Heading to the Chinese border

It was a rather exciting morning. I had originally ordered breakfast from my lovely host for 07:45, but she overslept, and I ended up eating half an hour later.

I then raced my motorbike back to Sa Pa, in the hopes to still catch my 09:00 bus. Unfortunately I had run out of cash in Ta Van, meaning I had to stop at an ATM along the way in order to be able to pay for my bike rental. Even more unfortunate was that all five ATMs I passed on my way to the rental were out of order 😅

I just crossed my fingers that I'd be able to pay by card for the bike, after all, I ended up renting it from a hotel. Once at the hotel, I found out that nobody was there to process my return. I called the number, and was told to wait five minutes. Eventually the guy comes back, doesn't accept card payment, so I have to go to plan B. I always carry some US Dollars for emergencies, and this was only the second time ever that I had to use them. He gave me a really bad exchange rate, but at least I managed to convince him to drop me off at the bus stop, because otherwise there would've been no way for me to make the bus.

I paid the driver the generally agreed upon fare for this bit of journey that is not officially being sold, approximately 4 USD - one minute later we were on the way. And then relaxed a bit, horizontally, of course, as we headed toward Lao Cai along the scenic route I wasn't able to see during my previous nighttime arrival.Meer informatie