to Lai Chau: pay day: blue skies and rice paddies

November 21, 2016

Rest days are nice, but also makes getting back on the road difficult especially when staying in a nice place and a town with good familiar food.

We have banana pancakes for breakfast and then set off. A little later than usual, it's a beautiful blue sky day. We start off with a 16 km climb for a gain of 400 meters to Tram Tom Pass, the highest in Vietnam at 1900 meters. So many previous passes we've crossed with foggy misty weather obscuring or changing the view. Today we were rewarded.

Once at the summit, a glorious most beautiful downhill ever for 26km. But like all downhills, another climb is not far behind. After 42km crossing the river at a low point of 700 meters then riding through T. Duong, we start the second climb of the day. The first 5km is a 200 meter gain and about 8%. Then we slowly keep climbing to the high of 1300 meters. Plenty of shops along the way to stop for drinks, friendly people shout hello and can't beat the views to take your mind off the climb.

Around 13km from Lai Chau, we reach the summit, around the corner we get a glimpse of the town. Another great downhill with one hump to get to the main ten-lane divided highway with landscaping and the feel of a Chinese town. We find the Viet Trang Hotel and check in to a nice new room, a hot shower always helps along with beer.

During the maintenance cleaning Patrick had put his front wheel in backwards. That doesn't matter too much, except that the odometer does not work with the magnet on the wrong side. So the day starts with a quick flip of the front wheel.

Climbing from Sapa to Tram Ton Pass. We need to gain about 400 meters.

After the foggy skies of the last weeks we are now rewarded with blue skies and nice views over the mountains.

Spot the cyclist, downhill from Tram Ton Pass.

Passing through Tam Duong. For some reason they decided to go from a narrow two lane road to a divided 6-lane highway through town, then back to two lane. Locals use the surface to dry produce. Here corn is laid out.

Lai Cau beats Tam Duong with a 10-lane, three medians highway through the new part of town. Outstanding!

Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 24,876 km (15,448 miles)

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