Cốc Lếu

Woke up to the omnipresent dense fog that refuses to lift. Only briefly did it disperse enough to see down the valley a bit at this cliff-perched city of Sa Pa.

Our breakfast option was very Western with J enjoying the local's take on an omelet, and A a banana crepe-like pancake, along with freshly blended passion fruit juice and a fruit platter. The baguette was warm and very crusty with a spread similar to pureed marmalade.

S suggested a later start of 10am as we only had about 180km on the next stretch of the route.

We descended 1000m to the valley below were we finally got to see patches of blue sky and sun for the first time in eight days! S decided to stop for a coffee break at a cafe near the river. We were humoured with the school teacher trying to direct the kids to unload a truck and carry big 75" TVs across the narrow suspension bridge because the delivery truck was too wide.

A was courteously approached by an older local woman to have a look and buy some of her wares. Her English was incredibly good too, and enquired what country we were were from. We purchased a couple souvenir items from her, not bothering to barter as it supports local. 😊

We continued on, crossings another couple narrow suspension bridges before heading north through a very narrow and rugged valley with a series of tall dams.

After about 74km, found our way in to the city of Lào Cai for lunch. Not too far down the road we pulled in to a lookout spot, and could see the Chinese village of Chengqu cross the Nam Thi River that delineates the Vietnam-China boarder.

Onwards we road, following the main highway for a bit, then onto the smaller country roads with intermittent concrete and lots of dirt/mud sections. It had just stopped raining. Eventually we headed more north and along sums very rough and muddy track that took us back in to the dense fog. Thankfully it was alot warmer than the previous day, and we worked up a sweat as we literally bounced and splashed asking the route with our derrieres taking a bit of a beating 🫨

Finally just after 5pm we found our way in to our evening accommodation, and enjoyed a good shower once the mud was sprayed off with a pressure washer. For the first time we enjoyed a room which was preheated for us! ☺️

Dinner was at the hotel too. The hot pot spread was more suited for 6 people, not only us three, but we did our best! Their rice wine was the best tasting so we savoured half the bottle 😋

Ride info
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