Andre and Wendy: Ha Giang Loop Day 4

Yesterday Day 3

No power in the morning when we checked out which made it difficult to make sure everything was packed up. Last night no water in the room. Andre went over to the main house, we will fix it. As I was falling asleep I hear the dripping start again from the leaking shower head, yeah water. A sink was pretty useless without water.

Yesterday at the boat was also the first time that we have seen a sign asking people not to give candy or money to children as they want them to stay in school. Wonder if it has been a problem in the past with tourists?

Today Day 4:

Pancakes for breakfast, pancakes here are what we would call crepes, but no option for soup this morning so crepes with bananas it is.

Because we switched up our itinerary yesterday and did the boat ride this morning we are walking into the falls , which we were supposed to do yesterday afternoon. The road in is under major construction and closed so you either need to walk in or motorcycle in. Off we go on a walk with our guide who really hates hiking.

We get to within .5 km of the falls and this is where the bikers must walk from as well. We were shocked that there were about 100 bikes parked here, not one bike passed us on the way in. Discussion time, the swimming hole at the falls is about 50m square, there are about 100 bikes here, yuck. Phuc tells us there will be lots of mermaids there, Andre shows a little more interest but not enough for us to continue on. The walk in is through a little town that I feel so sorry for, all these people pass through on their bikes and not one person stops I am sure. Now they are building a better road, will it become even worse? It is something I have been thinking about a lot, all these bikers doing this loop through rural Vietnam, will the numbers ever be limited? Phuc believes the numbers are back even bigger than pre covid, I'm not so sure about that, but new homesteads are certainly being built all over. May be that the younger people are still more willing to travel now and this is why we see so many people here.

Andre and I are trying to figure out what our driver and guide have to talk about. It is pretty much non stop talking. Phuc only gets a break from the driver when we do some activity out of the car with him, as soon as we come back it is non stop again. They are in dorms where we stay so they are pretty much together for 24 hours a day, how on earth can they have any more to talk about? Only wish we knew what they were talking about as there is a much laughing going on.

We have come to the conclusion that the 4th day on this tour really doesn't have much of an itinerary, plus we cut short the waterfall this morning. We are given a choice of which way to go back to the city we tell them the nicest way, which turns out to be though a valley. As we are driving along we go through a town that has some traditional houses off to the side. We ask Phuc if we can stop and walk with us through the village. This was a great stop. We ask Phuc to ask a man outside if we can come see the outside of his home we don't want to go inside, just visit outside. Took a moment, but he said yes. Andre had lots of questions, did he build it, how long did it take to build, how long would it last etc. It was a nice stop and good to get out of the car for stretch.

Shocking to all that know me I fell asleep for about 30 minutes in the car. I was so mad when I woke up but Andre says not to worry I missed the most boring part. I really have found very little of this trip boring, but yanks anyway Andre.

Back in the city and we are off to Mr Hung restaurant for lunch. There is no power in the city so no pizza or lasagna. We have had our fill of Vietnamese the last few days so pasta it is for us. Lunch break finishes with a game of pool between the 3 guys, I just complain and tell them I am contacting Mr Hung to say our tour time was spent playing pool.

Next stop is the waterfall just outside town, only a 300m walk. Phuc neglects to tell me that it is over rocky bed around the river that I am not comfortable climbing in my sandals. The guys head up whole I wait at the bottom in the dry river bed. I watched a man carry up a water reserve tank on his back up the hill to where a new homestead is being built, goats were following him. The guys return quite quickly, waterfall was pretty much a trickle and no one went swimming.

Last stop of the day was a little walk around some traditional homes just outside the main town. This was an area of Black Thai, which we had seen lots of homes in Pu Luong last week. Still fun to see peanuts growing. The rice has started turning to seed and the corn has cobs started, further advanced than what we have seen.

We are done we pass on going up the mountain for a view of the city, which we already did on the first day of our tour. Back to the hotel and the couple from the Netherlands are about to board the bus back to Hanoi. We have chosen to spend the night in Ha Giang I really didn't want another 7 hours in a vehicle today.

Todays Pictures:

Our bungalow at the homestay