The road from Hanoi to Muong Lai

Greetings, mon petite Roadmonkeys. The expedition finally made its way to Muong Lai, about 130 miles southwest of Sapa, where we began cycling around Vietnam’s northwest.

Photographs by Pablo Casares, the expedition photographer.

Trainmonkeys: sharing a laugh, after a few sips from Roadmonkey's wine stash, on the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai.

Nov. 2: From Hanoi, we boarded the night train to Lao Cai, a 9-hour overnight journey that our group promptly christened by chugging through seven bottles of red wine (about half the expedition’s supply) before some needed rest. We arrived in Lao Cai at 5 a.m., greeted by darkness and a steady rain. Vietnam, of course, means Viet Rain, so we were prepared.

Nov. 4: From the eco-lodge, we biked back up to Sapa, a region populated with several ethnic minorities, including (Black, Flower and other) Hmong, Black Thai and Dzao. In Sapa, we refreshed ourselves with Vietnamese coffees and pastries and drove in the vans up the Tram Ton Pass, past waterfalls to the peak of the pass. Then it was time to mount the iron horses (aka mountain bikes) and dive-bomb the downslope toward Lai Chau, the relatively new provincial capital to the west.

the road from Sapa: bargaining hard, with hmong school girls

Nov. 5: In the bar of our hotel in Lai Chau, several expedition members drank several “Hanoi” beers with a young Vietnamese woman and her dude, who were quite obviously blitzed. But they offered us some tasty jerky, purportedly made from beef. (We asked, because this region is well known for a special meat delicacy: dog).

Later, we walked around the boulevard of not-yet-broken dreams, newly built by the Party in Lai Chau to highlight its transformation from rural backwater to provincial capital.  If our group had any doubt about the capacity for Communist self-visualization, the were disabused of it via billboards like the one below.

awed by Communism

Nov. 5 (still): After motoring west out of Lai Chau, over another mountain pass, we mounted the bikes again (in the front yard of this surprised but graciously accommodating villager) and blew down the curving road, full of switchbacks. One of the expedition members flew over the handlebars, crashing on the road near one particular tight corner. All was well, just a cut and scrape or two.

From left: David, Conrad, Philip, Mike & Paul, ready to roll to Muong Lai

Nov. 5 (still!): On the road from Lai Chau to Muong Lai, we found an old iron bridge with wood slats and decided to roll over it and the churning & chocolately Na River, putting us within a few miles of the Lao border.

the road to Muong Lai: a couple miles from the border with Laos.

Nov. 6: Muong Lai sits at the floor of a valley that will be flooded in 2010 or so, for a massive government hydro-electric project. This town and several others, inhabited mostly by ethnic minority villagers, will be underwater. The villagers will hopefully get advance warning, and move to higher ground. The government is resettling many tribal villages now.

Muong Lai: mellow moment in the Lan Anh Hotel courtyard

building bridges: tossing rocks into bamboo baskets for a new motorbike crossing over this river a few kilometers from the Lao border.

Nov. 6: A day off the bicycles. We instead hiked around Muong Lai and discovered an abandoned Vietnamese Army outpost built in 1960, six years after the decisive victory over the colonial French Army at Dien Bien Phu, about 80 miles southwest of here.

The army outpost has now been commandeered by a vicious band of cows.

After fending off the vicious band of cows, we sat down to eat them. (Not really). At our hotel, after a long day of hiking through nearby villages, we were famished, and ate very well.

Muong Lai: eating like emperors

Check back here soon! We’ll have more from the road.