to Ha Giang: going slowly down Quan Ba pass

November 12, 2016

We leave town in the misty fog. The first 4-5km is a climb of about 300meters to reach the top of Quan Ba pass. The view is completely obscured by the fog.

We had been warned by the cyclists we met yesterday about the downhill being slippery with mud. So we start down slowly. Very quickly come upon a major traffic jam and we stop to wait it out. This is so much more organized than in India. There is a policeman directing the traffic, and people are actually following his directions, and there is no honking. Eventually, traffic starts moving uphill, then the traffic downhill moves a little bit when the policeman lets the motorcycles through, so we decide to start walking down.

We make it past the bulk of the backup and start riding, then briefly run into another traffic stop due to construction. Finally on the move, we go through a town that has the Sunday Market going on and we stop. We eat a fritter and buy some bread, Patrick walks around for pictures. The rest of the ride is pleasant following the river downstream with only a few bumps to get over.

Arriving into town, we find the Golden Stone Hotel, check in, clean up, and do laundry early with the hope it will dry. We have a room on the third floor, at the rear so we miss our on the road noise up front and get a view over the river. Across the river we can see a restaurant that looks nice, so we head there for dinner. It is one of the fancier places we have been to, but the hotpot meal with lots of veggies, clams, beef and tofu is great. The staff has some fun with us as we try to figure out how all this is eaten, but we manage and get out just in time when a large rowdy group arrives.

We are taking a restday in Ha Giang to enjoy the food, wait for our laundry to dry and rest before the next push to Sapa.