18/01/2020 – Getting to Hanoi

A new year was upon me and with a New Years resolution of seeing a sunset and sunrise every week I decided to have a lie in.

I spent a couple of days in Vang Vieng having a bit of a relax, going tubing and planning my route for the next few weeks.

The plan was to head north through Laos to the Vietnam border, do the Ha Giang loop and then head south to Hoi An to meet some friends who were flying out to see me.

The roads weren’t as bad as I thought they were and the scenery was stunning as I cycled up to Luang Prabang.

A few days spent walking around there and seeing some fantastic waterfalls, it was time to head to the next destination, Nong Khiaw.

This town was stunning. Amazingly quiet and set amongst impressive mountains. The local viewpoint was a decent hike to get to but worth every second.

I then took a boat trip up river to a small town with yet another viewpoint and also a waterfall which was bitterly cold.

After a quick dip and a hurried run back to my towel, we headed back for the town and kayaked down river to the hostel catching an amazing sunset.

The next stop on the trip was the border with Vietnam almost 300km away with a lot of big climbs. Knowing I had plenty of time left on my visa I didn’t rush it and made the most of the scenery.

The final climb of Laos was a tough one with steep bends, a sweltering afternoon and few shops to get food and water. The border forsaking was therefore a welcome relief which almost took a turn for the worse when they said that my visa wasn’t allowed as it was apparently a photocopy rather than the original.

After they made a few phone calls and got the original from the hotel that issued it to me my heart rate dropped back to a normal rhythm and I was into Vietnam.

A common theme is that the road quality leading to and just after a border is generally dire. This was certainly the case for Vietnam. Sections of road which were little more than large rocks and dirt. The descent to my stop for the night was interrupted by another slow puncture. Stopping every half an hour and pumping it back up was getting on my nerves so at the next big town I checked into the hotel and set aside the next day to find spare inner tubes and hopefully a new rear tyre.

After 5 bike shops I finally came across one that didn’t try to tell me that the size tyre I was after didn’t exist. I bought the 2 tubes they had and the one spare tyre they had. Sadly it was a 23mm tyre. I had been running a 28mm tyre on my previous bike and on the replacement bike was a 25mm tyre so going even narrower wasn’t ideal.

Nevertheless I got back to the hotel, swapped everything over and prepared for a big ride into Hanoi. It was a little over 422km there and so I decided to do it in 2 days ideally even splitting it.

The first day was rather hot and very hilly, again, the scenery was stunning but the lack of regular shops was a hindrance.

I found a hotel as the sun was setting and rehydrated and refuelled, determined to make it to Hanoi the next day.

There would be some hills in the morning but a flat evening so I was quietly confident that I could make it.

It was a very long day. Over 260km cycled meant that I bought my evening pizza in Hanoi at just gone midnight.

Getting into bed at 1am I was out like a light and looking forward to walking round Hanoi tomorrow and planning the route round the famous Ha Giang loop.