Day 49! Wow, what a day! I ended up changing routes last minute and it made for an amazing ride! From winding roads to roads covered in rocks… it made for an adventure I won’t ever forget! Enjoy!!

My internal clock woke me up around 7am, so instead of waking up at 8am and leaving at 9am… I left just after 8am!

But just before I set out, the owner of the homestay told me my plan to bike all the way to Ha Giang was silly and I should follow a route to a homestay near Bao Loc.

Along this route I’d be able to see some amazing views, an area where Ho Chi Minh stayed after coming back to Vietnam, drive less, and then do the Ha Giang loop in reverse!

This sounded like a great idea to me and one that I was trying to figure out previously (but wasn’t personally able to).

So with a new destination in mind, I set my GPS and hit the road for another unforgettable ride!

My gas tank was fairly empty from the winding drive home last night, so 20 minutes into the drive I pulled into a gas station to top off.

I was then on my way to Pac Bo, to visit a place practically untouched since Ho Chi Minh’s return to Vietnam in 1941!

On the drive I rode through many small villages and towns on wide and narrow roads! I also saw this strange fence and thought it made for an interesting picture.

I also passed by even more tobacco fields! I was told at my last hostel, the reason there are so many tobacco fields right now (besides that everyone smokes cigarettes here) is that it’s one of the only plants that can survive Vietnamese winter in the north!

Once planted, tobacco takes only a month to grow to maturity. The more you know!

After a nice hour-ish long drive I arrived at the entry to Vé Tham Quan, where the Pac Bo Cave resides (along with some other interesting historical spots)!

I parked my bike, stripped out of my layers, and hoped no one would mess with my stuff! I went to get a ticket and paid 50,000 Dong to get a pass into the area and a ride from an electric cart to and from.

The first stop on this journey was Den tho Bac Ho, a temple in honor of Ho Chi Minh.

Ho Chi Minh has a lot of shrines around Vietnam and his body is even embalmed in Hanoi (which I decided to skip)!

An interesting thing about this is, from what I’ve heard, Ho Chi Minh didn’t want to be immortalized as he has been. So most of this was done without his wishes… It made me think a lot while I was there about how we idolize famous people when most just want to be normal people, while entertaining/educating/liberating/etc., and aren’t doing it for (nor want) the fame.

The next stop was right across the road and this one got me excited!

It was Km 0 of the start of Ho Chi Minh Highway!

Since I’ve been riding all of Vietnam, it felt pretty cool and accomplishing to get to a point that was the start of one of the main roads!

The next part of the park was a walking loop starting at a beautiful river, passing by trees Ho Chi Minh allegedly used to eat fruits at, seeing the cave he used to hide out in, a stone bench and table he used to work at, and beautiful scenery!

Oh and of course some cattle too!

I couldn’t get over how blue the water was!

On top of that, I was the only westerner tourer while I was there. There were however a lot of Vietnamese tourists and tour guides!

I could tell this area meant a lot to the Vietnamese locals who traveled far and wide across the country to come here (one told me he was from Ho Chi Minh City, that’s a long ways)!

After over an hour of wandering and sweating, I made my way back to my bike to set off on my next leg of the journey.

This leg ramped up immediately and I was met with some of the best views of my journey so far!

The roads started out fairly wide and winding, but they soon turned fairly narrow and still veryyy winding.

But as I climbed further into the mountains I kept getting view after view and the winding roads became worth the challenge.

When I say winding, I mean the most winding I’ve had… turns that took you the opposite direction while also taking you up 8-11% inclines or declines. And at this point it was mainly all on paved roads!

As I neared my next destination (and about to be the biggest challenge of my travel thus far… outside of my fall a couple days ago) I stopped for gas since the winding roads were draining my fuel!

I also stopped for food, which I had been searching for since Pac Bo because I had skipped breakfast!

I had a decent bowl of pho for 30,000 Dong (can’t complain too much with the price) and also had some nice company from a couple young kids!

Being basically in the middle of nowhere, the locals who could speak English were trying to practice with me.

They were asking me all sorts of questions like where I was from, where I was going, and if I was traveling with my girlfriend (HAHA)!

I set back out and headed for the Me Pja Pass!

I was again winding back and forth up mountains to get to this pass and the views were wonderful… but the roads… were not.

Here started the biggest challenge of my drive in my entire month plus in Vietnam.

All of these roads ended up being under construction and I mean ALL of them. From this point on, paved roads were a luxury… and these dirt ones were one of the nicer ones.

I made it to the start of the pass safely and immediately knew I was in for a challenge… but I had no idea how big of one.

The one saving grace was my path through the pass was all downhill. But as I wound back and forth down the mountain I was met with gravel filled roads, rocky dirt roads, and then roads that weren’t even roads at all and were just piles of loose rocks!

All the while, groups of kids on 50cc bikes were making this route look like child’s play.

After the longest 11 minutes of my life, I made it safely to the bottom with an insane rush of adrenaline.

This is a better picture of what the pass looks like from the bottom, I was a marble on the most dangerous marble track!

I continued on for another hour and a half, stopped for gas in Bao Loc, saw some more beautiful views, and eventually went on a very steep small road to my homestay for the night!

When I arrived at my homestay it was semi locked and appeared empty… luckily my new SIM card comes with a Vietnamese phone number and I was able to call them and tell them I was there!

Since I hadn’t booked a room before getting there, the owner showed me around to all the available ones, which was all of them! We ended up settling for 150,000 Dong for a smaller dorm room… but since no one else is here it’s basically a large private!

This homestay is gorgeous! It’s overlooking a beautiful valley and I had a nice evening of reading while watching the sunset!

For dinner, the homestay made me a very large portion of fried noodles with chicken (for 50,000 Dong)… probably the largest portion I’ve had all trip!

I also met a very nice older couple from Italy, Rita and Claudia, who arrived to the homestay after me.

It was then an early night to bed as more adventures await tomorrow!

I have to say, I’m insanely proud of myself. I could have easily let the fear of riding again after a crash take over. But instead I overcame that fear and had one of my favorite rides yet!

I actually started tearing up at one point of the ride because I was thinking about this and realized that I was doing exactly what I wanted… and also looking over a beautiful view added to the emotions.

Motorbiking is dangerous but I’m lucky that I’m on a journey right now where I’m learning and growing everyday and I’m so thankful that I was able to put myself into this position!

Tomorrow I’ll start my 3 day journey to Ha Giang! I’ve been looking forward to this moment ever since I left Ho Chi Minh and the weather is shaping up to make it an amazing and memorable ride!

See you tomorrow in Lung Cu!

– Elie