Day 48! So in my last post, I said the fields were probably cabbage. I found out today they were tobacco fields!

Also, after an unfortunate fall yesterday, I got great news today that two of my cousins just got their flights to Thailand and will be visiting me while I’m there! I’m so stoked to see them and can’t wait to show off a country I love to them!

Daniel, Chris (the two guys from Australia), and I woke up at 8am and after getting ready for the day set off to breakfast at the cafe owned by the hostel.

After we all chowed down on our dried beef and egg sandwiches we hopped over to a gas station to fill up for our journey!

Today’s adventure was riding the Cao Bang Loop! This loop is a lesser known one in Vietnam and some solo travelers prefer it to the Ha Giang loop due to its quieter, less touristy nature.

The Cao Bang loop takes you through many quiet villages, expansive fields full of crops, and an array of rolling hills and mountains!

Since we left around 9/10am, the sun was illuminating the fields and mountains setting up some beautiful picturesque views!

We didn’t stop too many times to take pictures due to timing, but the ones I took are some of my favorites so far!

After my fall yesterday, I was a bit apprehensive in the morning while winding through the mountains. However, as we kept progressing, my confidence slowly started coming back but with a major air of caution as we rode!

The roads were riddled with stray dogs basking in the sun, herds of cattle wandering in the streets, and plenty of chickens running a muck.

After about an hour to an hour and a half of driving we made it to our first stop, Đồi cỏ Cháy Vinh Quý (a very beautiful area with massive hills you can hike up).

At the top of the hills, we were met with an amazing view of the valley below, along with many other hills surrounding the valley.

There was also a coffee shop where we relaxed and Chris and Daniel both enjoyed a cup of Joe.

After a sweaty hike up, around, and down the hills, we made our way back to our bikes to keep riding on to the Ban Gioc Waterfall!

This ride wound us in and out and up and down of mountains which made a “short” ride take much longer. Since I had to go there and back before the sun set, there wasn’t much time for stopping for pictures. But the ride was insanely worth it!

The scenery the entire way was jaw dropping and we had perfect sunny weather to admire it!

We made it to the falls, where we were not disappointed!

But before we entered, I got hungry and stopped for a cheap bowl of pho!

Okay, now it’s time to enter the falls!

The Ban Gioc waterfall is the 4th largest waterfall along a national border in the world! It’s multiple tiers makes it very impressive and the greenery around it makes it feel very magical!

But the fun didn’t stop there as we saw some random staircases in the hill side which led us up to a better view of part of the falls and a small cave which I crawled around in for a little bit!

But the secret stairs didn’t stop there… I had found a secret hike online that takes you to the top of the waterfall. Apparently the hike used to be open to the public but had been closed, but it’s still accessible to the brave traveler.

So after hopping some barbed wire and ignoring the caution sign, we climbed away.

The first part of the hike took us above the waterfall, past another cave and into an open field which lead to some streams that feed into the waterfall!

The sun was insanely hot and we sweated a ton, but it was very cool being “off the beaten path.”

We could tell the locals used this area to hang out and got confirmation of that as we went back down a little ways and onto a different path that took us to the top of the waterfall and saw a guy fishing!

This hike to the top of the falls was worth the sweat! I’m not exactly sure why it was closed down to the public, but if you ever make your way here… take a sneak onto this hike, you won’t regret it!

After finishing at the falls, we headed back to the bikes where Daniel and Chris made the last second decision to actually ride back to Cao Bang with me!

Originally they were planning on spending the night near the falls. But they ran out of cash and there were no ATMs, so they booked a night bus for tonight, after they arrived back in Cao Bang.

The ride home was a race against the clock.

Google maps said the ride would take us just under 2 hours to get back to our hostel, we left the falls around 4pm, and the sun set just before 6pm… so we had just enough time.

So we put the pedal to the metal and carefully made our way back home!

Even with the time crunch, I had to stop once to capture the beauty of our golden hour ride!

We got back home just in the nick of time! I made my way to shower and then met up with Chris and Daniel for dinner at the Banh Mi place we went the night before!

The ladies were very happy to see us again and since we were all very hungry and exhausted from the day, we scarfed down our food and went back to the hostel to relax.

Chris and I were still hungry though, so we ordered some food from the hostels cafe and they brought it to the hostel for us!

For the rest of the night, I chatted with Chris and Daniel until their bus left, I read more of my book, and the hostel actually cleaned my bike for me for free (which was super kind of them)!

Tomorrow I set off for Ha Giang! it’s a nice 219km journey that will take me between 6-7 hours to complete!

And as long as everything goes according to plan, I’ll start up on the Ha Giang Loop the following day!

We’ll see what these next few days of adventures brings and the new friends I’ll meet! Very very excited to keep riding along and check off the entirety of Vietnam from my bucket list!

Now, it’s time for rest!

– Elie