The Last Long Leg, Dien Bien Phu to Hanoi in Four long stages

Written from Hanoi on December 11th, 2018, where the weather is threatening rain, or at least drizzle.
If you've been following along (you know who you are) you might want to step back one post and review the captions. . .when I first published it there were too many gaps, so I've doubled back this morning and improved things a bit.

But for now, here's how we got home to Hanoi. . .
Dec 7th, Oudomxai to Muang Khua and on to the border and Dien Bien Phu:  I haven't said much about the run from Muang Khua to Dien Bien Phu and there's a lot to tell.  You'll notice in the last post the photos stopped before the Vietnamese border.  There's a good reason for that, the road down out of the mountains to the plains around Dien Bien is called QL279.  Always think hard about riding on QL highways with three numbers, it certainly doesn't imply a top quality, wide and well maintained road.  In this case, in the complete absence of real knowledge, I reason that it is maintained in an almost impassable condition as a military imperative.  The Chinese have built high capacity roads in Laos, and could reasonably expect no resistance at all from the Lao Army or police (who are fine and pleasant people).  Thus they could move large heavily armed units to the border with Viet Nam relatively easily and their supply lines would be quick and secure.  However, having passed the international entry into Viet Nam, they would find the very narrow and steep road easily blocked and fearfully easy to defend.  The Vietnamese military is unafraid of a fight, and picking off a Chinese division or two on that horrible 30 km stretch of not-really road should be relatively straightforward, and bloody. On the other hand, maybe the highway department just likes to see dusty motorbikes. So, the run down the mountain, almost two hours riding for 30 km, the difference between the dust in the air and the dust still on the road was that the dust in the air wouldn't quite support the weight of a motorbike.  The super-narrow road with constant steep switchbacks absolutely forbade stopping for a photo, if you could have seen anything through the dust.  This is a major border crossing now, perhaps it wasn't always, but now there is a constant flow of VNese semis, container haulers, tankers and cement trucks as well as lighter traffic, coming and going. at least as far as Oudomxai.  A motorbike is a terribly fragile and  insignificant item on a road like that, you are entirely on your own to stay out from under other traffic!

Our first order of business in Dien Bien was a bike wash.  They had a standard air compressor (needed to blow the high pressure water out of places it doesn't belong, spark plug wires, gas cap flanges, head lights. . .you name it).  Madame began preparations to wash the bike and I asked if I could use the air to blow off my bags.  She nodded yes, then did a double take and pointed at me.  I grinned and held out my arms to be searched, or in this case, to be blown away.  She put a lot of effort into it but I was still dusty to an interesting degree when she finished.  So the bags got blown off and the bike got clean and Madame directed me to a private house right across the street where I could exchange my load of Lao Kip for Viet Nam Dong.  I went to the door and knocked, then opened it to holler, and m'Lady the money changer came across the street from behind me.  Oh dear.  However, she sold me the VND at 2.66 Dong to the Kip.  I later cross checked, using the exchange rate for each currency to USD and I calculated 2.73 Dong to the Kip.  Very cool, she gave me a  reasonable rate and I was really completely at her mercy in the transaction.  To a surprising degree, that's how it is here, though not if you're shopping in a city market. . .then you never pay the asking price. But you're rarely at the vendor's mercy, you  always can walk away or at least pretend to!

And so, from the outskirts on into Dien Bien, where I basically got a nice, if somewhat sterile hotel room, a quick supper and crashed.  It had been a long day!

Dec 8th, Dien Bien to Lai Chau: Nearby breakfast and coffee in the morning, then back on the road toward Lai Chau, clear to the top of the country and back south a little ways  There I'd have to make a decision on the route ahead. . .might go over the mountains (a steep climb) through Sapa and thus downhill a long ways to Lao Cai and beyond.  I've never over nighted in Lao Cai, down on the river bank right across from China, so that was appealing.  I've always gone on to either Sapa or Bac Ha, depending on which way I was going.  However, in the event,the cloud base next morning was very low and we got into it even on the route we took.  There's no point in opting for the mountain vistas if your horizon is about 50 feet ahead and cold and wet!

An hour or two out of Dien Bien I spotted this house nearly framed up.  This is the standard-classical structure of a house all through the North.  The finish will vary, sometimes the "ground" floor will be just that, sometimes it'll be paved, sometimes wide open to the air, sometimes bricked up or filled in with timber, and sometimes filled with massive stone masonry.  The roof might be thatch or tile or cement fiber or galvanized or enameled corrugated panels, and often enough, combinations of those.  The same house is built in Laos a lot too, but usually with concrete columns not timbers.

The columns will have been slotted on the ground, but there's plenty of final fitting in the air.  A chisel and hammer in this case but there was a chain saw up there too.

The workmen come and go through the timbers with very little in the way of ladders or scaffolding.  Here and there they put a plank across to make a place to stand or brace, and there are ladders around.  I don't know if I could ever have done it!

In the background you see the archetype.  On the new frame you can pick out the overhanging balcony and roof timbers. 

Lunch was being laid out on planks on the ground and the crew was down to eat.  Not surprisingly, I was invited to eat (and presumably drink) with them, but I knew I had a long ride ahead still, and so I declined.  Such an invitation can lead to a long visit!

A cute little kid, but pay attention to the foundation stone.  It sits on a concrete footing in this case but I don't believe there's a connection between the footing, the stone and the column.  I've never stayed in one place long enough to be sure, but what I've seen. . .well, I'm almost convinced there is nothing.

Just scenery along the road.  The cloud base was well overhead here, but down into the mountain passes.

A new quarry at lake level.  With all the old valley infrastructure to replace, a great deal of crushed rock was needed in a hurry.  The boat being loaded had to be built somewhere nearby, there's no way it could have come on its own bottom!  Note the small boat headed toward us.

The one closer to us is most like the one out on the lake.  They're shapely enough, but pretty crudely fitted and welded.  Solid though.

What happens when you build a dam and make a lake and displace a lot of people.  At least some of the people end up in a new lakeside town, packed a bit tight in nearly identical new houses. . .

Interesting that the new houses are all mountain style and the adjacent commercial district is all "Vietnamese".  If you looked into it I suppose you might find that the two different ethnicities simply segregated themselves as they naturally do, with the mountain people of whatever ethnic group occupying the countryside, and the townsfolk, usually ethnic Vietnamese. . .er. . .living in town.  Just a thought, but up here in the North of the country that's how you see it until somebody builds a dam and everything has to change.

Just some photos along QL-32.  It isn't all this sweet of a paving job, but it's only really problematical for a few kilometers before you come to the lake town.

The scenery is simply wonderful, particularly when you can see the mountains.

Note the young Banana trees up the hill behind the house

Not quite such a fancy bit of road, but still wonderful.

People would pay real money to ride a motorbike through here!

In Lai Chau I paid an extra $5 for a room on the corner of the fourth floor with huge picture windows overlooking the street below, a charming view in daylight, a little bit less so by  the light of flashing shop signs all night.  Still, it was worth the $5.  For evening entertainment I walked out to find a very loud ongoing soccer game.  Grown men I think, not a school league.  They played hard on a small field.  Then, continuing on a couple of blocks I stumbled into an after-school English academy.  I was dragged physically into the classroom and sat on a stool and made to answer questions and discourse in English.  I think we ran late, parents were patiently waiting on their motorbikes outside.  Everyone smiled though.

My English class when they finally let me go.  That's the teacher in the back left.  She has a commanding voice!

Evening through my fourth floor window.  Low clouds, got lower over night.

H'mm.  Well, look at the bright side.  No plastic trays or shrink wrap needed!  I don't know what the actual percentages are, but there seem to be several times more buffalo than "cows".  Both species are used both for meat and as draft animals.  The buffalo are probably the sweetest big farm animals you'll ever meet.  You can let them babysit even quite small children, and pulling a plow or a wagon, they work well to voice commands.  Good in soup too.  H'mm indeed.

  

The landlady's Vespa with a new-this-year rain shield sort of thing.  Some of them have side curtains that zip in as well and almost completely enclose the driver's space.  They probably won't work at highway speeds, but around town one rarely gets up to 25 mph, and they'll probably hang together at that rate.  Fun.

Dec 9th: So, leaving Lai Chau with a low cloud base over the mountains, when we came to the road junction, we turned south onto QL 32, toward Nghia Lo. rather than southeast over the mountains toward Sapa and Lao Cai.  QL 32, though it crosses some ridges and thus got us into the cloud base at times, still, runs a long time in river valleys between the ridges.  I've been very pleased with it in the past, a scenic and little used road, and it did not disappoint this time, though we did without blue sky and had a bit of rain now and again.

I was shivery cold by lunch time.  They had me figured out and plied me with hot noodles and coffee and tea and. . .I felt a lot better thereafter.

I don't even have a name for the town, but I liked its restaurant very well.

A mass of government buildings (maybe administrative, maybe a school complex).  They all look like this, regardless of their size. . ."your tax dollars at work".  Education is very highly prized here for boys and girls alike, though if one has to drop out of school to work to support another, it's the sister who will go to work.  Some things are slow to change.  The maid of all work in my home hotel dropped out at 15 to come to work here and is supporting brothers, but at 19 she's now returned to tenth grade and dresses in her school uniform every morning after she mops the hallway. . .and studies in the evening after supper dishes.  A fine young woman!

Interesting, built on a side hill the "house doesn't have a full ground floor.  The lower structure by the road must sit in a dug-out flat spot.  It may be a kitchen-storehouse sort of place, it doesn't look to be inhabited.

This will soon be a stunningly located and designed resort-hotel complex, some larger structures and a number of artistically shaped small buildings, presumably the guest rooms.  I wouldn't have expected it to be here, given the almost complete lack of foreigners passing through, but I suppose it will bring its guests in by the busload from Hanoi and give them a spectacular look at the countryside.  

As near to a McMansion as you'll see here.  Gorgeous work, beautifully executed.  What a fine place to live!

After a month on the road without an incident, today had two, a near miss, and a didn't quite miss.  H'mm.  The near miss arose when the oncoming traffic decided to pass three abreast on a 2-wide road.  There was nowhere to go but sideways.  The bike ahead of me 50 feet had a pair of big, but empty baskets rigged across his bike (a normal arrangement).  He went for the shoulder and put on the brakes.  I had a longer stopping distance, heavily loaded, so I went wider, into the ditch (such a nice ditch in the event).  It was a wild ride but all of us stayed right way up and we continued down the road as though that were the normal course of events, which I suppose it is

The didn't miss was similar but different.  I was cruising at 50 kmh, about 30 mph, with a clear road and nothing out of the ordinary ahead.  There was an obvious party in progress on the left side of the road, and a gentleman left the party on his bike, while still continuing his conversation with the rest of the crowd,  not looking at the road at all.  If I'd continued as we were set up, I'd have hit him broadside on his right side and wrecked my front forks and injured him severely (broken leg, concussion?) and maybe me too.  H'mm.  I went for the ditch again but it was only hospitable a little ways, so I ended up laying the bike down on the shoulder.  I missed him entirely, but bent a foot peg on the bike and hit pretty hard on my left side (and helmet, I heard it whack nicely),  The whole party came across the road, picked the bike and me up and got us off the highway before anybody else came along to add to the problem.

They wiped me all off and the bike sort of (it was a muddy shoulder to lay a bike down on), straightened my bent foot peg and checked for other damage, all while asking if I hurt!  Really, a fine response, though to be expected here.  In ten minutes time we were under way again, but it sure hurt to breathe,

Thus, riding wounded, we carried on to Nghia Lo, another place I really like, flinching at every breath, or bump.  It was a hard evening, though, I found an old friend from Hanoi, a motorbike mechanic and tour guide, with a customer from Holland.  We visited through the evening, with me gasping and flinching now and then, but it was a good evening even so.  To meet an old friend like that on the road a long way from home. . .very fine, and his client was a dandy young man, full of good conversation.  It was a fine evening and in the morning I walked up to the local market for breakfast. . .and then coffee in the hotel.

Dec 10th: And that's almost the whole story, the ride into Hanoi from Nghia Lo, 197 km, is in lovely country for a long ways but shortly after lunch time it becomes increasingly an urban environment.  The last 70 km are all "in the city' and it was coming to the worst of rush hour on a Monday as we rode in,  Oh dear.  Highway 32 runs deep into Hanoi in a long straight line, but it becomes close to impassable in dense traffic and new construction (a massive overhead expressway which is close to finished now, it's been building for years, and will dwarf anything in Seattle or Portland).  "Hard riding" hardly covers it, it's a torrent of humanity, mostly on two wheels, but with a substantial percentage in cars, buses and trucks and others braving death or dismemberment on foot.  The weather held good the whole way, overcast and cool, but dry.  We somehow (credit Google Maps on the handlebars) came to the hotel at 1530, say 6.5 hours for a run of 197 km.

The view from the hotel balcony on the edge of Nghia Lo.  I've stayed here four times over the years.  It's an upper class sort of place, but they treat me well.  

Elsewhere on the balcony you look down into the parking area and across to the restaurant.  There's a meeting room below that can host 200 or more at a time if you want to get married with a few friends.

Just walking around looking for breakfast near the market in Nghia Lo.  Kids ride bikes here, from a very early age!

Very interesting. . .ready to wear kids clothes probably done by women of the ethnic minority group they're patterned for. . .plus volumes of rickrack and sewing notions for doing the work. I have some of the sewing work at home and puzzled over where the materials come from.  I'm getting closer!

And yarn in the necessary colors.  Migosh,

Two fabulous mechanics shops on the right and a parts and accessories shop on the left, from which you could rebuild my entire bike.  Probably something between 20 and 50 percent of the bikes in this region are identical to mine.  The mechanics are good!

Just any street corner near any market. . .this one in Nghia Lo

I think this lady is from the "Thai" ethnic group, I think the hair worn thus in a very tightly wound pile on top of the head is typical of the ladies of that group.  The long black skirt, plain cotton here, would be gleaming velvet on any sort of a special day, and the blouse would be brightly colored and well tailored. There would be a silver chain wrapped around the topknot and some sort of pendant hung from it. . .perhaps an ancient coin. It's very common now, people use the back camera on their smart phone for a mirror. . .in this case, maybe looking for a speck in her eye?

Their finished carvings are lovely and highly finished.  But a chain saw makes a quick start. 

The plant was getting a shower bath when I walked by. . .interrupted briefly for these photos.

Don't know what these are, but they're certainly lovely.  Anybody know?

Packed and leaving the hotel in Nghia Lo

The hills get tamer, then the lowlands spread out all around you and soon you're in the city.  No more photos!

As is often the case in the afternoon, the sidewalk in front of the hotel was packed almost solid with other bikes,  There was just room to stick m'Lady's nose in and gun it, then followed fifteen minutes of un-dressing and off-loading without tipping over anybody else's bike. We got it done and got me inside and I was home.  Honestly, I was staggering and really sore.  Perhaps I should have laid up in Nghia Lo for a day or two, but there is work to be done now, and we're here to do it.

Now to recuperate from the crash and do the review of the proofs of the book. . .I'll be in Hanoi most of the rest of the trip.