I ended up with a bit more time left and I am not sure how that happened between my crashes and a few unplanned toilet stops on the way.  In a country that is very populated, it is hard sometimes to find a quiet spot in an emergency.

I selected another route that would take me to the Chinese Border again, the start of the Ho Chi Minh trail, gate crashing wedding photos, cruising on a lake, watching some smuggling and seeing the biggest waterfalls in Vietnam.  This route had it all and best of all, no crashes.

I used this as a guide, but did it in a slightly different order.

Vietnam Coracle

So on the 14th of October I went from Bao Lac to Ha Long.  Now on the way I worked out that I didn’t stay in Bao Lac as I drove through it about 2 hours later.  The ethnic clothing changed and wasn’t as colourful but was black with red.  I drove through some wonderful scenery, there was dam construction, rice harvesting and installation of power lines Vietnamese style.

I then came across this wonderful village that focussed on knives.  Of course I had to stop and I sat down with one of the owners and she showed me all the different knives and what they were used for in Vietnamese:).

From there I went through what I like to call “The Glasshouse Mountains on Steroids”.

Now as I was cruising around I noticed these mechanical things which are called “The Chinese Buffalo”.  The don’t go very fast but they are everywhere and they look hard to drive.  I think it is a rotary hoe gone crazy.

I made it to Trung Khanh and decided to push onto the Waterfalls, Ban Gioc.  These were amazing and are on the river that divides Vietnam and China.  On the Vietnamese side they had boats that were manually driven whereas on the Chinese side they had motors.  I hired my own boat for 300,000 VND ($18 AUD) which was pretty extravagant.

Now this is where the smuggling began, you can see in the left of the photo a small craft with items and they would be unloaded on the Chinese side.  This gave me a taste of what was to come.

So I saddled up again and headed off in search of a place to stay the night.  The roads were shocking, gravel, dusty and holes that would swallow trucks.  These big trucks carried 20kg bags of rice.  I then saw something in the distance, bamboo bridges with white bags trotting across the river from Vietnam to China.

I pulled off the road and sat for about 15 minutes and watched the hard work of carrying the rice bags to vans on the Chinese side.  Once the vans were full, the transfer would cease until a new van would arrive.  I then continued on further down and found some more smuggling, however this was slightly different, they had built a slide that they used to move the packages down the bank and then ran them across the river.

There were a number of monuments to the fallen Vietnamese from the invasions from the Chinese in 1979.  After being choked by dust, dodging holes the size of the Grand Canyon I found some accomodation.  I had the whole room to myself

I went for a wonder around the village and had some yummy food, again, not sure what it was.

I had dinner with the owners and then went to bed early after 263km of driving.

So the next morning I went from Ha Long to Cao Bang, a total of 193km.  I encountered some of the worst roads of the whole trip, lots of dogs and horses and a road slip where we waited for about 1.5 hours for it to be cleared.  During my wait, I met some people who kept me entertained.

I had a great breakfast with Chinese sausage, how cute is this place.

Again beautiful scenery

Made it to Cao Bang then headed to the start of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to see where Ho Chi Minh crossed the border and the cave that he lived in for a while.

A beautiful river awaited at Suoi Le Nin and uncle Ho’s kettle

I then headed back to Cao Bang and had pizza for dinner, yum

The next day I headed to Ba Be National Park, 139km, lots of windy roads through valleys and a couple of mountain passes. The Ba Be National Park has a lake and ethnic villages surrounding it.  I went on a boat tour for 550,000 VND which took most of the day. I saw waterfalls, reflection ponds, a temple and enjoyed the quietness of being on the water.

I then found some accomodation and settled in for the night and gatecrashed some wedding photos.

The next day was off to Hanoi and back to civilisation, 209km.  I did my usual trick of trying to go on the motorway that is for cars and trucks only.  After that hiccup I found my way to Hanoi and to the centre of town and to a backpackers where I had met some people on my Ha Giang loop.  I then took a tour around Hanoi as it was my first time driving there.  We went to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.

I then had a wonderful night visiting Bay from Habitat for Humanity and then the next day was emotional selling Oscar.

I finished off my time in Hanoi by visiting The Temple of Literature, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, cyclo tour and farewelling Oscar.

The last two weeks was one of the best experiences of my life.

Some interesting statistics:

• km travelled 2041km
• Money spent on fuel, 670,000 VND, $40.70 AUD
• 2 crashes resulting in injured person and injured motorbike (Oscar)
• Almost hit the following things
  • Buffalo
  • buffalo poo (those things are massive)
  • dogs
  • children
  • horses
  • cows
  • pigs
  • goats
• Nearly driving over numerous cliffs while looking at the amazing scenery
• Getting lost in a cave for over an hour
• Emergency toilet stops – too many
• Not getting lost once

One regret; Niels wasn’t there to share it with me:(.

Dates: 14th October to the 18th October 2016