Day 45! It’s time to leave the city and head further into the mountains as I make my way towards the crazy loop of Ha Giang!

I unfortunately didn’t get to say “see you later” to my friends in person. But I’m sure I’ll be seeing them all again soon enough. I’ll say it in this post, but I had a blast getting to spend time with them and to know them over this past week or so! But enough sappiness, time for the day’s adventure!

I went to bed way later than I expected the night before so when I woke up at 8am I was pretty tired.

I contemplated staying one more night in Hanoi to rest up, but after having breakfast I decided to still head out!

At breakfast I met two very nice people from Denmark and we chatted for a while, causing me to leave later than I had anticipated but it was worth it for the nice conversation! Maybe I’ll see them further down the road!

I checked out of my hostel and set my Google maps for Ba Be where I’m spending the next two nights!

With everyone coming back to the city after Tet, the air quality went down severely. I wasn’t sure if it was just fog/clouds… but I have a feeling there’s some smog in there too.

This made for an eerie start to my ride as I left the city.

It was nice to get back on the road after settling down for a few days. But I’m really going to miss Valentin, Harry, Grace, and Lea! They were a stellar squad to hang out with. I know I’ll meet more amazing people as I go, but I doubt saying see you later will get any easier.

After around 20 kilometers into my drive, I decided to pull over for gas.

The drive started out as wide open, practically empty, roads which didn’t have the best scenery but were a blast to drive down!

I was winding through small suburbs but this quickly changed as I got further from the city and moved into the mountains!

But before that happened… I had a moment of panic when nothing was showing on my Google maps (outside of my route) and I realized my SIM card had run out for the month.

Somehow, with a stroke of luck, a Viettel storefront (one of the better cellular providers in Vietnam) appeared and I quickly pulled over to get a new SIM.

The whole process took a lot longer than I had hoped. They needed to see my passport, take pictures of me, and have me FaceTime a representative of the company… it was all quite strange but 25 minutes later I had a working SIM that even worked in the mountains!

A little after 1pm, I was at the halfway point of my ride and found a Com restaurant on the side of the road.

I was the only one in it and they gave me an absolute FEAST for only 50,000 Dong! I swear, the restaurants in the middle of nowhere have the best food and the best prices!

While I was eating, the owners kids were running around and being goofy. It was fun to watch as I ate this amazing meal.

After I left the restaurant, the drive became very fun!

The towns turned into beautiful rice fields surrounded by mountains!

These roads then turned into wide open roads winding through the mountains. After driving on multiple high ways as I made my way to Hanoi, I was very excited to be back in the mountains and surrounded by natures beauty!

These wide open roads turned into a much different experience as they transformed into a very small poorly paved dirt road that wound its way through the mountains as well.

Thankfully, there weren’t many people out riding this road otherwise it would’ve been not as fun. But since it was mainly just me for a few hours, it was a blast to ride down and see the views!

These roads eventually turned back into the wide open, winding roads and led to even more spectacular sites!

After a long morning and early afternoon of driving, stopping, and site seeing, I finally arrived at my destination! The beautiful town of Ba Be!

It took another 3 kilometers to get to my homestay. I hadn’t actually booked a bed yet because I wanted to see it in person. But the owner was super friendly and the bed, in a private room (shared bathroom) was only 60,000 Dong per night (under $3)! So I said heck yes!

Outside my window there was a big group of people playing volleyball! So maybe tomorrow, if they’re playing again, I’ll try and join them because I LOVE volleyball!

I took a nice hour long nap, I was super tired and exhausted from the day.

I woke up and got my new book and was going to go read, but ended up chatting to the one other person staying at the homestay!

I asked for her name multiple times and even for her to spell it… but if I remember correctly it was Famke. But I could be wrong unfortunately.

She’s from the Netherlands and is a more seasoned traveler! Apparently Vietnam is her last destination in SE Asia and then she’s seen it all!

We chatted nonstop for the next few hours and had dinner together at the hostel too. For dinner we had eggs, delicious bok choy, rice and French fries (which I haven’t had in forever).

After a very nice time chatting with my new friend, we parted ways for the night.

I spent my time diving into my new book which I’m really enjoying and writing this blog post!

I also was given a nice little snack by one of the daughters of the homestay family!

Tomorrow I’m going to explore! I did some digging on things to do here… but honestly I might just go ride around and see what I stumble into!

This town is gorgeous so I’m sure it’ll be something fun!

But tonight, I’m not setting an alarm and I’m hopefully going to get some well needed (and deserved) sleep!

– Elie