Viet Road Trip Day 19

Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Viet Nam. This is day 19. Day 18 can be found here.

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ay 19 is a weird one for me. It was a great day for photography, but I don't remember anything interesting happening. There were gorgeous landscapes and rice paddies galore. It was lovely riding, but the weather was very cold and I think my brain blocked out most of the memories from this day.

In an effort to keep the momentum going with my posting, this post will feature way too many photos without much text. I hope you'll stick around for my ride to Sapa on Day 20. Here are my photos from Day 19.

Riding down a rough road (1:22).

Tons and tons of rice paddies are featured in this post. If you don't like rice paddies, abandon the post now!

Driving up into the clouds.

Some nice looking farmlands (00:15).

A schoolhouse.

Ride through a North Vietnamese village (1:34). I don't know what all of the soldiers were doing, but they seemed friendly enough.

Making progress is difficult when you stop every 5 minutes for photos.

A nice cruse through the country side (1:24).

Getting above the clouds for a brief time.

A funky ride through a lovely valley (0:50).

Quick break for coffee at a restaurant.

A mellow ride through a beautiful area (2:24).

The view from my hotel.

he ride was short and I made it to Than Uyên before 15:00. I found a hotel and unloaded my gear. The lake in the town was unique and had a road going around it. With the bike unloaded, I took a short exploratory ride around the area for photos. After a quick tour of the area, I parked the bike at my hotel and went out walking.

One of my bungee cords was fraying, so I went to the market to see if I could find some replacements. For a country that can strap an entire household onto the back of their bike (see @dragonator's Bikes of Burden series), I'm surprised they don't have better bungee cords. I didn't find any bungee cords, but it was fun trying to ask people where to find them without speaking the language. The way I did it was I found a picture of a bungee cord online and then showed it to people, followed by stretching gestures. A few people understood and walked me to different stalls in the market, but we didn't have any luck. I wouldn't find good bungee cords until I returned to Laos.

I was tempted to buy a duck, but I think most hotels forbid pets.

Here's a quick view of my hotel room and the town. The lightbulb in my room scared the shit out of me.

fter finding some dinner and beer, I went back to the hotel. I didn't know it then, but my next day's ride would be miserable. Sapa was my next scheduled stop. It would be one of my least favorite stops, but I'll discuss that in my next post. Until then, ride safe!

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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 and 18 here.