BAO LAC to DONG VAN / DAY 4 / CYCLING TOUR NORTH VIETNAM

When we started this 7 day, 722km tour, with it’s 9,566m of elevation, and me with my jaw on the floor after Day 1, thanks to the scenery, Minh smiled at me and said:

‘Here’s the thing - every day is better than the last…’

This day, the fourth, suggested that he was correct.

My Strava report from the day:

Set off from sleepy Bao Lac not quite knowing how the legs would be after a bad night’s sleep due to a rogue mini-typhoon that ripped through the valley in the night. Woke up to a soaking floor and a ravaged 51 year old face staring at me from the bathroom mirror - not sure how he got into my toilet.

Weirdo.

Left at 6am to beat the heat that never came, and was met right out the door by fallen trees and electricity poles that held up traffic for a good hour - luckily I slipped through. The mountains were full of mist as the sun rose, magisterial in their disregard of this fatigued snake oil pedaler.

Passed through a village having their monthly cattle market, men gathered around small herds of cows making bids, and on the other side of the street, huge bulls being paraded to whoops and hollers by more men, as the women came and went from doorways with huge pots of sustenance being prepared for the cow boys, no doubt more than a few of them on the lash, and you can believe they’ve earned the right.

Then it was on to the climb, which never really relented til the final descent. The houses here belong to Hmong people, tribal people who tend to live isolated lives with their immediate families as opposed to in communal villages, and the adults mostly were more withdrawn that the other people I’ve hailed on the road.

The kids were the opposite, pelting from their yards to high 5 me - which was more like an attempt to grab me off my bike! The rain came for a while and it was welcome. The top of the climb was just ridiculous, too much to take in.

I stopped a few times just to gawk in wonder. I tried but there’s no way to capture the magnificence of the landscape, not by photos, except to take it in with your own eyes and senses. I haven’t felt this way since Mongolia. This is a curious and intriguing land, the north of Vietnam, and on a day like today, I felt like I could have ridden forever.