Aka Laundry Day.
You always want to pack as light as possible when living off the back of a motorcycle, and in Asia it’s inexpensive to get your laundry done, so we brought minimal clothes with us. Most of the time laundry is an overnight service, but you usually have to wait until 10:00 am or so to get your laundry. We like to be on the road by then. Furthermore, they don’t have clothes dryers in Northern Vietnam, they hang dry. In the high humidity that means it can take a few days for your clothes to fully dry. After several days of wet and muddy riding, and wearing the same motorcycle pants every day for a month, it was time for a break from the road and time to get our laundry done. We decided to get a nicer hotel in Dong Van (clean, good sized and has heat) to hunker down for a few days.
Today we had different thoughts on what to do. I needed some exercise and wanted to explore the area by trekking. Shawn wanted to try some of the incredible off road tracks. So after breakfast and a short walk to explore the town’s Old Quarter, we set off to explore Dong Van each in our own ways. This was after we tried a trek together and got lost, a man on a scooter returning us to town with directions on where he thought we should go. It was the original route that Shawn decided to tackle by motorcycle. This was the correct route after all.
I headed off on a soil and rock track towards Thon Si Fai village. After several days of riding the trekking was a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the landscape, not just a tourist whizzing through it. I became just another woman climbing the steep landscape with a bag on her back. It was fantastic. Once I overcame my fear.
Fear.
We needed a day off the bikes. The last few days of riding had been overwhelmingly nerve wracking. The constant fear of the presence of an oncoming vehicle through a blind corner, the special sing song sound of the bus horns. A pleasant sound that once known will strike fear into the heart of every other driver. Even the trucks will hurriedly get out of the way for a bus driver. They are beyond crazy and usually drunk off rice wine, and they rule the road. I was sick of being scared. I needed a day of trekking to relax and calm my mind and frayed nerves.
But first I had to overcome my fear. I had to overcome my fear of the dogs. While motorcycling in Peru years ago, a crazed and potentially rabid dog chased us. And when I say chased, I mean he was lunging at our throats, determined to make a kill. Since then I have become deathly afraid of the seemingly stray dogs that roam freely in foreign countries. As Shawn and I were walking this morning a large dog lunged at us. Luckily he was on a chain and Shawn was present, so after my initial terror I calmed down. But setting off to go trekking alone, I was on full alert. Every dog I saw set me on edge. I wanted to turn back, but kept forcing myself to walk just another 50 feet, just to the next house, just to the top of the next hill. In no time I had forgotten the threat of the dogs and was lost to the surrounding beauty and buzz of daily life in the most remote areas of Northern Vietnam. Scooters buzzing in the distance, just barely visible, on an incomprehensible network of dirt tracks leading to small pockets of villages, a few houses in each. Old women, no taller than 4 feet, busy at work in the fields. Carrying heavy loads larger than themselves up and down the steep valley walls. Kids playing a game much like hacky-sack. Drifts of smoke rising from the fields as garbage is burned. A pack of men, a dozen at least and reeking of sweat and rice wine, swarming me to help me find my way. I turned back after two hours of trekking through remote roads. There was an incredible boom as the ground shuddered. It sounded like an explosion, and I couldn’t help but wonder how many unexploded ordinances there might be in Northern Vietnam, and if this could be one either deliberately or accidentally set off.
Dinner at the friendly Quảng Dung Restaurant. An English menu with prices, and a certificate on the wall! We had the honey chicken (something we missed out on in Sa Pa) and stir fried vegetables. Both were great – the best chicken we’ve had in Vietnam. Sadly this isn’t saying much. Usually a “safe food” when travelling, the chicken in Vietnam has largely been inedible for Western tastes. Bone, gristle and cartilage with little to no meat. We’ve learned to only order chicken in restaurants that cater to tourists. The rest of the time, pork, beef and fish are our “go-to”.
Back to Green Karst for hot chocolate and Chum Vang. While there a young man (who was dipping his fingers in other tables side dishes of MSG) offered us a shot of the rice wine or “happy water” the locals drink. It was poured from a repurposed water bottle. Shawn is pretty sure that with the quantity of happy water this guy drank, he must be a bus driver. Likely the “sleeper bus” to Hanoi that left in an hour.
This shit may make you happy, but it definitely lacked the smoothness of the Chum Vang. I’ll stick with CV!
Note: Featured Image is of the town of Dong Van, with triangle flowers / buckwheat flowers in the foreground. The Triangle Flower Festival is held every year in the province of Ha Giang and runs from October through the end of December each year. The festival features the beautiful, soft pink buckwheat flowers which add a beautiful contrasting colour to the otherwise brown, green and gray of the Karst mountains.
Live Life Epic 