Viet Road Trip Day 22
Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Viet Nam. This is day 22. Days 20-21 can be found here.
I had been worried about the weather remaining cold, wet and foggy. Luckily, the weather cleared up as soon as I left Sapa. There was some light traffic on the highway, but after a few miles, I had the road mostly to myself.
Leaving Sapa (1:45)
Nice flat area (1:56)
After leaving the mountain on which Sapa is located, the road went down into a flat valley. The area was surrounded by jagged mountains, and it was a pleasure to ride through. The sun even began to peek out through the clouds.
More nice roads (0:54).
Climbing up another mountain (2:10).
Mountain climbing with the Godfather (1:33).
The roads keep getting smaller and smaller (1:04).
As I climbed the hill, the road kept getting more and more narrow, at the same time I was feeling more and more isolated. I was really feeling like I was way out in the back of nowhere.
The road ends, apologies for the music (1:30).
The road was just too rough to ride on with any speed. I was worried that my bike would just shake itself to pieces. The road was also treacherous, so I had to keep the bike in gear on downhills to keep from slipping off the side of the mountain.
Making friends on the road!
A sketchy part of the path (0:22).
When I stopped for photos and a break, a scooter with 2 men on it came up the road. One of them gave me my raincoat. Apparently, it had shaken loose and fell off my bike. At the time I was only focused on the road and didn't care about my rain gear. Later I would be grateful for those guys who returned it to me as they passed.
One nasty road to ride on.
Some sort of meeting happening on the mountainside. I had to stop and check my map at the fork in the road (1:09).
Screenshot showing the road going off into the horizon.
Thankfully, the road went back to pavement and gravel after about 2 hours on the small path.
Back on a normal road, on the mountain top (1:40).
I'm pretty sure that's China in the background.
Photo stop (0:40).
Getting close to town (01:32).
The town of Coc Pai was pretty small, but there were no problems finding a hotel room. After I parked my bike and got freshened up, I went out for some food and beer.
I ended up spending the evening at this restaurant (which was also hanging a new sign). A few groups of cute girls were there and the lady running the place was friendly. They also had cold beer and a BBQ grill in front of the restaurant.
What I really loved about this place was the hot sauce that they had. This place had some awesome home-made chili sauce that I loved. All of the tables had old plastic water bottles full of bright red hot sauce on them. I kept ordering food just to have something to put the sauce on.
I thought about asking the lady if I could buy a bottle, but I made a big mistake. My mistake was in assuming that the hot sauce was common for the region. I assumed that I could buy some hot sauce from the market in the morning. Unfortunately, I never saw anyone selling home made hot sauce at the market, or anywhere else in Vietnam.
I returned to my hotel room and fell asleep after spending some time on the internet. My next post will be about the ride to Ha Giang and the near miss that made my life flash before my eyes. Until then, ride safe!
Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Vietnam. Read about days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7.1, 8, 8.1, 9, 9.1, 10, 11,12, 13, 14, 15-17, 18, 19 and 20-21 here.
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Beautiful pictures and I love stories about the kindness of strangers -- very lucky to get the raincoat back!
Stay safe and I look forward tot he next post.
those are some crazy sites you have. long drive.
did you rent or buy that bike?
I bought it in Saigon. 4 months later I sold it back to the company that I bought it from. They have a guaranteed buy-back policy, so the total cost for the bike and helmet was about $100 (not including gas/oil/repairs).
I hate when I see something cool to buy and don't buy it! I really enjoyed reading along with your trip!
That's the biggest problem when you take a long trip. You feel like you've got more time than you actually have. I kept thinking that I would return to a lot of places to buy this or do that. The reality is that I'll never return to most of those places.
Die Landschaft kann sich aber auch sehen lassen ! Sind wirklich tolle Fotos & Videos dabei ! Vielen Dank dir fürs teilen @fronttowardenemy :)
I love your posts about your trips through vietnam man! It looks like a great chilling adventure and the landscapes are really fascinating there. Your articles are of so much quality, always a pleasure to read them and to take a ride on your bike through your videos. Nice music in the first one ;) Keep on doing your thing!
Thanks for the encouragement @steemchiller. I'm glad you're enjoying the posts.
This trip only has a few more days left in it, so I'm going to have to figure out what to write about next. I think I need to take a new trip to write about :D
Yes, I think you should do that! Maybe for now write about some other things to get more followers and then post your high quality trips. You should definitely earn more money with your posts!
Great post once again...you had to ask that lady for the hot sauce dude, I'm sure you gonna do it the next time you visit the country huh? (:
Yes! I want to go back to that town just for the hot sauce. I hope the restaurant is still there when I return :)
Oh for shizzle. Can't go nowhere..them hot restaurants always survive.
Friggin great photos! Now I want some Hot sauce.
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This is amazing! Reminding me about my trip also. It was great trip with motorbike. You did great job!
Thank you for the kind words @mcmonkey!
Comprehensive. LOVE it. I did not make it to Sapa during my trip. At the restaurant you slept at...was the beer home made or bottled? Just curious...I only got to try one house beer while I was there. I am adding you to my follow list and look forward to catching up on your journey.
I can't remember if this was a place with beer on tap or not. I did visit several Bia Hoi places in Vietnam, but the beer was so good and cheap that I don't remember much about them :)
I do remember going to one place in Da Nang where my local friends ordered up a big plate of pig noses and ears to eat with the beer (the meat was shaved like roast beef, so you couldn't tell what parts they were). The plate was a big pile of meat, onions, and cilantro. I didn't try any.
Frogs, fried sparrows, and snake liquor are the most daring things I tried on my trip.
Well done. I saw the snake liquor but didn't try any.
Good post man!
Even tho the road up that hill was really terrible it seems that the locals don't mind it at all. They are all driving up and down on their bikes.
And btw, you never know where a new friend awaits you!
Nice post again...I actually drove the same road before and it is one of the top 10 roads in the north... this area is famous for its steep rice terraces.
