Andre and Wendy: Ha Giang Loop day 3

Woke up early this morning, we are just going to sleep too early.

Showers done and then power goes out. Not sure if water works when power is out, but I'm glad showers are done.

Off to breakfast and cooking is all done by gas so no worries about no power.

We ask Mr Phuc if we could possibly go do the boat ride today, he says it is OK with him but we need to contact Mr Hung as it will add kms and gas needed to the car. I call Mr Hung and he says of course, tell the guide to pay for our ticket. It is about a 20 minute backtrack to the dock.

Arrive at the ticket counter and we are shuttled closer to the boats then need to walk 200m to the boat, teased Mr Phuc if this was too far for him.

Lots of tourists arriving, some are renting traditional clothes to wear on the boat. We are finally off, about 15 people to boat, lots of room to walk around. A 30 minute boat ride takes about 1 hour because of all the selfies. I am lucky to get 1 picture with me in it on vacation. Andre takes so many landscape pictures, these Vietnamese must have taken at least 30 pictures each. It got a little comical. The ride through the canyon is beautiful, so happy that we did this while we were so close, we would have been disappointed had we missed it.

Back through to the town of Meo Vac and in to Mau Dau over perhaps the worst road we have ever traveled. It is all torn up to widen the road, so many pot holes. A dusty bumpy mess, I can't imagine doing it on a bike. Phuc tells us it has been going on for 7 months, there is still lots of work to be done.

Lunch in Mau Dau, an amazing pork dish, bamboo for the first time since we have been here, and a few more dishes. As always way too much food.

One amazing thing we saw today multiple times were cows ploughing the fields with the farmers up on those high steep terraces. Just getting the cows or buffalo up there would be quite the feat, then you have to hitch up the plough and get them working. Amazed us every time we saw it.

Many stops as we continued along the way today. Seems like every corner we went around the views were even better, and there were lots of corners today.

We stopped for a view of the French fortress ruins in the valley below. From this view we also saw a number of men repairing a roof that had been damaged by hail 4 days ago.

Time for a coffee break and we run into the couple from the Netherlands again. Coffee breaks here usually mean someone has built an amazing lookout from their home in the hopes tourists will stop. Many stop for a break, but not so many buy anything. Say our goodbyes to the Netherlands couple , they are staying in a different town tonight.

Tonight we are in a homestay again, but have a private bungalow, yes with a sink. There is a fridge in the home with a whiteboard to track how many beverages you take from the fridge, Andre is happy.

We take a walk around the village of Du Gia. A woman is standing on the bridge with a couple of small kids, she tells us there us a snake in the water. Yep, there it us and a little boy is trying to find it in the grass once it crosses the river. Enough of that entertainment for me and we move on.

Supper tonight was one of our most authentic experiences since we have been here. There are tables outside our bungalow where we were told we would have dinner tonight. We show up at the appointed time and are asked if we would like to join the family for dinner. Of course!! So our guide and driver along with us join the family. Joining the family means shoes off and sit on the straw mats on the floor. Along with the 4 of us are 3 children under 6, and 7 other adults, grandma, grandpa, sisters, brother, in-laws, all live here together. The mom of the 3 kids has made the dinner, fish, pork, morning glory, tofu 2 ways, pumpkin , chicken and of course rice. We also had a couple of rounds of corn wine that grandma had made. I wish we could have participated in the conversation more but our guide helped and one of the women spoke excellent English. What an experience.

We don't linger too long after dinner. Everyone has disappeared from the table (mats) except grandma, 2 kids , our driver, guide and us. The fun of getting up from cross legged position when you never ever sit like this on the floor...

Time to call it a night. Andre must have 1000 pictures to go through from today and I want to get caught up on writing about our days adventures, I have fallen behind a bit and am finding it a bit of a chore now since I am doing it on my phone while Andre uses the computer for the pictures.

Todays pictures:

Where we stayed last night where there are over 20 homestays in 1 spot