Good morning SE Asia!: 17/10/13 - Bao Lac to Meo Vac

We had a great sleep - 10 hours and got up nice and early to get started. The weather was starting to change, today the morning greeted us with a misty coldness that was new since we arrived, then it started to rain heavily just as we were about to leave. We sat with one of the girls from the Guesthouse for a while and had a coffee, and did our best to understand each other! She sent us off with a bag of green tea for some reason, just nice to be nice I guess!

We stopped not long after we set off to put our gaiters on. We didn't have these in the Europe cycle, and bought them, to try to stop the rain running into the top of our waterproof shoes. It's a bit of an oversight to have waterproof shoes that are not sealed at the top! They look daft, bit like cycling in wellies, but definitely helped keep the rain out. It eventually seeps in, but we stayed dryer for longer. The Goretex jackets are also great, but it's too warm over here to wear them for very long, or on any uphill in fact, so we just get used to being soaked on a cycle like today's, it's not so bad really as long as you are warm. No problem for us, the steam pouring off our backs on the >150bpm climbs up the hills (we both have Heart Rate Monitors on this trip - also new - they really give you an insight into how hard you think you are pushing sometimes). Another interesting thing is the water consumption when it rains. It REALLY drops. Say from 5 litres on a sunny day, now you drink 2 litres. Partly to do with the overall temps, but also the rain on your hot skin does the job of the sweat, evaporating to keep you cooler, so you need to drink less. Also, when it rains, you pee more - showing again you’re using a lot less water.

The rain continued, replaced by mist when we climbed up a few hundred meters. The end of the cycle was all uphill, rising 1000m in about 15km. It was a tough climb, but the mist and low temps made it a lot easier. We passed a few tiny hill tribe villages on the way up. They lead such a simple life, growing the rice, tending to patches of veg and other produce, keeping chickens, pigs, dogs and water buffalo all for food and trading at the local market. They all seem very happy and are genuinely surprised and excited (or maybe a better word is amused?) to see us passing - bursting out into laughter, the kids going wild and chasing us, always saying "ELLO! ELLO! ELLO!" (or sometimes "BYE-BYE! BYE-BYE! BYE-BYE!" - they still mean hello though).

We need to take a good video with sound of a day on the bike up here just to see how many times we are saying hello to people, no joke its about one a minute.

On the steep uphill, we passed one group of about 4 houses there were a few of the wifey's sitting out the front in the thick mist working on some food prep and got really excited when we passed (it's always the women working - don't see the blokes in the fields either too much), just after we passed with the familiar rounds of "'ELLO!!" one of their sons came shooting out on his bike that was far too big for him (they only have one size bike over here - a granny shopper with no gears) and started belting up behind us. He caught up with me and seemed to want to fly past to prove his skills - his mum and the others really loving it. Just in case the kid got too much of a complex I decided to give him a run for his money, and pushed off a bit. staying in 2nd, us going up like a 10% hill. He stayed right there beside me - intent on getting ahead!! Little bugger, RIGHT! I pushed on a bit more and went into 3rd just as it got even steeper but he is still right beside me, obviously feeling the burn a bit by now after a minute or so. I kept going for another minute or so and expected him to drop back, but he was still there just a length or two behind, still trying to get past! I dropped down to 4th gear and got up on the pegs and gave it everything - 175bpm for another 30 secs or so and then I saw him dissapearing. Yeah!! Take that kiddo! ;O) Greg on modern geared touring bike - ONE!! 11 year old vietnamese mountain kid on a crap single gear rattlebag - ZERO!! Really impressive, I guess going up and down a mountain every day and eating well is probably good for your fitness then! They raise them tough around here... When I stopped for a drink he caught up and I gave him a high five and tried miming the actions for strong and fast, he was obviously knackered also but still seemed chuffed, and by now about 3km from home! He turned back around and then reappeared through the fog with his mate who had followed Johanna up the hill behind us.. They just think we are something special - no idea why! It's a real compliment and you don't get bored of that reaction from people. They followed us a bit further, maybe another 2km and then turned around as we headed further up the hill into increasingly dense fog.

It didn't break until 1000m exactly, at which point we were treated to the first view over the side for the day - amazing.

The ride over the pass at the very top was something special, our first taste of this black volcanic rock formations, the huge glacial valleys and contrasting green rice and corn fields. Almost all of the sides of the hills seemed to have been terraced at some point, but not all are still in use. After lots of photos and awestruck staring, we went over the top and dropped down into Meo Vac, a hill station town, the beginning of this altitude section of our North Loop. We had booked into a great hotel in the middle of town called Hua Cuong. Looked 4 star compared to last nights lodgings, very comfortable indeed.

It was a great cycle today, we love the hills and the weather was just right for the work level, plus gave us that extraordinary surprise view when we reached the top.

We went out for dinner to a place we passed earlier in the day. A restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. As we waited for our food to arrive (we can now order spring rolls, whatever meat we need, and all drinks, rice etc!) we got talking to a group of three other tourists who spoke English. So we met Greg, his dad Pete and a big German fella called Frank, whom they had met only a day earlier. They were all touring by motorbike, Greg and Pete sharing one bike. Turns out Greg is the Manager of our favourite Hanoi restaurant - Highway 4! (The place that did the ants and other great food that we visited twice in two days). We had a great night eating and drinking beers with those guys and swapping stories. We will definitely meet up again in Hanoi.