Thursday 7 September – Bac Ha
Eyes open. It’s 4.00am.
If it’s going to be a ‘farm animal’, it’s usually, but not always, a rooster.
Today, or is that still tonight?, it’s a rooster.
Back to sleep.
5.00am, eyes open again. Bloody rooster again!
The sleep thing once again happens, but only till 5.40am. Ten minute dozing ensues, then give up.
Downstairs by 6.30am, Mike already there, and it’s tea, along with an iceless cà phê sữa đá, which would make it a cà phê sữa nóng. (hot milk coffee).
And, fortuitously, it’s of the phin (Vietnamese coffee filter), variety, which always makes it a bit more special.
Coffee and tea done, and our guides, although only one is really a guide, turn up on their bikes.
Mike jumps on the guide’s bike; his name escapes me; and I jump on the older guy’s bike, Duc, who happens to be Dong’s father in law.
On our way by 7.00am, and through the still relatively, but not completely, quiet streets of Bac Ha.
A little further down, Duc stops for petrol, as Mike and his guy disappear off into the distance.
Bike filled and back on the road, we turn off to the left a short time later. And as we do, I feel water hit my face.
Yep, it’s rain.
It’s overcast, and while a little dark and threatening looking, it doesn’t look too bad.
But that’s probably just me, trying very hard to remain glass half full, as opposed to my usual glass half empty attitude.
More water hits my face, as well as other parts of me, and it’s quickly becoming apparent that we’re going to have a problem.
That problem is confirmed when we come across Mike and the guide, pulled over to the side of the road, frantically trying to don wet weather gear.
The rain becomes heavier, and the decision is made to seek shelter.
Back down the road a bit, and we find a local who has quite a large garage type arrangement at the front of his house.
We pull in, and as is the usual way here in Vietnam, the home owner is incredibly welcoming.
Stools are quickly arranged so we can sit it out, and he even goes to the trouble of organising some tea for us.
This type of hospitality has happened a few times over the years, and every time it does, the care and kindness shown just blows me away.
And this morning is no different.
We sit and wait, while the rain, which I’d never considered could be a possibility today, does its thing.
And didn’t it do it well, as it absolutely bucketed down.
It eventually begins to ease, and as hopes rise that our journey may be about to continue, Mike checks the radar.
Yeah, it indicates that we’re not going anywhere just yet, and sure enough, a few minutes later, that easing rain is no more.
The sitting and waiting continues, along with more tea, and then finally, with things looking brighter both outside and on the radar, the rain lets up.
Sincere, and heartfelt, cảm ơn given to our generous host, and a good 40 minutes since our ‘arrival’, we’re back on the bikes and on our way.
It’s not long before the scenery begins to change, and as it does, I hear words like ‘Oh wow!’, and ‘Oh (insert the usual expletive)’, escaping from my mouth.
We’ve gone from a road meandering through average, but certainly not boring, Vietnamese countryside, to a road meandering halfway up a mountain, overlooking a deep valley, with larger mountains on the other side.
While there’s not so much in the way of rice terraces, the dominating natural landscape, and the sheer scale of it, is stunning.
It’s kind of taken me a bit by surprise, but only because, for some unknown reason, I hadn’t really stopped to think about what we might see today. And I’m not really sure why that is.
Perhaps it’s because of Mike? With him essentially playing tour guide today, since he organised the whole thing, maybe I just sort of switched off, and left him to do the thinking, while I did absolutely no thinking at all?
I don’t know, and I now feel rather embarrassed by my lack of preparedness.
Following Mike, but not really concentrating on him.
On we go, expletives now being muttered on a more regular basis, and my head now spending far more time craned to the left, taking in that scenery.
We come round a sweeping bend, and quickly come to a stop. A section of the mountain above is now lower down than where it used to be, with a fair chunk of it still covering the road.
A couple of cars are crawling through it, and as Duc slowly makes his way into the extremely muddy mess, it quickly becomes apparent that the passenger on the back of his bike isn’t going to make the task any easier, by remaining where he is.
I jump off and let him get the bike through, while I navigate the mud on foot.
It’s slow going, for all concerned, but it also makes you stop and think about what could have happened, had you actually been in this location when it all began to move.
It would have been frightening, with a very real possibility that it wouldn’t be survivable.
Finally out of the mud, and I reach Duc and the bike.
He’s taking advantage of the water flowing down the gutter on the side of the road, to clean his shoes, which, despite him being the one on the bike, are just as muddy as mine.
Cleaned up, and we’re back on the move, with Mike and his guy somewhere well down the road ahead of us.
The focus once again becomes the scenery, and while it was more than just pretty good earlier, it’s now reached another level.
It’s stunning, and it becomes clear that I’m not the only one who thinks so, as I hear Duc making noises indicating that he too is of the same belief.
We stop a couple of times to take in the view, and while Duc makes an attempt to phone Mike’s guide, neither of us are too concerned at being ‘left’ behind.
There’s just too much to look at and take in, and I, and it seems Duc too, have no desire to rush past it all. As far as I’m concerned, the market can wait.
Continual, but unsuccessful as always, attempts at getting the camera to capture what I’m seeing, before we reluctantly move on.
We eventually reach Ban Lien, finding both the market and Mike, a bit after 8.30am.
It, apparently, is predominately a Black Tay area, and while the market looks like it would all be rather interesting, as they usually are, it appears to be in the throes of being packed up.
With breakfast yet to be had, and with one or two vendors still doing food, the decision is made to solve our little problem.
A noodle soup with pork, at 30 000 Dong each, and while the market may have been a little disappointing, both the food and location couldn’t be faulted.
Breakfast done, and a group of five or six locals, sitting at a nearby table, invite us over to join them.
I immediately have an idea of where this may end up, and before I know it, we’re seated at their table with a rice wine in front of us.
Lots of cheers-ing and chatting, mostly by translation, although one guy did have a fair amount of English, and the rice wine continues to flow.
Three or four later, and a decision needs to be made while it’s still possible to make a decision.
Fortunately, but with an element of regret, the ‘correct’ decision is made, and we bid our very generous new friends, farewell.
Our breakfast spot, and our rice wine guys.
Back on the bikes just after 9.30am, and back to that scenery of mountains, rice terraces, local people and farm animals.
Local life.
We pull up for a break outside a local’s house, and as soon as he sees us, we’re invited inside where we also meet his wife.
Tea, from the kettle sitting above the already going fire in the ‘kitchen’, is quickly offered, and we sit and chat with the owners, using Mike’s guide as the translator.
The main discussion is about the imminent rice harvest, of which Mike has a keen interest.
We’re told that he will start it in about a week, and it’ll take a about a week to complete.
Mike, with the help of our translating guide, asks if he can come and stay with them once harvest begins.
Without hesitation, the answer is yes, and not for the first time, and not even the first time today, I am blown away by the generosity and the willingness to please, of the Vietnamese.
Our guide on the left, and our generous host in the middle.
We’re taken out for a look behind the house, and while it’s a bit different to the view I got used to at Cho Cho’s, it’s still just as stunning.
Back to the bikes, meeting the owner’s water buffalo on the way, and it seems our generous local is coming with us. Not completely sure why, but it appears there’s something he wants to show us.
A quick ten minute ride, bikes parked, and then a walk along a rough path through the bush.
The occasional house can be seen, but nothing much else.
Up a slight incline, and a bit of a view comes into sight over to the left.
The walk continues, and as it does, the now visible sun makes this morning’s rain a distant memory, as sweat begins to run down my back.
But the heat is quickly forgotten, as the path opens up on the right, and it becomes apparent that we are walking along a ridge between two valleys.
The view, on both sides, is absolutely incredible, to the point that I’m left shaking my head while constantly mumbling ‘wow’.
The height, the steepness, the symmetry of the terraces, the colour; it’s mind blowingly beautiful, but also just so hard to fully comprehend and take in.
We walk a fair length of the ridge, before turning around and doing it all again, still trying to get the camera to do what it’s incapable of doing.
Not helping it….
Back to the bikes, and then over the road to a local’s house, who I believe is also Black Tay.
Regardless, it is one of the most amazing and authentic looking houses I have ever seen, and as we approach, we are immediately welcomed in for more tea.
We sit, and while there’s chatting going on, I just spend the whole time taking in my surroundings, while trying to get my head around what I’m actually seeing and experiencing.
I’ve only been in a handful of these types of houses, but none have fascinated me as much as this one.
I’m not totally sure why, but I think it’s the combination of both the building, and the people who live here.
The darkness, the character, the rusticness of the house, and the people, dressed in their traditional dark clothing, including the old woman with the incredibly dark, black stained teeth. It’s all just so real, and a world so far removed from mine, it almost feels like I could be sitting on a movie set.
Another couple walk in, again, in traditional clothes, and proceed to dump their baskets of whatever it is they’ve just harvested.
Some kind of leaf, I think tea, but I don’t know for sure. It doesn’t really matter, and it just adds to the scene in front of me, once again confirming it’s not just a house, but also very much a workplace.
Tea, and chatting, done, we get up to head back outside. As we do, I bump my head on one of the rather low chunky beams, which made a noise loud enough for all to hear.
They laughed, which then made me laugh, and while my head was very much aware of my clumsiness, I was kind of pleased I had been able to give them something from our brief visit.
Back on the bikes, and back in the heat, but with the heat well and truly back of mind, due to the overriding feeling of gratitude at being allowed to see a small snippet of their lives.
The scenery of what I’ve come to expect around here continues, and it’s something I can never tire of.
Waiting patiently for me to do the photo thing.
Around a sweeping bend, and up ahead, dark clouds. As in real dark, and real threatening.
We manage to avoid them, but only by sheer luck, due to where the road is taking us, and then come across some water buffalo on the side of the road, outside a house.
With photo opportunity beckoning, we pull over for a look. I’ve probably said it before, but I find them fascinating; so big, so kind of scary and intimidating, but also so cute and likeable.
There’s just something about them.
I think Mike also has a similar love affair, judging by the number of photos he took.
Over behind the house, four or five locals, who I suspect own the water buffaloes, are harvesting rice, so we head over for a closer look.
They’re happy, and interested, to see us, and, not really surprisingly, have no concerns about us watching them go about it.
Hard at work.
It doesn’t last long, however, as those threatening clouds that we’ve managed to avoid up until now, begin to do their thing.
There’s a mad scramble to cover some of the already picked rice, before everyone makes a hasty retreat to the cover of the house.
And, of course, we are warmly welcomed in as well, to wait it out.
Again, such an authentic generosity, and it was nice to once more get to see inside another local house, and one that, while rustic like the last one, was also very, very different.
The rain eventually eases, and with much appreciation shown to our hosts, we head out to our now very wet bikes.
Back on the road, and back in the general direction of Bac Ha, stopping briefly for another scenic view photo opportunity, enhanced, or impacted, depending on your personal preferences, by the usual power lines running across in front of it.
They really have a knack of doing that, and not just up here….
On towards Bac Ha, the road ranging from good to not very good at all, but with very little in the way of traffic around, it’s all been rather pleasant going.
We get back to Bac Ha a bit after 1.00pm, and drop the bikes off at the Ngan Nga.
Short walk down the street, then around the corner, and the market quickly reveals itself.
There’s a few around, but with lunch being the more pressing issue, the market will have to wait.
We head over to a place that Mike apparently frequents a bit, and we’re soon seated inside, and being served by the incredibly friendly owner, whose name is Binh.
I leave the ordering to Mike, and we end up with a pork and onion dish, along with some beans and tofu.
The pork is beautiful, the beans really good, and yeah, then there was the tofu….
Yep, just a waste of chewing skills and stomach space.
Mike has a couple of beers, including one that proves Binh’s fridge works extremely well, when it appears more solid than liquid.
No problem, it’s nothing a knife to the top of the can can’t fix, followed by the dumping of the contents into a glass.
Bit early for me, so I, for a change, play the sensible one, and stick with a water.
Lunch done (330 000 Dong for the four of us), and we head back to the Nga Ngan for a rest and recovery session, and a few notes.
Back outside just before 3.30pm, for a bit of a look around, and hopefully, a cà phê sữa đá.
The look around goes alright, and I end up in a street behind the hotel.
I’ve looked at a map of the town, with the view of trying to work out where I stayed with Toan back in 2017.
I’m using vague memories of what the street looked like, as well as an even vaguer memory of what a road looked like as we rode down it.
I just can’t make a match with what I’ve seen so far, and while the road behind the hotel kind of looks promising on the map, when I actually see it, it is anything but familiar.
Do the lap, and then almost back to the road the hotel is on, I find a café.
Either something gets lost in translation, or they actually don’t have the sữa đá component of the coffee I covet, so I give up.
It’s almost 4.00pm anyway, and another drink is far more suited to this time of day.
Down to the market again, and the attempt to get my bearings actually works. Well, it sort of does, in that I manage to find Binh’s restaurant again, but I still have the issue that I can’t really work out which direction I’ve just walked from, and therefore, where the hotel actually is.
Anyway, we’ll worry about that later.
A quick walk around the market, which appears to happen every day, but obviously with Sunday being the absolute main day, and also the reason why Bac Ha is so well known, and then it’s back to Binh’s.
He’s a little surprised to see me, and even more so when I just ask for a beer. But, he’s more than happy to accommodate me.
I sit, initially, a bit back from the entrance, before correcting my stupidity and moving to where I’m able to watch the world do its thing.
And while the market is certainly a long way from its busiest time, it still makes this particular world watching session just that little bit better than it usually is.
I chat with Binh; he loves my tattoos and their symbolism; using a combination of his reasonable, but limited, English, and Google Translate, and it doesn’t take long to realise he really is as lovely as he appeared, when I first met him at lunch.
His daughters, who are nine and twelve, are lovely too, and they do a fair bit of helping out around the restaurant. They are a little shy, and while I get the feeling they’d like to talk to me, it’s something that might be a little too much at the moment.
More sitting, more chatting, more watching; and yep, very happy to be back doing my thing.
So much admiration for them.
Three beers had (15 000 Dong each), and I head back to the hotel, after giving Binh a hẹn gặp lại, as I am most definitely going to return.
Bumping into Dong downstairs, who has his young son with him, I stop and chat for a while. Mike then appears a few minutes later, and he’s come bearing gifts, in the form of beers from a small family run convenience store up the road.
We sit out the front, and once they’re gone it’s my shout, rectified by also using the convenience store a few doors up.
The young girl is a little surprised to see me, which helps with the interaction, and I get the feeling it may just become one of those little relationships that I love so much.
Back out the front with Mike, and then the hotel’s cook turns up for a chat.
While I felt like he was slightly wary of me last night, he seems much more relaxed about me today.
It’s probably only a small thing, but I’m very pleased he seems more comfortable.
One of the female staff, who was at dinner last night, then appears. An agreement on beer had apparently been made earlier between her and Mike, and Mike hands her some money to deal with it.
She disappears down the road on her bike, and with it starting to get very close to dinner time, the decision is made to do something about a shower.
That done, and it’s back downstairs to the same room we were in last night.
Dinner is made up of pork, goat and chicken dishes, along with rice, the usual greens, and some of that tofu stuff.
The beer is also there, having returned safely, and to say that I’m impressed when I see it, would be an understatement.
I mean really, how could you not be impressed with the sight of a 10 litre plastic jerry can of beer?
Dong looking after the beer pouring duties.
The food is good, the beer great, and the rice wine, well, that’s it’s usual good and dangerous, rolled into one.
Not helped by the encouragement to sink the whole shot each time, in one go…..
But, as it usually is, it’s the people that make it, which includes last night’s crew, but also tonight the actual owner of the hotel, along with a young guy I haven’t seen before.
The owner, well, she’s just lovely, and the new guy incredibly friendly. So friendly in fact, that he seemed to go out of his way to look after me, making sure I always had food in my bowl, and a drink in my glass, which was probably both a good thing and a not so good thing.
Great food, great company, great fun!
Dinner and beer done, and things start to wind up at 8.30pm.
Not quite ready to call it a night, I head up to my convenience store for supplies of more beer at 15 000 Dong each.
Served with a knowing smile, my beer girl is less surprised this time.
Back to the hotel, Dong is downstairs, and I get a “Not finished, yet?”
“Nope!”
He gives me a thumbs up.
Upstairs, and because I haven’t done it yet, I head out onto the balcony. I watch as Bac Ha winds down for the night, while catching up on notes, Trip Advisor, and internet news and stuff from home.
My football team has won, and is now one week further into the finals, and while I no longer passionately follow them like I did when I was a kid, it’s still nice to see them do well.
It adds to what has been a good day, with the highlight obviously being our bike ride, where we got to see and experience various things, including that scenery I stupidly didn’t expect.
And then there’s Bac Ha itself, of which I haven’t really seen a great deal yet, but what I have seen, I actually really like.
I don’t know, it just has a good feel about it.
And that uneasiness from last night? Well, that now feels like a very distant memory.
Yep, it’s been good, and it’s amazing the difference 24 hours can make.
A quick chat with Lisa, another beer I don’t really need, and then with Bac Ha pretty much done at 10.15pm, I too pull the pin.
The plan tomorrow is another day on bikes, and if it’s anything like today, well, I will be more than happy with that.
Cheers,
Scott
seriouslynot 