Vietnam: Sapa (Part 2) - Motorbikes

We arrive a mere 5 hours late at our destination, bleary eyed and hungry so we grab some Bun Cha for breakfast.  God I love that stuff...

One of the guys in my entourage calls his cousin who lives in Lau Cai to try and rent some motorbikes.   Apparently it's not too easy to hire 4 motorbikes in Lau Cai and so we have to wait for a while for the bikes to arrive.  While waiting under an umbrella drinking coffee the skies opened up and the rain started pouring down.

Slightly better than sideways rain.

We buy some cheap plastic rain coats to go over the top and we're off with me riding shotgun on the back of a bike.  Everybody else took off their shoes and went barefoot - they recommended that I do the same.  Ha ha.  Fools.  I'll wear my shoes thank you very much.


ProTip:  When riding a motorbike in the pouring rain, go barefoot or wear your bathroom slippers otherwise your shoes, feet and socks will get rather wet.  And shoes are hard to dry.  Damn.


Four minutes later and I can't help myself - "Can I have a go?"

"OK".

Ha.  Sucker.

We pull over in the middle of a busy bridge over a river and swap seats.  I've picked a good time for my first motorbike ride:  Vietnam.  A small city.  Heavy rain.  Instructor can't speak english.  Check.
I do manage to learn how to honk the horn, that my break is on the right trigger, and that I can change up a gear by pressing down with my left toe.  Other information that would have been rather useful at the time is that down on the right foot is the rear brake, and down on the left heel changes down a gear - but I wouldn't find that out until some time later.
Anyway - we head off through the outskirts of Lau Cai, then into the countryside.  I'm loving the feeling of wind and rain in my face - though every now and then you get a massive drop right in the middle of your eye and it hurts a bit and makes your eyes go red.

Ten kilometers later and we're climbing up the bottom of the mountains of Sapa getting slower and slower as I'm stuck in a high gear from when I was driving fast on the flat roads.  I'm trying to ask the chap on the back how to change down a gear but he can't understand a word.  Eventually we pull over, and he jumps on the front.  I've been relegated to the back.

Bastard.


Winding up the hills, I'm greeted with the most spectacular terraced scenery I have ever seen.  The road winds up through a mountain valley, and on the opposite side are just miles and miles of terraces, splayed out in front of you, the odd waterfall piercing through the ridges.

Stunning.

[Sorry I don't have any pictures at this point - my camera doesn't like getting soaked.]

This is the Jianglin Hills times one hundred.  We round a bend and come face to face with ten rather large oxen coming down the middle of the road.  We weave through the bulls and can see some native Sapa people herding them along with long sticks.  They look immediately different to the usual Vietnamese folk with darker skin and a different shaped face.  They also tend to have an amazing stare.  I'm not sure what they're thinking when they do it but it doesn't come across as friendly to me.  Perhaps that's how they roll - even most of the children do the blank faced asian stare of death.  The occasional child will break it and wave and smile which makes me feel happy.

Eventually we reach Sapa...

ProTip:  It's about an hour's ride from Lau Cai to Sapa at a fast pace.