Digital Wanderer

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Vietnam — 6, a motorbike outing

2011-05-23

The next day we were planning to go to Mount Fansipan (Phan Xi Păng), but it poured rain all night, and having gotten up at 4 in the morning, we changed our minds, deciding that everything there was soaked, and we wouldn't be able to climb it in a day as planned. So we crashed back into our beds to come up with something interesting in the morning.

Renting motorbikes and riding around the neighborhood seemed like just the thing, especially since rumor had it there was a waterfall and caves nearby. Motorbike rental cost 5 bucks apiece for the day, gas was a little over a dollar a liter, and a full tank was 4 liters. When I asked by what time we had to return the motorbike, I was told by 18:00. I didn't ask why, and this fact caused some anxiety.

A logical question from readers - why didn't we go on bicycles? I don't know. Personally, I find it interesting to try different things, and since we got up rather late, and wouldn't have made it very far on bikes before dark, I wasn't against motorbikes, but rather even for them.

By the way, I won't subject the photos in this post to any effects, but I'm curious to hear feedback about the previous one - is it worth continuing, or is it better to post them as is.

Several people, some wearing helmets, are standing among four motorcycles and scooters parked on a concrete pad. The scene takes place in front of a light-colored building with an open door, against a backdrop of other houses and lush vegetation.

Motorbikes

The motorbikes were kept on a small terrace of the hotel. When we were checking in, we asked about the bikes, if we could drag them into the room. You can, they told us, but there's no need - because the motorbikes stand outside the room, and nothing happens to them. "How much does a bike cost," asked Nha, "my motorbike costs $1200 and it stands on the terrace". She was left almost without an answer, because Intar was against such conversations, and my bike still costs less than $1200. Ultimately we just chained the bikes together with a lock, and left them like that. I have a bike alarm from dealextreme, but in Latvia I didn't have time to buy a battery, and in Sapa 9-volt "Krona" style batteries are a hassle to find - there are only zinc ones, not alkaline, and even those are expired.

A man in a gray protective helmet is sitting at the wheel of a scooter with a black bag on his chest, and behind him stands a woman in a red helmet and windbreaker. In the background, residential buildings and decorative green plants in pots are visible. 

Helmets were issued as part of the motorbike package

 

A young Asian woman in a black jacket and pants is standing on a busy street next to her scooter, gesturing with her hand with her mouth open. In the background, a white truck, cars, and pedestrians are visible, one of whom is carrying a large woven basket on their back. 

Nha is explaining to me how to use the scooter

I must say that I had only gotten on a moped twice in my life before then, and that was 10 or more years ago. So I demanded an automatic for myself. Anna didn't want to drive at all, so she and Intar took one for the two of them. They got a semi-automatic, where there is no clutch, you just have to shift gears with your foot. For me, it was a total breeze - just twist the throttle and enjoy.

I must say that nobody asked to see any driver's license. Nha clearly understood that I was getting on this self-propelled stool for the first time in my life, but didn't worry about it, except that she walked the motorbike out to the road so I wouldn't scratch the neighboring ones when pulling out. The particularly meticulous might ask about a deposit. There wasn't one, but probably because we rented the motorbikes at the hotel, and when checking into a hotel in Vietnam you absolutely have to leave your passport, there are no exceptions (unless you pay a bribe, but we didn't need to, we didn't try).

 

Mountain landscape with dense forests under a cloudy sky. In the foreground is dug-up earth with trash and a few young saplings, and in the midground a horizontal wire stretches across the hills and a house with a red roof can be seen.

Landscapes again

 IMG_4864

This is us pulling over to watch a guy crush stone into gravel using a crusher

 IMG_4866

Motorbikes and gravel

The locals came over, stared until we left. Showed something with gestures, but not much of a conversation happened. In Sapa itself many people know English more or less, but the peasants around it, of course, not so much.

 

General view of a mountainous rural area with lush greenery. In the center are a few simple buildings along a winding road, and in the background, terraced hills are visible under a cloudy sky.

It really is beautiful there though

Mountain landscape in a foggy haze with agricultural terraces on the hillsides. In the background rise the silhouettes of large mountains, partially hidden by clouds.

Only the fog gets in the way

 

Two people on a motorcycle are riding on a paved mountain road against the background of a green forested slope with a high waterfall. 

"Silver" Waterfall

IMG_4876

Don't know what this is

 A large information board with a green jagged roof and a map of the Silver Waterfall (Thác Bạc) stands by the road against the backdrop of forested mountains, with a motorcycle passing by.

Waterfall description

The information signs have surprisingly good English and an uncharacteristic for Vietnam neatness, probably because the sponsor is an airline.

 

 Panorama of a mountain quarry with large piles of gravel, several excavators, and a blue information sign by a winding unpaved road.

Extracting stones here too, apparently

The next day we were planning to go to Mount Fansipan (Phan Xi Păng), but it poured rain all night, and having gotten up at 4 in the morning, we changed our minds, deciding that everything there was soaked, and we wouldn't be able to climb it in a day as planned. So we crashed back into our beds to come up with something interesting in the morning.

Renting motorbikes and riding around the neighborhood seemed like just the thing, especially since rumor had it there was a waterfall and caves nearby. Motorbike rental cost 5 bucks apiece for the day, gas was a little over a dollar a liter, and a full tank was 4 liters. When I asked by what time we had to return the motorbike, I was told by 18:00. I didn't ask why, and this fact caused some anxiety.

A logical question from readers - why didn't we go on bicycles? I don't know. Personally, I find it interesting to try different things, and since we got up rather late, and wouldn't have made it very far on bikes before dark, I wasn't against motorbikes, but rather even for them.

By the way, I won't subject the photos in this post to any effects, but I'm curious to hear feedback about the previous one - is it worth continuing, or is it better to post them as is.

Several people, some wearing helmets, are standing among four motorcycles and scooters parked on a concrete pad. The scene takes place in front of a light-colored building with an open door, against a backdrop of other houses and lush vegetation.

Motorbikes

The motorbikes were kept on a small terrace of the hotel. When we were checking in, we asked about the bikes, if we could drag them into the room. You can, they told us, but there's no need - because the motorbikes stand outside the room, and nothing happens to them. "How much does a bike cost," asked Nha, "my motorbike costs $1200 and it stands on the terrace". She was left almost without an answer, because Intar was against such conversations, and my bike still costs less than $1200. Ultimately we just chained the bikes together with a lock, and left them like that. I have a bike alarm from dealextreme, but in Latvia I didn't have time to buy a battery, and in Sapa 9-volt "Krona" style batteries are a hassle to find - there are only zinc ones, not alkaline, and even those are expired.

A man in a gray protective helmet is sitting at the wheel of a scooter with a black bag on his chest, and behind him stands a woman in a red helmet and windbreaker. In the background, residential buildings and decorative green plants in pots are visible. 

Helmets were issued as part of the motorbike package

 

A young Asian woman in a black jacket and pants is standing on a busy street next to her scooter, gesturing with her hand with her mouth open. In the background, a white truck, cars, and pedestrians are visible, one of whom is carrying a large woven basket on their back. 

Nha is explaining to me how to use the scooter

I must say that I had only gotten on a moped twice in my life before then, and that was 10 or more years ago. So I demanded an automatic for myself. Anna didn't want to drive at all, so she and Intar took one for the two of them. They got a semi-automatic, where there is no clutch, you just have to shift gears with your foot. For me, it was a total breeze - just twist the throttle and enjoy.

I must say that nobody asked to see any driver's license. Nha clearly understood that I was getting on this self-propelled stool for the first time in my life, but didn't worry about it, except that she walked the motorbike out to the road so I wouldn't scratch the neighboring ones when pulling out. The particularly meticulous might ask about a deposit. There wasn't one, but probably because we rented the motorbikes at the hotel, and when checking into a hotel in Vietnam you absolutely have to leave your passport, there are no exceptions (unless you pay a bribe, but we didn't need to, we didn't try).

 

Mountain landscape with dense forests under a cloudy sky. In the foreground is dug-up earth with trash and a few young saplings, and in the midground a horizontal wire stretches across the hills and a house with a red roof can be seen.

Landscapes again

 IMG_4864

This is us pulling over to watch a guy crush stone into gravel using a crusher

 IMG_4866

Motorbikes and gravel

The locals came over, stared until we left. Showed something with gestures, but not much of a conversation happened. In Sapa itself many people know English more or less, but the peasants around it, of course, not so much.

 

General view of a mountainous rural area with lush greenery. In the center are a few simple buildings along a winding road, and in the background, terraced hills are visible under a cloudy sky.

It really is beautiful there though

Mountain landscape in a foggy haze with agricultural terraces on the hillsides. In the background rise the silhouettes of large mountains, partially hidden by clouds.

Only the fog gets in the way

 

Two people on a motorcycle are riding on a paved mountain road against the background of a green forested slope with a high waterfall. 

"Silver" Waterfall

IMG_4876

Don't know what this is

 A large information board with a green jagged roof and a map of the Silver Waterfall (Thác Bạc) stands by the road against the backdrop of forested mountains, with a motorcycle passing by.

Waterfall description

The information signs have surprisingly good English and an uncharacteristic for Vietnam neatness, probably because the sponsor is an airline.

 

 Panorama of a mountain quarry with large piles of gravel, several excavators, and a blue information sign by a winding unpaved road.

Extracting stones here too, apparently

Tall bamboo thickets and green hills under a cloudy sky. In the foreground is rocky ground with a pile of building blocks, and on the right – utility poles and power lines.

 

 A wooden framework of posts and crossbeams, resembling a pergola, rises above a winding dirt path surrounded by thick greenery. In the background, a wooded hillside is visible under a cloudy sky.

Wandered onto a farm

A large buffalo with curved horns looks straight ahead from a grass-covered slope. In the background are green forested hills with terraced fields.

Here is a cow in close-up for you

 A green mountain slope, partially covered by terraced fields with rows of crops (likely cabbage) and wild vegetation, stretches under a bright sky.

Cabbage is growing

 A brown dog is rummaging through trash on littered ground, looking for food from an open white bag. Two dirty white containers with other bags stand nearby.

A dog eating trash

When I took a look at the waterfall, I accidentally lost my travel companions and returned to the city. But I got to ride around, saw what the city lives and breathes. If you drive away from the center, there are many canteens and shops, I think meant for locals, and therefore cheaper than in the center. In general, not only in Sapa, but everywhere in Vietnam along the roads everyone trades in everything, doing it quite informally.

 A pedestrian walkway along a lake surrounded by low-rise buildings and forested mountains under a cloudy sky. In the foreground on the right, two people are walking under a checkered umbrella.

Not far from the center of Sapa

 IMG_4892

A good example of a chic Vietnamese house (or rather, hotel)

 Four men are playing a board game similar to Chinese chess, sitting on the wet sidewalk in front of a store entrance. On the left, a shoe shelf is visible, and two of them are smoking.

Playing something with characters, and selling shoes

 Two women and a German Shepherd at the entrance to a small Vietnamese shop with a glass counter. One woman in a dark suit is sitting on a stool, and another in a beige sweater and lilac pants is standing next to the dog.

Selling cell phones, the dog nearby doesn't bother anyone

 IMG_4901

Washing ginseng?

 Several men at a construction site against a backdrop of rustic concrete houses are working next to a pile of stones, an orange air compressor, and a blue tarp.

Building something

Two men and a small child in a yellow jacket are sitting in front of the entrance to a small village grocery store. Scooters are parked on both sides of the entrance.

A typical shack shop, shampoo and soap hang on strings, sodas and snacks stand nearby

Live chickens in metal cages at a street market under a canopy, located next to a concrete support pillar and plastic buckets. 

Selling chickens, as usual

A red hatchback, covered with raindrops, is parked on a concrete pad in front of a house. The left side of the house is finished with white tiles and has a window with a metal grate, and the right side has multicolored brickwork and a wooden double door with the number 402.

A car

As I already mentioned, import duties on cars are 50-150%, and higher for old ones, while the standard of living is low, so there are still few cars. But most of them are quite new, since Vietnam has been developing very rapidly since the liberalization of its economy in 1986, and this has become very apparent in recent years. At the same time, the economy is socially oriented, and poverty has greatly decreased (the number of people living on less than a dollar a day). An egalitarian policy, that is, leveling, is used when distributing land and investments. It's interesting to draw a parallel with Norway and Sweden, because Vietnam is also a fairly large oil exporter, but came to egalitarianism from socialism, whereas the Scandinavians — from capitalism.

 A man in a blue shirt and helmet is shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow on muddy ground. On the right, the leg of another person in a blue boot is visible on a wooden walkway, and in the background, an old building and lush greenery.

Cleaning a ditch

Four young girls in blue and white jackets and jeans stand under a blue checkered umbrella on a rural road, chatting. In the background, village houses and green-covered hills are visible.

Schoolgirls

 A light gray multi-story building with balconies stands atop a steep, rocky slope covered with vegetation, with a high concrete wall running along its right side.

Even in the city center, the terrain is inspiring

Bright multi-story buildings with balconies and arched windows, one peach-colored with blue elements, another — light blue with yellow trim, shot from below against a bright sky.

A chic hotel

 An assortment of seafood on a counter, including a mountain of boiled orange shrimp in a wicker basket, two pieces of cooked fish on a tray, small raw fish in a plastic basin, and large raw shrimp arranged in rows in a Styrofoam box.

Things are good at the seafood market

Traditionally, seafood is very widely used in Vietnam - the country stretches along the sea, and the terrain is mountainous, meaning it's hard to raise meat, but it's possible to catch marine life.

 The counter of a covered Asian market, filled with a variety of fresh greens, vegetables, sauce bottles, and other products. In the background in the semi-darkness, the figures of sellers and buyers are visible.

And with vegetables it's even better

Vietnamese cuisine widely uses vegetables; usually, they aren't even boiled or fried much, just blanched in boiling water. There's no need to use dry spices since there are fresh ones.

 A multi-story building of the "CAT CAT HOTEL" in a warm orange-yellow color with balconies abundantly decorated with green plants and red flowers. In the foreground hangs an oval wooden sign "CAT CAT Hotel & garden terrace cafe", and numerous electrical wires are visible above the roof.

We looked for this hotel at first because of the good reviews; it has two buildings - a new and trendy one and an older, simpler one

 

 Tall bamboo stalks frame a view of foggy green mountains fading into the haze under a cloudy sky.

View from the city

 A boy in a gray hoodie and jeans is playing with a shuttlecock, kicking it up with his foot, standing on a concrete pad. In the background, a dense bamboo forest and foggy mountains.

On the edge of the abyss, a boy is playing with a shuttlecock

Foggy mountain landscape with lush greenery in the foreground. Houses are visible on two different hills: a light-colored house with an orange roof on a terraced slope on the left and a yellow building with a red tower-roof on the right, partially hidden by trees.

I'd live there! (c) my punk friend

A bustling seafood market where a woman leans over a basin, sorting the catch. On the wet floor and counter are numerous containers with live fish, shellfish, and crabs, as well as a scale and a cutting board. 

Seafood again

IMG_4926

An advertising stencil

If you look at the ad, something about the Vietnamese language becomes clear. The alphabet is Latin, but modified, with diacritical marks, you might have seen them in the city names I cited -  Hà Nội, Lào Cai, Việt Nam. The symbols are needed because the Vietnamese language is tonal, which for a European means agony in mastering it. Therefore, and because there's no time, I didn't even try.

Tone in linguistics — is the use of pitch to distinguish meaning within words/morphemes. Tone should be distinguished from intonation, that is, the change in pitch over a relatively large segment of speech (an utterance or a sentence). Different tonal units having a meaning-distinguishing function can be called tonemes (by analogy with a phoneme).

Three golden fried spring rolls are laid out on a white plate around a bowl of clear sauce garnished with chili peppers and sesame seeds. The dish is decorated with fresh herbs, and bamboo chopsticks lie nearby.

I bought a set meal for $5, the first course - spring rolls

The rolls, which are a meat and vegetable filling wrapped in rice paper or cabbage, were good and crispy. The sauce in the middle was spicy and tasty. Then there was also meat on a hotplate, soup, and a pancake, which turned out to be an ordinary thin Russian blin in a single copy.

 A tropical yellow-orange cocktail in a hurricane-style glass, decorated with a green paper umbrella, a lime wedge, a cherry, and two straws. The glass stands on a table in the dim light of a bar.

Freshly squeezed juice is intricately decorated, but expensive, and is not included in the set menu

A wooden chair with a red cushion tied with ribbons stands with its back to the viewer in front of a table with a red tablecloth. On the floor are brown tiles, and other chairs and furnishings are visible on the sides.

There are cushions on the chairs, and tied ones at that

The food in this restaurant didn't cause any particular delight, but the service was top-notch (usually it's rather relaxed, like everything else here).

Inside a busy room with pink walls and red wooden chairs, a child in a yellow jacket stands in the doorway, looking outside. On the right is a large refrigerator with drinks, and an adult is sitting at a table.

The girl was praying to an altar to the left of the fridge

Things are a bit confusing with religion in Vietnam. The state permits religious freedom, but only for a few major religions, which include, for example, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism. But according to the census, 80% of people are non-religious. This figure is most likely pulled out of thin air. That is, I concede that many are not organized followers of this or that religion, but at the same time, some hybrid of Buddhism and worship of ancestors/mother goddess/spirits, etc., is very common. This cult has no clear expression or structure, everyone practices to the best of their desires, but an altar where offerings are placed is mandatory. I'll show more photos of such altars later, otherwise it's hard to see here.

 Several dirty mountain bikes with luggage racks are parked against a building wall. On the left a glass door is visible, and on the right — a tiled wall with a brown window.

This is how our bikes were stored

After lunch I reunited with my comrades, and we rolled out to the cave. It was already a bit on the late side, which stressed me out a little, because I finally found out why the motorbike had to be returned by 18:00. Because it gets dark at that time, and the headlights, just like the speedometer, didn't work on my motorbike. At all.

A group of women and children sitting on the side of a rural road, with woven baskets next to them. In the background a motorcycle drives by, village houses, mountains, and a woman walking in a conical hat are visible.

Hmong people, I think

A rural landscape: on the right is a house with a gray slate roof, on the left — a steep, green-covered earthen slope. On a muddy path between the house and the slope, a flock of white ducks has gathered, in the background wooded hills are visible.

A farmstead with geese

In a simple room with concrete walls stands an old black sewing machine with patterned fabric on a wooden table. Through an open wooden door in the background, a dimly lit room where two people are sitting at a table is visible. 

The fact that we were walking around the farmstead and examining everything didn't particularly bother anyone

Here I need to say a few words about the relaxedness and friendliness of the Vietnamese. It'll be a bit hard to explain, but I'll try. On the one hand, a European is simply physically a head taller than a Vietnamese person, which automatically gives you weight. In addition, the Vietnamese are slight and puny (well, the village ones of course not entirely, but nevertheless), and we are fat and muscular. Naturally, we are dressed exotically, riding trendy bicycles with trendy panniers, our hair color is not strictly black, and of course a very important point - we have dough. All this elicits a certain respect and interest from the Vietnamese by default. On the other hand, the Vietnamese are a proud nation, they fought non-stop for half a century, and won three wars against the strongest nations on the planet - the French, the Americans, and the Chinese. All this transforms into a fusion of a certain reverence and interest, a desire to chat and take pictures with you, but at the same time without any particular awe or subservience. As I already wrote, nobody in Vietnam really stresses over anything, so walking into a hut somewhere, taking photos of people, or asking for something is no problem. The main thing is to smile and maintain contact.

The dirty sole of a shoe lies in a small puddle on muddy clay ground among footprints and dry branches.

This mud is not mud at all yet, compared to the real mud on Fansipan

A metal chain and a wide tin ring hang on a wooden beam against a background of a wall made of old boards.

A motorcycle chain is hanging

A woman in traditional clothing and purple rubber boots is holding a baby in her arms, standing by a parked motorcycle on the side of the road. Next to her another person in a dark jacket is leaning over, and in the background wooded hills and other scooters are visible.

Near the farmstead

Terraced rice fields with water and greenery at the foot of forest-covered mountains, on the slopes of which small houses are visible, under a cloudy sky.

Terraces on the way to the cave

In general, the views on the way to the cave, and I think just all around Sapa, really take your breath away. You get used to them, of course, but they are still very impressive. It's wildly exotic, after a rather dull Turkey. But it's good that I was in Turkey first, otherwise it would have been completely uninteresting there. This way it was not bad there, and here too. In general, if I'm riding a bike, that is, working hard, I find it interesting everywhere. It seems my brain is wired in such a way that physical exertion makes my dopamine and serotonin receptors rejoice to the max. Which is pleasing if exertion is possible, and a bummer if it's not.

 IMG_4963

And here is the promised girl riding a cow

A couple of minutes later the cow walked up the terrace and started trampling the crops. The adults immediately started bustling about and ran to the animal, which the girl was trying in vain to pacify.

Terraced fields with green cabbage and a simple outbuilding on the left. A dirt road, power lines, and fog-shrouded mountains are visible in the background under a cloudy sky. 

Cabbage is growing again

The dashboard of a Yamaha scooter, showing 0 km/h on the speedometer, an odometer with a mileage of 2403 km, and an almost full tank of fuel. 

A brand-name motorbike, a Yamaha

We rode up to 60 km/h (although my speedometer didn't work, that's according to Intar). Nha said she usually rides 40-45, doesn't risk going faster on the broken mountain roads. The central roads, by the way, are good or tolerable, but the trail to the caves was worse even than what we have in Latgale.

Close-up of a gray plastic scooter panel with a key in the ignition switch on the right. A frayed red fabric strip is tied to the key, passing under a small gray hook. 

The key is tied a bit so it doesn't fly away if you take it out of the ignition

Rural landscape of a mountainous area with a winding dirt road leading past a small concrete bridge and a cluster of wooden houses. The hillsides are covered with green terraced fields under a cloudy sky.

Semi-dirt road and bridge to the caves

 

A dirt road, on which two motorcyclists are riding into the distance, winds upward between greenery-covered hills with power lines. On the horizon under a cloudy sky, foggy mountain ridges are visible.

Another bridge, even with a sign

There are many bridges in Vietnam; the bigger ones always have an info sign with details: height, length, etc. These village ones don't have a sign.

 A person is working on a flooded terraced rice field using a small cultivator. Around, other fields with young greenery are visible, and in the background, green mountains rise under a cloudy sky.

First time I've seen a mechanized device for a rice terrace

Rice requires a lot of work, and the residents of the mountain regions often harvest only one crop a year, which leads to food shortages. The industriousness of the Vietnamese is immense - they usually cultivate rice by hand with a hoe from morning till night; here, though, is a rare case of mechanization.

A wide mountain landscape with terraced rice fields, a winding dirt road and scattered villages, against a backdrop of foggy mountains under a cloudy sky.

Views again

 A muddy puddle in the foreground of a rural landscape with green fields, village houses, and a person leading an animal along a path in the background.

An excellent puddle

A dilapidated wooden bridge with uneven boards and gaps through it, stretching into the distance over a stream. On the sides are rusty metal railings.

The bridge crackled and fell apart under the wheels of the motorbike, but I was rolling briskly, like a madman

A deep entrance to a cave, illuminated only by dim light, with rough stone walls and a dark, uneven floor. 

Made it to the cave

Guided tours are run inside for money, but we didn't have time, and my comrades didn't show any enthusiasm. For money they turn on the lights, but I had my mega-flashlight, so we managed without.

A stone altar with characters, located inside a dark cave. On the flat surface of the altar stand an incense burner, a red vase, and two small bowls. 

Even inside the cave there's an altar

A white squat toilet (Genoa bowl) in a dirty toilet stall with dark concrete walls. On the wet floor next to it lies a homemade toilet brush with a green head.

An Asian crapper near the cave

Moist, bumpy cave walls with numerous formations and white crystalline deposits surround a small pool of water with rocks and a piece of wood lying on the bottom.

Inside

 The dark interior of a karst cave with rough stone walls, in the upper part of which a horizontal crossbar with a dangling wire is fixed.

 A cyclist with red panniers is riding along a winding paved road. All around stretch green hills with bright yellow fields, trees, and power line poles under a pale sky.

Part of the road is made of natural formations, wildly bumpy

 A ruined two-story stone building with arched windows, partially hidden by thick greenery and bushes, stands on reddish earth. In the background, the outlines of mountains are visible under a bright sky.

Monastery

Riding around Sapa on motorbikes is a good idea, and is highly recommended to everyone, only you should start earlier. They say that besides the waterfall and caves there is also an "authentic" village of some minority, only you have to be ready for the onslaught of drug dealers street dealers in the form of women in traditional costumes.

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