November 22, 2016
to Dien Bien Phu: Down the hill, then a wild bus ride
"If we take a ride now, we will have three extra days in Myanmar or Thailand" Patrick says. We've arrived early at our destination for today. Looking at the profile, it was best to make today 30 km and tomorrow 70 km. We've decided to go to Holland in January to celebrate Patrick's fathers, Frans' birthday. This now places a firm date for when to be in Bangkok and changes how we plan our route.
After oatmeal and coffee breakfast, we set off. The town is spread out and it's a few km before the start of a 10 km of 8% hill, then a 10km downhill before leveling out a bit into town. At the intersection in Phong Tho, we take a food break and decide to get a ride. It takes awhile, but eventually a bus to Dien Bien Phu comes by and we flag it down. Soon our gear is stacked in the back and bikes tied to the roof and we are on our way. It's a wild 7 hour ride!
It's tough though sometimes being in a vehicle instead of cycling. There were plenty of beautiful sections that would have been great cycling, and some not so great and more of the same of what we've done. The trade off is now having three extra days in Myanmar. Our original schedule for this section after Phong Tho was to Quang Chieng (70kms, this was pretty following the Da River and very hilly. Doing 100kms from Lau Chai to Quang Chieng would be a long tough day; The next day from Quang Chieng to Bien Phu, 45km, then onto Dien Bien Phu, 54km).
Arriving at the Dien Bien Phu bus station around 4:30pm, we reload our gear and ride just a little ways across a bridge to Khach San Nam ROM hotel. Quickly we throw our gear in the room, bikes locked in the back and head up to A1 hill to see the monument to Viet Minh casualties on the French position where Vietnam won independence.
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Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 24,912 km (15,470 miles)
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