Around 9:30 am, on the cool cloudy (or polluted?) Sunday morning of February the 7th, I pressed the ignition, got into 1st gear and was off once again.
Previous day, I had rented the bike, a relatively new Kawasaki KLX 250 Camo, a tall, dual-purpose on-off road bike in beautiful camoflague color. It’s an amazing bike (and an eye catcher and conversation starter with strangers on the road), but quite tall even for someone my height and I was still getting used to it. I am more experienced riding cruisers and am always comfortable when I can rest both my feet on the ground while in the saddle. And with this bike I had to be on my toes. And of course I didn’t have the expeirence of how this bike (and I) would handle the slopes, the uneven narrow trails, dirt and mud. So last minute I changed my plan to first head to Ta Xua and headed towards Ha Giang.
My original plan was to first go to Ta Xua, ride the bike up the dianosour backbone, and then head towards Ha Giang. But looking at the videos of the narrow path up the backbone and not fullly comfortable with the bike, I realized, maybe I need a bit more practice first. And so I headed north, across cầu Nhật Tân, the familiar road to the airport and then crossed into Vinh Phuc province.
I am not much for overpreparation. I call this unplanned planning. I have a rough outline of where I want to go but no details. I plan for the details day to day, doing my research a day before or same morning, planning my route in the morning before heading out, booking accommodations the same day for the night, sometimes as late as 1-2 hrs before reaching the place. The primary reason is that I am lazy. But another way to put it is efficiency. During the travel days, you have sufficient time to do this. And of course you have flexibility and not a rush to follow a fixed itinerary. Especially when you are going to new areas which you are not familiar with the time, distance and terrain between places, and of course all he uncertainties that come with being on the road as you will see later in my story.
So actually the only planning I did the night before was to just look at the paths towards the dinosour backbone, videos of people who filmed the path. And while I decided that’s where I am going, by morning, I had the realization that maybe not the best place to start.
So I rode across Vinh Phuc province and as I reached the border towards Tuyen Quang province, I got my first realization of the pandemic situation. A policeman waved me to stop at the side of the road. For a bit, a little bit of fear crept into me, “what if they don’t let me go on?”. Another policeman, sitting in a medical tent set up on the roadside called me in. A medical professional in full surgical overalls was taking temperature. I was asked to sanitize my hands, then fill up a form – where am I going, where am I coming from, provinces I have been to in last 14 days, medical symptoms etc. Then the policeman tore the bottom part with the receipt and handed me back. And I was off again.
The road till around Ha giang province is quite flat and I was making good time, stopping just once around half way mark for a break and my favorite on road lunch of 2 red bulls.
On the way I could see countless people heading home for Tet on their motorbikes. Fathers riding, mothers sitting behind with one baby in middle, one in the arms. One bag in front of dad, one on mom’s back and one suitcase strapped behind was a typical scene. Sometimes family travelling on two bikes. While I wasn’t too surprised of people riding their bikes to their hometowns, I was still wondering over the supposed lack of intercity transport facilities, as over my travels I realized seeing too few big buses, and some small minibuses, compared to the plethora of dangerously zooming buses in India (where the drivers all seem to aspire to be in Formula 1).
The scenary started to become hilly as a neared Ha Giang province. As I was becoming convinced I would reach Ha Giang in the middle of the afternoon with plenty of sunlight remaining, I got a shock as a reached the provincial crossing. Again I was waved to stop by a policeman and guided towards a makeshift parking area. I saw 10s of buses and cars and scores of motorbikes parked around a fuel station. There were at least 200-300 people queued and filling up health declaration forms. And there were 10s of policemen and medical professionals around.
Worried that this may mean a wait of easily over an hour or more, I thought I would pull out my previous receipt that I have been checked and try to talk my way into going on.
I took of my helmet, pulled off my bandana and taking the receipt I got at Tuyen Quang province crossing headed towards the nearest friendly policeman to show it to him. He waved me to get into the line. But by then, another guy inside the big medical tent saw me and shouted something to the policeman. This one seemed to be a superior officer. He called me in and so with the help of my friendly policeman, I jumped over the ropes and crossed the crowd of waiting people and towards the superior officer. He shouted and called a nurse who I guess seemed to be the only one who could speak English. She asked me to come with her.
Then I realized, there was a separate queue for ‘người nước ngoài’ (foreigners). And to my great luck, I was the only người nước ngoài there. So I was presented straight to the doctor on site, while the other Vietnamese people were waiting (and definitely grumbling inside) where I was put in front of a body scanner. I was surprised as I hadn’t seen body scanning except at the airports, other places they just take your temperature. To my relief, everything was ok and I was whisked away by my nurse towards a separate tent for người nước ngoài which was kind of a reception area. There we sat down and filled my declaration form, including among other things, why I am going to Ha Giang, where am I staying, what all places I am planning to go and contact information. And even after that before I could pull out from the parking area and cross that 50 m stretch, I was asked by two more policemen to get in the line and I had to show them the newly minted receipt that I already did get the checkup.
My friends had warned me to not travel during Covid. But as long as there isn’t a lockdown, I decided to follow through with my plan. I was not scared of getting Covid myself, but was more scared of being the one who is roaming around from town to town spreading. So I was relieved when I was cleared twice in the day and moved on.
But well, who would tell all the people that I don’t have Covid. Looking for a rest stop, I noticed a small compound with a flour mill and a small grocery store and around 4-5 people sitting around a small table smoking the traditional pipe Thuoc Lao. Thinking of chatting up with locals while having a short rest, I pull up. They seem amused but welcoming and waved me in. But to my surprise, while I get off my bike and go through my ritual of taking off the helmet, gloves, bandana, loosening my jacked the group has dispersed. A guy who kept sitting but did not have a mask on put up a mask while the others went to their own homes clearly afraid of catching the virus from a stranger of uncertain origin.
Anyways after a rest, I carry on and riding along sông Lô I rolled into Ha Giang just around 4 pm. I head to the Golden Jungle House where I had made my booking. It’s a lovely place built and run by Loan and his wife Thuy. It has beautiful wooden buildings and nice garden. The rooms are nice but there doesn’t seem to be any other residents. Shortly another family rolls in their car and Loan explains that they are just back from finishing ‘the loop’.
I sit down to relax and have some tea while chatting with Loan who admires the beautfy of my bike and that it is ‘good enough’ for the Ha Giang loop. I ask him for some nearby restaurants where I could find some vegetarian food and get the common refrain that everything closed now that no tourists. He offers that his wife can cook for me and I am so grateful.
After a quick shower, I get to dinner. His wife has prepared simple food for me, rice, steamed vegetables and eggs. I am hungry and I gobble it all down with some local buckwheat beer. Its tasty and filling and I am happy as vegetarian food is always my worry outside the cities. No surprise that ‘cơm chiên tỏi’, ‘cơm chiên trứng’ and ‘rau xào’ were among the first vietnamese words that I had learned.
After dinner, I retire back to my room where I do some research on the route for next day and plan to go on till Dong Van through Yen Minh. I book an accommodation at Dong Van and sleep.
Gagan Dixit 