Lũng Cú

So today's was to drive from Yen Minh Minh to the northern most point in Vietnam in Lưng Cu, which borders China, and then drive to Dong Van approximately 95km.

We set off with more than enough time and once again had the most stunning scenery with lots of stops for photos. We stopped at a local Hmong village and the Kings Residence.

We were on the very final 30km stretch of road when all of a sudden we came to a huge traffic jam. On these roads there is normally 0 traffic, sometimes you don't meet another car of bike for miles! So we nipped past all the standstill cars and eventually got to the front to find what we thought was a huge landslide blocking the road. In the end we found out that actually they are widening the road so they cause the landslides to happen so that they can crush the rocks and make the road wider. At first we waited for a while thinking it was being removed but soon realised we would be waiting hours. So we took the decision to take an hour an half detour round. It was super tough going but we finally made it round and we saw that the blockage had only just been elevated when we got there, phew, it was just about worth it. We were on the home stretch, but it was getting very very late now and they were doing this same type of road work the whole way. The roads were terrible and slightly dangerous in parts but we eventually arrived in Lung Cu and decided to stay the night.

We stayed in a homestay in a local lo lo village and it was really cute and lovely! We had dinner with the family and tried home brewed corn wine. Gosh it was strong!

So we didn't quite make our destination but we had a great drive, the weather was fantastic and we were safe so I can't complain!Read more