fields in a very subsistence existence. Right up in the higher mountains, the farmers plant their crops in soil which is full of solid limestone rocks. Tilling the soil with the water-buffalo looked an extremely arduous job. Certainly not the straight line ploughing possible in the fertile valleys. This also highlights how a living is eked out of almost every accessible piece of land. It is almost as if the only land not farmed are the cliffs. We saw many sights of farmers terracing mountainside that were so near vertical. The journey was full of images of boys pulling carts of soil by hand, men and woman breaking rocks into smaller pieces with hammers then placing the gravel onto a road under construction using hand held pans. It is a darn hard life up here which really does put ones own life challenges into perspective. If you think your life is tough, then get up here!

The time of year that we went was a very nice time to go – in between the extreme heat of summer and the cold of winter. On Day 4 we had a few hours of some rather cold rain right up in the hill tops. It made the wind chill from some of the descents that day bitterly cold. In fact, it was the only time that we preferred the climbs over the descents because on the climbs there was no wind chill and our bodies could warm up again as we worked our way up the hill. This one cold morning though did leave one wondering how harsh an environment it must be for them in the middle of winter. Some of the kids had no shoes or socks in the cold rain. Many of the mud houses had cracks in their walls. But I guess they have lived here for sometime and will have adapted their lifestyles, home and clothing to their environment. You would need a wiser person than I to provide a truly accurate picture of how tough life really is. I am aware that some of the aid NGOs based in Hanoi are working up in this region helping such people out.

We encountered a number of ethnic minorities / hill tribes all along our journey, which added to the colour of our experience. The Hmong and the Tay. All dressed up with their head gear and traditional clothes. Isn't it such a delight to find a people dressing the way that they always have? Though, like many places all throughout the world, it is not uncommon to find youth mixing and matching their traditional garments with that ubiquitous cultural statement - a nice pair of blue denim jeans. But it is not quite Sa Pa where, for many of the youth, the traditional clothing is pretty much a uniform that they put on before they head off to harass tourists, and which they replace with jeans and t-shirt when hanging out with their mates.

The cycling portion of our journey ended up with us completing a loop back to Ha Giang at the end of day 4. Wide Eyed Tours normally run this as an 8 day trip and for the three extra days the cycling continues on to Sa Pa from Ha Giang. Alas, I could only get a 5 day leave pass from my dear wife so we did the section to Sa Pa on the bus. Had time permitted it would have been rewarding to do the remainder of the trip under our own steam, but we had certainly seen the best scenery from the bikes. Having said that, the 32km climb from Lao Cai up to Sa Pa would certainly have made the most challenging of days work – apparently only a few attempt it!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this entry, I've already visited a number of locations around Vietnam. Each of these places have their own merits, but it will be this cycling trip around the Ha Giang province that I will remember the most. Being a New Zealander, and thus someone who has grown up surrounded by magnificent scenery, a new location has to be pretty special to make me go 'wow'. Beaches are beaches, Ha Long Bay is impressive, the tombs around Hue are fascinating, but until this trip, nothing had quite made me go 'wow'. While the going was tough, it was a magical experience.

There are a number of ways in which you can do this journey. Those not so keen on the physical exertion might choose to do it by motorcycle or even car or bus. Be warned, at times the vehicular approach can be quite daunting – it's one of these places where the wheels of the vehicle are at times within a feet or two of a sheer drop. There were many moments when we were sitting in our support bus wishing that we were on the bikes instead. Looking out the window down a drop of hundreds of feet is pretty scary and we would have felt much safer on our bikes on the inside portion of the road. And then of course, is the 'on the edge of your seat' experience going around corners on these narrow roads hoping like hell that there is nothing coming the other way. All credit to Mr An our driver – unlike many drivers we saw he was very cool and calm, and most importantly sensible and safe in his driving. Especially in one section of road works that was essentially 5 kilometers of mud which we were pretty much slipping down a gentle slope on. Motorcycle would be a fun way to go, but you've still got the noise and the helmet which places a barrier between you and the surroundings. If you have the energy – cycling is the way to do this trip.

Could you do this trip without vehicular support? Well, first up you would want to be extremely fit, and add at least half the time again to the journey. And you would not want to underestimate this trip as we did. The distances between our night stops range from between 68km to 136km and the climbs on these rides are monstrous. Travis, Mike and the team at Wide Eyed Tours were not fooling when they repeatedly warned us of the difficulty of the trip. If you were to do it without support, you would probably want to be overnighting in the locations where we were lunching. And remember, you'll be needing to carry everything with you in your own pannier bags, so that's going to slow you down too. With the vehicular support we were able to enjoy a magical region in only 5 days. And bring along a few luxuries to enjoy along the way. :)

After a few hours enjoying the civilisation of Sa Pa where we were able to enjoy our first cappuccinos and chocolate cake for 5 days, we headed back down to Lao Cai by bus for the overnight train journey back to Hanoi. Not being a great sleeper in planes, trains or automobiles I spent much of our last night awake staring into the dark from the train window. We were in the valleys now following the Red River back to where our journey had begun. With no moon out, there was not much to see bar the lights of towns and villages we passed through and vehicles and motorcycles on the roads. My mind wandered back over the last 5 days and I flicked through the photos I'd taken on the camera. If only I had managed to get an 8 day leave pass - I'd still be out there, I thought :).

Kudos to Em Hang, Em Nam, and Mr. An from the Wide Eyed Tours team. Awesome trip guys.

Please send your comments and questions to: tom@eyeonhanoi.com