Digital Wanderer

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Vietnam — 9, the pass

2011-05-29

Vietnam 4 - Cycling Vietnam

The next day we finally started pedaling properly, namely — storming a brutal mountain pass. We rode

65 km, 1400 meters of which was uphill, and it took us 10 hours. I must say we were riding very, very leisurely, taking plenty of breaks and simply stopping for various reasons, like taking photos. As for the latter, I've decided to process the photos after all, but moderately, so as not to bore anyone.


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In the mountain landscape, large light-colored boulders and green hills are in the foreground. In the background, a forested mountain slope, a winding road with a truck, and distant blue mountains are visible. 

An interesting rock formation

An information board with a large bilingual title: "Prayer and Legends" and "Oraciones y Leyendas", accompanied by explanatory text in two languages.

 

A cyclist in a blue t-shirt riding into the distance along a paved road among karst mountains and agricultural fields. On the right, earthen mounds, a building under construction, and power lines are visible under a cloudy sky.

Reminds me of Arizona with the shape of the rock, picturesque

A high rocky mountain covered with green vegetation rises against a light sky. On the right in the foreground stands a power line pole. 

A rock

A panorama of terraced fields of brown earth and green grass stretching towards misty mountains on the horizon, with several rural buildings under a cloudy sky.

Dried up terrace, with an irrigation trench on the left

 A misty rural landscape with a simple house with a gray corrugated roof, located among green fields and distant mountains. Next to the house, a child and a motorcycle are visible, and in the foreground — a dirt road and power lines in the upper part of the frame.

We rode all the way around this beautiful rock, and so we got to admire it for a long time

An adult brown and black goat with horns standing against a background of lush green vegetation, and a small kid is visible behind it.

Goats

 Two people on a motorcycle riding along a winding mountain road, dragging long green bamboo stalks behind them. The road runs along a steep green slope, fenced with a metal guardrail.

Hauling stuff again

 Two women in green blouses and dark skirts working the land on a steep terraced slope dotted with young green shoots. On the left, the slope is covered with dense vegetation.

They can toil away like this for whole days on end

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Grass

 A mountain landscape with green slopes along which a narrow road winds. In the distance, a valley is visible through the haze under a cloudy sky.

We climbed up here

I don't have much to write, except that the road to the pass was at a steep angle, and pedaling was tough for me, even though I'm in pretty good shape. But since we took lots of breaks, it turned out tolerable; without them, it would've been close to the limit of my abilities. However, I practically pedaled the whole time, only walked on foot like once, I think.

A panoramic view of a green mountain valley with gentle hills and fields, shot from a height through tall grass in the foreground. Several thin cables cross the sky, and the mountains in the distance are submerged in a light haze.

The wires are ubiquitous, the hills too

 A group of young people in helmets and sportswear with mountain bikes standing on the side of a narrow mountain road next to a silver minibus.

Touristus vulgaris

Here we met some boring tourists (more than once, actually) who rode up the mountain in a minibus, and then just rolled down on their bikes. Sending them rays of contempt.

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Even higher, higher!

Against a background of forested mountains, along a rural road, a man in a hat sits on a scooter with a shovel, and next to him a fire of dry leaves is burning, near which another person is crouching.

Burning dry brush, only saw this once

A black-and-white shot of a vast mountain landscape covered with dense vegetation, with a winding road snaking between slopes, and misty peaks on the horizon under a cloudy sky.

Mountains, mountains

 A panoramic view of green mountains in foggy weather. On the slopes, winding dirt roads, a large pipeline running down, and power line supports are visible.

A power plant

The river is packed into a pipe, looks like it. We stopped nearby and had a snack, though we were already running a bit low on water, because there aren't any convenience stores up in these mountains after all. There are people, of course, but we didn't drink unbottled water.

 A vast mountain landscape with terraced fields and scattered village houses on green slopes under a cloudy sky. Below, lush vegetation and a dirt road with a red-and-white post are visible.

A village on the slope

 An asphalt road leads through green hills with terraced slopes towards distant bluish mountains under a cloudy sky.

The road

A close-up of a turbulent, muddy river of a yellow-brown color with partially submerged rocks and small patches of foam. 

The river

A winding muddy river with a rocky bed flows through a green mountain valley, where a house with a dark roof and a wattle fence stands on the left bank, and forest massifs and agricultural terraces are visible on the distant slopes. 

The river (panorama)

A rural landscape with bright green rice fields where people in conical hats are working, a muddy river on the right in the foreground, and gentle green hills in the background.

They were staring at us, and we were staring at them. Pretty fertile.

 

A cyclist with yellow panniers on the rear rack rides along a dirt road towards a white truck against a backdrop of a dense green forest in a mountainous area.

An unpaved road is +100 to picturesqueness

A winding river with muddy, greenish-brown water flows through a deep gorge framed by steep green slopes with rocky and sandy banks.

Although there's plenty of beauty all around anyway

A winding asphalt road passes along a rocky cliff on the left and is equipped with a metal guardrail on the right. In the distance, a green valley with hills is visible under a clear blue sky. 

The sign is encouraging, we're coasting downhill

A mountain valley with terraced rice fields and a muddy river. The mountain slopes are covered with dense greenery under a cloudy sky.

One of the incredible and stunning valleys

Of course, when you've been pedaling in hellish heat for half the day, it's hard to enjoy the scenery, but it still stuck in my memory.

 A close-up of the head of an Asian water buffalo with curved horns and a mud-stained forehead, looking straight into the camera against a backdrop of thick green grass.

A cow

A panorama of a mountainous area shrouded in haze, with several huts, a yellow excavator, and a Vietnamese flag. In the foreground, a white sign warns against entering a construction or mining area, next to a dirt road leading off into the distance.

Construction

A view of green rice terraces with boulders against the background of a hill with a wooden stilt house and a wooded slope. In the foreground is a bamboo fence, and power lines run through the landscape.

A cute fence, alternating black and white poles

 A meager barbershop under a corrugated metal and bamboo canopy, with a black barber chair, a wooden table with a mirror, and clipped hair on the floor. On the back wall hangs a yellow banner with text and images.

The barbers here don't sweat the small stuff, just like everyone else

 A dusty street in an Asian town with wooden stalls in the foreground and brightly colored multi-story buildings in the distance. Motorcycles are driving down the street, people are visible, and a red banner is stretched over the road.

A small town

We were looking for a hotel, and spent a long time explaining ourselves on our fingers to some lady, but she wasn't ready to take in three people. If we had been persistent, we probably would've found a place to crash, but we decided to pedal on to a bigger town, which was supposed to be not far away.

A wide dirt road going into the distance, on both sides of which there are village houses and lush greenery. In the background, forested mountains rise under a cloudy sky.

Pedaled on

 A hilly landscape with agricultural plots and a lone hut with a thatched roof on a slope, surrounded by forest, from which white smoke rises.

It's burning

A winding road in a mountainous area with terraced slopes covered with greenery, and a small house in the distance under a cloudy sky.

Hills and the road

 A warning road sign "Children" on a red and white pole is installed on the side of a dirt road in a rural area. In the background, a simple wooden house, a green lawn with trash, and a hilly landscape in the distance are visible.

Here is a sign about children, the figures have a rather weird shape

We arrived in the town when it was already starting to get dark, but we found a hotel without much trouble using shouts of "Hotel" and folded palms by our ears. At the hotel, I haggled a bit, dropping the price from 250 to 210 thousand for two rooms, meaning we paid about 10 dollars for 3 people. A nice surprise was that the rooms were relatively good, with air conditioning.

The interior of a small toilet with light ceramic tiles on the walls and a white toilet with a raised seat, seen through a slightly open wooden door with glazed panels.

The toilet is a bit cramped

In a room with pink walls and light patterned curtains on a cornice, a wall-mounted air conditioner, a fan, an old CRT TV on a bracket, and a lamp are visible.

A fan as a bonus to the AC. A TV, once again.

 A cozy bedroom with pink walls and a wooden bed, above which hangs a decorative white canopy with lace. Pillows with a floral pattern lie on the bed, and a light green translucent curtain hangs by the window.

A canopy, of course

A wooden wardrobe with a mirrored door and an adjacent chest of drawers stands against a pink wall in a room with a patterned tiled floor. A folded mattress lies on the wardrobe, and backpacks stand on the floor in front of it.

Several packages of Asian snacks lie on a wooden surface: a large bag with an image of fried poultry, a clear bag with round snacks, and a bag with orange sticks and anime characters. Among them are also a Canon charger with a battery, a green GP Recyko+ battery, and several cables.

Snacks

From top to bottom: spicy corn à la beer croutons, smoked chicken, and a mysterious snack that's everywhere in the south, but nowhere to be found in Hanoi. Generally, we were advised against buying this stuff: both by Thuy and the kind sellers (who suggested fruit instead, and gestured a stomach ache for the snacks), but I wanted to try some local  junk food too. Loved it all, especially the corn and the last thingy in the photo. I bought similar corn in Hanoi, but alas, it was way less spicy. The thing at the bottom of the photo is probably young bamboo, and despite all my efforts, I couldn't find it in Hanoi.

A glossy reddish-brown figurine of a laughing Buddha (Hotei) sitting in a relaxed pose. In his left hand he holds a traditional gold ingot, and around his neck he wears large beads with a decorative pendant.

Buddha

 In the room stands a tall white commercial refrigerator with a glass door, filled with carbonated drinks, water, and fruits. On top of the refrigerator is an advertising sign with an image of ripples on water and Chinese text; on the right, a wooden staircase and part of the interior are visible.

Water in the fridge is also 10k.

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And this is the water in the eatery

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This is what we ordered in the eatery, because we didn't know anything else

In the evening we went from the eatery to the main street to eat; only a couple of eateries were open. It was our first experience dining in such an establishment, but everyone was so hungry that no one minded. I'm not picky, and I've had no stomach issues, so I was ready to go to a place like this a long time ago.

A smiling man in a white t-shirt stands in a room next to a smiling woman in a blue plaid shirt sitting at a table.

This is Hien (Hien), the cook and owner of the eatery

Hien proudly brought out and showed me a notebook, where, as far as I could decipher, his grades for culinary school or something similar were recorded. The dishes there were quite serious: all sorts of French cuisine, tiramisu, and so on. Apparently, the guy wanted to show that he wasn't born yesterday and knew a thing or two himself, but in the middle of nowhere like this, it's unlikely anyone could appreciate his talents besides us white folks. This is part of the attitude I mentioned earlier: on the one hand, the Vietnamese definitely don't feel like suckers, but on the other hand, we are still a different class to them in a way — white urban Europeans.

A slightly crumpled red and yellow package with Vietnamese inscriptions, images of children and a car lies on a light tile with green geometric and floral patterns. 

Tobacco

As you may remember, I already mentioned how people in a Hanoi teahouse were smoking something out of huge pipes. What it was is hard to tell, but it's logically tobacco, since drugs carry the death penalty. (Though whether it's strictly enforced is another matter). Of course, with Vietnamese friendliness, offering a smoke is like pouring a cup of tea. But I didn't smoke in the eatery, just didn't feel like it somehow; I'm not really a fan of ruining my lungs. Instead, I went looking for an SD card for my camera. This wasn't easy: the Vietnamese don't use cameras, only phones, and no one knows what an SD card looks like. It took some mental effort to realize that I needed to ask for an SD adapter and a microSD card for mobile phones. A card was found quickly, a single 2 GB one and as many 1 GB ones as you want, but it didn't work in the camera through the adapter. Luckily, the seller had a PC and a card reader, so I simply transferred the old photos to the new cards, and popped the old one back into the camera. The 2 GB card cost, I think, 10 bucks, and the 1 GB was 7.5.

A smiling Asian man in a striped shirt holds a tall bamboo pipe in his hand. In the background — a light green wall with advertising posters and part of a table with drinks. 

Here it is, the coveted pipe

Two smiling Asian men posing in a store cluttered with goods. One is sitting on a stool in a white t-shirt, the other is standing behind the counter in a blue polo shirt against a background of shelves with boxes, bottles, and bird cages.

Here is the SD card seller named Cuong

A man in a white shirt smokes from a large wooden pipe, while in the foreground another hand holds a handful of shredded tobacco in a dimly lit room.

No sooner had I returned to the hotel than the fun was in full swing there

 An Asian man in a white shirt and jeans lights a large bamboo pipe with a match, holding it to his mouth. Nearby on the table are a can of drink and a dark decorative bowl.

Everyone wanted to take a drag so I would take a picture of them

A young Asian man exhales a large cloud of white smoke with a smile, sitting in a dark room with blurred wooden chairs in the background. 

I didn't need much convincing

A man with glasses and a bright green sports jacket holds a traditional Vietnamese bamboo pipe, sitting opposite a smiling Asian man in a striped t-shirt.

Eventually I also gave in to the hype. On the right is the hotel manager named Quyet, his wife was named Thanh

 A man in glasses and a bright light-green jacket with a surprised and joyful face exhales thick smoke, holding a bamboo smoking pipe in his hands. Next to him sits another man who is laughing cheerfully and raising his hand.

I still don't understand what I smoked

I am generally sure that it's tobacco after all, but it hits your head hard. Apparently, it's all about the massive quantity. It goes away very quickly though, in about 5-10 minutes. The smoking process, by the way, is quite entertaining: first you draw the smoke in, then you blow out a little bit so that the burning ash falls into the bucket of water, and only then can you inhale properly.

Two men are laughing happily indoors. A man in glasses and a bright green shirt holds a long dark pipe in his hand, and his companion in a striped shirt gestures with his hands.

Who's stoned? Am I stoned?

On a yellow table with an orange floral pattern stands a white tea set, nearby — an open red can of Sting drink, several cups, and a matchbox. At the table in muted light, wooden chairs and a wall are visible. 

Good thing there was tea, to wash it down

Interesting facts: even though the hotel is decent, there are crates of sodas sitting right in the lobby. But the booze is kept behind glass under lock and key. Mosquitoes, by the way, have appeared in this town too, and the girls at the hotel (the manager's kids) were killing them with an electric racket with special effects.

A close-up of a dark container filled almost to the brim with a pile of brown, finely shredded tobacco. It consists of dry, thin, intertwined fibers.

Tell me, experts, is this tobacco?

 A man in a dark suit sits on a plastic chair, leaning over a metal container with a bamboo smoking pipe in his hands. In the background sits another man in a striped t-shirt.

There's a dandy in a suit

A man in a yellow hard hat and white t-shirt brings a large Y-shaped bamboo or wooden smoking pipe to his lips, sitting at a table with a tea set and another person in the background.

And there's a dude in a hard hat too

A man in a yellow construction hard hat and white t-shirt exhales a thick cloud of smoke that partially hides his face. In the background, another man is sitting at a table with tea utensils.

He gets the people's choice award in advance. He's wearing a hard hat!

 In the foreground stands a dirty beige trash can with an open red lid, from which a large dark pipe, resembling a bamboo one, sticks out vertically. In the background are the legs of a person in dark pants, sitting at a table with a white teapot and cups.

The unsightly side of the tobacco drug industry - the bucket where they throw the ash

 A red and yellow package of Vietnamese coconut candies with cocoa and an image of a boy in a blue kimono lies on a wooden table. Nearby is a gray fabric bag, on top of which lies a transparent lighter.

Coconut toffees

Coconut toffees are addictive like nothing else. I brought some back for others to try, but devoured them myself, couldn't resist. I'm still sad about it. Interestingly, inside they are first wrapped in white paper, and then in the wrapper on top of that. The paper sticks to the toffee that's melted from the heat, and it's impossible to tear it off. So I just had to eat it with the paper, the temptation was just too great. Only upon arriving in Latvia did I read that this paper is rice paper, meaning it's just a thin layer of rice flour, and therefore perfectly edible.

P.S. If anyone goes to Vietnam, be a pal and bring me a couple of boxes. And bring the spiced bamboo too.

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