Day 36: Is there MSG in my beer?

After a breakfast of steamed pork buns and fresh mango, we left Dong Van at 9:30 am under cloudy skies and a cool 11 degrees. The first 22 km to Meo Vac would take us through Ma Pi Leng Pass. The pass wraps around jagged limestone cliffs, and below the road the cliff falls away steeply to the Nho Quo river valley below. Despite the cloud we could see row upon row of Karst mountain, each row growing more faded before disappearing entirely. The road was in great shape and we made good time despite several photo and video stops.

We arrived in Bao Lac a little after 1:00 pm to yet another flat tire. Shawn’s rear tire had a gash in it. The gash held several rocks, one that was sharp enough to pierce through to the tube. The third Xe May (motorcycle repair shop) in town was willing to help us. The mechanic was close to a bakery where we bought hot dog pizza buns and what I think was a honey chicken bun for lunch. Shawn repaired the first tube with no luck. Still leaking air. After patching both the tire and second tube with two patches each, we were ready to roll. Now 3:30 pm, it would be almost impossible to make it to Cao Bang, still 120 km away. It gets dark at 5:30 pm, and these roads are not something you want to navigate in the dark. The bike mechanic told us it would take 3 hrs to get to Cao Bang. This aligned to the blogs we read. The smart thing to do was to call it a day and spend the night in Bao Lac. But Bao Lac was uninviting and we weren’t ready to call it a day. So we gambled. We hoped we would find a Nha Nghi somewhere before dark.

We rode on. We thought we could make good time on the not as curvy road that led out of Bao Lac. Unfortunately buffalo traffic and miles of road construction that had resulted in loose gravel on the road made the ride slow. Dusk turned to dark quickly in a sh!t hole town about 65 km before Cao Bang. We found what looked like a decent hotel. It looked closed. As we sat on the side of the highway in the growing blackness, three bikes turned into the hotel parking lot. A BMW 800 GS and two Honda XR’s. We followed them in. The group consisted of an American, John, a Vietnamese/ American couple and a Vietnamese couple. We chatted with the group briefly and learned they were also desperately looking for accommodation as it was now pitch black. They spoke with the hotel manager. The deserted hotel had rooms for us all. We sighed with relief. No heater, but a room.

Then the arguing started. An old man had showed up and apparently there was now a problem. We were being told there were no rooms available. A coach bus had booked 7 of the 9 rooms. The other motorcycle group had 5 people in their group. We were disheartened. 10 km from the next town. In the dark this would mean a terrifying hour of navigating roads with sheer cliffs for ditches, avoiding sleeper buses and watching for the ever present livestock. This wasn’t good.

We started to pack up. I was anxious to get the inevitable over with. Shawn was slow to leave, determined to make something work – even if it meant sleeping on the restaurant floor. One of the Vietnamese speaking Americans had a solution to propose. Although there were only two rooms, each room had two twin beds. If we were willing to share a room with John, the other four were willing to cram into the other available room to make sure no one had to ride the dangerous roads at night. We were relieved and thankful at the kindness. Motorcyclists stick together.

And I was ready for a beer. Really ready for a beer. The beer here is addictive. Not usually a big beer drinker, I crave beer here. I’m pretty sure there is MSG in it.

We enjoyed dinner, corn wine and rice wine with our new friends and bunk mates.